scholarly journals Subject-Verb Agreement with Coordinated Subjects in Ancient Greek

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Mambrini ◽  
Marco Passarotti
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Morphological Feature ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Special Domain ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Descriptive Level

In Ancient Greek, as well as in other languages, whenever agreement is triggered by two or more coordinated phrases, two different constructions are allowed: either the agreement can be controlled by the coordinated phrase as a whole, or it can be triggered by just one of the coordinated words. In spite of the amount of information that can be read on this topic in grammars of Ancient Greek, much is still to be known even at a general descriptive level. More importantly, the data still lack a convincing explanation. In this paper, we focus on a special domain of agreement (subject and verb agreement) and on one morphological feature that is expected to covary (number). We discuss the agreement in number for conjoined phrases, by revising some of the modern hypotheses with the support of the empirical evidence that can be collected from the available syntactically annotated corpora of Ancient Greek (treebanks). Results are interpreted according to syntactic features, cognitive factors and semantic properties of the coordinated phrases.

Pay Secrecy versus Pay Disclosure for Salesmen: A Longitudinal Study

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles M. Futrell ◽  
Omer C. Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Pay Secrecy

On the basis of a “before-after with control group” experimental design, empirical evidence is provided that shows the amount of information disclosed about pay had a major impact on salesmen's performance and job satisfaction.

scholarly journals The syntactic structure of the initial and final sentences

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
M.K. Zhunusova ◽  
◽  
A.Zh. Sayazhanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Single Part

The article analyzes the key role of syntactic features in the composition of the text. It was determined that the first and last sentences of the text are syntactically diverse. Sentence words, simple, introductory, and complex sentences perform communicative, expressive, and stylistic functions in the text. The semantic and compressed structures, modality, expressiveness, and stylistic skills that are based on various structures of these sentences were studied to reveal the clarity and comprehensibility of the idea of sentences. It is emphasized that with the help of syntactic laws, by means of one-or two-part sentences that convey the idea of the text, the features of the character are briefly and concisely revealed. The features of the formation of various initial sentences are defined. The syntactic structure of initial and final sentences is different: simple, ambiguous, complete, incomplete, positive, negative. All types of single-part components are nominal, vocative, and non-articulate sentences. However, such sentences are not complex, they are mostly simple short sentences. Semantic and syntactic characteristics of initial and final sentences are described in their idiomatic, narrative, interrogative, and complex forms. It was determined by the semantic properties of rhetorical questions in the initial proposals. It should be noted that the nominal structure of the initial sentences of the text is used not only for ease of description but also for emotionality as if it is related to certain aspects of the plot or the general content of the story and affects the reader's feelings. It is believed that the authors in the initial sentences not only indicate the time or place of the event, but also describe human behavior in relation to the environment and nature, and thus allow the reader to predict the end of the story. It was ascertained that the initial and final sentences, depending on the historical period, can be used in both positive and negative meanings.

A corpus-driven description of when-adverbial in Nigerian and British Englishes

Glottotheory ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayowa Akinlotan
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Structural Variation ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Distributional Analysis ◽  
British English ◽  
Functional Factors ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
Corpus Data

Abstract Syntactic alternation allows us to understand how structural variation, including crucial factors relevant to their meaning and interpretation, operates linguistic varieties. Empirical evidence from such syntactic alternation study can provide insights into how new varieties differ from the established ones. The present study aims at increasing contributions that show the nature of syntactic alternation from new Englishes such as Nigerian English, and how they differ from established varieties such as British English. Taking when adverbial construction in Nigerian English as a reference point (When Trump realised his reelection loss, he changed his political expectations versus Trump changed his political expectations when he realised his reelection loss), the study shows the extent to which previously tested factors influence the ordering of the construction and how they differ from findings reported in British English. Relying on corpus data, together with descriptive distributional analysis, the study shows that, unlike British English in which functional and cognitive factors strongly influence structural patterning, functional factors outweigh cognitive factors in Nigerian English.

scholarly journals Not a fact: A synchronic analysis of el hecho de and o facto de

Probus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Patrícia Amaral ◽  
Manuel Delicado Cantero
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Semantic Properties

Abstract This paper provides empirical evidence showing that the clause-taking nominals el hecho de (Spanish) and o facto de (Portuguese) are not reliable tests of factivity of predicates, as commonly assumed in the literature. Naturally occurring data from both languages show that these nominals are compatible with a wide range of predicates and that they occur in sentences with both factive and non-factive interpretations. Our findings contribute to the debate on the syntactic and semantic properties of clause-taking nominal constructions, clausal nominalization in Ibero-Romance, and to current research on the nature of factivity.

scholarly journals The Ancient Greek adjective: semantic and grammatical features

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
General Meaning ◽  
Genus Number

