scholarly journals The syntax of possessor prominence in Maithili

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogendra P. Yadava ◽  
Oliver Bond ◽  
Irina Nikolaeva ◽  
Sandy Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Syntactic Prominence

Maithili (Indo-Aryan; India; Nepal) has a complex agreement system in which many terms and non-terms, including subjects, objects, obliques, extra-clausal ‘deictic referents’, and, crucially, possessors within any of these can potentially control agreement on the verb. Agreement is partly determined by grammatical function and argument structure, but in many instances the functional prominence of the agreement controller—determined by focus and referential features, including respect—overrides syntactic prominence. This is particularly clear when possessors internal to an argument or adjunct can control agreement, even though viable alternatives appear to be available. The functional prominence of the internal possessor also appears to have a syntactic correlate: the possessor that controls agreement may be in a more prominent position within the phrase headed by the possessed nominal, and this is what enables it to participate in clause-level syntactic processes.

Optimality-Theoretic Lexical Mapping Theory

2009 ◽  
pp. 2499-2528
Author(s):  
One-Soon Her
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Potential Explanation ◽  
Relative Ranking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Locative Inversion ◽  
Mapping Theory ◽  
Lexical Mapping ◽  
Function Assignment

Locative inversion verbs seem to share the same argument structure and grammatical function assignment (i.e., ) cross-linguistically. This article discusses the nature of argument-function linking in LFG and demonstrates how the Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT) rendered in Optimality-Theoretic (OT) terms, where argument-function linking is governed by universal violable constraints that consistently favor the unmarked function, accounts for locative inversion straightforwardly. Within this OT-LMT, locative inversion is due to a universal morphosyntactic constraint, and language variation in locative inversion is due to the difference in its relative ranking. This account also offers a potential explanation for the markedness of the locative inversion construction.

An Experimental Study on the Effect of Argument Structure on VP Focus

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 89-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun-Ah Jun ◽  
Hee-Sun Kim ◽  
Hyuck-Joon Lee ◽  
Jong-Bok Kim
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Argument Type ◽  
Focus Projection ◽  
Vp Focus

Abstract. It has been claimed that a focused word may project its focus to a syntactic constituent larger than the focused item, under what are known as Focus Projection principles (Selkirk 1995; Rochemont 1998). Engdahl and Vallduvi (1996) rejected this purely syntax-based approach and proposed considering the interactions between the grammatical function and the types of an argu-ment. Chung, Kim, and Sells (to appear) applied Engdahl and Valduvi's theory to Korean and claimed that in Korean only a theme argument, but not an oblique argument (1.O or Locative PP), can project its focus to the Verb Phrase. This paper examines how VP focus is realized in Korean and tests Chung et al.'s claim that the types and the order of arguments can affect the focus projec-tion (especially 'VP focus'). The results show that there is no sensitivity to argument type, word order, or the length of VP in projecting the domain of focus to VP in Korean. Regardless of these factors, VP focus was prosodically marked by boosting the prominence of all words inside the VP, with the VP-initial word being the most prominent. Our data suggest that focus projection rules can be eliminated as proposed in Buring (2003).

Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Riesberg ◽  
Beatrice Primus
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
Syntactic Prominence ◽  
Causative Construction ◽  
And Control ◽  
Symmetrical Voice

AbstractIt has been argued in the literature that morpho-syntactically agents are universally more prominent than patients. At first sight, this claim seems to be challenged by so called symmetrical voice languages because these languages show no preference for agents to be the privileged syntactic argument (PSA). They do thus not display an obvious syntactic prominence of agents. However, this paper will argue that even symmetrical voice languages show instances of agent prominence. These instances are not reflected in a default linking of agents to PSA function, but rather in a slightly more subtle manner: First, agents always function as binders to reflexive pronouns, regardless of position or grammatical function. Second, agent properties like volitionality, ability and control are reflected in verbal morphology, even in undergoer voice construction in which the agent is not the PSA. This is the case in potentive, stative, and causative construction.

Argument structure and mapping theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 322-365
Author(s):  
Mary Dalrymple ◽  
John J. Lowe ◽  
Louise Mycock
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Locative Inversion ◽  
Mapping Theory ◽  
Grammatical Functions

This chapter explores argument structure and its relation to syntax, particularly concentrating on its role in determining the grammatical functions of the semantic arguments of a predicate. The chapter examines different views of the representation and content of argument structure, and outlines the theory of the relation between thematic roles and grammatical functions. The first five sections explore issues relating to the theory of argument structure, including grammatical function alternations (Section 9.3) and argument selection and classification (Sections 9.4 and 9.5). The next four sections focus on the analysis of some important phenomena: the active/passive alternation (Section 9.6), impersonal predication (Section 9.7), locative inversion (Section 9.8), and complex predicates (Section 9.9). Further issues relating to grammatical functions and argument structure, including gradient distinctions and optionality, are considered in Section 9.10.

