Motion Verbs in Old Saxon with the Oblique Subject Construction: A Semantic Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonya Kim Dewey ◽  
Carlee Arnett
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Old Saxon ◽  
Interesting Fact ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Dative Subject ◽  
Verbs Of Motion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Finite Verb

AbstractAn interesting fact about Old Saxon is that certain verbs of motion can occur with a dative pronoun which shows certain properties often considered to be indicative of subject status, making these verbs part of the dative subject construction. The dative marked argument is always animate and usually human. Punctuality and telicity are also often overtly marked in the clause. The dative occurs with verbs of motion in Old Saxon when the participant is salient in the discourse. In some instances, a nominative subject earlier in the discourse can trigger verb agreement, but very often a nominative simply is not present. Additionally, the dative pronoun is in subject position next to the finite verb. Thus the dative with verbs of motion exhibits the subject properties of linear subject position, topicality, animacy, definiteness and discourse salience. Semantic subject properties include volitionality, initiation of action, telicity and punctuality. Our analysis concludes that the dative argument with verbs of motion is related, but not identical, to other non-nominative subjects attested in Old Saxon.

Reflexivized motion verbs in Old Saxon: Semantics, syntax and semiotics

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-148
Author(s):  
Laura Dale Clopton
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Old Saxon ◽  
Verbs Of Motion ◽  
Reflexive Verbs ◽  
Peircean Semiotics

ABSTRACTThis paper examines four dative reflexive verbs of motion in Old Saxon:faran, gangan, kuman and giuuitan. The linguistic universals of GB syntax and the universal phenomenological categories of Peircean semiotics provide the theoretical framework for this paper. Various syntactic and semantic aspects of the dative reflexive verbs are targeted in the analysis: binding of the reflexive, word order patterns and subject types. The article suggests that a link exists between subject types, V1 syntactic configurations and the appearance of the dative reflexive — only human, animate subjects can license a dative reflexive and the reflexivized verbs exhibit a strong tendency to appear in the narratively visible V1 structure.

The finite clause

2019 ◽  
pp. 155-208
Author(s):  
Jan Terje Faarlund
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
T Domain ◽  
Subject Role ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Finite Verb

The topic of this chapter is the T-domain. The specifier of TP is the subject position. The finite verb never appears in T on the surface. In subordinate clauses it remains in V; in main clauses it moves on to C. There is an obligatory subject requirement for all finite, non-imperative clauses. In cases where no argument raises to SpecTP, a non-referential element is used to fill the subject role. There are two kinds of passives, a periphrastic one with an auxiliary and the perfect participle, or one derived from the reflexive form of the verb. The passive subject may be any nominal complement, including the complement of some prepositions, stranding the preposition. Sentence adverbials are left-adjoined to VP. By object shift an unstressed pronoun is shifted across the sentence adverbial if no other material intervenes. Negated objects cannot occur in VP, and have to be replaced by the negation above VP.

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.

Variation between singular and plural subject-verb agreement in German: A usage-based approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Goschler
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Plural Subject

AbstractAt first glance, subject-verb-agreement seems to be straightforward in German: In the case of simplex NPs, the subject always agrees with the verb syntactically in person and number. However, with coordinated NPs in subject position, there is considerable variation in usage. If both conjuncts are singular NPs, the verb may display singular agreement - as would be expected, since coordinated structures inherit their syntactic properties from their individual components - but much more frequently, the verb displays plural agreement. On the basis of the LIMAS-corpus, a one-million-word corpus of written German, I will show that there is systematic variation between the two options. Among the determining factors are the position of the verb (preceding or following the subject), the type of NP (pronoun, proper name, lexical NP) and the internal syntactic structure of the subject (coordination of full NPs vs. coordination of partial NPs sharing a determiner, and definiteness vs. indefiniteness of the coordinated parts of the subject). I will discuss the results from the perspective of usage-based approaches and argue for an integration of semantic, pragmatic, and frequency factors in any theoretical approach to grammar.

