Regional Varieties of English

2019 ◽  
pp. 603-629
Author(s):  
Peter Siemund
Keyword(s):  
Standard English ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Systematic Relationship ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Cognitive Principles ◽  
Typological Approach ◽  
Pronominal Gender ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions

This chapter discusses non-standard grammatical features of regional varieties of English in relation to their Standard English functional equivalents. It pursues a cross-linguistic typological approach in the classification and interpretation of these features. This approach helps to reveal the often highly systematic relationship between standard and non-standard variants as well as the universal basis of the underlying cognitive principles. Illustration is drawn from reflexive marking, pronominal gender and case, tense and aspect, negation and negative concord, subject–verb agreement, and clause structure, which here includes ditransitive constructions, embedded inversion, and the formation of relative clauses.

Abstracts of the Chinese papers in English

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-298
Author(s):  
Tianhua Luo
Keyword(s):  
Close Relationships ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
The Core ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Typological Approach ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions ◽  
Person Marking

A typological study of the clause structure of ergative languagesAbstract: This paper presents a typological study of the clause structure of ergative languages by examining a sample of 78 languages. It focuses on three structures, namely (the alignment of case marking and verbal person marking of) the core argument structures, the antipassive constructions, and the ditransitive constructions.In this study, “ergativity” refers both “ergative” languages and the “active” languages. In particular, 75 languages in the sample are the “ergative” or “active” ones in Comrie (2013a, 2013b) and Siewierska (2013a), three languages not labeled as ergative or active in Dryer & Haspelmath (2013), namely Dyirbal, Kham, and Tibetan, are also included. The features of core argument structures, antipassive constructions, and ditransitive constructions are collected from Dryer & Haspelmath (2013) and various other literature.This study adopts a customary typological approach and proposes sixteen (groups of) universals or tendencies of morphological and/or syntactic features of ergative languages on the basis of frequency analysis, most of which in the form of implicational universals. To list but a few: (I) Most (if not all) ergative languages are split in alignment; (II) Ergativity is more commonly found in the case marking of full noun phrases than in pronouns (which prefer accusative alignment); (III) Ergative markers are more commonly found on the As, but accusative markers on the Ps; (IV) The alignment of case marking of the full noun phrases or pronouns cannot be predicated by verbal person marking, although most ergative languages prefer to have person marking of both A and P; (V) The languages with “mixed object construction” (Haspelmath 2013) are found in various alignment types, although there are close relationships between ditransitive constructions and ergative alignment; (VI) There is no close relationships between antipassive/passive constructions and ergativity; on the contrary, ergative languages show a considerably low ratio of both constructions.In the light of this study, this paper dispels the ergativity myth in Mandarin Chinese. It proposes that the so-called Chinese ergative constructions, e.g. ergative verbs, the ba construction, are invariably unaccusative in nature.

A Computer Corpus-Based Study of Subject Raising in Modern Portuguese

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-400
Author(s):  
Mark Davies
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Comprehensive Data ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Raising

This study is the first comprehensive, data-based examination of subject raising in Portuguese, and is based on 4500+ tokens in more than 26,500,000 words of text from both the written and spoken registers of Brazilian and European Portuguese. We have suggested that there are important differences in raising between the spoken and written registers, which are related to presumably universal production strategies for the two registers. Evidence suggests that morphological factors such as subject-verb agreement play an important role in determining whether raising occurs with first, second, and third person subjects. In terms of differences between the European and Brazilian dialects, we find that split agreement (eles parece saberem) and obligatory coreference {me parece ver um fantasma) are both more common in European Portuguese. Finally, these last two facts, along with a number of related phenomena, suggest that there are important differences in the underlying clause structure of European and Brazilian Portuguese, which can further be extended to include other languages such as Spanish.

