The use of prosody as a diagnostic for syntactic structure: The case of verb-initial order

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-95
Author(s):  
Lauren Clemens
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Hypothesis Space

A major challenge in developing prosodic arguments to support or refute syntactic analyses is to discern when prosody transparently reflects syntax, verses when the correspondence between syntax and prosody is obscured by phonological, architectural, or mapping constraints. In this paper, I use data from Ch'ol (Mayan) and Niuean (Polynesian) to assess the efficacy of using acoustic cues to prosodic constituency as a diagnostic for syntactic structure. I demonstrate how arguments based on prosodic constituency can successfully reduce the hypothesis space available to syntactic analysis. Nonetheless, the insight gained from prosodic constituency can fall short of distinguishing between syntactic accounts, because syntax-prosody non-isomorphisms do arise. This problem can be addressed by using a variety of methodologies in search of converging evidence, e.g. using syntactic and prosodic argumentation in tandem and by collecting and analyzing more prosodic data in order to better understand the prosodic systems of individual languages.

Setting the Stage for Automatic Syntax Processing: The Mismatch Negativity as an Indicator of Syntactic Priming

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna S. Hasting ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Mismatch Negativity ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Early Event ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Word Category ◽  
Topographical Distribution ◽  
Auditory Change Detection ◽  
The Impact

The present study investigated the automaticity of morphosyntactic processes and processes of syntactic structure building using event-related brain potentials. Two experiments were conducted, which contrasted the impact of local subject-verb agreement violations (Experiment 1) and word category violations (Experiment 2) on the mismatch negativity, an early event-related brain potential component reflecting automatic auditory change detection. The two violation types were realized in two-word utterances comparable with regard to acoustic parameters and structural complexity. The grammaticality of the utterances modulated the mismatch negativity response in both experiments, suggesting that both types of syntactic violations were detected automatically within 200 msec after the violation point. However, the topographical distribution of the grammaticality effect varied as a function of violation type, which indicates that the brain mechanisms underlying the processing of subject-verb agreement and word category information may be functionally distinct even at this earliest stage of syntactic analysis. The findings are discussed against the background of studies investigating syntax processing beyond the level of two-word utterances.

Negation in Old High German

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Jäger
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Specific Question ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Indefinites

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to give a syntactic analysis of sentential negation in the history of German with special emphasis on Old High German. This analysis attributes the main changes in the syntax of negation not to a change in syntactic structure but to changes in the lexical filling of the head and specifier of NegP. In addition, the more specific question of negative indefinites and negative concord (NC) in Old High German is discussed. It is argued that negative indefinites should be analysed as semantically non-negative but simply formally neg-marked. It is assumed that there is no obligatory movement of n-indefinites to SpecNegP, neither overtly nor covertly.

scholarly journals Introduction

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Subject

In spite of this long history, most work to date on the phonology-syntax interface in Bantu languages suffers from limitations, due to the range of expertise required: intonation, phonology, syntax. Quite generally, intonational studies on African languages are extremely rare. Most of the existing data has not been the subject of careful phonetic analysis, whether of the prosody of neutral sentences or of questions or other focus structures. There are important gaps in our knowledge of Bantu syntax which in turn limit our understanding of the phonology-syntax interface. Recent developments in syntactic theory have provided a new way of thinking about the type of syntactic information that phonology can refer to and have raised new questions: Do only syntactic constituent edges condition prosodic phrasing? Do larger domains such as syntactic phases, or even other factors, like argument and adjunct distinctions, play a role? Further, earlier studies looked at a limited range of syntactic constructions. Little research exists on the phonology of focus or of sentences with non-canonical word order in Bantu languages. Both the prosody and the syntax of complex sentences, questions and dislocations are understudied for Bantu languages. Our project aims to remedy these gaps in our knowledge by bringing together a research team with all the necessary expertise. Further, by undertaking the intonational, phonological and syntactic analysis of several languages we can investigate whether there is any correlation among differences in morphosyntactic and prosodic properties that might also explain differences in phrasing and intonation. It will also allow us to investigate whether there are cross-linguistically common prosodic patterns for particular morpho-syntactic structure.  

