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.

Conditions on prominent internal possessors in Turkish

2019 ◽  
pp. 163-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asli Göksel ◽  
Balkiz Öztürk
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Adverbial Clause ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Psych Verb

This chapter investigates the syntactic properties of the prominent possessor constructions in Turkish. Possessors of possessive phrases become prominent only in a set of well-defined constructions, namely, from within an adverbial clause, typically containing a body part idiom. These idioms have the structure NP-POSS V, where N is a noun of inalienable possession, V is an unaccusative verb, and the idiom itself is paraphraseable as a psych-verb. The chapter analyses the syntactic structure of these idioms and proposes that the subject position in the adverbial clause is occupied by PRO. PRO is in the c-command domain of the matrix subject and is the locus of the experiencer of the unaccusative verb. The possessor is coindexed with this experiencer via its morphosyntactic features.

Subject-verb agreement in Newfoundland French

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth King
Keyword(s):  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
The Third ◽  
Grammatical Variation ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
The Third Person

ABSTRACTIn Newfoundland French the verb does not agree in number with a plural subject in one particular construction–subject relative clauses–but rather displays default singular marking. Agreement is made with the subject relative pronoun, which does not have a morphological feature for number associated with it. This absence of a number feature results in a form consistently spelled out as homophonous with the third-person singular. Gender agreement transmitted in subject relatives containing a predicate adjective is evidence that number marking is at issue, not agreement in general. An exception to this pattern is the (variable) marking of plural agreement in the il y en a construction, explained in terms that are independent from the analysis of the default singular. Newfoundland French agreement is then compared with data from other French varieties, and the approach taken in this study is compared with those of other studies of grammatical variation.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Prosody and Processing: Comprehension and Production of Topic-Comment and Subject-Predicate Structures in Brazilian Portuguese / Prosódia e processamento: compreensão e produção de estruturas de tópico e de sujeito no português brasileiro

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1601
Author(s):  
Andressa Christine Oliveira da Silva ◽  
Aline Alves Fonseca
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Reading Technique ◽  
The Subject

Abstract: This paper explores the influence of prosody in the processes of comprehension and production of sentences in Brazilian Portuguese with topic-comment syntactic structure and sentences with subject-predicate syntactic structure, in active or passive voice. Three experimental activities were carried out, one production task and two comprehension tasks. Experiment 1 consisted of a perception task with the ABX technique, and it aimed to test if hearers recognize prosodic differences between topicalized Determinant Phrases (DPs) and DPs in subject position. Experiment 2 consisted of a sentence elicitation task with Cross-modal naming technique and it aimed to investigate whether Portuguese native speakers produce a subject-predicate structure or a topic-comment structure in contexts that favor the occurrence of these syntactic structures in speech. Experiment 3 consisted of a comprehension task with Self-paced listening and reading technique and it aimed to investigate whether prosodic characteristics of a DP, in topic or subject position, can guide hearers during the processing in order to distinguish between these two syntactic categories. From the comprehension/perception perspective, the results of the experiments 1 and 3 indicated that speakers recognize the prosodic differences between the topicalized DPs and the subject DPs, and use such characteristics during linguistic processing. From the production perspective, the results of experiment 2 revealed that speakers are able to produce sentences consistent with topic-comment and subject-predicate syntactic structures when the context favors the occurrence of one of them. Nevertheless, the results also reveal a preference for the subject-predicate structure over the topic-comment structure in BP.Keywords: prosody-syntax; topic-comment; subject-predicate.Resumo: Este trabalho investiga a influência da prosódia nos processos de compreensão e produção de sentenças com elementos topicalizados, do tipo tópico-comentário, e sentenças com a estrutura de sujeito-predicado, na voz ativa ou passiva, do Português Brasileiro. Aplicaram-se três atividades experimentais, uma tarefa de produção e duas de compreensão. O Experimento 1 consistiu em um teste de percepção com a técnica ABX, cujo objetivo foi testar se ouvintes reconhecem as diferenças prosódicas entre Determinant Phrases (DPs) topicalizados e DPs em posição de sujeito não topicalizado. O Experimento 2 consistiu em um teste de elicitação de frases com imagens do tipo Cross-modal naming, cujo objetivo foi investigar se em contextos que favorecem a ocorrência de estruturas de sujeito ou de estruturas topicalizadas, os falantes produzem frases consistentes com tais estruturas sintáticas. O Experimento 3 consistiu em uma tarefa de compreensão, com a técnica Self-paced listening and reading, cujo objetivo foi investigar se as características prosódicas de um DP, em posição de tópico ou de sujeito, conseguem guiar o processamento linguístico dos ouvintes na distinção entre essas duas categorias sintáticas. Na compreensão/percepção, os resultados dos experimentos indicaram que os falantes reconhecem as diferenças prosódicas entre os DPs topicalizados e os DPs em posição de sujeito, e utilizam tais características durante o processamento linguístico. Na produção, os resultados revelaram que os falantes produzem frases consistentes com estruturas sintáticas de tópico e de sujeito quando o contexto favorece o aparecimento delas, entretanto, apontam para uma preferência da estrutura de sujeito como default no PB.Palavras-chave: prosódia-sintaxe; tópico-comentário; sujeito-predicado.