The article reveals the essence of an Ancient Greek adjective as a separate part of speech. Thus, the substantive nature of an adjective was examined, including the historical process of its separation as an independent part of speech, with a consequent emphasis on the inseparability of adjectives and nouns by external signs in Ancient Greek. The analysis of the Greek adjectives was made on the grounds of their semantics, morphological features, syntactic functions. The semantic analysis was based on the studying of such concepts as the categorial, word-building and lexical meaning. The categorial meaning is the attribution of an adjective. The smaller semantic-grammatical groups (qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives) were learnt with regard to word formation and lexical motivation. Word-building and lexical meanings were studied basing on the division of adjectives into primary units and derivatives. The meaning of a derivative is interpreted both: due to the analysis of its structure (paying a special attention to the compound units, which are mainly formed on the basis of word combinations), and due as to the relation (strong, weak, metaphorical) of the general meaning of a derivative with the meaning of its components. The word-formation meaning of such units, therefore, is syntagmatic. Their lexical semantics depend also on the context. The basic morphological categories of genus, number and case of a Greek adjective simultaneously indicates its semantic dependence on a noun. The category of degrees of comparison was analyzed on terms of morphological means and such syntactic features as left/right-side valence. The main primary (an attribute) and the secondary (as a predicative) syntactic adjective functions are equally realized in preposition or postposition to the noun in Ancient Greek.

scholarly journals Subject marking in Awing

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-115
Author(s):  
Henry Zamchang Fominyam ◽  
Doreen Georgi
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Grassfields Bantu ◽  
The Subject

This paper investigates the principles that govern subject marking in Awing (Grassfields Bantu). We observe that the subject marker (SM) that doubles the subject is sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional and sometimes prohibited. We argue that it is the referentiality of the subject that controls the distribution of the SM in Awing, rather than factors such as its morpho-syntactic features or its information structural status, which have been identified to govern argument doubling in a number of other languages with a similar phenomenon. The empirical evidence leads us to conclude that the SM is a pronominal element in Awing rather than an agreement marker. When it occurs, it functions as the argument of the verb and the associated subject NP is base-generated in the left periphery of the clause; when it is absent, the NP is the verbal argument. Awing thus qualifies as a pronominal argument language in the sense of Jelinek (1984); Bresnan and Mchombo (1987); Baker (1996).

Les prédicats Prep N figés adjectivaux et adverbiaux

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Agnieszka K. Kaliska
Keyword(s):  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Semantic Properties

The purpose of this article is to consider syntactic and semantic properties of frozen predicates Prep N in Polish, which may express either a state or a property of the subject. Some of them correspond to adjectival interrogative pronouns, while others correspond rather to an adverbial interrogation. We discuss to what extent these and other syntactic features reflect the notional features, defined as a property or as a state and if they justify the division between the adjectival Prep N and the adverbial Prep N. Our analysis is based on Polish data but it also contains references to other languages: French, Korean, English. More general issues are also discussed in this paper: identification of the categories called parts of speech and transfer between categories (noun vs. adjective vs. adverbe).

The nominal group, possessive agreement, and nominal sentences in the Transeurasian languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 587-603
Author(s):  
Irina Nevskaya ◽  
Lina Amal
Keyword(s):  
Nominal Group ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Nominal Groups ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
Accusative Constructions ◽  
Semantic Properties

This chapter deals with some of the most salient syntactic features of nominal groups and nominal sentences in Transeurasian languages; e.g. agreement in person and number between the heads and the modifiers expressed by adjectives, numerals, and demonstrative pronouns within nominal groups; formal and semantic properties of the “possessive noun + noun” adnominal possession construction; the morphology and syntax of reflexive possessive constructions. Special attention is paid to the inalienable/alienable possession split, observed in the existence of specialized possessive morphology, or of the double nominative and double accusative constructions of “external possession” in individual Transeurasian subbranches or languages. The chapter also describes the main types of Transeurasian nominal sentences, correlation of their formal and semantic types, and agreement between their subjects and predicates.

ERP signatures of subject–verb agreement in L2 learning

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
LANG CHEN ◽  
HUA SHU ◽  
YOUYI LIU ◽  
JINGJING ZHAO ◽  
PING LI
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Neural Structure ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
L2 Learners

In this study we examined ERP (event-related-potential) responses in the morphosyntactic processing of subject–verb agreements by L2 Chinese learners of English. Fifteen proficient L2 learners and fifteen native English speakers were presented with English sentences that varied in the grammaticality of the sentence with respect to subject–verb agreement. Our results indicate that late L2 learners show distinct ERP responses from native speakers in the processing of syntactic features that are absent in their L1, even when their behavioral patterns are similar to those of native speakers. The results are taken to support the proposal that language-specific experiences with L1 shape the neural structure of processing in L2.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson ◽  
Thórhallur Eythórsson
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
Low German ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Fourth Type ◽  
Syntactic Change ◽  
Middle Low German ◽  
Scientific Tool

The chapters in this volume are concerned with syntactic features and their role in restricting syntactic change. Most of the contributions propose analyses in accordance with the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, stating that all parameters of variation are attributable to differences in the features of particular items in the lexicon. The syntactic topics are of four types: the first three reflect different domains of the clause, while the fourth type is concerned with methodology. A great number of languages and dialects figure in the discussion, including languages that have not previously received a thorough treatment in terms of diachronic syntax such as Romeyka and Middle Low German. Other languages also discussed from a fresh theoretical perspective, e.g. Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, English, and Austronesian languages, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. This volume confirms the validity of the view that diachronic syntax is a scientific tool of inquiry in its own right.

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