scholarly journals Backshift and tense decomposition

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Costa ◽  
António Branco
Keyword(s):  
General Analysis ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Speech Time ◽  
Event Times ◽  
Embedded Contexts ◽  
Verb Tense

Backshift is a phenomenon affecting verb tense that is visible as a mismatch between some specific embedded contexts and other environments. For instance, the indirect speech equivalent of a sentence like 'Kim likes reading', with a present tense verb, may show the same verb in a past tense form, as in 'Sandy said Kim liked reading'. We present a general analysis of backshift, pooling data from English and Romance languages. Our analysis acknowledges that tense morphology is ambiguous between different temporal meanings, explicitly models the role of the speech time and the event times involved and takes the aspectual constraints of tenses into consideration.

Vowel dominance in overregularizations

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Paul Stemberger
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
Base Form

ABSTRACTWhen children produce regularizations likecomed, not all verbs are equally likely to be regularized. Several variables (e.g. lexical frequency) have been shown to be relevant, but not all the variability between verbs is understood. It is argued here that one predictor is which vowels are present in the base form vs. the past tense form. Using a notion of recessive vs. dominant vowel (where recessive vowels are more likely to be replaced by dominant vowels than vice versa) based on adult phonological processing, it is predicted that regularizations should be likely when the base vowel is dominant and unlikely when the past tense vowel is dominant. Data from 17 children reported in the literature, aged 1;6–5;6, show that this prediction is correct. Implications for the role of phonological variables in the processing of irregular past tense forms are discussed.

Hebrew verbal passives in Later Language Development: the interface of register and verb morphology

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1309-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
DORIT RAVID ◽  
LIZZY VERED
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Active Voice ◽  
Verb Tense

AbstractThe current study examined the production of Hebrew verbal passives across adolescence as mediated by linguistic register and verb morphology. Participants aged eight to sixteen years and a group of adults were asked to change written active-voice sentences into corresponding passive-voice forms, divided by verb register (neutral and high),binyanpattern (Qal / Nif'al, Hif'il / Huf'al, andPi'el / Pu'al), and verb tense (past and future tense). Results showed that Hebrew passive morphology is a very late acquisition, almost a decade later than in other languages, that passivizing neutral-register verbs was less challenging than high-register verbs, and that past tense verbs were easier to passivize than future tense verbs. An order of acquisition was determined among the threebinyanpairs. The paper provides an account of these findings grounded in the event-telling role of Hebrew passives in discourse and the spurt of abstract, lexically specific vocabulary in Later Language Development.

scholarly journals Patients with impaired verb-tense processing: do they know that yesterday is past?

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1634) ◽  
pp. 20120402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karalyn Patterson ◽  
Rachel Holland
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Dual Mechanism ◽  
Pattern Of Performance ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Verb Tense

This paper begins with a focus on the task of stem inflection, where participants are given a verb stem and asked to produce the verb's past-tense form, which can produce a neuropsychological double dissociation with respect to regular versus irregular verbs. Two differing theoretical interpretations are outlined: one is based on specifically morphological and separate brain mechanisms for processing regular versus irregular verbs; the other argues that the two sides of the dissociation can arise from one procedure, which is not specifically morphological, and which relies to differing extents on phonological versus semantic information for regular versus irregular verbs. We then present data from a different version of the task, in which patients were given past-tense forms and asked to produce the present-tense or stem forms (talked → talk and ate → eat). This change yielded a very different pattern of performance in four non-fluent aphasic patients as a function of the regular–irregular manipulation, an outcome which is argued to be more compatible with the single- than the dual-mechanism account. Finally, we present a small amount of data from a task in which the patient was asked to judge whether spoken regular and irregular verb stems and past-tense forms indicated actions occurring today or yesterday . This task produced an even more different and intriguing pattern of performance suggesting a deficit in morpho-syntactic knowledge: not how to produce past-tense forms but what such forms mean and how that understanding interacts with verb regularity. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the research field of acquired disorders of tense processing might advance as a result of new approaches, in particular those informed by studies of developmental disorders.

A Certain Future: Epistemicity, Prediction, and Assertion in Iberian Spanish Future Expression

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessi E. Aaron
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Variable Expression ◽  
Distributional Patterns ◽  
Periphrastic Future ◽  
Synthetic Construction ◽  
Future Reference

AbstractThe choice of future construction in Romance languages with variable expression is complex, and several factors have been shown or hypothesized to influence this choice (e.g. Aaron 2006, 2010 and Poplack & Malvar 2007). One factor stands out time and time again, though scholars do not always associate it with the same form: certainty. Using corpus-based quantitative methods, the role of certainty in Iberian Spanish future form variation is examined. The semantics of futurity and epistemic modality are discussed, with particular reference to the Spanish synthetic, or morphological, future. Then, the onset of non-future-reference use of the Synthetic Future as an epistemic marker is described, and viewed in light of the role of epistemicity in the possible strengthening of the semantics of “certainty” with the Spanish Periphrastic Future. Finally, diachronic evidence from distributional patterns in grammatical person, verb class and clause type is presented, which suggests that speakers associate the periphrastic construction with “certainty” and, increasingly, the synthetic construction with “uncertainty.” It is suggested that functional competition with innovative forms can breathe new life into older forms, sparking further grammaticalization.

