Morphosyntactic property sets at the interface of inflectional morphology, syntax and semantics

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-305
Author(s):  
Gregory T. Stump
Keyword(s):  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Morphological Property ◽  
Syntactic Property ◽  
Distinct Property ◽  
The Difference

The morphosyntactic property set associated with the syntactic node occupied by a word form is not invariably identical to the property set determining that word form’s inflection, as evidence from Bhojpuri, Turkish, Sanskrit and Hua shows. The difference between syntactic property sets and their corresponding morphological property sets may be represented as a property mapping relating two different kinds of paradigm: a lexeme L’s content paradigm specifies the range of property sets with which L may be associated in syntax ; its form paradigm specifies the (sometimes distinct) property sets that determine L’s inflectional realization. Thus, a language’s inflectional morphology doesn’t merely specify the realization of paradigm cells: it also specifies the sometimes nontrivial linkage of content with form at the interface of syntax and semantics with morphology.

Language as a complex algebra: Post-structuralism and inflectional morphology in Saussure’s Cours

Semiotica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (208) ◽  
pp. 133-154
Author(s):  
Raúl Aranovich
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Acoustic Image ◽  
Complex Algebra ◽  
Linguistic Sign ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Static Nature

AbstractIn Item-and-Arrangement models of inflection, morphemes are associations of form and meaning stored in a mental lexicon. Saussure’s notion of the linguistic sign as a unit of an acoustic image (signifier) and a concept (signified) immediately suggests such a model. But close examination of the examples of inflectional morphology throughout the Cours brings Saussure’s ideas more in line with Process morphology, a model in which recurrent elements in word forms are exponents of content features, and realizational rules license a word form inferentially from the word’s content. The Saussurean sign allowed French structuralists to revolutionize the methods of modern social science, eschewing the motives and intentions of human actors to focus on the system of oppositions that make signification possible in each domain. Eventually, post-structuralism rejected the static nature of the linguistic sign, forcing linguistics into relative isolation (since it held on to sign-based models of language). The criticism of structuralist treatments of morphology in Process models of inflection, however, stands as an exception to this tendency. In retrospect, I argue, similar ideas can be found in Saussure’s view of the langue as a complex algebra.

Woordvormanalyse Door Kinderen

1989 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 88-97
Author(s):  
Frank Wijnen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Word Segmentation ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Form ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
The Right

Early word form representations are assumed to be unanalyzed 'routines'. Around age 2 1/2, when the first 50 to 100 words have been acquired, the organization of the mental lexicon starts to change. Word form representations are segmented into their constituent linguistic substructures: syllable and phonemes. Gradually the network-like structure which is thought to capture the mature mental lexicon emerges. Peters (1983, 1985) has proposed two heuristics that may be employed by children for segmenting words, both during this 'reorganization' and afterwards, when new words are acquired and inserted into the rapidly expanding lexicon. The first employs word stress, the second is based on matches between a new form and lexical items that have already been acquired. This study investigates in an experimental fashion whether children use stress and formal similarities in segmentation. Children (4, 5 and 6 yrs. old) were asked to alter syllable onsets in trisyllabic words with stress on either of the three syllables, and in trisyllabic complex words in which at least one morpheme could be expected to be known by the subjects. It appeared that word-internal onsets of stressed syllables were more often altered than onsets of unstressed syllables. These results are supportive of the 'stress' heuristic. Also, syllable onsets which coincided with word-internal lexical morpheme boundaries (i.e., boundaries between known and unknown parts which can also occur independently) were more often altered than non-boundary onsets. However, syllable onsets at root-suffix boundaries were not altered more frequently than non-boundary onsets. This difference between lexical morpheme boundaries and suffix boundaries is not predicted by a segmenting heuristic based on formal match. It is therefore suggested that in fact prosodic characteristics of the final morphemes in the complex words factors could be responsible for the difference: all first (or only) syllables of the right-hand lexical morphemes were stressable, whereas the suffixes were not. This conjecture was tested in a second experiment in which 7 and 8 year old children were asked to alter syllable onsets in derivations consisting of a bisyllabic root and a monosyllabic suffix. Some suffixes were stressed, others were unstressed and still others caused stress in the stem morphemes to be shifted to the second syllabe. It was found that stressed suffixes yielded more alterations than unstressed suffixes. Second, stressed syllables, in general, yielded more onset alterations than unstressed syllables, regardless of whether stress was assigned by the stem morpheme or by derivation with a stress-shifting suffix. Finally, syllables which had 'lost' stress as a result of dervational stress shift produced more alterations than unstressed syllables that were not stressed, in the stem morpheme either. These results support the conjecture that the apparent effects of formal match on segmentation behavior in the first experiment can be explained by reference to stress. Consequently, it is concluded that stress is the primary cue in word segmentation. This conclusion is in accordance with 'prosodic bootstrapping' theory, which claims that children are 'programmed' to use prosodic features as clues to linguistic structure.

