scholarly journals Animacy, Anaphora and Language Change in Swedish

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-1-15
Author(s):  
Dominika Skrzypek
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Preceding Discourse

This paper considers the role of animacy in the overt marking of indirect anaphors, i.e., noun phrases (NP), which introduce new discourse referents, that are grounded in the preceding discourse by means of a grounding element, an anchor. The indirect anaphors are considered in a diachronic perspective with reference to the emergent definite article and the variation between the article and other marking elements, in particular possessive pronouns. The study is based on an annotated corpus of Swedish prosaic texts from 1200–1550, which is a period of time when the definite article undergoes the process of grammaticalization in this language. The material was sorted according to the different combinations of the animacy of the anchor and the anaphor.The indirect anaphors which are anchored by means of expressions referring to animate entities show more variation of expression than those expressions referring to inanimate entities at the onset of definite article grammaticalization, but as the grammaticalization progresses, all indirect anaphors are by default expressed by the definite article. This is connected with the ongoing grammaticalization of the definite article and its extended use in new contexts. Keywords animacy; indirect anaphora; language change; definite article; Swedish

scholarly journals The Processing of Spanish Article–Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092097705
Author(s):  
Monika Molnar ◽  
José Alemán Bañón ◽  
Simona Mancini ◽  
Sendy Caffarra
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Gender Agreement

We assessed monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-Basque toddlers’ sensitivity to gender agreement in correct vs. incorrect Spanish noun phrases (definite article + noun), using a spontaneous preference listening paradigm. Monolingual Spanish-learning toddlers exhibited a tendency to listen longer to the grammatically correct phrases (e.g., la casa; “the house”), as opposed to the incorrect ones (e.g., * el casa). This listening preference toward correct phrases is in line with earlier results obtained from French monolingual 18-month-olds (van Heugten & Christophe, 2015). Bilingual toddlers in the current study, however, tended to listen longer to the incorrect phrases. Basque was not a source of interference in the bilingual toddler’s input as Basque does not instantiate grammatical gender agreement. Overall, our results suggest that both monolingual and bilingual toddlers can distinguish between the correct and incorrect phrases by 18 months of age; however, monolinguals and bilinguals allocate their attention differently when processing grammatically incorrect forms.

Pronoun reversals: who, when, and why?

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Dale ◽  
Catherine Crain-Thoreson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Pronoun Use ◽  
Processing Resources ◽  
Unstructured Play

ABSTRACTSeventeen of a sample of 30 precocious talkers aged 1;8 produced at least one pronoun reversal (I/you) during unstructured play. This finding led to an examination of the role of cognitive and linguistic individual differences as well as contextual factors and processing complexity as determinants of pronoun reversal. Contrary to predictions derived from previous hypotheses, there were few differences between reversers and non-reversers, other than higher use of second person forms by reversers. Reversals were more likely to occur in certain contexts: semantically reversible predicates with two noun phrases, and in imitations (though the rate of imitation was lower overall in reversers). We propose that pronoun reversals commonly result from a failure to perform a deictic shift, which is especially likely when children's psycholinguistic processing resources are taxed. Children who did not produce any pronoun reversals tended to avoid pronoun use, especially second person forms. Overt reversal may thus reflect a risk-taking approach to language acquisition, which may be particularly characteristic of precocious children.

Ambiguity avoidance as a factor in the rise of the English dative alternation

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Zehentner
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
Cue Reliability ◽  
History Of ◽  
Potential Impact

Abstract This paper discusses the role of cognitive factors in language change; specifically, it investigates the potential impact of argument ambiguity avoidance on the emergence of one of the most well-studied syntactic alternations in English, viz. the dative alternation (We gave them cake vs We gave cake to them). Linking this development to other major changes in the history of English like the loss of case marking, I propose that morphological as well as semantic-pragmatic ambiguity between prototypical agents (subjects) and prototypical recipients (indirect objects) in ditransitive clauses plausibly gave a processing advantage to patterns with higher cue reliability such as prepositional marking, but also fixed clause-level (SVO) order. The main hypotheses are tested through a quantitative analysis of ditransitives in a corpus of Middle English, which (i) confirms that the spread of the PP-construction is impacted by argument ambiguity and (ii) demonstrates that this change reflects a complex restructuring of disambiguation strategies.

Phonological Complexity: Bernese Swiss German in Ohio and Misiones

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Robert Klosinski ◽  
Andrew D. Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Local Contact ◽  
Additional Reference ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Abstract This article investigates the notion of complexity as it applies to two phonological characteristics of Heritage Bernese Swiss German, namely /l/-vocalization and /nd/-velarization. We survey literature on the role of complexity in language change generally, as well as how it applies to heritage languages specifically. We then present findings from our study of two groups of Heritage Bernese speakers, one in the United States and one in Argentina, with additional reference to the local contact languages. Our findings suggest that the loss of /nd/-velarization in Misiones, Argentina is most likely the result of an internally-driven reduction of complexity. For both the Ohio and Misiones communities, however, /l/-vocalization has been maintained. We conclude by discussing the importance of research into language dyads beyond those in the United States as well as pursuing research on lesser-studied heritage languages.