Unacceptable grammars? an eye-tracking study of English negative concord

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCES BLANCHETTE ◽  
CYNTHIA LUKYANENKO
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Negative Sentence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Time Reading ◽  
Negative Subject

abstractThis paper uses eye-tracking while reading to examine Standard English speakers’ processing of sentences with two syntactic negations: a negative auxiliary and either a negative subject (e.g., Nothing didn’t fall from the shelf) or a negative object (e.g., She didn’t answer nothing in that interview). Sentences were read in Double Negation (DN; the ‘she answered something’ reading of she didn’t answer nothing) and Negative Concord (NC; the ‘she answered nothing’ reading of she didn’t answer nothing) biasing contexts. Despite the social stigma associated with NC, and linguistic assumptions that Standard English has a DN grammar, in which each syntactic negation necessarily contributes a semantic negation, our results show that Standard English speakers generate both NC and DN interpretations, and that their interpretation is affected by the syntactic structure of the negative sentence. Participants spent more time reading the critical sentence and rereading the context sentence when negative object sentences were paired with DN-biasing contexts and when negative subject sentences were paired with NC-biasing contexts. This suggests that, despite not producing NC, they find NC interpretations of negative object sentences easier to generate than DN interpretations. The results illustrate the utility of online measures when investigating socially stigmatized construction types.

Negation in Non-Standard Varieties

2020 ◽  
pp. 514-529
Author(s):  
Christina Tortora ◽  
Frances Blanchette
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Speaker Variability ◽  
Hypothesis Space ◽  
Different Types ◽  
West Flemish

This chapter discusses the relevance of data from non-standard varieties to our understanding of natural language negation, and in particular, to theories which seek to model and explain natural language properties. The chapter focuses specifically on the different types of Negative Concord exhibited in non-standard Englishes, in West Flemish, and in Romance varieties, showing that in relation to Standard English, Standard Dutch, and Standard French, these non-standard languages exhibit much more intricate points of syntactic variation. The theoretical relevance of subject/non-subject asymmetries, the lexical nature of postverbal negative constituents, and intra-speaker variability in the expression of negation are discussed. The syntactic structures examined reveal that when non-standard languages serve as the main reference point in linguistic theory, this extends the hypothesis space in crucial ways, and more fruitful and revealing cross-linguistic comparisons can be made.

scholarly journals The Syntax of Word Order Derivation and Agreement in Najrani Arabic: A Minimalist Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Abdul-Hafeed Ali Fakih ◽  
Hadeel Ali Al-Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Split Cp ◽  
Order Derivation ◽  
Edge Feature

The paper aims to explore word order derivation and agreement in Najran Arabic (henceforth, NA) and examines the interaction between the NA data and Chomsky’s (2001, 2005) Agree theory which we adopt in this study. The objective is to investigate how word order occurs in NA and provide a satisfactorily unified account of the derivation of SVO and VSO orders and agreement in the language. Furthermore, the study shows how SVO and VSO word orders are derived morpho-syntactically in NA syntax and why and how the derivation of SVO word order comes after that of VSO order. We assume that the derivation of the unmarked SVO in NA takes place after applying a further step to the marked VSO. We propose that the default unmarked word order in NA is SVO, not VSO.  Moreover, we propose that the DP which is base-generated in [Spec-vP] is a topic, not a subject. We adopt Rizzy’s split-CP hypothesis on the basis of which we assume the existence of a Top Phrase (TopP) projection in the clause structure of NA. We postulate that the phase head C passes its ϕ-features to the functional head T and the Edge feature to TopP. We assume that T in VSO lacks the Edge feature which motivates movement of the subject DP to [Spec-TP]. As a consequence, the subject of VSO structure remains in situ in the subject position of [Spec-vP]. In addition, it explores subject-verb agreement asymmetry (henceforth, SVAA) and shows that the asymmetry in NA is not related to word order differences but rather to gender agreement differences.

scholarly journals An investigation of non-standard english syntax in 12-year old coloured children

1981 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen C. Malan
Keyword(s):  
Language Assessment ◽  
Standard English ◽  
White Children ◽  
Matched Group ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
English Syntax ◽  
Repetition Task

Non-standard English (NSE) syntactic constructions occurring in the natural speech, behaviour of a group of 20 12-year old Coloured children were identified  and analysed. Three syntactic classes were isolated as having contained NSE constructions used significantly  by the group: auxiliary/copula verb forms, number-verb agreement and tense. A bi-dialectal sentence repetition task was then adminstered to the same group and to a matched group of White children, in which the two groups were compared on their ability to reproduce sentences containing (1) NSE constructions used significantly by the Coloured group, and (2) the standard English (SE) forms of these constructions. Results indicated that while Coloured Ss were able to reproduce many of the SE constructions, their overall performance  on these items was significantly inferior  to that of  White Ss. Conversely, their repetition of  NSE items was significantly  superior to that of  White Ss. The implications of these findings for the clinical language assessment of Coloured children were discussed.

scholarly journals Morphosyntactic Production and Verbal Working Memory: Evidence From Greek Aphasia and Healthy Aging

