Mota, Maria Antónia/Vieira, Sílvia Rodrigues (eds.) (2013): Patterns of Verbal and Nominal Agreement in Portuguese Varieties

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Celeste Augusto
Keyword(s):  
Nominal Agreement

Determiners

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phoevos Panagiotidis
Keyword(s):  
Research Work ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Generalized Quantifier ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Generalized Quantifier Theory ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
Categorial Status ◽  
Semantic Point ◽  
And Function ◽  
Quantifier Theory

Determiners are a nominal syntactic category distinct from both adjectives and nouns; they constitute a functional (aka closed or ‘minor’) category and they are typically located high inside the nominal phrasal structure. From a syntactic point of view, the category of determiners is commonly understood to comprise the word classes of article, demonstrative, and quantifier, as well as non-adjectival possessives and some nominal agreement markers. From a semantic point of view, determiners are assumed to function as quantifiers, especially within research informed by Generalized Quantifier Theory. However, this is a one-way entailment: although determiners in natural language are quantificational, their class contains only a subset of the logically possible quantifiers; this class is restricted by conservativity and other factors. The tension between the ‘syntactic’ and the ‘semantic’ perspective on determiners results to a degree of terminological confusion: it is not always clear which lexical items the Determiner category includes or what the function of determiners is; moreover, there exists a tendency among syntacticians to view ‘Determiner’ as naming not a class, but a fixed position within a nominal phrasal template. The study of determiners rose to prominence within grammatical theory during the ’80s both due to advances in semantic theorizing, primarily Generalized Quantifier Theory, and due to the generalization of the X' phrasal schema to functional (minor) categories. Some issues in the nature and function of determiners that have been addressed in theoretical and typological work with considerable success include the categorial status of determiners, their (non-)universality, their structural position and feature makeup, their role in argumenthood and their interaction with nominal predicates, and their relation to pronouns. Expectedly, issues in (in)definiteness, quantification, and specificity also figure prominently in research work on determiners.

Gender agreement in L3 English by Basque/Spanish bilinguals

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ainara Imaz Agirre ◽  
María del Pilar García Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Head Noun ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Attraction Effects ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Spanish Bilinguals

This study investigates knowledge of the nominal agreement domain in L3 English by Basque/Spanish bilinguals. Gender agreement has been claimed to be an interpretable feature in English and could be claimed to be so for Basque, whereas Spanish shows uninterpretable gender agreement. Under current representational and computational accounts posited to explain variability in L2 learner production, interpretable features are acquirable. The participants in the present study (n=34) were Basque/Spanish bilinguals of two proficiency levels in English (intermediate and advanced) and a control group of English native speakers (n=17). They completed two oral production tasks (elicitation and picture narration tasks). Results from both tasks indicate that Basque/Spanish bilinguals seem to have acquired gender agreement in L3 English but still have production problems which could be explained on the basis of linguistic features (animacy) and gender attraction effects of the Spanish head noun as well as the different proficiency levels.

Nump and Possp in Dialectal Brazilian Portuguese

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 72-98
Author(s):  
Bruna Karla Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Minas Gerais ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Plural Marking ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
The One

In standard Brazilian Portuguese (BP), as well as in other Romance languages, possessives have uninterpretable number features, which are valued via nominal agreement. However, dialects of BP, especially the one spoken in Minas Gerais, have shown that 2nd person possessives, in postnominal position, do not have number agreement with the noun. In order to account for these facts, I will argue that, in this grammar, number features on 2nd person possessives are reanalyzed as being: (i) associated with the person (rather than the noun) and (ii) valued. From the frst postulation, ‘seu' is expected to be the possessive for 2nd person singular, and ‘seus' for 2nd person plural. From the second postulation, no number concord is expected to be triggered on the possessive. In addition, based on Danon (2011) and Norris (2014), I will argue that cardinals divide BP DPs into two domains in that phrases located above NumP are marked with the plural morpheme, while phrases below it are unmarked. In this sense, because prenominal possessives precede cardinals (NumP), they must be marked with the plural morpheme for nominal agreement; whereas postnominal possessives, which follow NumP, must be unmarked. Free from the plural marking associated with nominal agreement, postnominal 2nd person possessives favor the reanalysis of the morpheme ‘-s' as indicating the number associated with person features.

A participle account of Blackfoot relative clauses

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-238
Author(s):  
Sara Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Morphological Composition ◽  
Adjectival Modification ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Nominal Agreement

AbstractBlackfoot verbs are marked with nominal agreement morphology in relative clauses, in place of verbal inflection. These relative clauses have previously been analyzed as nominalizations. The present study shows that a nominalization analysis makes incorrect predictions about the morphological composition of relative clauses, as well as the availability of non-agentive and possessive constructions, and adjectival modification. This study demonstrates that relative clauses can relativize subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects. Based on observations about obviation, recursion, long-distance extraction, inflection, and word order, I propose that relative clauses are participles: clausal entities with a nominal superstructure. This accounts for their mixed clausal and nominal properties, and provides an analysis of Blackfoot relative clauses similar to those proposed for related Algonquian languages.

scholarly journals Microvariation in Verbal and Nominal Agreement: An Analysis of Two Lombard Alpine Dialects

Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Pescarini
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
The Third Person