scholarly journals Sobre la estructura sintáctico-discursiva de las construcciones de reformulación

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Vera Luján
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Functional Point ◽  
Syntactic Relations

RESUMEN: El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es realizar un análisis sintáctico de las construcciones de reformulación, desde un punto de vista estrictamente funcional. Basándonos en dos conceptos inspirados en la tagmémica, como son los de unidad/relación abstracta vs. unidad/relación concreta, y concibiendo las relaciones sintácticas como equivalentes de las funciones hjelmslevianas, proponemos que las construcciones de reformulación se consideren como construcciones abstractas de tipo coordinado, basando en esta estructura sintáctica la capacidad de sus constituyentes para funcionar discursivamente como elementos reformulados.ABSTRACT: Our work aims to perform a syntactic analysis of reformulation constructions from a strictly functional point of view. Based on two concepts inspired by tagmémics, such as those of abstract unity/function vs. concrete unity/function, and conceiving syntactic relations as equivalents of the Hjelmslevian functions, we propose that reformulation constructions must be considered as abstract coordinated constructions, basing on this syntactic structure its constituents capacity to work discursively as reformulated elements.

scholarly journals Dependency Parsing with your Eyes: Dependency Structure Predicts Eye Regressions During Reading

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Lopopolo ◽  
Stefan L. Frank ◽  
Antal van den Bosch ◽  
Roel M. Willems
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Dependency Parsing ◽  
Text Difficulty ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Dependency Structure ◽  
Structural Reanalysis ◽  
Dependency Parser ◽  
Short Narrative

Backward saccades during reading have been hypothesized to be involved in structural reanalysis, or to be related to the level of text difficulty. We test the hypothesis that backward saccades are involved in online syntactic analysis. If this is the case we expect that saccades will coincide, at least partially, with the edges of the relations computed by a dependency parser. In order to test this, we analyzed a large eye-tracking dataset collected while 102 participants read three short narrative texts. Our results show a relation between backward saccades and the syntactic structure of sentences.

scholarly journals Restructuring and the Proper Syntactic Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (14) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Im Hong-Pin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Sentence Subject

This paper aims to make it clear that syntactic analysis should be based on the lexical information given in the lexicon. For this purpose, lexical information of the syntactic argument is to be taken the form like [VP NKP, _, DKP, AKP] for the ditransitive verb give in English. The argument structure projects to syntactic structure. The NKP in this structure becomes VP-subject, but there is another subject called S-subject (Sentence-Subject) below S node. This amounts to Two-Subject Hypothesis for English. Between these two subjects, there intervene Conjugation-Like Elements, enriched by close examination of English verbal conjugation. Two-Subject Hypothesis perfectly accounts for peculiarities of the Expletive There (ET)construction. Restructuring can also explain the so-called Long Distance Wh-interrogative without introducing Wh-movement, and it can also explain why the imperative verbs are taking the base forms. It can also explain the characteristics of adjective imperatives by the same principles as applied to verbal imperatives. We try to deal with the other subtle problems, to get fruitful results. Restructuring approach, we think, provides more convincing explanations than the movement one.

scholarly journals The Interplay between Prosody and Syntax in Sentence Processing: The Case of Subject- and Object-control Verbs

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1036-1053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Bögels ◽  
Herbert Schriefers ◽  
Wietske Vonk ◽  
Dorothee J. Chwilla ◽  
Roel Kerkhofs
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Object Control ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
On Line

