The WA/GA distinction and switch-reference for ellipted subject identification in Japanese complex sentences

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeko Nariyama
Keyword(s):  
Reference Systems ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Functional Differences ◽  
Analogous Property ◽  
Subject Identification

This paper elucidates one interacting aspect of two problematic issues in Japanese grammar: the functional differences between the nominative marker GA and the topic marker WA, and the referential identity of ellipted subjects. My analysis shows that the interaction of WA and GA in complex sentences has an analogous property to switch-reference systems which determine the identity of ellipted subjects; GA in subordinate clauses signals Different Subject, and WA in all loci Same Subject. This syntactic finding is further evaluated in the light of non-syntactic features, some of which can override the interpretation created by these particles. Statistically in examining texts, however, over 90% of ellipted subjects in complex sentences are successfully identified solely by WA and GA.

Typological overview of Estonian syntax

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mati Erelt
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Concise Overview ◽  
Verb Categories

AbstractThe paper presents a concise overview of the main syntactic features of Estonian. It deals with basic clause patterns, case marking of arguments, verbs and verb categories, non-verbal predication, word order, expression of speech acts and negation, noun phrases, p-phrases, subordinate clauses, and coordination.

scholarly journals Coordinate and subordinate clauses in the Slavic languages

2008 ◽  
pp. 189-197
Author(s):  
Snjezana Kordic
Keyword(s):  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Complement Clauses

This article provides a survey of major findings on complex sentences in the Slavic languages. It treats coordinate and subordinate clauses, together with their conjunction. As for the subordinate clauses, it deals with complement clauses.

scholarly journals Verbalization of indirect speech in the epistolary discourse of Lesya Ukrainka

2021 ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Nataliia Torchynska
Keyword(s):  
Common Features ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Linguistic Means

The article deals with the specifics of constructions with indirect speech in the epistolary of Lesya Ukrainka in terms of the structure of syntactic units and semantics of introductory verb tokens. In addition, attention is drawn to the syncretism of constructions with indirect speech, due to the peculiarities of the epistolary style. In the process of expressing opinions, Lesia Ukrainka used various forms of transmission of another’s speech, including indirect speech and its peripheral version – free indirect speech, the design and structure of which differs from indirect. Compound sentences with an explanatory part and complex sentences with several subordinate clauses, representing homogeneous subordination or consecutive subordination, are quantitatively predominant in constructions with indirect speech. Sentences-microtexts, built on the schemes «text – the author’s words – indirect speech», «text – the author’s words – indirect speech – text», «author’s words – indirect speech – text» are the next group. Sentences with double indirect speech, where the thoughts of one speaker, which testified by introductory verbs, or two speakers, or sometimes several, are highlighted separately. Indirect speech in letters is introduced using verbs of speech and thinking or their equivalents. Among the neutral verbatives-introductory words that represent live speech, the most productive are the tokens to speak, to think, to write, and among the implicit introductions – to be afraid and to hear. In addition, a number of implicit tokens that introduce indirect speech into the epistolary are highlighted. Thus, the epistolary style, although it has a number of common features with colloquial and artistic speech, but in the field of representation stands out among others with a bright set of linguistic means.

scholarly journals The syntactic structure of the initial and final sentences

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
M.K. Zhunusova ◽  
◽  
A.Zh. Sayazhanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Single Part

The article analyzes the key role of syntactic features in the composition of the text. It was determined that the first and last sentences of the text are syntactically diverse. Sentence words, simple, introductory, and complex sentences perform communicative, expressive, and stylistic functions in the text. The semantic and compressed structures, modality, expressiveness, and stylistic skills that are based on various structures of these sentences were studied to reveal the clarity and comprehensibility of the idea of sentences. It is emphasized that with the help of syntactic laws, by means of one-or two-part sentences that convey the idea of the text, the features of the character are briefly and concisely revealed. The features of the formation of various initial sentences are defined. The syntactic structure of initial and final sentences is different: simple, ambiguous, complete, incomplete, positive, negative. All types of single-part components are nominal, vocative, and non-articulate sentences. However, such sentences are not complex, they are mostly simple short sentences. Semantic and syntactic characteristics of initial and final sentences are described in their idiomatic, narrative, interrogative, and complex forms. It was determined by the semantic properties of rhetorical questions in the initial proposals. It should be noted that the nominal structure of the initial sentences of the text is used not only for ease of description but also for emotionality as if it is related to certain aspects of the plot or the general content of the story and affects the reader's feelings. It is believed that the authors in the initial sentences not only indicate the time or place of the event, but also describe human behavior in relation to the environment and nature, and thus allow the reader to predict the end of the story. It was ascertained that the initial and final sentences, depending on the historical period, can be used in both positive and negative meanings.

scholarly journals Sentences with the meaning of irreal condition in K. G. Paustovsky's The Tale of Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (26) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Inessa G. Rodionova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Main Part ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Grammar System ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
The One ◽  
Lexical Content