Abstract In Bregagliotto and Mesolcinese, two Lombard Alpine dialects, feminine plural agreement/concord is marked by the formative -n, a reflex of the third person plural verbal ending. In Bregagliotto, plural -n triggers mesoclisis of the feminine subject clitic in contexts of inversion, whereas in the noun phrase -n behaves as a second-position element marking plural feminine concord. Mesolcinese exhibits verbal gender agreement as the formative -n occurs on the inflected verb whenever a feminine plural subject or the feminine plural object clitic occurs; in feminine plural DPs, -n is attached to any element except the definite article. I argue that the Bregagliotto system emerged when -n was reanalysed as an adjunct pluraliser, whereas in Mesolcinese -n has been turned into a marker of morphophonological concord/agreement.

scholarly journals Microvariation in Verbal and Nominal Agreement: An Analysis of Two Lombard Alpine Dialects

Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-248
Author(s):  
Diego Pescarini
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
The Third Person

Abstract In Bregagliotto and Mesolcinese, two Lombard Alpine dialects, feminine plural agreement/concord is marked by the formative -n, a reflex of the third person plural verbal ending. In Bregagliotto, plural -n triggers mesoclisis of the feminine subject clitic in contexts of inversion, whereas in the noun phrase -n behaves as a second-position element marking plural feminine concord. Mesolcinese exhibits verbal gender agreement as the formative -n occurs on the inflected verb whenever a feminine plural subject or the feminine plural object clitic occurs; in feminine plural DPs, -n is attached to any element except the definite article. I argue that the Bregagliotto system emerged when -n was reanalysed as an adjunct pluraliser, whereas in Mesolcinese -n has been turned into a marker of morphophonological concord/agreement.

scholarly journals Nominal agreement in the interlanguage of Dutch L2 learners of Spanish

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paz Gonzalez ◽  
Damaris Mayans ◽  
Huub van den Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Language Research ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Inflectional morphology causes persistent difficulties for second language (L2) learners (Montrul, Silvina & Kim Potowski. 2007. Command of gender agreement in school-age Spanish-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism 11(3). 301–328; Montrul, Silvina, Israel de la Fuente, Justin Davidson & Rebecca Foote. 2013. The role of experience in the acquisition and production of diminutives and gender in Spanish: Evidence from L2 learners and heritage speakers. Second Language Research 29(1). 87–118). Learners operate with a default gender value, and overgeneralize the masculine forms of determiners and modifiers (White, Lydia, Elena Valenzuela, Martyna Kozlowska-Macgregor & Ingrid Leung. 2004. Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 25(1). 105–133; Schlig 2003). 111 essays written were collected containing 799 correct uses and 281 errors from Dutch students whose written ability in Spanish is A2 (Common European Framework). The results show that singular masculine nominal agreement marking at the determiner is significantly better produced by Dutch L2 learners of Spanish than when the marking of nominal agreement is plural, feminine or at the adjective. This study corroborates the previous results where learners operate with a default gender value and overgeneralize the masculine forms of determiners. Also these results show that L2 learners of Spanish are significantly less accurate in gender agreement with adjectives than with determiners.

scholarly journals Nominal Agreement in L2 Speakers of Italian: Suggestions for a Teaching Plan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Jan Casalicchio
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Teaching Plan ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
Teacher's Perspective

This paper addresses the topic of adult acquisition of nominal agreement in Italian, a crucial issue in teaching Italian as Second/Foreign Language. Building on a corpus containing spontaneous and semi-spontaneous production data from two advanced L2-speakers of Italian, I show that nominal agreement can be problematic even in the last stages of the acquisition process. The discussion of the instances of missing agreement in the corpus suggests that these are not due to a missing knowledge of the agreement rules in Italian, but instead on processing and production. In particular, some contexts prove to be more difficult than others: gender agreement (i.e., agreement with feminine nouns) is more difficult than number agreement, and the presence of two or more modifiers that refer to the same noun increases the error rate. Another difficulty is offered by the cases in which an item external to the determiner phrase (DP) has to agree with the subject of the clause. All these issues are tackled from a teacher’s perspective: I highlight how the various contexts could be addressed and considered in the classroom, in order to help the learners to improve their production. Therefore, this paper argues that the best way to tackle this issue is by coupling knowledge of the formal rules of the language and of the acquisitional process with practical application in the context of second/foreign language teaching.

scholarly journals Determiners

Linguistics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Phoevos Panagiotidis
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Functional Layer ◽  
Defining Relations ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Nominal Agreement ◽  
Categorial Status ◽  
Quantifier Theory

Determiners are a nominal syntactic category distinct both from adjectives and nouns, despite the close affinity among them. They are commonly understood to comprise the word classes of article, demonstrative, and quantifier, as well as some possessives and some nominal agreement markers. Determiners became a prominent topic of study in grammatical theory during the 1980s, due both to advances in semantic theorizing, such as Generalized Quantifier Theory, and to the generalization of the X’ phrasal schema to minor (functional) categories, to which determiners are posited to belong. The main questions that have been the focus of theoretical and typological inquiry ever since are the categorial status of determiners (functional or lexical), whether they are universal as a distinct syntactic category, whether they constitute a uniform category or not, their structural position, their feature content, their role in argumenthood and semantic interpretation in general, and their relation to pronouns. Answers to these questions are in part determined by whether one takes determiners to be the nominal equivalent of complementizers (i.e., to constitute the topmost functional layer of the nominal phrase) or to be all quantifiers, defining relations between predicates. At the same time, a wealth of syntactic phenomena involving determiners have been investigated, shedding light not only on the structure of the nominal phrase and on the distribution of nominal features within it, but also on the nature of adjectives, possessives, and nouns.

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