Information Structure in Languages of the Caucasus

2021 ◽  
pp. 972-1002
Author(s):  
Diana Forker
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Focus Position ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Sharp Difference ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Constituent Order

This chapter discusses the expression of information structure in the three indigenous language families of the Caucasus with a focus on constituent order and particles. At the clause level, all three language families show a clear preference for SOV, are generally flexible, and also admit other orders. The major focus position is pre-verbal, but postverbal focus is also attested; adjacency to the verb is a violable constraint. At the phrasal level, there is a sharp difference between Northwest Caucasian, with its prenominal and postnominal modifiers alike, and Kartvelian and Nakh-Daghestanian languages, which employ postnominal modifiers only for emphasis, contrast, or focus. Languages from all three families make wide use of cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions that normally express constituent focus. Another commonality is the frequent use of enclitics and suffixes of different types for information-structuring purposes. Modal markers, interrogative markers, additive affixes, and markers with grammatical meaning are used as focus-sensitive particles and usually placed after the item they scope over or after the head of the phrase.

scholarly journals Injuries and frequent use of emergency department services: a systematic review

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e040272
Author(s):  
Catherine Laferté ◽  
Andréa Dépelteau ◽  
Catherine Hudon
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Cohort Studies ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Geriatric Population ◽  
Physical Injuries ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Ed Visits ◽  
Return Visits

ObjectiveTo review all studies having examined the association between patients with physical injuries and frequent emergency department (ED) attendance or return visits.DesignSystematic review.Data sourceMedline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and PsycINFO databases were searched up to and including July 2019.Eligibility criteriaEnglish and French language publications reporting on frequent use of ED services (frequent attendance and return visits), evaluating injured patients and using regression analysis.Data extraction and synthesisTwo independent reviewers screened the search results, and assessed methodological quality using the Joanna Briggs Institute tool for prevalence studies. Results were collated and summarised using a narrative synthesis. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the repercussions of removing a study that did not meet the quality criteria.ResultsOf the 2184 studies yielded by this search, 1957 remained after the removal of duplicates. Seventy-eight studies underwent full-text screening leaving nine that met the eligibility criteria and were included in this study: five retrospective cohort studies; two prospective cohort studies; one cross-sectional study; and one case-control study. Different types of injuries were represented, including fractures, trauma and physical injuries related to falls, domestic violence or accidents. Sample sizes ranged from 200 to 1 259 809. Six studies included a geriatric population while three addressed a younger population. Of the four studies evaluating the relationship between injuries and frequent ED use, three reported an association. Additionally, of the five studies in which the dependent variable was return ED visits, three articles identified a positive association with injuries.ConclusionsPhysical injuries appear to be associated with frequent use of ED services (frequent ED attendance as well as return ED visits). Further research into factors including relevant youth-related covariates such as substance abuse and different types of traumas should be undertaken to bridge the gap in understanding this association.

Focus Attracts Attachment

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110333
Author(s):  
Katy Carlson ◽  
David Potter
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Focus Position ◽  
Auditory Comprehension ◽  
Perceptual Salience ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Pitch Accents

There is growing evidence that pitch accents as well as prosodic boundaries can affect syntactic attachment. But is this an effect of their perceptual salience (the Salience Hypothesis), or is it because accents mark the position of focus (the Focus Attraction Hypothesis)? A pair of auditory comprehension experiments shows that focus position, as indicated by preceding wh-questions instead of by pitch accents, affects attachment by drawing the ambiguous phrase to the focus. This supports the Focus Attraction Hypothesis (or a pragmatic version of salience) for both these results and previous results of accents on attachment. These experiments show that information structure, as indicated with prosody or other means, influences sentence interpretation, and suggests a view on which modifiers are drawn to the most important information in a sentence.

