scholarly journals Information structure and referential givenness/newness: How much belongs in the grammar?

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Gundel
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language System ◽  
New Information ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Label Information ◽  
The Way

This paper is concerned with such concepts as topic, focus and cognitive status of discourse referents, which have been included under the label information structure (alternatively information status), as they are related in some sense to the distribution of given and new information. It addresses the question of which information structural properties are best accounted for by grammatical constraints and which can be attributed to non-linguistic constraints on the way information is processed and communicated. Two logically independent senses of given-new information are distinguished, one referential and the other relational. I discuss some examples of linguistic phenomena that pertain to each of these different senses and show that both are linguistically relevant and must be represented in the grammar. I also argue that phenomena related to both senses have pragmatic effects that do not have to be represented in the grammar since they result from interaction of the language system with general pragmatic principles that constrain inferential processes involved in language production and understanding.

scholarly journals The acquisition of word order in L2 Norwegian: The case of subject and object shift

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merete Anderssen ◽  
Kristine Bentzen ◽  
Guro Busterud ◽  
Anne Dahl ◽  
Björn Lundquist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Subject And Object

This article reports on a syntactic acceptability judgement study of 59 adult L2/Ln learners of Norwegian and a group of native controls, studying subject and object shift. These constructions involve movement of (mainly) pronominal subjects or objects across negation/adverbs. Both subject shift and object shift display considerable micro-variation in terms of syntax and information structure, dependent on factors such as nominal type (pronoun vs. full DP), function (subject vs. object), and information status (given vs. new/focused). Previous studies have shown that Norwegian children have an early preference for the unshifted position in both constructions, but that they acquire subject shift relatively early (before age 3). Object shift, on the other hand, is typically not in place until after age 6–7. Importantly, children are conservative learners, and never shift elements that should not move in the adult language. The results of the current study show that L2/Ln learners do not make all the fine distinctions that children make, in that they have a clear preference for all subjects in shifted position and all objects in unshifted position, although some distinctions fall into place with increased proficiency. Importantly, unlike children, the L2/Ln learners are not conservative learners; rather, they over-accept syntactic movement in several cases. The equivalent to this in language production would be to apply syntactic movement where it is not attested in the target language, which would be the opposite behaviour to that observed in L1 children.

scholarly journals Locality and Expectation Effects in Hindi Preverbal Constituent Ordering

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidharth Ranjan ◽  
Rajakrishnan Rajkumar ◽  
Sumeet Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Information Status ◽  
N Gram ◽  
Case Markers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Constituent Ordering

We investigate the relative impact of two influential theories of language comprehension, viz., Dependency Locality Theory(Gibson 2000; DLT) and Surprisal Theory (Hale 2001, Levy 2008), on preverbal constituent ordering in Hindi, a predominantly SOV language with flexibleword order. Prior work in Hindi has shown that word order scrambling is influenced by information structure constraints in discourse. However, the impact of cognitively grounded factors on Hindi constituent ordering is relatively underexplored. We test the hypothesis that dependency length minimization is a significant predictor of syntactic choice, once information status and surprisal measures (estimated from n-gram i.e., trigram and incremental dependency parsing models) have been added to a machine learning model. Towards this end, we setup a framework to generate meaning-equivalent grammatical variants of Hindi sentences by linearizing preverbal constituents of projective dependency trees in the Hindi-Urdu Treebank (HUTB) corpus of written text. Our results indicate that dependency length displays a weak effect in predicting reference sentences (amidst variants) over and above the aforementioned predictors. Overall, trigram surprisal outperforms dependency length and parser surprisal by a huge margin and our analyses indicate that maximizing lexical predictability is the primary driving force behind preverbal constituent ordering choices in Hindi. The success of trigram surprisal notwithstanding, dependency length minimization predicts non-canonical reference sentences having fronted direct objects over variants containing the canonical word order, cases where surprisal estimatesfail due to their bias towards frequent structures and word sequences. Locality effects persist over the Given-New preference of subject-object ordering in Hindi. Accessibility and local statistical biases discussed in the sentence processing literature are plausible explanations for the success of trigram surprisal. Further, we conjecture that the presence of case markers is a strong factor potentially overriding the pressure for dependency length minimization in Hindi. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the information locality hypothesis and theories of language production.