scholarly journals Attractors of variation in Hungarian inflectional morphology

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Rácz ◽  
Péter Rebrus ◽  
Miklós Törkenczy
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Memory Model ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Adequate Description ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Algorithmic Learning ◽  
Word Shape

AbstractWe use algorithmic learning and statistical methods over a form frequency list (compiled from the Hungarian web corpus) to investigate variation in Hungarian verbal inflection. Our aims are twofold: (i) to give an adequate description of this variation, which has not been described in detail in the literature and (ii) to explore the range and depth of lexical attractors that potentially shape this variation. These attractors range from closely related ones, such as the shape of the word form or the behaviour of the verb’s paradigm, to broad ones, such as the behaviour of similar verbs or the phonotactics of related verb forms. We find that verbal variation is predominantly determined by similarity to related verb forms rather than by word shape or by word frequency. What is more, the effect of similarity is better approximated using inflected forms as opposed to base forms as points of comparison. This, in turn, supports a rich memory model of morphology and the mental lexicon.

scholarly journals The roles of word-form frequency and phonological neighbourhood density in the acquisition of Lithuanian noun morphology

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 641-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eglė SAVIČIŪTĖ ◽  
Ben AMBRIDGE ◽  
Julian M. PINE
Keyword(s):  
Near Miss ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Input Frequency ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Current Form ◽  
Target Form ◽  
Frequent Form ◽  
Default Form

AbstractFour- and five-year-old children took part in an elicited familiar and novel Lithuanian noun production task to test predictions of input-based accounts of the acquisition of inflectional morphology. Two major findings emerged. First, as predicted by input-based accounts, correct production rates were correlated with the input frequency of the target form, and with the phonological neighbourhood density of the noun. Second, the error patterns were not compatible with the systematic substitution of target forms by either (a) the most frequent form of that noun or (b) a single morphosyntactic default form, as might be predicted by naive versions of a constructivist and generativist account, respectively. Rather, most errors reflected near-miss substitutions of singular for plural, masculine for feminine, or nominative/accusative for a less frequent case. Together, these findings provide support for an input-based approach to morphological acquisition, but are not adequately explained by any single account in its current form.

scholarly journals Morphosyntactic but not lexical corpus-based probabilities can substitute for cloze probabilities in reading experiments

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0246133
Author(s):  
Anastasiya Lopukhina ◽  
Konstantin Lopukhin ◽  
Anna Laurinavichyute
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Two Measures

During reading or listening, people can generate predictions about the lexical and morphosyntactic properties of upcoming input based on available context. Psycholinguistic experiments that study predictability or control for it conventionally rely on a human-based approach and estimate predictability via the cloze task. Our study investigated an alternative corpus-based approach for estimating predictability via language predictability models. We obtained cloze and corpus-based probabilities for all words in 144 Russian sentences, correlated the two measures, and found a strong correlation between them. Importantly, we estimated how much variance in eye movements registered while reading the same sentences was explained by each of the two probabilities and whether the two probabilities explain the same variance. Along with lexical predictability (the activation of a particular word form), we analyzed morphosyntactic predictability (the activation of morphological features of words) and its effect on reading times over and above lexical predictability. We found that for predicting reading times, cloze and corpus-based measures of both lexical and morphosyntactic predictability explained the same amount of variance. However, cloze and corpus-based lexical probabilities both independently contributed to a better model fit, whereas for morphosyntactic probabilities, the contributions of cloze and corpus-based measures were interchangeable. Therefore, morphosyntactic but not lexical corpus-based probabilities can substitute for cloze probabilities in reading experiments. Our results also indicate that in languages with rich inflectional morphology, such as Russian, when people engage in prediction, they are much more successful in predicting isolated morphosyntactic features than predicting the particular lexeme and its full morphosyntactic markup.

Probability and distribution patterns of vowel phonemes in the Oroqen language of the PRC: comparative study

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-176
Author(s):  
O. N. Morozova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Word Form ◽  
High Similarity ◽  
Syllable Type ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Turkic Languages ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Type V

The paper analyzes the probability and distribution patterns of vowels in the Oroqen language of the PRC. Six frequency parameters were taken for analysis: 1) syllable types, 2) word form length, 3) consonant and vowel load, 4) long vs short vowels, 5) hard vs soft vowels, 6) labial vs non-labial vowels. Studying syllable type (V, VC, CV, CVC) and the word form length revealed the following discoveries. First, CV-type turned out the most frequent in Oroqen, ac-counting for 47,64 % of all syllables found in the material. Second, disyllabic and trisyllabic words prevailed, accounting for 75,7 % compared to 64,8 % in Evenki and 85,5 % in Kumandin. Additionally, the consonant load vs vowel load was calculated. It was found that in Oroqen, the consonant-vowel proportion (1,5/1) was similar to Evenki and Mansi, a little higher than in Turkic languages, and a little lower than in Khanty. However, this difference proved statistically insignificant. Another finding was that short vowels significantly pre-vailed over long ones, accounting for 68,52–93,11 % of all vowels used. The hard vowels ac-counted for 24,52–46,41 %, neutral ones – 26,8–44,86 %, only slightly exceeding soft vowels in frequency load (17,13–43,51%) of all vowels used. Non-labial vowels proved to be more frequent (65,76–91,78 %) than labial ones (8,22–34,24 %). In general, the results show a high similarity of Oroqen to the Turkic and Ob-Ugric languages with regard to parameters 4 and 6. At the same time, the difference was found with regard to parameters 1–3 and 5.