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1171-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valantis Fyndanis ◽  
Giorgio Arcara ◽  
Paraskevi Christidou ◽  
David Caplan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Nonlocal Conditions ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Agrammatic Aphasia ◽  
The Individual

Purpose The present work investigated whether verbal working memory (WM) affects morphosyntactic production in configurations that do not involve or favor similarity-based interference and whether WM interacts with verb-related morphosyntactic categories and/or cue–target distance (locality). It also explored whether the findings related to the questions above lend support to a recent account of agrammatic morphosyntactic production: Interpretable Features' Impairment Hypothesis (Fyndanis, Varlokosta, & Tsapkini, 2012). Method A sentence completion task testing production of subject–verb agreement, tense/time reference, and aspect in local and nonlocal conditions and two verbal WM tasks were administered to 8 Greek-speaking persons with agrammatic aphasia (PWA) and 103 healthy participants. Results The 3 morphosyntactic categories dissociated in both groups (agreement > tense > aspect). A significant interaction emerged in both groups between the 3 morphosyntactic categories and WM. There was no main effect of locality in either of the 2 groups. At the individual level, all 8 PWA exhibited dissociations between agreement, tense, and aspect, and effects of locality were contradictory. Conclusions Results suggest that individuals with WM limitations (both PWA and healthy older speakers) show dissociations between the production of verb-related morphosyntactic categories. WM affects performance shaping the pattern of morphosyntactic production (in Greek: subject–verb agreement > tense > aspect). The absence of an effect of locality suggests that executive capacities tapped by WM tasks are involved in morphosyntactic processing of demanding categories even when the cue is adjacent to the target. Results are consistent with the Interpretable Features' Impairment Hypothesis (Fyndanis et al., 2012). Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6024428

Acquiring language from variable input

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Henry
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Morphosyntactic Variation ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Impact

Thisi paper considers the impact of morphosyntactic variation in the input on the language acquisition process. In particular, it studies the acquisition of variable subject-verb agreement and variable negative concord by children acquiring the Belfast dialect of English. It finds that, given variation in the input, children can acquire more than one grammatical variant, although both do not necessarily emerge at the same time in the case of negative concord, forms without negative concord emerge in the children’s language before the use of negative concord is used. It is also found that the proportion of each variant in a child’s output matches the proportion in the input they receive.

scholarly journals Clause structure in Old English: evidence from Negative Concord

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Haeberli ◽  
Liliane Haegeman
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
The One ◽  
Germanic Languages

This paper deals with the clause structure of Old English. In the main body of the paper we adopt the ‘traditional’ analysis of the West Germanic languages in which it is proposed that VP is head-final. We will argue (contra Van Kemenade 1987, pace Cardinaletti & Roberts 1991, Pintzuk 1991, Tomaselli 1991) that the clause structure of Old English contains a head-initial functional projection whose head can be the landing site of verb movement in subordinate clauses. This claim is based on evidence related to the distribution and interpretation of negative elements in Old English and West Flemish. We will show that differences between these two languages with respect to Negative Concord phenomena can be accounted for straightforwardly in terms of an Old English clause structure which is different from the one traditionally proposed for the modern Germanic SOV/V2 languages.In the appendix to the paper we briefly turn to the recent alternative approaches to the phrase structure of SOV languages in terms of a universal base hypothesis where all projections are head-initial (see Kayne (1993), Zwart (1993), Roberts (1995) for a discussion of Old English).

Subject–verb agreement in English

1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Semantic Rule ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Feature ◽  
Verb Agreement In English

The paper rejects the standard view according to which every tensed verb in English agrees with its subject in person and number. It argues that person is irrelevant to all verbs except BE, and that past-tense verbs and modals (other than BE) have no number agreement features. It discusses agreement mismatches which reflect the subject's meaning, but rejects the idea that subject–verb agreement may be a semantic rule; it proposes instead a new feature ‘agreement-number’. This extra number feature applies only to the subject of a tensed verb and by default has the same value as the subject's ordinary number, while also allowing various kinds of mismatch (for I and you, and for cases of ‘semantic’ agreement). It also offers analyses of agreement with non-nominal subjects and dummy there, and shows how the analysis for Standard English generalizes easily to a range of variations found in nonstandard dialects. The theoretical basis for the analysis is Word Grammar, whose main advantage is that features are free to be assigned by rule because they are not used in classification.

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