Nakh-Dagestanian Languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-145
Author(s):  
Dmitry Ganenkov ◽  
Timur Maisak
Keyword(s):  
General Information ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Verbal Nouns ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sociolinguistic Status

The chapter is a survey of the Nakh-Daghestanian family (also known as East Caucasian), one of the indigenous language families spoken in the Caucasus. The family comprises more than 30 languages, some of which are spoken by only a few hundred people and remain unwritten and/or underdescribed. The chapter provides general information about the sociolinguistic status of Nakh-Daghestanian languages and the history of their research as well as their phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The languages of the family have rich consonant systems and are morphologically ergative, head-final, with rich case systems, complex verbal paradigms, and pervasive gender-number agreement. Alongside the major transitive and intransitive lexical verb classes, verbs of perception and cognition with the dative experiencer subject usually comprise one or more minor valency classes with non-canonically marked subjects. Among valency-increasing derivations, the causative is the most prominent. The most typical subordination strategies are non-finite, making use of participles, converbs, infinitives and verbal nouns.

scholarly journals Discourse Intonation and Information Structure: An Empirical Study of Existential There Constructions in Non-native Spontaneous Speech

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
Judit Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
New Information ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Discourse Intonation ◽  
Problematic Area ◽  
Accented English ◽  
The Given

Abstract The management of given and new information is one of the key components of accomplishing coherence in oral discourse, which is claimed to be a problematic area for language learners (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, and Thurrell 1995: 14). Research on discourse intonation proposes that instead of the given/new dichotomy, givenness should be viewed as a continuum, with different types of accessibility (Baumann & Grice 2006). Moreover, Prince (1992) previously categorized information structure into Hearer-old/Hearer-new and Discourse-old/Discourse-new information. There is consensus on the fact that focus or prominence associated with new information is marked with nuclear pitch accent, and its main acoustic cue, fundamental frequency (f0) (Ward & Birner 2001: 120). Non-native intonation has been reported to display numerous differences in f0 range and patterns compared to native speech (Wennerstrom 1994; Baker 2010). This study is an attempt to address the issue of marking information structure in existential there sentences by means of f0 in non-native spontaneous speech. Data originates from task-based interactions in the Wildcat Corpus of Native- and Foreign-Accented English (Van Engen et al. 2010). This paper examines two issues: (1) information structure in relation to the notions of givenness and different types of accessibility (Baumann & Grice 2006) and to Prince’s (1992) multidimensional taxonomy and (2) the use of f0 peaks to mark the prominence of new information. Several differences were measured among native speakers regarding the use of f0, sentence type, and complexity.

scholarly journals Marked and Non-Marked Attribute Structures within a Secondary Predicate in the French Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Iuliia Zelena
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
French Language ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status ◽  
Productive Potential ◽  
Semantic Transfer ◽  
Argumentative Structure ◽  
Transfer Mechanisms

The article is devoted to the study of marked and unmarked attributive constructions, considering the influence of semantic transfer mechanisms, taking into account their productive potential. Structuraland semantic characterization of types of attributive constructions is performed in light of two initial theories –in view ofreferentstatusand actual sentence fragmentation. An independent research of relationsbetween predication manifestations and the semanticand syntactic structure of a sentence has been performed by determining the valence properties of attributive verbs. The distinctionbetween different types of constructionswith the attribute complement isdescribed and it is specifiedthat there is a direct correlation between the type of attributive sentences and the emergence of predicative relation.The article is dedicated to the analysis of modification of the information structure and the status of the referent in sentences containing attributive object. Given the types of interpretation of attributive sentences and, based on the results of contextual analysis, it became possible to prove that change of argumentative structure in verbal group gives a reason to treat attributive verb with elements SN2 and X as a predicative focus of the sentence and permit to consider it as the complex secondary predicate.