Root lexical features and inflectional marking of tense in Proto-Indo-European

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNAMARIA BARTOLOTTA
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Lexical Feature ◽  
General Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Approaches ◽  
Shed Light

This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of Proto-Indo-European. It will be argued that historical linguistics can shed light on the long-standing debate over the emergence of tense-aspect morphology in language acquisition. The dispute over this issue is well-known; it has been pursued mostly by scholars following various general linguistic approaches, from typology to acquisition, but also by historical linguists and Indo-Europeanists, who have long debated about the precedence of aspect or tense from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. However, so far Indo-Europeanists have rarely confronted their results in a successful way with recent research in other fields such as acquisition or neurolinguistics. The aim of this paper is to put forward evidence from the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European verbal system concerning the prominent role of root lexical aspect features in the emergence of grammatical marking of tense in the proto-language. More precisely, by means of a comparison between the residual archaic verbal forms of theinjunctivein Vedic Sanskrit and the corresponding augmentless preterites in Homeric Greek, it will be argued that the [±telic] lexical feature of the inherited verbal root is responsible for a non-random distribution of past tense inflected forms in an earlier verbal paradigm.

scholarly journals KEKOHESIFAN TEKS PUISI TAUFIK ISMAIL

Kandai ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
NFN Basori
Keyword(s):  
General Analysis ◽  
Semantic Gap ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Selection Of

Many researchers have discussed cohesion. However, they do not relate the cohesion with reader's understanding. This paper aims to identify the types of cohesion markers, semantic behaviors, and functions as an integrator of poetry. Poetry is chosen as the object of study because poetry requires density of language. Assuming that language density has given greater role of cohesion markers in poetry. The data are Taufik Ismail’s poems.The selection of the data is based on assumption that Taufik Ismail poetry can represent poetry genre in general. Analysis result shows that there are cohesion marker types used in poetry which are different from types of cohesion in other discourse. The differences lie in dominance of relation conjunction, repetition, antonymy, and collocation. Cohesion marker behavioral so indicates differences. There is conjunction contradiction in the form of semantic gap that is not found in other discourse types. Semantic gap, conflict of situations, repetition, antonymy and collocationare some instruments to strengthen poetic effect of a poem. The five forms are used by the poet to strengthen irony in the poem. These instruments probably are not important in other discourse types. 

Inconsistencies in spoken language

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Borochovsky Bar-Aba
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Plural Form ◽  
Verb Tense

This paper displays examples of inconsistencies in spontaneous speech. It refers to cases in which the speaker changes his manner of expression while speaking, even though there generally seems to be no objective reason for doing so. I demonstrate the phenomenon in the use of verb tense, of person inflection, of singular/plural form, and of direct/indirect speech. I suggest that these phenomena be viewed as cases in which the speaker tries (not necessarily consciously) to make his speech less monotonous and more attractive to the listener by providing various ways of expression differing mainly in the degree of closeness they convey between the reported event and the addressee.

A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-431
Author(s):  
Lidia Napiórkowska
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
General Linguistics ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function

Abstract This article presents a new perspective on the meaning and function of the Syriac construction hwayt qāṭēl used with a non-past reference. Beginning with the traditional method of cross-linguistic comparison, the author contextualizes the construction in question within a pragmatic- cognitive framework of general linguistics, an approach that has so far been largely overlooked in Syriac studies. The language used here for comparison is the literary Christian of Urmi, a modern dialect of Aramaic, whose verbal system presents itself as a valid typological parallel for Syriac. Thus, through analysing the renditions of hwayt qāṭēl in Christian Urmi Neo-Aramaic within the corpus of the New Testament, the semantics and function of the Syriac hwayt qāṭēl receive precise characteristics, followed by an attempt to explain the use of the past tense form hwayt (perfect) for the present-future reference. An additional brief treatment of other command-related forms in Syriac, such as the imperative and imperative-derived constructions, contributes further, more detailed observations on the Syriac verbal system.

Deficits for Semantics and the Irregular Past Tense: A Causal Relationship?

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 1159-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine K. Tyler ◽  
Emmanuel A. Stamatakis ◽  
Roy W. Jones ◽  
Peter Bright ◽  
Kadia Acres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Auditory Priming ◽  
Functional Mechanisms ◽  
The Relationship

The regular and irregular past tense has become a focus for recent debates about the structure of the language processing system, asking whether language functions are subserved by different neural and functional mechanisms or whether all processes can be accommodated within a single unified system. A critical claim of leading single mechanism accounts is that the relationship between an irregular stem and its past tense form is primarily semantic and not morphological in nature. This predicts an obligatory relationship between semantic performance and access to the irregular past tense, such that a semantic deficit necessarily leads to impairments on the irregulars. We tested this claim in a series of studies probing the comprehension and production of regular and irregular past tense forms in four semantic dementia patients, all of whom had profound semantic deficits. In two elicitation tasks and one auditory priming study, we found that three out of the four patients did not have a deficit for the irregular past tense, in spite of their semantic deficits. This argues against the view that the relationship between irregular past tense forms and their stems is primarily semantic, and more generally against the single system claim that morphological structure can be captured solely based on phonological and semantic relationships.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document