French Relative Qui

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Sportiche
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Pronominal System ◽  
Subject Extraction

Starting from Kayne's (1976) motivation for the existence of the French que/qui rule based on the complementizer system of French relative clauses, I show that French in fact has a double paradigm of wh-elements, a weak one and a strong one, much like what is found in the (strong/weak) pronominal system. Although only French is discussed here in any detail, such a split seems to have much wider relevance, in other Romance languages, in some Germanic and Scandinavian languages, and beyond (Wolof). This split in turn shows that the que/qui rule (and its cognates) should be looked at differently—in particular, that they should be uncoupled from constraints on subject extraction.

scholarly journals French subject island? Empirical studies of dont and de qui

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Abeillé ◽  
Elodie Winckel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
First Century ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Recent Innovation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Relative Pronouns

AbstractDont has been claimed to be an exception to the ‘subject island’ constraint (Tellier, 1991; Sportiche and Bellier, 1989; Heck, 2009) and to contrast with true relative pronouns such as de qui. We provide corpus data from a literary corpus (Frantext), which show that relativizing out of the subject is possible with dont and de qui in French relative clauses, and is even the most frequent use of both relative clauses. We show that it is not a recent innovation by comparing subcorpora from the beginning of the twentieth century and from the beginning of the twenty-first century. We also show, with an acceptability judgement task, that extraction out of the subject with de qui is well accepted. Why has this possibility been overlooked? We suggest that it may be because de qui relatives in general are less frequent than dont relatives (about 60 times less in our corpus). Turning to de qui interrogatives, we show that extraction out of the subject is not attested, and propose an explanation of the contrast with relative clauses. We conclude that in this respect, French does not seem to differ from other Romance languages.

English C Moves Downward as well as Upward: An Extension of Bošković and Lasnik's (2003) Approach

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwang-sup Kim
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Principled Account ◽  
The Right ◽  
Subject Extraction ◽  
Filter Effects

Pesetsky (1991) proposes that there are two types of C, that and null C, and that the null C is an affix that must move up to the matrix V. This proposal is revived in the minimalist context by Bošković and Lasnik (2003). While assuming that the C-as-an-affix approach is on the right track, I suggest a drastic modification of previous versions of this approach: namely, that (a) there is just one type of C in the lexicon, affixal null C; (b) it can both hop down onto the embedded V and move up to the matrix V; and (c) that/for is inserted at PF as a last resort if affixation is structurally prohibited. This amounts to saying that the English tense and complementizer systems display the same paradigm: both T[+finite] and C[±finite] are affixes, and do and that/for are inserted as a last resort when syntactic affixation is impossible. This approach, especially the C-hopping approach, allows a uniform, principled account for the distribution of that and for, including that-trace effects, ameliorating effects of subject extraction, anti-that-trace effects, For-To Filter effects, and the distribution of that in relative clauses.

scholarly journals Mood Alternations in Old High German Subordinate Clauses

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Coniglio ◽  
Roland Hinterhölzl ◽  
Svetlana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Different Types

In this paper, Old High German mood alternations in the different types of subordinate clauses (complement, adverbial and relative clauses) are discussed. The use of the subjunctive in subordinate clauses is notoriously more frequent than in Modern German and has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Based on a comprehensive corpus study, the paper will show that the licensing conditions for the subjunctive in Old High German are determined by notions such as veridicality and – in relative contexts – specificity. These conditions are thus similar (but not always identical) to those observed for Modern Greek and Romance languages. Furthermore, a syntactic analysis is provided in order to account for the licensing of the subjunctive in each type of subordinate clause.

scholarly journals Identifying signs of syntactic complexity for rule-based sentence simplification

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD EVANS ◽  
CONSTANTIN ORĂSAN
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
New Method ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Annotation Scheme ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Sources Of Error ◽  
System Output ◽  
Limited Coverage