These

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-208
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
The Third ◽  
Syntactic Approach ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Properties

In this work, we study the transformational relations between adjectival and verbal constructions in a syntactic approach. This study is composed of three parts. First, we describe the characteristics of this type of adjectives and we deal with different problems such as the collection of these adjectives, the description of their syntactic properties, etc. The second part includes the chapters 3 and 4, in which we describe the similarities and the differences between the two constructions. Syntactic and transformational regularities appear but they are not systematic, thus the construction of the lexicon-grammar of these adjectives is necessary. In the third part, which contains chapters 5 and 6, we describe adjectival constructions that have an appropriate noun in subject position. First, we classify these nouns according to semantic criteria, then we investigate the properties of the constructions obtained with different transformations, i.e., a nominal sentence containing a support verb, a sentence in which the subject is restructurated and a metonymical sentence.

On Existential Bare Plural ‘Subjects’

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 29-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalina Kallulli
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Bare Plural ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Plural Subjects ◽  
Central Claim

Drawing on Strawson’s (1971) definition of the subject as performing the function of identifying the object of the speaker’s assertion and of the predicate as applying to this object without having to identify it, this article argues that being a predicate and being (part of) the focus are two ways of talking about one and the same thing, namely assertion, and not identification or presupposition. Assuming that syntax and semantics are isomorphic, the most far-reaching consequence of this view and the central claim that I make is that there are no existential bare plural subjects. What is generally and a priori taken to be an existential bare plural subject is a (wh-moved) predicate nominal. The genuine external argument in sentences with existential bare plurals in what appears to be the subject position is in fact the Davidsonian event argument. Consequently, the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) should be defined as a requirement on predication. The syntax-semantics isomorphism is emphasized as part of an attempt to show that syntactically, generic and existential bare plurals differ with respect to the D-feature: while generic bare plurals are DPs with a morphologically null D, existential bare plurals, like bare singulars, are NPs altogether lacking a D-projection.

scholarly journals Frá skiptisögn til ósamhverfrar aukafallssagnar: Um 'líka' í fornu máli

Orð og tunga ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 39-68
Author(s):  
Einar Freyr Sigurðsson ◽  
Heimir van der Feest Viðarsson
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Old Icelandic ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Dative Case ◽  
The Subject

In Modern Icelandic the verb líka ‘like’ occurs with a subject in the dative case and an object in the nominative case. It has been argued that this was also the case in Old Icelandic. In this paper we argue that in contrast to Modern Icelandic, the nominative argument of líka could also constitute the subject during the Old Icelandic period and the dative argument the object. More specifically, we maintain that the verb líka was an alternating (or symmetric) verb where the nominative and the dative argument could raise to the subject position, whereas in Modern Icelandic only the dative is able to raise to the subject position. In other words, we argue that a change in the argument structure of the verb has taken place such that líka has changed from being an alternating (symmetric) verb to an asymmetric oblique subject verb. The main argument that is used to substantiate this claim comes from control infinitives in Old Icelandic, taking on the form in (i): (i) girntiz meirr at líka einum guði en mönnum desired.mid more to PRO.nom like.inf alone.dat god.dat than men.dat ‘(He) desired more to please God alone than men.’ (Æv 150.15) Based on a generative analysis of syntactic structure, we present evidence that reveals that the dative argument functions syntactically as the object, in addition to discussing other potential evidence based on word order. When the nominative argument is the subject, the meaning of 'líka' is sometimes closer to that of English 'please' than 'like'. We also discuss how this might be accounted for.

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.

Commands in Wolaitta

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azeb Amha
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Type ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Leave Taking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Syntactic Properties

This chapter examines expressions of commands (imperatives) in Wolaitta and the ways in which the imperative is distinguished from statements and questions. Although each sentence type is formally distinct, imperatives and questions share a number of morpho-syntactic properties. Similar to declarative and interrogative sentences, imperatives in Wolaitta involve verbal grammatical categories such as the distinction of person, number, and gender of the subject as well as negative and positive polarity. In contrast to previous studies, the present contribution establishes the function of a set of morphemes based on -árk and -érk to be the expression of plea or appeal to an addressee rather than politeness when issuing a command. Instead, politeness in commands is expressed by using plural (pro)nominal and verbal elements. The imperative in Wolaitta is a robust construction which is also used in formulaic speeches such as leave-taking as well as in blessing, curses, and advice.

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