scholarly journals "A TOT PEROVSKOJ NE DAL VSLAST' POSPAT'": PROSODY AND GRAMMAR OF ANAPHORIC TOT THROUGH THE LENS OF CORPUS DATA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. I. Podlesskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Actual Distribution ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
National Corpus

Based on data from the Russian National Corpus and the General InternetCorpus of Russian, the paper addresses syntactic, sematic and prosodic features of constructions with the demonstrative TOT used as an anaphor. These constructions have gained some attention in earlier studies [Paducheva 2016], [Berger, Weiss 1987], [Kibrik 2011], [Podlesskaya 2001], but their analysis (a) covered primarily their prototypical uses; and (b) was based on written data. The data from informal, esp. from spoken discourse show however that the actual use of these constructions may deviate considerably from the known prototype. The paper aims at bridging this gap. I claim (i) that the function of TOT is to temporary promote a referent from a less privileged discourse status to a more privileged one; and (ii) that TOT can be analyzed on a par with switch reference devices in the languages where the latter are grammatically marked (e.g. on verb forms). The following parameters of TOT-constructions are discussed: syntactic and semantic roles of TOT and of its antecedent in their respective clauses, linear and structural distances between TOT and its antecedent, animacy of the maintained referent. Special attention is payed to the information structure of the TOT construction: I give structural and prosodic evidence that TOT never has a rhematic status. The revealed actual distribution of TOT (a) adds to our understanding of cross-linguistic variation of anaphoric functions of demonstratives; and, hopefully, (b) may contribute to further developing computational approaches to coreference and anaphora resolution for Russian, e.g. by improving datasets necessary for this task.

The L2 syllabus: corpus or contrivance?

Corpora ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Shortall
Keyword(s):  
Natural Frequency ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Frequency Data ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Real Language ◽  
Corpus Data

Corpus linguists have argued that corpora allow us to present lexical and grammatical patterns to language learners as they occur in real language, thereby exposing the learner to authentic target language (Mindt, 1996; Biber et al., 2002; Sinclair, 2004). And there is now a growing body of empirical research into how corpus studies can benefit ELT materials design and development (Ljung, 1990, 1991; Römer, 2004, 2005). This study investigates how the present perfect is represented in a spoken corpus and in ELT textbooks. The objective is to see whether corpus frequency data can make textbook present perfect presentation represent reality more accurately, and also whether there are sometimes pedagogic aims that may override frequency considerations. Results show that textbooks fail to represent adequately how present perfect interacts with other verb forms to create hybrid tenses such the present perfect passive. Textbooks also over-represent the frequency of structures such as the present perfect continuous. Adverbs such as yet and already are much more frequent in textbooks than in the corpus. Textbook writers seem to deliberately exaggerate the frequency of such adverbs, and arguably use them as tense markers or flagging devices so that learners will expect to see present perfect when they see yet and already. This suggests that disregard for natural frequency data may be justifiable if pedagogic considerations of this kind are taken into account. So, while corpus data provides important and useful frequency data for the teaching of grammar, pedagogic objectives may sometimes require that frequency data is disregarded.

‘… That is the question': complementizer omission in extraposed that-clauses

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUNTHER KALTENBÖCK
Keyword(s):  
Information Value ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
Complement Clause ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Category Type ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Abstract Feature

This article investigates the omission of the that-complementizer in extraposed subject clauses (e.g. It is obvious (that) she did it), which has so far received very little attention in the literature. Using corpus data from the British component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB) various potential conditioning factors are analysed. Of these the following are found to have a major impact on the choice of zero that: informality of the text category, type of matrix predicate, and information value of the complement clause. On the basis of these corpus results the article then proposes a unified explanation for the use of that or zero by positing an underlying abstract feature of ‘distance’; for the that-complementizer, a semantic residue of its original demonstrative use, which gives rise to different pragmatic interpretations, depending on the actual use of that in context.

scholarly journals On honorification in Czech: The Czech polite forms: Theory and corpus data

2009 ◽  
pp. 101-108
Author(s):  
Jarmila Panevova
Keyword(s):  
Person Plural ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Semantic Distinction

The author claims that the Czech polite forms (so-called 'vykani') for addressing the 2nd person should be understood as a legitimate part of the Czech conjugation paradigm. If we address a single person in a polite way some Czech analytical verb forms exhibit 'hybrid' agreement (auxiliaries are in plural, while participle form is in singular). However, the paradigm for singular and plural polite forms (addressing a single person, or two or more persons, respectively) is not symmetrical. The question, whether 2nd person plural polite forms are ambiguous (between the polite meaning and 2nd plural non-polite), or whether the semantic distinction 'polite - non-polite' is neutralized in plural, is open for further discussion. Some corpus data illustrating the contexts for the 2nd person polite forms are analyzed here too.

scholarly journals The Use of the Thai Final Particle Na by Japanese Learners of Thai

