scholarly journals Clitic left dislocation and focus projection in Spanish

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Bildhauer
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Clitic Left Dislocation ◽  
Focus Projection

The information-structural status of clitic left dislocated arguments in Spanish has been argued to depend crucially on their thematic role. Earlier HPSG analyses of related phenomena in other languages do not take into account this sort of information. A formalization will be presented which can handle differences in information-structure arising from different thematic roles of clitic left dislocated phrases.

THEMATIC ROLE ASSIGNMENT IN ENGLISH SENTENCES: A QUICK GLANCE AT AN INTERFACE BETWEEN SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eni Maharsi
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Role Assignment

This paper examines the role of elements of English sentences by employing the approach ofthematic role assignment. The emphasis is on how the positioning of words and phrases insyntactic structure helps determine the roles that the referents of NPs play in the situationdescribed by the sentences. The results reveal that the position of an NP’s determines itsthematic role and. There is a relevance between deep syntactic structure and the assignmentof thematic roles for every NP in the sentence.

On Linkhood, Topicalization and Clitic Left Dislocation

2002 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
THEODORA ALEXOPOULOU ◽  
DIMITRA KOLLIAKOU
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Clitic Doubling ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Information Packaging ◽  
Card System ◽  
Clitic Left Dislocation ◽  
Empirical Point ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Structural Definition

This paper focuses on the Information Packaging notion of linkhood and provides a structural definition of this notion for Greek. We show that a combination of structural resources – syntactic (left dislocation), morphological (clitic duplication) and phonological (absence of nuclear accent) – are simultaneously exploited to realize linkhood in Greek, a generalization that can be captured in a constraint-based grammar such as HPSG, which permits the expression of interface constraints. We assume Vallduví's (1992) approach to Information Packaging, and Engdahl & Vallduví's (1996) implementation of the latter in HPSG, but deviate from Vallduví's work in adopting Hendriks & Dekker's (1996) revised definition of linkhood that relies on non-monotone anaphora. From an empirical point of view, our approach directly accounts for the invariable association of Clitic Left Dislocated NPs with wide scope readings, as well as a number of systematic differences in felicity conditions between Clitic Left Dislocation and other apparently related phenomena (Topicalization and Clitic Doubling). From a theoretical perspective, our analysis departs from syntax-based notions of topichood or discourse-linking and supports a definition that unifies linkhood with other anaphora phenomena. As such, it arguably overcomes previously noted problems for Vallduví's treatment of links as the current-locus-of-update in a Heim-style file-card system.

scholarly journals Instrumental with and use: modality and implicature

2015 ◽  
pp. 532
Author(s):  
Lilia Rissman
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Thematic Role

I present an analysis of the instrumental elements with and use, as in Betty cut the cake with a knife. A variety of evidence indicates that with and use do not make the same semantic contribution, casting doubt on the theory that these elements introduce the thematic role Instrument. For use, I adopt the analysis in Rissman (to appear): use expresses modal, goal-related content. For with, a modal reading may be implicated but is not entailed, explaining a variety of contrasts between with and use. The implications of this analysis for a theory of thematic roles is discussed.

Differential object marking in Modern Romanian

2021 ◽  
pp. 96-137
Author(s):  
Virginia Hill ◽  
Alexandru Mardale
Keyword(s):  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Default Option ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Clitic Left Dislocation ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Object Marking

Chapter 4 focuses on DOM in Modern Romanian, for both direct and indirect objects. The data are organized according to the type of DOM mechanisms, with separate sections for CD, DOM-p, and CD+DOM-p. The pragmatic effects noticed for Old Romanian DOM are re-assessed, considering that the contrasting interpretation of CD versus DOM-p is neutralized. The major changes concern the loss of CD with direct objects and its recycling in conjunction with DOM-p. While DOM-p declines and becomes more specialized for the end of the specificity scale, CD+DOM-p turns into the default option for DOM with direct objects, as opposed to CD, which becomes the default option for DOM with indirect objects. Increased productivity for CD+DOM-p coincides with the parallel expansion of Clitic Left Dislocation in the language, which completely replaces the constituent fronting through Topicalization.

Look before you move

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Leal
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Visual Rating ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Clitic Left Dislocation ◽  
Discourse Interface

The present study examines whether, as proposed by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), the syntax-discourse interface is especially vulnerable to non-native optionality even at very advanced levels. I focus on the acquisition of Clitic Left Dislocation in Spanish (CLLD), a structure that involves both syntax and discourse, when it combines with other structures at the left periphery (iterative topics, Fronted Focus, and wh-constructions). CLLD is a realization of topicalization requiring the integration of syntactic and discourse knowledge. This study provides data from an audio-visual rating task completed by 120 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels and 27 monolingual native speakers. Results showed evidence that the most advanced learners had acquired the restrictions of these structures in a native-like way and supports López’s (2009) syntactic analysis of CLLD, whereby CLLD is generated through movement so that the pragmatic features [+anaphor]/[+contrast] can be assigned to the dislocated element.

scholarly journals Is children's acquisition of the passive a staged process? Evidence from six- and nine-year-olds' production of passives

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 991-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE MESSENGER ◽  
HOLLY P. BRANIGAN ◽  
JANET F. McLEAN
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Syntactic Priming ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Constituent Structure ◽  
Role Mapping ◽  
Transitive Actions

ABSTRACTWe report a syntactic priming experiment that examined whether children's acquisition of the passive is a staged process, with acquisition of constituent structure preceding acquisition of thematic role mappings. Six-year-olds and nine-year-olds described transitive actions after hearing active and passive prime descriptions involving the same or different thematic roles. Both groups showed a strong tendency to reuse in their own description the syntactic structure they had just heard, including well-formed passives after passive primes, irrespective of whether thematic roles were repeated between prime and target. However, following passive primes, six-year-olds but not nine-year-olds also produced reversed passives, with well-formed constituent structure but incorrect thematic role mappings. These results suggest that by six, children have mastered the constituent structure of the passive; however, they have not yet mastered the non-canonical thematic role mapping. By nine, children have mastered both the syntactic and thematic dimensions of this structure.

scholarly journals Topicality and differential object marking

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Iemmolo
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The Relationship

The present paper investigates the relationship between dislocation and differential object marking in some Romance languages. As in many languages that have a DOM system, it is usually also assumed that in Romance languages the phenomenon is regulated by the semantic features of the referents, such as animacy, definiteness, and specificity. In the languages under investigation, though, these features cannot explain the distribution and the emergence of DOM. After discussing the main theoretical approaches to the phenomenon, I will analyse DOM in four Romance languages. I will argue that DOM emerges in pragmatically and semantically marked contexts, namely with personal pronouns in dislocations. I will then show that in these languages the use of the DOM system is mainly motivated by the need to signal the markedness of these direct objects as a consequence of being used in (mainly left) dislocation as topics (cf. English “As for him, we didn’t see him”). Finally, the examination of comparative data from Persian and Amazonian languages lends further support to the advocated approach in terms of information structure

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