scholarly journals Old Story, New Results and Analyses

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-24
Author(s):  
Tom Roeper ◽  
Marcus Maia ◽  
Aniela Improta França
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Operator Construction ◽  
Electrophysiological Experiment

An eye-tracking and an electrophysiological experiment using  a sentence/picture matching task were carried out in order to assess whether there would be significant differences between semantic restrictiveness properties of Prepositional Phrases (PPs) vis-à-vis those of Relative Clauses (RCs), attached as modifiers respectively to a local PP or to a non-local DP (e.g. the horse with the parrot with brown spots/the horse with the parrot that has brown spots). Two hypotheses were entertained, namely, (i) an operator construction such as an RC would be construed non-locally, that is, would   attach high as a default, even if there is semantic bias attracting it to a low attachment; (ii) a light constituent (PP) has no prosodic autonomy and will be more available to local attachment and therefore would tend to attach locally as a default, even if there is semantic bias attracting it to a high attachment. Results in both experiments were in favor of the hypotheses and we speculate whether they could be more deeply grounded into the representational alternatives projected by linguistic theory itself.

scholarly journals Hebrew relative clauses in HPSG

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Vaillette
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Local Feature ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses

One kind of relative clause in Modern Hebrew is formed with a gap, as in (1a). However, in certain situations, the gap can be replaced by a resumptive pronoun, as in (1b):           (1a)  ha-yeled she   ra'iti                   the-boy  that saw-1.SG             (b)  ha-yeled she   ra'iti         'otoi                   the-boy  that saw-1.SG himi                   'the boy that I saw' Some previous approaches, such as (Borer 1984) and (Sells 1984), have treated gaps and resumptives with different mechanisms. This paper examines several properties that Hebrew resumptive pronouns share with gaps, motivating a more unified treatment in HPSG using non-local feature propagation for both. This machinery is then used in the analysis a variety of Hebrew relative clause phenomena, including in situ resumptive pronouns, fronted resumptive pronouns, relative clauses lacking a complementizer, bare gap relatives, and subject-verb inversion.   References Borer, Hagit (1984). "Restrictive relative clauses in Modern Hebrew." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 2:219-260. Sells, Peter (1984). Syntax and Semantics of Resumptive Pronouns. Ph.D. Thesis, UMass Amherst.

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.

scholarly journals Similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension in aphasia: A computational evaluation of two models of cue-based retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Nicole Stadie ◽  
Frank Burchert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Access Model

Sentence comprehension requires the listener to link incoming words with short-term memory representations in order to build linguistic dependencies. The cue-based retrieval theory of sentence processing predicts that the retrieval of these memory representations is affected by similarity-based interference. We present the first large-scale computational evaluation of interference effects in two models of sentence processing – the activation-based model, and a modification of the direct-access model – in individuals with aphasia (IWA) and control participants in German. The parameters of the models are linked to prominent theories of processing deficits in aphasia, and the models are tested against two linguistic constructions in German: Pronoun resolution and relative clauses. The data come from a visual-world eye-tracking experiment combined with a sentence-picture matching task. The results show that both control participants and IWA are susceptible to retrieval interference, and that a combination of theoretical explanations (intermittent deficiencies, slow syntax, and resource reduction) can explain IWA’s deficits in sentence processing. Model comparisons reveal that both models have a similar predictive performance in pronoun resolution, but the activation-based model outperforms the direct-access model in relative clauses.

scholarly journals Non-local metasurfaces for spectrally decoupled wavefront manipulation and eye tracking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Hwan Song ◽  
Jorik van de Groep ◽  
Soo Jin Kim ◽  
Mark L. Brongersma
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Non Local

The comprehension of relative clauses in Mandarin Children with suspected specific language impairment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Haopeng YU ◽  
Haiyan WANG ◽  
Xiaowei HE
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Reversal Errors

Abstract This paper investigates the comprehension of Relative Clauses (RCs) in 15 Mandarin children with suspected Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (aged between 4; 5 and 6; 0) and 29 typically developing (TD) controls. Results from a Character Picture Matching Task indicate that (i) the subject RC was better understood than the object RC in children with SLI, but there was no asymmetry in the comprehension of the two RCs in TD children; (ii) the performance of children with SLI was significantly worse than that of their TD peers; (iii) children with SLI were prone to committing thematic role reversal errors and middle errors. In order to overcome the shortcomings of previous accounts, we therefore put forward the Edge Feature Underspecification Hypothesis, which can not only explain the asymmetry of comprehension seen in children with SLI but also shed light on the nature of errors committed by them in the task.

Experimental Evidence on Island Effects in Spanish Relative Clauses

Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Stigliano ◽  
Ming Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Judgment Study ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract Research on islands has been central to linguistic theory for more than 50 years. Its importance relies on the theoretical consequences islands posit for movement and long distance dependencies. In this paper we aim to explore the contrast between a variety of islands in Spanish relative clauses to reveal whether there is any gradience in the strength of the island effects. In order to tease apart fine-grained contrasts we run an acceptability judgment study based on the factorial definition of island, an experimental paradigm that aims to isolate the various factors that can affect the acceptability of a sentence involving island violations. Overall, we found that the five constructions tested (embedded wh-questions, whether-clauses, adjuncts, complex NPs and relative clauses) show island effects in Spanish and that there are limited differences in the size of these effects, which points to a more categorical view of islands.

Experimental Evidence on Island Effects in Spanish Relative Clauses

Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-296
Author(s):  
Laura Stigliano ◽  
Ming Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Judgment Study ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract Research on islands has been central to linguistic theory for more than 50 years. Its importance relies on the theoretical consequences islands posit for movement and long distance dependencies. In this paper we aim to explore the contrast between a variety of islands in Spanish relative clauses to reveal whether there is any gradience in the strength of the island effects. In order to tease apart fine-grained contrasts we run an acceptability judgment study based on the factorial definition of island, an experimental paradigm that aims to isolate the various factors that can affect the acceptability of a sentence involving island violations. Overall, we found that the five constructions tested (embedded wh-questions, whether-clauses, adjuncts, complex NPs and relative clauses) show island effects in Spanish and that there are limited differences in the size of these effects, which points to a more categorical view of islands.

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