scholarly journals Studying word order differences in a historical parallel corpus: An example from Old Spanish and Old Portuguese

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Gunn Eide
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Old Spanish ◽  
New Information ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Old Portuguese

In this article, I use a parallel corpus from the 13th and 14th century to tease out some of the structural differences that existed between Old Spanish and Old Portuguese. While these two related languages were relatively similar in many respects, and the parallel corpus reflects these similarities, differences in syntax and information structure are also apparent. By comparing the syntactic and information structural properties of the sentences that display different word orders, it is possible to pinpoint more exactly what these differences were. The parallel sentences show that information structural properties of the left periphery, where Spanish allows for new information where Portuguese does not, account for differences in both object and subject placement.

Word Order, Information Structure and Intonation of Discontinuous Nominal Constructions in Cantonese / Ordre des mots, structure de l’information et intonation des phrases nominales discontinues en Cantonais

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Picus Sizhi Ding ◽  
Caroline Féry
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Order Information ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Information Status

This paper examines the syntactic, intonational and information structural properties of discontinuous nominal constructions in Cantonese. Four different syntactic constructions are identified which are used to indicate different information status of elements in a noun phrase, all involving two full NPs with either overt or covert heads. Discourse particles play a crucial role, not only for the interpretation of information structure, but also as anchoring points for boundary tones. Otherwise, intonation and prosody are not affected by word order changes, with the exception of optional pauses after or before dislocated constituents.
Cet article examine la structure de l’information des syntagmes nominaux discontinus en Cantonais, ainsi que leurs propriétés syntaxiques et intonatives. Quatre constructions syntaxiques distinctes ont été identifiées qui servent à exprimer des rôles spécifiques de structure de l’information sur des parties de syntagmes nominaux. Ces rôles impliquent deux syntagmes nominaux complets et indépendants l’un de l’autre, avec des têtes prononcées ou non. Les particules discursives jouent un rôle essentiel, non seulement pour l’interprétation de la structure de l’information, mais aussi pour l’ancrage des tons de frontière. L’intonation et la prosodie ne jouent aucun rôle en dehors des pauses facultatives avant ou après les syntagmes discontinus. L’intonation n’est pas affectée par les changements d’ordre des mots.


Can familiarity lessen the effect of locality? A case study of Mandarin Chinese subjects and the following adverbials

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunshan Xu ◽  
Haitao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Activation Level ◽  
New Information ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Chinese Subjects

AbstractThis paper explores the relation between familiarity of Chinese subjects and the syntactic distance. We propose two hypotheses: (1) contextually given Mandarin Chinese subjects are more likely to be used with long intervening adverbials than contextually new subjects; and (2) subjects with higher word frequency are more likely to be followed by long adverbials than those with lower word frequency. The data from two Mandarin Chinese treebanks provide supportive evidence for the first hypothesis, but not the second. Cognitively, this is probably due to the possibility that contextual givenness, which reflects familiarity, may lessen the effect of locality by increasing the activation level (the accessibility) of the subject and rendering these subjects less susceptible to the memory decay caused by the adverbials intervening between them and the predicate verbs. Subjects are usually the starting point of a sentence, which has a default given–new information structure. Therefore, when organizing a sentence, we are dominantly concerned with the information status (contextual givenness) relative to previous context when choosing the subjects, which may partly accounts for the observed irrelevance between word frequency and the use of adverbials. A sentence is structured based on the information status of the subjects, not their word frequency.