AbstractThis article presents a new method to automatically simplify English sentences. The approach is designed to reduce the number of compound clauses and nominally bound relative clauses in input sentences. The article provides an overview of a corpus annotated with information about various explicit signs of syntactic complexity and describes the two major components of a sentence simplification method that works by exploiting information on the signs occurring in the sentences of a text. The first component is a sign tagger which automatically classifies signs in accordance with the annotation scheme used to annotate the corpus. The second component is an iterative rule-based sentence transformation tool. Exploiting the sign tagger in conjunction with other NLP components, the sentence transformation tool automatically rewrites long sentences containing compound clauses and nominally bound relative clauses as sequences of shorter single-clause sentences. Evaluation of the different components reveals acceptable performance in rewriting sentences containing compound clauses but less accuracy when rewriting sentences containing nominally bound relative clauses. A detailed error analysis revealed that the major sources of error include inaccurate sign tagging, the relatively limited coverage of the rules used to rewrite sentences, and an inability to discriminate between various subtypes of clause coordination. Despite this, the system performed well in comparison with two baselines. This finding was reinforced by automatic estimations of the readability of system output and by surveys of readers’ opinions about the accuracy, accessibility, and meaning of this output.

Possessives and relative clauses in Spanish

Probus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Eguren
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Possessive Pronoun ◽  
Current Standard ◽  
Old Spanish ◽  
Restrictive Relatives

AbstractIn this paper, the properties of Spanish DPs including a possessive pronoun and a relative clause are thoroughly described and analyzed. Adopting a raising analysis for both prenominal possessives and restrictive relatives, it is claimed that the incompatibility of a determiner possessive and a restrictive relative in current standard Spanish is due to the violation of an interpretive constraint sanctioning subextraction from [Spec, CP]. It is further proposed that, in constructions in which a possessive pronoun does combine with a relative clause, the possessive is not subextracted from [Spec, CP]. It is finally shown that this proposal accounts for different well-formed dialectal and Old Spanish patterns with a prenominal possessive and a restrictive relative and also applies to data from other Romance languages.

scholarly journals French Grammars

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Abeillé
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
French Language ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Pronominal System

This article focuses on the 20th and 21st centuries, which have seen a growing number of grammars devoted to the French language. Some aim at a scholastic audience, while others aim at a wider public. Some are prescriptive, usually based on literary texts; others are descriptive, incorporating spoken and informal uses; and still others are theoretically oriented, using French as an illustration of the theory advocated. Some are mostly devoted to morphology and syntax while others integrate semantics and discourse. Some include comparisons between French and other languages. Most French grammars started with a terminology inherited from Latin grammars, and both the list of terms and the analyses have evolved thanks to the development of linguistic theories and also to consider colloquial uses and spoken French. Particular points of interest are descriptions of determination (with the category “determiner” appearing only after 1960), negation, the pronominal system, and relative clauses.

scholarly journals The Romance of Modal Superlatives as Degree Descriptions

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Loccioni
Keyword(s):  
Maximal Element ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Ordered Set ◽  
Compositional Analysis ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Degree Relative ◽  
Measure Phrases ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Selection Of

In this paper, I present a novel compositional analysis of modal predicative superlatives, that is, predicative superlatives accompanied by modal adjectives such as possible, as that in (1). (1) Mary wanted to be the prettiest possible. I argue that they are elliptical bona fide degree-relative clauses denoting maximal degrees and whose semantic contribution is similar to that of Measure Phrases. This account will require a novel composition of the superlative which involves the formation of an ordered set and the selection of a maximal element. I argue that not only is this account able to derive their peculiar semantics (dispensing us from the ad hoc components that previous accounts posited), but it can also capture the morphosyntax of these constructions, especially in Romance languages, which turn out more informative than English in this respect.

Using Conventional Articulation Tests With Highly Unintelligible Children

1992 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela G. Garn-Nunn ◽  
Vicki Martin
Keyword(s):  
Test Results ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Severity Level ◽  
Error Sensitivity ◽  
Conventional Tests ◽  
Severity Levels ◽  
Conventional Test ◽  
Impaired Children

This study explored whether or not standard administration and scoring of conventional articulation tests accurately identified children as phonologically disordered and whether or not information from these tests established severity level and programming needs. Results of standard scoring procedures from the Assessment of Phonological Processes-Revised, the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, the Photo Articulation Test, and the Weiss Comprehensive Articulation Test were compared for 20 phonologically impaired children. All tests identified the children as phonologically delayed/disordered, but the conventional tests failed to clearly and consistently differentiate varying severity levels. Conventional test results also showed limitations in error sensitivity, ease of computation for scoring procedures, and implications for remediation programming. The use of some type of rule-based analysis for phonologically impaired children is highly recommended.

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