scholarly journals Word order preferences of Tagalog-speaking adults and children

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 617-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowena Garcia ◽  
Jeruen E. Dery ◽  
Jens Roeser ◽  
Barbara Höhle
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Patient Voice ◽  
Initial Preference ◽  
Order Preference ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Subject

This article investigates the word order preferences of Tagalog-speaking adults and five- and seven-year-old children. The participants were asked to complete sentences to describe pictures depicting actions between two animate entities. Adults preferred agent-initial constructions in the patient voice but not in the agent voice, while the children produced mainly agent-initial constructions regardless of voice. This agent-initial preference, despite the lack of a close link between the agent and the subject in Tagalog, shows that this word order preference is not merely syntactically-driven (subject-initial preference). Additionally, the children’s agent-initial preference in the agent voice, contrary to the adults’ lack of preference, shows that children do not respect the subject-last principle of ordering Tagalog full noun phrases. These results suggest that language-specific optional features like a subject-last principle take longer to be acquired.

scholarly journals Information Structure and Word Order Preference in Child and Adult Speech of Mandarin Chinese

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Jidong Chen ◽  
Bhuvana Narasimhan ◽  
Angel Chan ◽  
Wenchun Yang ◽  
Shu Yang
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Late Development ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Order Preference

The acquisition of appropriate linguistic markers of information structure (IS), e.g., word order and specific lexical and syntactic constructions, is a rather late development. This study revisits the debate on language-general preferred word order in IS and examines the use of language-specific means to encode IS in Mandarin Chinese. An elicited production study of conjunct noun phrases (NPs) of new and old referents was conducted with native Mandarin-speaking children (N = 24, mean age 4;6) and adults (N = 25, mean age 26). (The age of children is conventionally notated as years;months). The result shows that adults differ significantly from children in preferring the “old-before-new” word order. This corroborates prior findings in other languages (e.g., German, English, Arabic) that adults prefer a language-general “old-before-new” IS, whereas children disprefer or show no preference for that order. Despite different word order preferences, Mandarin-speaking children and adults resemble each other in the lexical and syntactic forms to encode old and new referents: bare NPs dominate the conjunct NPs, and indefinite classifier NPs are used for both the old and the new referents, but when only one classifier phrase is produced, it is predominantly used to refer to the new referents, which suggests children’s early sensitivity to language-specific syntactic devices to mark IS.

scholarly journals The secret life of focus exponents, and what it tells us about fronted verbal projections

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kordula De Kuthy ◽  
W. Detmar Meurers
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Natural Explanation ◽  
Complex Word ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definiteness Effect ◽  
Focus Projection

The paper investigates a complex word order phenomenon in German and the interaction of syntax and information structure it exemplifies: the occurrence of subjects as part of a fronted non-finite constituent and particularly the so-called definiteness effect excluding (many) definite subjects from this position. We explore the connection between focus projection and the partial fronting cases and show that it is the subject of those verbs which allow their subject to be the focus exponent that can be included as part of a fronted verbal constituent. In combination with the observation by Webelhuth (1990) that fronted verbal constituents need to be focused, this provides a natural explanation of the definiteness effect in terms of the information structure requirements in these sentences. Interestingly, the generally ignored exceptions to the definiteness effect are predicted by our analysis; we show that they involve definite noun phrases which can bear focus, which allows them to be part of a fronted verbal constituent. Finally, building on the integrated grammatical architecture provided in De Kuthy (2002), we formulate an HPSG theory which captures the interaction of constraints from syntax, information structure and intonation.

scholarly journals Negative word-order patterns among Breton-speaking adults and children

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Holly Jane Winterton
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Negative Word ◽  
Negative Particle ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Finite Verb

This paper compares word order in negative utterances among two generations of ‘native’ Breton speakers: 70-plus and 8-14 year-olds. Analysis of fieldwork data shows that speakers aged 70-plus generally maintain the expected order, which places the negative particle initially, followed by the finite verb (88% of instances), but younger speakers are divided. Schoolchildren educated entirely in Breton do the same as the 70-plus speakers, while those educated partly in French, without Breton input from home, place the subject initially. Additionally, speakers aged 20-plus also showed variability, indicating that this is not purely an age-based effect.

Mismatching nominals and the small clause hypothesis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
PAUL ROGER BASSONG
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Split Topicalization ◽  
Feature Checking

I propose a comprehensive analysis of what has been commonly referred in the literature to as split, discontinuous noun phrases or split topicalization. Based on data from Basaá, a Narrow Bantu language spoken in Cameroon, I partly capitalize on previous authors such as Mathieu (2004), Mathieu & Sitaridou (2005) and Ott (2015a), who propose that this morphosyntactic phenomenon involves two syntactically unrelated constituents which are only linked semantically in a predication relation in a small clause (Moro 1997, 2000; Den Dikken 1998). According to these analyses, split noun phrases are obtained as a result of predicate inversion across the subject of the small clause. Contrary to/but not against these views, I suggest that what raises in the same context in Basaá is rather the subject of the small clause as a consequence of feature-checking under closest c-command (Chomsky 2000, 2001), and for the purpose of labelling and asymmetrizing an originally symmetric syntactic structure on the surface (Ott 2015a and related work). The fact that the target of movement is the subject and not the predicate of the small clause follows from agreement and ellipsis factors. Given that the subject of predication is a full DP while the predicate is a reduced DP with a null head modifier, the surface word order is attributed to the fact that noun/noun phrase ellipsis is possible if the elided noun is given in the discourse and is recoverable from the morphology of the stranded modifier. This paper offers a theoretical contribution from an understudied language to our understanding of this puzzling nominal construction.