MANUSYA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-54
Author(s):  
Sumintra Maklai ◽  
Theeraporn Ratitamkul ◽  
Thanasak Sirikanerat
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
National Corpus

This research aims to analyze communicative functions of the Thai final particle na and to explore the use of na by Japanese learners of Thai, comparing to that of native speakers. The study consisted of two parts. The first part involved an analysis of na using data from the Thai National Corpus (TNC). The findings showed that na had three main communicative functions. It was used to soften the tone of an utterance, to emphasize an utterance, and to mark a topic of an utterance. The second part of this research concerned conversational data in a pair discussion task of 10 Japanese learners of Thai and 10 native Thai speakers. The results showed that, when different functions and contexts were considered, the use of the Thai final particle na by the Japanese learners was similar to that of the native Thai speakers. That is, both groups used na most frequently to emphasize an utterance and least often to mark a topic of an utterance. This could result from a positive transfer from the learners’ first language. However, it was found that the Japanese learners showed significantly fewer instances of na as a topic marker than the native Thai speakers. It is possible that its marked position and low frequency in the learners’ linguistic input as suggested by the corpus data made na in this function difficult to acquire. This research also pointed to the importance of proficiency in a second language as a factor affecting learners’ use of final particles in conversation.

From the past into the present: From case frames to semantic frames

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans C. Boas ◽  
Ryan Dux
Keyword(s):  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Past ◽  
Case Grammar ◽  
Data Formats ◽  
Semantic Frames ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Case Frames

AbstractThis paper first shows how Frame Semantics grew out of earlier work on Case Grammar. Then, it discusses some of the basic principles of Frame Semantics and shows how these have been implemented in FrameNet, an online corpus-based lexicographic database (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu). Using semantic frames to structure the lexicon of English, FrameNet provides a wealth of information showing how frame elements (situation-specific semantic roles) are realized syntactically (valence patterns). Finally, the paper provides an overview of how frame-semantic principles have been applied to cover non-lexical phenomena using compatible annotation and data formats. This so-called “constructicon” offers entries of grammatical constructions that are also based on corpus data and that are parallel to lexical entries in FrameNet.

From written to spoken – and in between

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Vladislav Smolka
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Single Author ◽  
Different Types

The paper looks at the differences in syntactic and information structure in four types of discourse produced by a single author, the British cosmologist and astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees: a written academic text, a text from a book of popular science, unprepared spoken discourse, and an academic lecture, i.e. a text written to be presented orally. The analysis of the variation in one speaker/writer is expected to highlight systematic differences between the separate types of discourses and to eliminate possible variation across different authors. The paper aims to show how, perhaps even subconsciously, competent language users modify the structure of discourse to fulfi l their communicative goals in different types of communication.

The relation between aspect and inversion in English

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
ASTRID DE WIT
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
Time Inversion ◽  
Progressive Aspect ◽  
Reference Time ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Locative Inversion ◽  
And Inversion

This article discusses the peculiar use of the simple present/past in full-verb inversion (i.e. locative inversion, directional inversion, quotative inversion, presentational there), and the corresponding scarcity of progressive aspect in these contexts. While it is normally ungrammatical in English to use the simplex tenses to report events that are ongoing at reference time, inversion seems to defy this restriction. Building on a combination of insights from analyses of aspect and of full-verb inversion in English, this study presents a cognitive-functional explanation for this exceptional characteristic of inversion that has gone largely unnoticed in previous accounts. I argue that there exists a canonical relationship between the preposed ground and the postposed figure in full-verb inversion and that this meaning of canonicity ties in perfectly with the perfective value that I deem constitutive of the English simple tenses. In addition, some cases of directional inversion involve a ‘deictic effect’ (Drubig 1988): in these instances, the conceptualizer's vantage point is anchored within the ground and the denoted (dis)appearance of the figure is construed as inevitable. On the basis of a large sample of corpus data and native-speaker elicitations, I demonstrate that the use of the progressive is disallowed in inverted contexts that involve a deictic effect, while its use is dispreferred but not excluded in other cases of inversion. This study thus brings together insights from the domains of information structure and aspect in English, and merges these into a comprehensive cognitive account.

Infinitival relative clauses in spoken discourse

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christer Geisler
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
British English ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
The Matrix

ABSTRACTThis article concerns infinitival relative clauses, such as Mary is the person to ask, and their distribution in spoken English. It analyzes the correlation between the function of the antecedent in the relative clause and the function of the whole postmodified NP (the relative complex) in the matrix clause. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of a corpus of spoken British English, I show that the grammatical function of the antecedent in the infinitival relative clause depends on the function of the antecedent in the matrix clause. I argue that the distribution of antecedent functions in the matrix clause can be explained in terms of thematic properties and information structure of the clauses in which the infinitival relatives occur. A key notion is that speakers center their discourse around information that they assume to be important for the communicative event.

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