Symmetrical objects in Moro: Challenges and solutions

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
FARRELL ACKERMAN ◽  
ROBERT MALOUF ◽  
JOHN MOORE
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Partial Ordering ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Multiple Objects ◽  
Central Sudan ◽  
Symmetrical Object ◽  
Syntactic Behavior ◽  
Theoretical Analyses ◽  
Do So

This paper examines the syntactic and semantic behavior of object arguments in Moro, a Kordofanian language spoken in central Sudan. In particular, we focus on multiple object constructions (ditransitives, applicatives, and causatives) and show that these objects exhibit symmetrical syntactic behavior; e.g., any object can passivize or be realized as an object marker, and all can do so simultaneously. Moreover, we demonstrate that each object can bear any of the non-agentive roles in a verb’s semantic role inventory and that the resulting ambiguities are an entailment of symmetrical object constructions of the type found in Moro. Previous treatments of symmetrical languages have assumed a syntactic asymmetry between multiple objects and have developed theoretical analyses that treat symmetrical behaviors as departures from an asymmetrical basic organization of clausal syntax. We take a different approach: we develop a Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar account that allows a partial ordering of the argument structure (arg-st) list. The guiding idea is that languages differ with respect to the organization of theirarg-stlists and their consequences for grammatical function realization: there is no privileged encoding, but there is large variation within the parameters defined byarg-storganization. This accounts directly for the symmetrical behaviors of multiple objects. We also show how this approach can be extended to account for certain asymmetrical behaviors in Moro.

Argument structure and the role of the body and space in Kenyan Sign Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 38-72
Author(s):  
Hope E. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Verb Agreement

Abstract This paper investigates how systematically a young macro-community sign language, Kenyan Sign Language, uses two different means to communicate about events: (i) word order, and (ii) verb agreement using spatial co-reference. The study finds that KSL signers rely primarily on word order and using the body as a referent, rather than verb agreement, when representing transitive events. Yet, by looking separately at how KSL signers use the sub-components of verb agreement, a pattern emerges that indicates a possible path toward ‘canonical verb agreement’. These sub-components are evaluated using Meir’s stages/types of grammaticalization of verb agreement (Meir 2011, 2016), and compared with other young and emerging sign languages.

The KEY to lexical semantic representations

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEAN-PIERRE KOENIG ◽  
ANTHONY R. DAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Natural Language Semantic ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Recursive Predicate ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure ◽  
Difficult Cases

It is widely accepted that the semantic content of a lexical entry determines to a large extent its syntactic subcategorization or other contexts of occurrence. However, clarifying the precise extent to which this hypothesis holds has proven difficult and on occasion controversial. To maintain this hypothesis, scholars have in many difficult cases introduced syntactic diacritics in their lexical semantic representations, thereby running the risk of rendering it vacuous. Our answer to this challenge is two-fold. First, on the substantive side, we argue that the problem lies in the assumption that the semantic content of lexical entries consists of a recursive predicate-argument structure. In contrast, we claim that the semantic content of lexical entries can consist of a set of such structures, thus eschewing semantically unmotivated predicates that merely ensure the correct semantic geometry. Second, on the structural side, we suggest that the semantic content of words can idiosyncratically select one of those predicate-argument structures for the purposes of direct grammatical function assignment. We show that this hypothesis, which builds on independently motivated proposals regarding the form of underspecified natural language semantic representations, provides a clean account of linking phenomena related to several classes of predicators: verbs whose denotata require the presence of an instrument, the semantic role of French ‘adjunct’ clitics, commercial event verbs, the spray/load alternations, and lexical subordination constructions.

scholarly journals Processing agreement in Hindi: When agreement feeds attraction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakshi Bhatia ◽  
Brian Dillon
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Attraction Effects ◽  
Object Agreement ◽  
Syntactic Prominence ◽  
Open Question

Previous studies have demonstrated robust agreement attraction effects in subject-verb agreement languages. It is an open question whether such attraction effects extend to languages whose agreement systems differ from this prototypical agreement pattern. To address this question, we conducted four forced-choice completion experiments investigating agreement processing in Hindi. Hindi has a mixed-agreement system, where subject-verb agreement and object-verb agreement occur in complementary structural contexts. We observed clear attraction effects in both subject and object agreement contexts. But we found little evidence that the distractor NP’s role, case or syntactic prominence modulated attraction. Rather, attraction occurred when the distractor was itself an agreement controller. We propose a Controller Coding account where Hindi speakers actively identify whether an NP is an agreement controller and encode this information in memory, with agreement interference arising primarily when multiple NPs are encoded as agreement controllers.

scholarly journals Going Native? Yes, If Allowed by Cross-Linguistic Similarity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillen Martínez de la Hidalga ◽  
Adam Zawiszewski ◽  
Itziar Laka
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Order Type ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

Can native competence be achieved in a second language? Here, we focus on the Language Distance Hypothesis that claims that early and proficient bilinguals can achieve native competence for grammatical properties shared by their two languages, whereas unshared grammatical properties pose a challenge for native-like syntactic processing. We present a novel behavioral and Event-Related Potential (ERP) study where early and proficient bilinguals behave native-like in their second language when processing (a) argument structure alternations in intransitive sentences involving agent vs. patient subjects and (b) subject verb agreement, both of which are grammatical properties shared by their two languages of these bilinguals. Compared to native Basque bilinguals (L2Spanish) on the same tasks, non-natives elicited similar sentence processing measures: (a) in the acceptability task they reacted faster and more accurately to unaccusative sentences than to unergatives and to person than number violations: (b) they generated a larger P600 for agreement violations in unaccusative sentences than unergatives; (c) they generated larger negativity and positivity effects for person than for number violations. Previous studies on Basque-Spanish bilinguals find that early and proficient non-natives display effects distinct from natives in both languages when processing grammatical properties where Basque and Spanish diverge, such as argument alignment (ergative/nominative) or word order type (OV/VO), but they perform native-like for shared properties such as subject agreement and word meaning. We contend that language distance, that is, the degree of similarity of the languages of the bilingual is a crucial factor that deserves further and detailed attention to advance our understanding of when and how bilinguals can go native in a second language.

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