scholarly journals Typological Shift in Bilinguals’ L1: Word Order and Case Marking in Two Varieties of Child Quechua

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Kalt ◽  
Jonathan A. Geary
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
New Information ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Case Morphology ◽  
Grammatical Roles

We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, especially to focalize new information through constituent fronting. In Chuquisaca, but not Cuzco, we find that schoolchildren often omit the accusative suffix -ta from direct objects while retaining a prosodic trace of -ta. In other varieties, loss of accusative marking is associated with a shift towards Verb-Object (VO) word order, as in Spanish. However, we find that Chuquisaqueños use more canonical OV and possessor-possessed order in declarative sentences than do Cuzqueños, who employ a wide range of word orders at the sentence level and deviate from the possessor-possessed norm for Quechua noun phrases. Our finding of more rigid word order in Chuquisaca highlights the complex factors contributing to typological shift in word order and morphology: Omission of case morphology places a greater burden on word order to identify grammatical roles. Further, we find that Chuquisaqueño schoolchildren alone have begun to use huk, “one,” to mark indefiniteness, perhaps to replace determiner-like functions ascribed to -ta and to obsolescent markers such as evidentials.

Typological overview of Estonian syntax

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mati Erelt
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Concise Overview ◽  
Verb Categories

AbstractThe paper presents a concise overview of the main syntactic features of Estonian. It deals with basic clause patterns, case marking of arguments, verbs and verb categories, non-verbal predication, word order, expression of speech acts and negation, noun phrases, p-phrases, subordinate clauses, and coordination.

On the Subject of Negative Auxiliary Inversion

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Chris Collins
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
West Texas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scope Freezing

AbstractThis article presents a novel analysis ofNegative Auxiliary Inversion(NAI) constructions such asdidn't many people eat, in which a negated auxiliary appears in pre-subject position. NAI, found in varieties including Appalachian, African American, and West Texas English, has a word order identical to a yes/no question, but is pronounced and interpreted as a declarative. We propose that NAI subjects are negative DPs, and that the negation raises from the subject DP to adjoin to Fin (a functional head in the left periphery). Three properties of NAI motivate this analysis: (i) scope freezing effects, (ii) the various possible and impossible NAI subject types, and (iii) the incompatibility of NAI constructions with true Double-Negation interpretations. Implications for theories of Negative Concord, Negative Polarity Items, and the representation of negation are discussed.

scholarly journals Die Abwesenheit der Phänomenologie in der deutschen Humangeographie

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Hasse
Keyword(s):  
Sense Perception ◽  
Material Body ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Potential Gain ◽  
Spatially Extended ◽  
Critical Human Geography ◽  
Theoretical Conception ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Phenomenological View

Abstract. This article is written from the perspective of phenomenology. Its potential gain for a critical human geography is discussed in contrast to the paradigmatic frame of basic assumptions in constructivism. The example of atmospheres will illustrate another theoretical conception of space. In phenomenological view there happens not only a reality of things but also a circum-actuality is not spatially extended like a house or another material objective. Atmospheres are vital qualities (Dürckheim) we feel like a cloud in our sense perception in situations of awareness. This implies the necessity to make a difference between a material body (Körper) and a felt body (Leib). This epistemic knowledge will improve our critique of neoliberal societies, tuned by aestheticisation especially in glamour CBDs of postmodern cities. Finally there is a close link to the work of Michel Foucault, topped off in his The Hermeneutics of the Subject. References to the Critical Theory (Frankfurter Schule) are connected.

scholarly journals Possessive Construction in Russian and Indonesian Noun Phrases: Contrastive Analysis and Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Tri Yulianty Karyaningsih
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Translation Analysis ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Descriptive Method ◽  
National Corpus

This paper aims to discuss the comparison between possessive constructions in Russian and Indonesian noun phrases. Since both of the languages have different grammatical systems, their possessive constructions may also be different. The differences are discussed using a contrastive analysis approach. However, the similarities between them are also taken into consideration following one of the practical purposes of contrastive analysis, namely, to aid the translation process. The theory employed in this research is eclectic. The research method employed in this research is descriptive method with contrastive analysis model. In addition, for translation analysis, word-for-word and literal methods are used here. The data in this research are collected from the Russian National Corpus and some selected literary works in Russian and Indonesian. The result suggests that there are some structural differences and similarities between Russian and Indonesian in terms of word order, attributive categories, and grammatical categories of the elements constituting noun phrases. The results of this comparison can be referred to in the translation of possessive construction of both languages so that the closest equivalent is found following the rules of each language. 

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