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.

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.

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.

I gave it him — on the motivation of the ‘alternative double object construction’ in varieties of British English

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Gast
Keyword(s):  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Double Object ◽  
British English ◽  
Double Object Construction ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
Language Discourse ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Prepositional Object ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions

Three ditransitive constructions can be found in varieties of British English: (i) the ‘prepositional object construction’, where the recipient is encoded as a prepositional phrase (gave it to him); (ii) the ‘canonical double object construction’, where the recipient precedes the theme (gave him it); and (iii) the ‘alternative double object construction’, where the theme precedes the recipient (gave it him). The last of these constructions is typically found in (north)western varieties of British English when both objects are pronominal, and most of the relevant varieties have a ‘canonical’ ordering (REC > TH) when the theme is non-pronominal. Consequently, there seems to be an ‘inconsistency’ in the clause structure of the varieties in question. Using comparative and historical evidence, this article addresses the question of how this inconsistency can be explained. The ‘paradigmatic mismatch’ under discussion is shown to be a remnant of Old English clause structure which can also be observed in other verb second languages such as Modern German. It is argued to result from a tendency for both verb positions (finite/left and non-finite/right) to attract direct objects. This tendency is regarded as an effect of performance preferences in natural language discourse.

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.

The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Numeral Classifiers ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
The Core ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Linguistic Means

This volume offers an overview of current research on grammatical number in language. The chapters Part i of the handbook present foundational notions in the study of grammatical number covering the semantic analyses of plurality, the mass–count distinction, the relationship between number and quantity expressions and the mental representation of number and individuation. The core instance of grammatical number is marking for number distinctions in nominal expressions as in English the book/the books and the chapters in Part ii, Number in the nominal domain, explore morphological, semantic, and syntactic aspects of number marking within noun phrases. The contributions examine morphological marking of number the relationship between syntax and nominal number marking, and the interactions between numeral classifiers with semantic number and number marking. They also address cases of mismatches in form and meaning with respect to number displayed by lexical plurals and collective nouns. The final chapter reviews nominal number processing from the perspective of language pathologies. While number marking on nouns has been the focus of most research on number, number distinctions can also be found in the event domain. Part iii, Number in the event domain, presents an overview of different linguistic means of expressing plurality in the event domain, covering verbal plurality marking, pluractional modifiers of the form Noun preposition Noun, frequency adjectives and dependent indefinites. Part iv provides fifteen case studies examining different aspects of grammatical number marking in a range of typologically diverse languages.

scholarly journals Molecular Computing and Bioinformatics

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (13) ◽  
pp. 2358
Author(s):  
Xin Liang ◽  
Wen Zhu ◽  
Zhibin Lv ◽  
Quan Zou
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Smart Materials ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Molecular Computing ◽  
The Core ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Novel Algorithms ◽  
Silicon Based ◽  
Molecular Computers

Molecular computing and bioinformatics are two important interdisciplinary sciences that study molecules and computers. Molecular computing is a branch of computing that uses DNA, biochemistry, and molecular biology hardware, instead of traditional silicon-based computer technologies. Research and development in this area concerns theory, experiments, and applications of molecular computing. The core advantage of molecular computing is its potential to pack vastly more circuitry onto a microchip than silicon will ever be capable of—and to do it cheaply. Molecules are only a few nanometers in size, making it possible to manufacture chips that contain billions—even trillions—of switches and components. To develop molecular computers, computer scientists must draw on expertise in subjects not usually associated with their field, including organic chemistry, molecular biology, bioengineering, and smart materials. Bioinformatics works on the contrary; bioinformatics researchers develop novel algorithms or software tools for computing or predicting the molecular structure or function. Molecular computing and bioinformatics pay attention to the same object, and have close relationships, but work toward different orientations.

scholarly journals Referential hierarchies: A new look at some historical and typological patterns

Linguistics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Spike Gildea ◽  
Fernando Zúñiga
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Constituent Ordering ◽  
Person Marking

AbstractThis paper proposes a diachronic typology for the various patterns that have been referred to as Hierarchical Alignment or Inverse Alignment. Previous typological studies have tried to explain such patterns as grammatical reflections of a universal Referential Hierarchy, in which first person outranks second person outranks third person and humans outrank other animates outrank inanimates. However, our study shows that most of the formal properties of hierarchy-sensitive constructions are essentially predictable from their historical sources. We have identified three sources for hierarchical person marking, three for direction marking, two for obviative case marking, and one for hierarchical constituent ordering. These sources suggest that there is more than one explanation for hierarchical alignment: one is consistent with Givón’s claim that hierarchical patterns are a grammaticalization of generic topicality; another is consistent with DeLancey’s claim that hierarchies reflect the deictic distinction between present (1/2) and distant (3) participants; another is simply a new manifestation of a common asymmetrical pattern, the use of zero marking for third persons. More importantly, the evolution of hierarchical grammatical patterns does not reflect a consistent universal ranking of participants – at least in those cases where we can see (or infer) historical stages in the evolution of these properties, different historical stages appear to reflect different hierarchical rankings of participants, especially first and second person. This leads us to conclude that the diversity of hierarchical patterns is an artifact of grammatical change, and that in general, the presence of hierarchical patterns in synchronic grammars is not somehow conditioned by some more general universal hierarchy.

Uralic Languages

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Abondolo
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Relative Complement ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Phonological Reconstruction ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Person Marking

All but three of the thirty-nine Uralic languages are endangered, most of them seriously so; of the family’s ten main branches, only two have members considered safe (Finnish and Estonian of the Fennic branch, plus Hungarian). This chapter surveys a selection of phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the Uralic languages; the emphasis is on presenting aspects that are usually ignored, oversimplified, or misrepresented. Among the topics broached are vowel harmony; consonant gradation, which in the Uralic context is of four distinct kinds, three of them quite old; less-than-agglutinative (i.e. fairly fusional features of several languages); problems of phonological reconstruction; the inflection of personal pronouns; person marking on nouns and Subject, Agent, and Object marking on verbs; and kinds of relative, complement, and support clauses.

Evidence for a DP-projection in West Greenlandic Inuit

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Manlove
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Syntactic Features

AbstractEvidence for a DP-projection in West Greenlandic Inuit Abstract The goal of this paper is to argue in favor of a DP-layer in West Greenlandic Inuit noun phrases and in doing so contribute to the argument that the absence of overt D-elements is not directly indicative of the absence of a DP-layer. Inuit is a polysynthetic, ergative language with no overt articles; for this reason it has been argued that a D-head is unnecessary. Others have argued contrastively that a functional projection KP (Case) is necessary (often assuming DP). This paper differs from both camps in the sense that it considers syntactic features specific to D. I present three primary arguments in support of a D-head in West Greenlandic: (i) the D-head acts as the locus of agreement features in possessive DPs, (ii) the D-head is the locus of the syntactic/semantic feature of definiteness; and (iii) a DP-layer is needed to provide a landing site for movement in DP-internal word order variations.

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