The role of prosody in morphological change: The case of Hebrew bound numerals

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irit Meir
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The One

AbstractThe morphological system of cardinal numerals in Modern Hebrew is currently undergoing rapid changes, enabling linguists to unravel the forces shaping the change as it takes place. In the free forms, gender marking on numerals is neutralized by collapsing both masculine and feminine forms into one paradigm, the feminine paradigm. In the bound (definite) forms, an opposite direction is attested, in that at least for some numerals, the masculine forms become more prevalent. The study reported here aims to determine whether the factor determining the change is prosodic or functional in nature, by eliciting production and grammaticality judgments of noun phrases containing bound numerals from five different age groups of native speakers. The results suggest that prosody plays a role in shaping the change, as forms with penultimate stress are favored over those with ultimate stress. In addition, processes of production and processes of grammaticality judgments seem to be subject to different kinds of constraints. This state of affairs indicates that the tension between the tendencies toward simplification on the one hand and maximal distinctness on the other occurs at the morphological level as well.

Do simple syntactic heuristics to verb meaning hold up? Testing the structure mapping account over spontaneous speech to Spanish-learning children

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-582
Author(s):  
Cynthia Pamela Audisio ◽  
Maia Julieta Migdalek
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Structure Mapping ◽  
Analogical Mapping ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Mapping Mechanism ◽  
Ditransitive Verbs ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Verb Meaning

AbstractExperimental research has shown that English-learning children as young as 19 months, as well as children learning other languages (e.g., Mandarin), infer some aspects of verb meanings by mapping the nominal elements in the utterance onto participants in the event expressed by the verb. The present study assessed this structure or analogical mapping mechanism (SAMM) on naturalistic speech in the linguistic environment of 20 Spanish-learning infants from Argentina (average age 19 months). This study showed that the SAMM performs poorly – at chance level – especially when only noun phrases (NPs) included in experimental studies of the SAMM were parsed. If agreement morphology is considered, the performance is slightly above chance but still very poor. In addition, it was found that the SAMM performs better on intransitive and transitive verbs, compared to ditransitives. Agreement morphology has a beneficial effect only on transitive and ditransitive verbs. On the whole, concerns are raised about the role of the SAMM in infants’ interpretation of verb meaning in natural exchanges.

Young children use shared experience to interpret definite reference

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1146-1157 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL SCHMERSE ◽  
ELENA LIEVEN ◽  
MICHAEL TOMASELLO
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Joint Actions ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
Communicative Intention ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Referential Choice

AbstractWe investigated whether children at the ages of two and three years understand that a speaker's use of the definite article specifies a referent that is in common ground between speaker and listener. An experimenter and a child engaged in joint actions in which the experimenter chose one of three similar objects of the same category to perform an action. In subsequent interactions children were asked to get ‘the X’ or ‘a X’. When children were instructed with the definite article they chose the shared object significantly more often than when they were instructed with the indefinite article in which case children's choice was at chance. The findings show that in their third year children use shared experiences to interpret the speaker's communicative intention underlying her referential choice. The results are discussed with respect to children's representation of linguistic categories and the role of joint action for establishing common ground.

scholarly journals An experimental study of the role of social factors in language change: The case of loanword adaptations

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Lev-Ari ◽  
Sharon Peperkamp
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThere is great variation in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted or retained. Importantly, the retention of foreign sounds can lead to a sound change in the language. We propose that social factors influence the likelihood of loanword sound adaptation, and use this case to introduce a novel experimental paradigm for studying language change that captures the role of social factors. Specifically, we show that the relative prestige of the donor language in the loanword’s semantic domain influences the rate of sound adaptation. We further show that speakers adapt to the performance of their ‘community', and that this adaptation leads to the creation of a norm. The results of this study are thus the first to show an effect of social factors on loanword sound adaptation in an experimental setting. Moreover, they open up a new domain of experimentally studying language change in a manner that integrates social factors.

scholarly journals Definiteness

Linguistics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus von Heusinger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Definite Expressions

Definiteness is a semantic-pragmatic notion that is closely associated with the use of the definite article (or determiner) in languages like English, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Lakhota. The definite article can be used in different conditions: deictic, anaphoric, unique, and certain indirect uses, often also called “bridging uses.” Accordingly, there are different semantic theories of definiteness, such as the salience theory, the familiarity or identifiability theory, and the uniqueness or inclusiveness theory. Definite expressions cover personal pronouns, proper names, demonstratives, definite noun phrases, and universally quantified expressions. Noun phrases with the definite article, known as “definite descriptions,” are a key issue in semantics and analytic philosophy with respect to the interaction of reference and description in identifying an object. The research and analysis of definiteness is of great importance not only for the linguistic structure of languages but also for our understanding of reference and referring in philosophy, cognitive science, computational linguistics, and communication science.

scholarly journals The Logic and Normative Force of Dual-Character Generics: Towards a Theoretical Model for the Study of Normatively Shifted Predications

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Kowalewska-Buraczewska
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Normative Force ◽  
Social Kinds ◽  
Dual Character ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between generic statements and the expression, transmission and persistence of social norms. The author presents the concept of normativity and its importance in the decision-making process in the context of social reality and social norms that comprise it (Bicchieri, 2006, 2016; Bicchieri et al., 2018). The paper analyses the idea of “what is normal” (Haslanger, 2014) to show how social norms are triggered by particular generic constructions relating to “social kinds”, represented by noun phrases denoting “dual character concepts” (Knobe et al., 2013; Prasada et al., 2013; Leslie, 2015). DCCs are shown as effectively serving their persuasive and explanatory function due to their polysemous nature (Leslie, 2015) rather than to different pragmatics (Leslie, forthcoming). Special focus is placed on gender terms as particularly salient social kinds; this salience can be explained by a culturally pivotal role of social constructs of manhood and womanhood and by linguistic potential of generics in the development of social beliefs and legitimizing norm-driven behaviours.

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