scholarly journals The concepts of «reality» and «statement» in the analysis of modal alternation in Spanish relative subordinate clauses

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (25) ◽  
pp. 129-134
Author(s):  
Alexandra I. Makarova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Subordinate Clauses

The article analyzes theoretical works that raise the problem of analyzing the use of the subjunctive mood in subordinate relatives in Spanish based on the concept of «reality». This topic is relevant and widely discussed among Spanish researchers. Earlier, the author has already attempted to study a different concept – the concept of «statement». This concept, based on the hidden semantics of the whole sentence, is applicable to the analysis of subordinate object sentences. The aim of the study is to determine the features of the subjunctive mood use in subordinate relative sentences in the Spanish language, based on the semantic features of the concepts of «statement» and «reality». This article attempts to implement the concept of «statement» in the analysis of subordinate relative clauses. The author concludes that this concept is not always applicable to the analysis of this type of subordinate clauses. However, we cannot completely exclude it from the analysis. The concept of «reality», which is in its own way a consequence of the concept of «statement», helps to explain the modal alternation in subordinate relative clauses. The subjunctive mood indicates the abstractness of the antecedent or the speaker's doubts about the existence of the antecedent in reality. The indicative mood, on the contrary, indicates the reality of the object or the speaker's belief in its existence. The materials of this study raise questions related to the application of concepts within other types of subordinate clauses and in other closely related languages (French).

scholarly journals Grammatical status of the subordinate (adverbial) clause of place - from another view

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Milivoj Alanovic
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clause

In this article, based on the structural and semantic features of the relative clauses and subordinate clauses of place, the author analyzes the criteria that underlie the differentiation of these two types of clauses and which allow certain types of clauses to be qualified as adjuncts or complements. The main conclusion of the present study is that the subordinate clauses of place have the most important structural and semantic characteristics that are typical for the relative (determinative) subordinate clauses, and that even the absence of an antecedent does not affect their grammatical position in the sentence.

scholarly journals Attributive function of the instrumental case with the semantics of the method of action in the dialects of the Carpathian region

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mode Of Action ◽  
Peripheral Zone ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Carpathian Region ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Instrumental Case ◽  
External Characteristics

The article clarifies the structural and semantic features of the attributive in the form of the instrumental case with the semantics of the mode of action in the dialects of Transcarpathia. The functional essence of the attributive is considered, which are called the signs of individual actions, situations of objective reality. Highlighted the functional essence of the attributive instrumental case in the position of the adverb. The purpose of this article is to highlight the formal-syntactic features and semantic manifestations of the peripheral zone of attributiveness, namely, the attributes with the semantics of the mode of action in the form of the instrumental case. The instrumental attributes in the studied dialects characterize various actions, situations and retain semantic and morphological connections with words, phrases, and sentences. They can be synonymous with nouns in other indirect cases or with verb constructions in the form of subordinate clauses. Their ability to convey variable, temporal and situational signs is associated with a specific subject correlation with the attributives in the form of the instrumental case. Achievement of this goal presupposes the solution of the following specific tasks: 1) to establish the initial semantically elementary sentence that underlies the attributives with the semantics of the mode of action, the lexical meanings of the supporting and dependent components; 2) find out the functional and semantic meaning of the attributive syntaxem. Within the framework of the attributive components in the form of the instrumental case, having the semantics of the mode of action, one can distinguish groups: the names of the methods of production processes, the names of the external characteristics of movement in space, the names of the generalized characteristics of the action, characteristics as a result of an action, the external characteristics of a person or animal; the names of the external characteristics of plants; the names of a qualitative characteristic of an individual action.

Subordinate clauses

2019 ◽  
pp. 237-288
Author(s):  
Jan Terje Faarlund
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Infinitival Clauses ◽  
Finite Verb ◽  
Nominal Clauses

In subordinate clauses, the C position is occupied by a complementizer word, which may be null. The finite verb stays in V. SpecCP is either empty or occupied by a wh-word, or by some other element indicating its semantic function. Nominal clauses are finite or non-finite. Finite nominal clauses are declarative or interrogative. Declarative nominal clauses may under specific circumstances have main clause word order (‘embedded V2’). Infinitival clauses are marked by an infinitive marker, which is either in C (Swedish), or immediately above V (Danish). Norwegian has both options. Relative clauses comprise several different types; clauses with a relativized nominal argument are mostly introduced by a complementizer; adverbial relative clauses relativize a locative or temporal phrase, with or without a complementizer; comparative clauses relativize a degree or identity. Under hard-to-define circumstances depending on language and region, subordinate clauses allow extraction of phrases up into the matrix clause.

Syntactic Complexity in Spanish Narratives

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera F. Gutierrez-Clellen ◽  
Richard Hofstetter
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
School Age ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Structural Constituent ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Nominal Clauses

Syntactic complexity in the movie retellings of 77 school-age Spanish-speaking children was examined using a structural constituent analysis. The results demonstrated developmental differences in the length of T-units, index of subordination, use of relative clauses, and prepositional phrases. There were also differences in the length of T-units, use of nominal clauses, and adverbial phrases across Spanish language groups. The analysis underscores the significance of subordination as a cohesive device and as an indicator of narrative proficiency.