scholarly journals Participated and Unparticipated Causes [and Forms] in Plotinus and Proclus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Greig
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Status ◽  
Distinct Property ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
Participation Frameworks

Later Neoplatonism, especially as formulated in Proclus, is known for postulating a multiplication of entities between the traditional three Neoplatonic 'levels' of the One, Intellect, and Soul. At root is a basic distinction that Proclus employs between unparticipated and participated causes—for instance between the One-itself and henads; Intellect and particular intellects; and so on. Yet coming from those like Plotinus, the distinction may be a surprise: why posit the unparticipated, and what would the distinction add? On Plotinus' interpretation, and following a common conception of Platonic ontology, all participants of a given property only participate in one Form: any further distinction posited would be superfluous.In this paper I analyze the participation frameworks for both Plotinus and Proclus, focusing specifically on sensibles participating in Forms. I trace the difference to the ontological status of the participants in relation to the property they receive: for Plotinus, there is no distinct property in the participant that is ontologically separate from the intelligible Form; for Proclus, this is not enough—the participant must possess a distinct property apart from the intelligible Form, in order to account for the distinction of properties in one participant from another. This difference informs Proclus positing an extra 'unparticipated' cause.

scholarly journals More efficient learning at birth leads to better language skills at 2 years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Suppanen ◽  
István Winkler ◽  
Teija Kujala ◽  
Sari Ylinen
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Language Outcome ◽  
Disyllabic Words ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Efficient Learning

Infants are able to extract words from speech early in life. Here we show that the quality of word-form learning at birth predicts language development at the age of two years. Seventy-five neonates were familiarized with two spoken disyllabic pseudowords. We then tested whether the neonate brain predicts the second syllable from the first one by presenting a familiarized pseudoword frequently, and occasionally violating the learned syllable combination by different rare pseudowords. Distinct brain responses were elicited by predicted and unpredicted word endings, which suggests that the neonates had learned the familiarized pseudowords. The difference between responses to predicted and unpredicted pseudowords indexing quality of word-form learning significantly correlated with expressive vocabulary scores at 24 months in the same infant. These findings suggest that 1) neonates can memorize disyllabic words so that a learned first syllable generates predictions for the word ending, 2) early individual differences in the quality of word-form learning correlate with language outcome. This relationship helps early identification of infants at risk for language impairment.

The Origin of the Moon

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Ruskol
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

The difference between average densities of the Moon and Earth was interpreted in the preceding report by Professor H. Urey as indicating a difference in their chemical composition. Therefore, Urey assumes the Moon's formation to have taken place far away from the Earth, under conditions differing substantially from the conditions of Earth's formation. In such a case, the Earth should have captured the Moon. As is admitted by Professor Urey himself, such a capture is a very improbable event. In addition, an assumption that the “lunar” dimensions were representative of protoplanetary bodies in the entire solar system encounters great difficulties.

Influence of Cell Wall Composition on the Fossilisation of Bacteria and the Implications for the Search for Early Life Forms

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Westall
Keyword(s):  
Cell Wall ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Cation Binding ◽  
Positive Bacterium ◽  
Gram Positive ◽  
Gram Positive Bacteria ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Hydrothermal Sediments ◽  
Identification Of Bacteria ◽  
The Difference

AbstractThe oldest cell-like structures on Earth are preserved in silicified lagoonal, shallow sea or hydrothermal sediments, such as some Archean formations in Western Australia and South Africa. Previous studies concentrated on the search for organic fossils in Archean rocks. Observations of silicified bacteria (as silica minerals) are scarce for both the Precambrian and the Phanerozoic, but reports of mineral bacteria finds, in general, are increasing. The problems associated with the identification of authentic fossil bacteria and, if possible, closer identification of bacteria type can, in part, be overcome by experimental fossilisation studies. These have shown that not all bacteria fossilise in the same way and, indeed, some seem to be very resistent to fossilisation. This paper deals with a transmission electron microscope investigation of the silicification of four species of bacteria commonly found in the environment. The Gram positiveBacillus laterosporusand its spore produced a robust, durable crust upon silicification, whereas the Gram negativePseudomonas fluorescens, Ps. vesicularis, andPs. acidovoranspresented delicately preserved walls. The greater amount of peptidoglycan, containing abundant metal cation binding sites, in the cell wall of the Gram positive bacterium, probably accounts for the difference in the mode of fossilisation. The Gram positive bacteria are, therefore, probably most likely to be preserved in the terrestrial and extraterrestrial rock record.

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