A Semantic Analysis of Experiential Construction in Hokkien

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Sherly Novita ◽  
Mulyadi .
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dative Subject ◽  
Human Participant ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Bodily Sensations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Collection Methods

In this article the author discusses the analysis of the experience of construction and the subject of experiencer (dative) in Hokkien. In Semantic studies, experiential construction is a process or method used to form meaning that has experiencer as a human participant who accidentally experiences a mental or physical state. The concept of experience explains 5 subdomains of experiential verbs, namely bodily sensations (thirst, hunger, pain, itching), emotions (anger, pleasure, fear), desire (want), cognition (thinking, knowing, remembering), and perception (see, feel, hearing), as well as forms of experiential adjectives, namely curious, clever, forgetful, and confused. Each language has terms that are bad, good, and neutral emotions and can be described through symptoms outside the body, such as red and pale. This research is a qualitative descriptive study and was compiled using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory. The author analyzes the data in this article by using data collection methods from respondents with referring, engaging, and proficient techniques. The research data is taken from written and verbal sources. The experiential construction in Hokkien may use both transitive and intransitive experiential verbs in experiential assignment as object and or subject datives. In Hokkien, subject experiencer is taking the position of direct subject, while the object experiencer is taking the position as dative subject.

scholarly journals Pronoun omission and agreement: An analysis based on ICE Singapore and ICE India

ICAME Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
Iván Tamaredo ◽  
Teresa Fanego
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Inhibiting Effect ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Agreement Morphology

AbstractThis article deals with pronoun omission in subject position and its connection with subject-verb agreement in Indian English and Singapore English. Agreement morphology has been found to be a predictor and facilitator of pronoun omission cross-linguistically in that it aids in the identification and retrieval of the referents of omitted pronouns. The results of a corpus study partly confirm this trend, since they show that agreement morphology does have a weak facilitating effect in both varieties examined; that is, pronoun omission increases when the subject and the verb agree in person and number. However, this is only true for lexical verbs; non-modal auxiliaries (i.e., be, have, do), on the contrary, show a low percentage of omitted pronouns and no facilitating effect of agreement morphology. To account for this finding, the possible inhibiting effect on pronoun omission of the frequency of co-occurrence of pronouns and non-modal auxiliaries was also explored.

scholarly journals The Illness Experience: Palliative Care Given the impossibility of Healing

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (spe) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Maria Florêncio Dantas ◽  
Maria Cristina Lopes de Almeida Amazonas
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Experience Of Illness ◽  
Therapeutic Possibilities

This paper presents a reflection about being terminally ill and the various ways that the subject has at its disposal to deal with this event. The objective is to understand the experience of palliation for patients undergoing no therapeutic possibilities of cure. The methodology of this study has the instruments to semi-structured interview, the participant observation and the field diary, and the Descriptive Analysis of Foucault’s inspiration how the narratives of the subjects were perceived. The Results of paper there was the possibility of looking at the experience of illness through the eyes of a subject position assumed by the very sick. As conclusion we have than when choosing palliative care, the terminally ill opts for a way to feel more comfortable and resists the impositions of the medical model of prolonging life.

Event spaces and the shaping of economic subjectivity: Inside the Social Enterprise World Forum

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 347-355
Author(s):  
Tom Baker ◽  
Ryan Jones ◽  
Michael Mann ◽  
Nick Lewis
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Global Conference

Drawing on observations at the 2017 Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) – a global conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand – this paper examines the significance of localised event spaces in shaping economic subjects and, by extension, economic sectors. Conferences such as the SEWF are sites and moments that provide access to new knowledge, foster collective action and shape the subjectivities of economic actors. We describe how the SEWF cultivated sympathetic affective responses towards social enterprise and the subject position of the social entrepreneur, and demonstrate how the local specificities of Christchurch, as a place, were key to the cultivation of social-entrepreneurial subjectivity at the SEWF.

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 Conceptual effects on agreement: A corpus study of mismatch in English copular constructions

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Cecily Jill Duffield
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Verb Number ◽  
Conceptual Relationship

Research on the production of subject-verb agreement has focused on the features of the subject rather than the larger construction in which subject-verb agreement is produced or how the conceptual relationship between subjects and predicates may interact in affecting subject-verb agreement patterns. This corpus study describes subject-verb number agreement mismatch in English copular constructions which take the frame of (SEMANTICALLY LIGHT) N + [REL] + COP + (SPECIFIC) PRED NOM, where the copula reflects the grammatical number of the predicate. Results suggest that speakers make use of conceptual information from the entire construction, and not just the subject, when formulating agreement morphology.

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