Subordinate and interrogative clause negation in Iquito

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Negative Particle ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Peruvian Amazonia

Abstract This paper describes a specific non-standard negation strategy in Iquito, a moribund Zaparoan language spoken in northern Peruvian Amazonia. This strategy is used in finite subordinate clauses (namely adverbial dependent clauses and relative clauses), as well as information questions, and it utilizes two negative markers: a negative particle which is also found in standard negation, and a verbal affix which does not function as a negator in any other context. Using existing typological characterizations of subordinate clause negation, we see that Iquito exhibits the following attested traits: it uses the standard negator in a different position, it also utilizes a distinct negator, and it employs more negators in the subordinate clause than in the main clause. But unlike the languages presented in the literature, Iquito utilizes these parameters simultaneously. Additionally, the position of the standard negator changes within the subordinate clause, depending on the reality status of the clause. Using Iquito as a case study, I propose a set of parameters for comparing subordinate clause and interrogative negation strategies to standard negation strategies, which include the type of negator used, its position, the overall number of negators, the potential for interaction with other grammatical categories, such as reality status, and the resulting word order of the clause. This set of parameters expands the initial typological characterizations of subordinate clause negation strategies.

scholarly journals The Interpretation of Null Subjects in a Radical Pro-drop Language: Topic Chains and Discourse-semantic Requirements in Chinese

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Mara Frascarelli ◽  
Marco Casentini
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Online Experiment ◽  
Significant Preference ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Adverbial Clauses

Abstract Based on original data collected through an online experiment, evidence is provided in this paper that the interpretation of null subjects in a radical pro-drop language like Chinese relies on the topic criterion proposed for consistent and partial pro-drop languages (Frascarelli 2007 and Frascarelli 2018), thereby supporting the theory that the null subject parameter implies an information-structural strategy for interpretation. Nevertheless, radical Chinese shows specificities that must be integrated in this theory for a comprehensive account. In particular, even though silent topic can start chains (consistent with the topic criterion), data show a significant preference for overt and local topics as antecedents. This locality requirement thus integrates phonological visibility in a general syntactic condition (minimal overt link condition), proposing an interesting parallel with the properties shown by partial pro-drop languages (Frascarelli and Jimenez-Fernandez in press). The present investigation also contributes to outline the structural differences existing between adverbial clauses in Chinese, supporting a distinction between central and peripheral adverbial clauses (Haegeman 2012). Specifically, while temporal and conditional clauses show the properties of nonrestrictive relative clauses, this is not the case for concessive clauses, which merged as subordinate clauses in either the C-domain or the high split-TP area. Differences between temporal and conditional clauses are attributed to the presence of an overt operator in the latter, and the pre-matrix position of adverbial clauses is explained in the light of their discourse role as frame-setters (Krifka 2007).

scholarly journals Subjektsegenskaper i förändring: Indefinita subjekt i fornsvenskt lagspråk

2019 ◽  
Vol NF 28 (2018) ◽  
pp. 112-141
Author(s):  
Minna Sandelin
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Old Swedish ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
The Law

In Old Swedish, the placement of the subject was tied to its function in the information structure of the clause: rhematic subjects, which are semantically indefinite and introduce a new referent to the text, were most often postverbal. The study analyses such subjects in Old Swedish legal language in relation to the order of constituents in the clause, the position of the clause in the text, and the structure of the subject. Three questions are posed: 1. What order of constituents is found in clauses with semantically indefinite subjects? 2. Do these clauses appear in initial, medial, or final position in paragraphs and subparagraphs? 3. What structure does a semantically indefinite subject have? The corpus consists of all main clauses (n=210) and subordinate clauses (n=28) with indefinite subjects in three sections of the Law of Uppland. An indefinite subject seldom (5.2%) appears in the preverbal position in main clauses, while this is common in subordinate clauses (71.4%). In over 93% of main clauses, the subject appears postverbally as the second or third constituent, but placement as the fourth constituent is rare. The main clauses are often verb-initial conditional clauses in which the preverbal position is not a possibility. The clauses tend to appear in initial or medial position in the text, in the introduction to a paragraph or a subparagraph. The subjects are mainly short, bare nouns, but they can also be combined with numerals, pronouns, or relative clauses.

The use of default forms in codeswitching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana de Prada Pérez ◽  
Nicholas Feroce ◽  
Lillian Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses ◽  
Mood Selection ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract This paper examines the effects that codeswitching (CS) has on mood selection in restrictive relative clauses in the Spanish of heritage speakers (HSs). Spanish HS participants completed an online acceptability judgment task in which they rated monolingual (i.e., unilingual) and codeswitched sentences containing verbs in indicative and subjunctive mood in restrictive relative clauses manipulated for specificity of the antecedent. The results indicated an association of the subjunctive with non-specificity in monolingual sentences that was lost in the codeswitched sentences, although this effect was modulated by proficiency. These results are discussed in terms of the use of default forms in CS.

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