From written to spoken – and in between

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Vladislav Smolka
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Single Author ◽  
Different Types

The paper looks at the differences in syntactic and information structure in four types of discourse produced by a single author, the British cosmologist and astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees: a written academic text, a text from a book of popular science, unprepared spoken discourse, and an academic lecture, i.e. a text written to be presented orally. The analysis of the variation in one speaker/writer is expected to highlight systematic differences between the separate types of discourses and to eliminate possible variation across different authors. The paper aims to show how, perhaps even subconsciously, competent language users modify the structure of discourse to fulfi l their communicative goals in different types of communication.

scholarly journals Between syntax and discourse

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Laleko ◽  
Maria Polinsky
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Structure Level ◽  
Different Types ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Status ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This article examines the knowledge of topic and subject particles in heritage speakers and L2 learners of Japanese and Korean. We assume that topic marking is mediated at the syntax-information structure interface, while subject marking pertains to narrow syntax. In comparing phenomena mediated at different levels of linguistic organization, we provide evidence for the hypothesis that information structure-level phenomena present greater challenges for bilingual speakers than those mediated within syntax. While these results may be interpreted as evidence of generalized interface-related deficits, we show that such a global explanation is not supported. Instead, a more nuanced account is developed, based on the recognition of different types of topic (anaphoric, generic, and contrastive) and different types of subject (descriptive and exhaustive). Under the proposed account, non-native speakers’ deficits follow from three unrelated effects: the status of topic as an interface category, structural complexity, and the memory demands necessary for its interpretation in context.

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRACTICES OF MANAGING EXTERNAL SOURCES OF TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION AND INDICATORS OF INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (04) ◽  
pp. 709-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLANDIA MAFFINI GOMES ◽  
ISAK KRUGLIANSKAS ◽  
FLÁVIA LUCIANE SCHERER
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Innovative Performance ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Different Types ◽  
External Sources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Quantitative Nature

This study has the aim of understanding the different processes for managing outside sources of technology information, with a major focus on practices that companies actually adopt. The specific intention of the study is to construct a theoretical and practical frame of reference for developing processes of sustainable technological innovation. This study, of a quantitative nature, involved carrying out a survey on Brazilian industrial companies with innovative characteristics. to identify how the management of sources of information, influences the innovative performance of the companies that participated in the survey. The independent and dependent variables suggest the existence of an association between the management of outside sources of technology information, and innovative performance. Especially important here is how the different types of sources of information influence the indicators related to innovation in products and how the type of modality of access to technology affects the indicators relating to innovation of processes.

scholarly journals Association of perioperative hyperglycemic state with postoperative infection

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
J P Ghildiyal ◽  
Archna Ghildiyal ◽  
Sarsij Sharma ◽  
Bushra Iqbal ◽  
Shraddha Singh
Keyword(s):  
Blood Sugar ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Random Blood Sugar ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Sugar Levels ◽  
A Prospective Study ◽  
Subsequent Risk ◽  
Blood Glucose Range

Background: Perioperative hyperglycemia is frequently encountered in clinical practice. Recent evidence suggests that hyperglycemia plays a significant role in the development of postoperative infections (POI). Major focus has been placed on whether hyperglycemia, as an independent risk factor, is associated with increased infection. The optimal targeted blood glucose range to prevent POI remains unclear, especially in the intra-operative period.Aims and Objectives: To study the association between  peri-operative hyperglycemia to the subsequent risk of post-operative infections through a prospective  observational study.Materials and Methods: A prospective study of 101 patients undergoing different types of general surgery procedures followed up to 30 days post-operatively was done. Random  blood Sugar (RBS) was taken (1) Pre-operatively (2) Intra-operatively (3) Postoperatively- after 6, 24 and 48 hours. Primary end points of the study were (1)  Surgical wound infection (2) Urinary tract infection (3) Septicemia.Results: Out of 101 patients 57 developed perioperative hyperglycemia (incidence- 56.4%). In normoglycemic  group of patients infection rate was 4.5% (2/44) as compared to 26.3% (15/57) in perioperative hyperglycemic group.Conclusion: The present study provides a convincing evidence of an association between perioperative hyperglycemia and post-operative infection apart from giving a possible relationship between preoperative blood sugar levels and postoperative infection.Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.7(6) 2016 32-35

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