Development and regional planning within the decentralized administrative frame: case study (the Jordanian Experiment)

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Mansour Safran
Keyword(s):  
Regional Planning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
The Way

This aims to review and analyze the Jordanian experiment in the developmental regional planning field within the decentralized managerial methods, which is considered one of the primary basic provisions for applying and success of this kind of planning. The study shoed that Jordan has passed important steps in the way for implanting the decentralized administration, but these steps are still not enough to established the effective and active regional planning. The study reveled that there are many problems facing the decentralized regional planning in Jordan, despite of the clear goals that this planning is trying to achieve. These problems have resulted from the existing relationship between the decentralized administration process’ dimensions from one side, and between its levels which ranged from weak to medium decentralization from the other side, In spite of the official trends aiming at applying more of the decentralized administrative policies, still high portion of these procedures are theoretical, did not yet find a way to reality. Because any progress or success at the level of applying the decentralized administrative policies doubtless means greater effectiveness and influence on the development regional planning in life of the residents in the kingdom’s different regions. So, it is important to go a head in applying more steps and decentralized administrative procedures, gradually and continuously to guarantee the control over any negative effects that might result from Appling this kind of systems.   © 2018 JASET, International Scholars and Researchers Association

Speech Acts by the Governor Candidates of North Sumatera in Political Debates

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vidya Dwi Amalia Zati ◽  
Sumarsih Sumarsih ◽  
Lince Sihombing
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
The Way ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

The objectives of the research were to describe the types of speech acts used in televised political debates of governor candidates of North Sumatera, to derive the dominant type of speech acts used in televised political debates of governor candidates of North Sumatera and to elaborate the way of five governor candidates of North Sumatera use speech acts in televised political debates. This research was conducted by applying descriptive qualitative research. The findings show that there were only four types of speech acts used in televised political debates, Debat Pemilukada Sumatera Utara and Uji Publik Cagub dan Cawagub Sumatera Utara, they were assertives, directives, commissives and expressives. The dominant type of speech acts used in both televised political debates was assertives, with 82 utterances or 51.6% in Debat Pemilukada Sumatera Utara and 36 utterances or 41.37% in Uji Publik Cagub dan Cawagub Sumatera Utara. The way of governor candidates of North Sumatera used speech acts in televised political debates is in direct speech acts, they spoke straight to the point and clearly in order to make the other candidates and audiences understand their utterances.   Keywords: Governor Candidate; Political Debate; Speech Acts

Ibn-Ul-Arabi's Cultural Environment that Influenced Him

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Assist. Prof. Dr. Kazım Yıldırım
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

The cultural environment of Ibn al-Arabi is in Andalusia, Spain today. There, on the one hand, Sufism, on the other hand, thinks like Ibn Bacce (Death.1138), Ibn Tufeyl (Death186), Ibn Rushd (Death.1198) and the knowledge and philosophy inherited by scholars, . Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240), that was the effect of all this; But more mystic (mystic) circles came out of the way. This work, written by Ibn al-Arabi's works (especially Futuhati Mekkiye), also contains a very small number of other relevant sources.

Reflections on the Freedman School

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Gow
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
The Way

This chapter considers Freedman’s contribution to scholarship and the nascent elements of a school of thought relevant to both academic and policy realms, as well as introducing a more skeptical and critical approach to the subject’s scholarship. It considers Freedman’s engagement with the policy world and why this has managed to be both extensive and successful, as well as its outcomes. It also introduces discussion of possible challenges to Freedman’s work, presenting a balancing perspective to positive appreciations of his oeuvre. The chapter concludes by indicating the weaknesses of such challenges and reaffirms the sense of a school of thought informed by a distinctive approach. This is the blend of scripturalism and constructivism, on one side, with realism, on the other, that is the hallmark of the nascent school, and the way in which it is germane in both academic and policy domains.

Strategic Scripts and Nuclear Disarmament

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Harries ◽  
Benedict Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nuclear Disarmament ◽  
Stable Reduction ◽  
The Way

This chapter spans Freedman’s earliest focus on nuclear weapons and his development of strategic scripts as an analytical tool over three decades later. It discusses the way in which opposing logics of disarmament and armament co-existed in relation to nuclear weapons. It deploys the notion of strategic scripts to explain the contradictions inherent in approaches to nuclear disarmament, developing the concept of strategic scripts as it does so. The notion of scripts can be used to explore and even to promote nuclear disarmament. Two scripts, one of ‘stable reduction’, the other of ‘disarmament’, each serve to frame thinking. These scripts and the interactions they generate facilitate understanding of the way in which opposite instinctive reactions and, stemming from these, scripts about nuclear weapons co-exist, but are fragile as either an analytical or a strategic tool.

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