This study addresses the question whether prosodic information can affect the choice for a syntactic analysis in auditory sentence processing. We manipulated the prosody (in the form of a prosodic break; PB) of locally ambiguous Dutch sentences to favor one of two interpretations. The experimental items contained two different types of so-called control verbs (subject and object control) in the matrix clause and were syntactically disambiguated by a transitive or by an intransitive verb. In Experiment 1, we established the default off-line preference of the items for a transitive or an intransitive disambiguating verb with a visual and an auditory fragment completion test. The results suggested that subject- and object-control verbs differently affect the syntactic structure that listeners expect. In Experiment 2, we investigated these two types of verbs separately in an on-line ERP study. Consistent with the literature, the PB elicited a closure positive shift. Furthermore, in subject-control items, an N400 effect for intransitive relative to transitive disambiguating verbs was found, both for sentences with and for sentences without a PB. This result suggests that the default preference for subject-control verbs goes in the same direction as the effect of the PB. In object-control items, an N400 effect for intransitive relative to transitive disambiguating verbs was found for sentences with a PB but no effect in the absence of a PB. This indicates that a PB can affect the syntactic analysis that listeners pursue.

scholarly journals Unsupervised Dependency Parsing with Acoustic Cues

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 63-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K Pate ◽  
Sharon Goldwater
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Dependency Parsing ◽  
Computational Approaches ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Word Duration ◽  
Duration Information ◽  
Dependency Parser ◽  
Source Of Information

Unsupervised parsing is a difficult task that infants readily perform. Progress has been made on this task using text-based models, but few computational approaches have considered how infants might benefit from acoustic cues. This paper explores the hypothesis that word duration can help with learning syntax. We describe how duration information can be incorporated into an unsupervised Bayesian dependency parser whose only other source of information is the words themselves (without punctuation or parts of speech). Our results, evaluated on both adult-directed and child-directed utterances, show that using word duration can improve parse quality relative to words-only baselines. These results support the idea that acoustic cues provide useful evidence about syntactic structure for language-learning infants, and motivate the use of word duration cues in NLP tasks with speech.

scholarly journals Compiling of the Electronic Dictionary of Models of the Ukrainian Language Multicomponent Complex Sentences

2019 ◽  
pp. 117-129
Author(s):  
Natalia Darchuk
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Linear Structure ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Multicomponent Complex ◽  
Syntactic Relations

The purpose of this study is to construct an automatic syntactic analysis (ASA) and, as a result, to compile a dictionary of models of multicomponent complex sentences for studying the fectures of the linear structure of Ukrainian text. The process includes two-stages: the first stage is an automatic syntactic analysis of the hierarchical type which results in building of a dependency tree (DT), in the second stage, the sentence structure information is automatically extracted from the obtained graph. ASA is a package of operations performed with a string of morphological information (the result of AMA work) representing the incoming text for determination of syntactic relations between text units. The outgoing text for the ACA is a string of information reduced after the AMA to wordforms. We have studied features of the linear structure of 2000 Ukrainian language sentences in journalistic genre (selection of 52000 words use). Based on the obtained results, we have constructed the real models of the syntactic structure of sentences, in which the relations between simple clauses were presented. All grammatical situations of the linear context were possible manifestations of models in the text. Based on that data, the algorithm for the automatic generation of a complex sentence model was created. These models are linear syntax grammar. All types of syntactic connection between the main and subordinate clauses are recorded algorithmically. Thus, it is possible to build the interpretations of the linear structure of the Ukrainian language sentence almost not using lexical-semantic information. The theoretical value of the paper is in extension of our knowledge about the structure of the syntactic level of the language and the variety of mechanisms functioning at that level. The applied value, is first of all, in creation of the dictionary of compatibility of compound (coordinated) and complex (subordinated) sentences, and in the possibility of constructing requests to the Ukrainian language Corpus in order to mine from the text definite models sentences, creating own dictionaries of authors and styles.

scholarly journals Morphology in the ˋwrong' place: The curious case of Coast Tsimshian connectives

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Ball
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Simple Analysis ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Edge Features

This paper examines the apparently odd location of case-marking formatives found in the Pacific Northwest language, Coast Tsimshian. It first argues that the case-marking formatives are actually affixes on the preceding words, not prosodically-dependent words. Given this morphological analysis, a syntactic analysis is proposed that utilizes the 'informationally-rich' syntactic structure of HPSG. In particular, the analysis proposed uses EDGE features and chained identities between adjacent phrasal sisters to license the clause. This enables a simple analysis of the clausal syntax of Coast Tsimshian while still accounting for the wide array of facts surrounding the connectives.

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