The purpose of the article is to identify and describe structural, semantic and functional features of irreal-conditional complex sentences with the conjunction «если» (if) in the autobiographical Tale of Life by K. G. Paustovsky. In the introduction, the author notes the important role of syntactic units in expressing the author's intention in autobiographical text, and points out the constant scientific interest in studying the functioning of complex subordinate sentences with conditional meaning in texts of different styles in both synchronic and diachronic aspects. The main part of the article defines the irreal condition and notes that a formal indicator of its semantics in a complex sentence is the presence of the form with the particle «бы» (would) in the main and subordinate clauses. Attention is drawn to the complication of the irreal condition meaning with various connotations: desirability, supposition, possibility, concession, comparison, as well as a phatic aspect. Each structural-semantic type of sentences is analyzed in terms of specific semantics, structure, ways of expressing the main sentence parts, and lexical content. The author names the means of strengthening the semantics of the irreal condition, including particles, interjections, exclamatory intonation, etc. The conclusion is made that the use of sentences of this type in an autobiographical text, on the one hand, allows the author to convey the message of the work as accurately as possible, to express his perception of events and the characters' thoughts and intentions. On the other hand, the use of sentences with the conjunction «если» (if) with the meaning of irreal condition, with different semantic connotations, shows the capacity of the modern Russian grammar system, which allows the speaker or writer to convey the finest shades of meaning in portraying objective reality.

scholarly journals COMPLEX SENTENCES IN TEXTS OF INFORMED CONSENT FOR DENTAL TREATMENT: STRUCTURAL, SEMANTIC, COMMUNICATIVE AND DISCOURSIVE ASPECTS

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-147
Author(s):  
Victoria Kostenko ◽  
Olena Bieliaieva ◽  
Iryna Solohor
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Dental Treatment ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
Patient’S Perception

This article presents investigation of the structural and semantic characteristics of complex sentences and their contribution to implementing communicative strategies in the texts of informed consent for dental treatment. Informed consent is a bilateral document that provides a sufficient amount of specific information about the character of dental intervention, records the communication between doctor and patient in order to enable patients to make voluntary decisions concerning the exposure to potentially dangerous procedures. Complex sentences have been found out as one of the most common types of sentences in the texts studied. Although there is a wide range of complex sentences of different formal and semantic-syntactic types in the informed consent, some types are more prevalent than others. The two most common types of subordinate clauses have been identified: noun clauses as a direct object and adverbial clauses of condition. Complex sentences with objective clauses often contain cognitive or volitional verbs in the independent clause and are characterized by semantic and structural incompleteness, while the subordinate clause is a semantic center, which reveals, explains or complements the scope of the main clause. This type of complex sentences serves as one of the means to implement the communicative tactics guiding and controlling the patient’s perception of medical information. Conditional sentences specifying the circumstances and in particular those demonstrating the cause-effect relationship in the form of implicitation reasoning formulae are applied to implement the information communicative strategy. The considerable number of explanatory constructions (concretization, description, addition, clarification) serves to facilitate clearer understanding of the special information, thus implementing the information communicative strategy. The complex sentences are to increase the density of information and to focus on the addressee’s attention to the most relevant segments of the sentence and text. The predominance of complex sentences demonstrates the interaction of two tendencies: to compress the ramified logical relationship between phenomena, processes, situations within a sentence on the one hand, and to provide additional and sometimes redundant information in order to reduce the chance that a message will be misinterpreted, on the other hand. These tendencies incorporated on the syntax level by complex sentences are important preconditions for effective communication in giving / obtaining voluntary informed consent for dental treatment.

The Constituent Order ofHwæt-Clauses in Old English Prose

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Anna Cichosz
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Regular Variation ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Free Relatives ◽  
Lives Of Saints ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Functional Differences ◽  
Constituent Order

The aim of the present study is to conduct a comprehensive corpus analysis of the constituent order of main declarative clauses with the interjectionhwæt‘what’ in the clause-initial position in Old English prose texts. On the basis of his analysis of Ælfric'sLives of Saintsand Bede'sHistoria Ecclesiastica, Walkden (2013) claims that suchhwæt-clauses pattern with subordinate clauses with respect to their verb position. My study confirms Walkden's basic empirical findings thathwæt-clauses do not behave like typical main clauses as far as their constituent order is concerned. However, there are numerous differences between them and subordinate clauses introduced byhwæt, that is, free relatives and embedded questions. The analysis suggests that the conditions favoring the use of the V-final order in mainhwæt-clauses resemble the ones identified for ordinary V-final main clauses in Bech 2012. What is more, the study shows that the functional differences betweenhwæt-andhwæt þa-clauses noted in Brinton 1996 are blurred in Old English prose because of a regular variation betweenhwæt þa-S andhwæt-S-þapatterns. The data also suggest thatþainhwæt þa-clauses should rather be analyzed as an independent clause element.

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