scholarly journals Masked by annotation: Minor declarative complementizers in parsed corpora of historical English

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-158
Author(s):  
María José López-Couso ◽  
Belén Méndez-Naya
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Annotation

This article discusses some of the potential problems derived from the syntactic annotation of historical corpora, especially in connection with low-frequency phenomena. By way of illustration, we examine the parsing scheme used in the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English (PPCHE) for clauses introduced by so-called ‘minor declarative complementizers’, originally adverbial links which come to be occasionally used in complementizer function. We show that the functional similarities between canonical declarative complement clauses introduced by the major declarative links that and zero and those headed by minor declarative complementizers are not captured by the PPCHE parsing, where the latter constructions are not tagged as complement clauses, but rather as adverbial clauses. The examples discussed reveal that, despite the obvious advantages of parsed corpora, annotation may sometimes mask interesting linguistic facts.

scholarly journals The understanding of complex syntax in children with Down syndrome

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Frizelle ◽  
Paul A. Thompson ◽  
Mihaela Duta ◽  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Digit Recall

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is associated with poor language skills that seem disproportionate to general nonverbal ability, but the nature and causes of this deficit are unclear. We assessed how individuals with DS understand complex linguistic constructions, and considered how cognitive ability and memory and impact the ability of those with DS to process these sentence types. Methods: There were three groups participating in the study: children with DS (n = 33) and two control groups composed of children with cognitive impairment of unknown aetiology (CI) (n = 32) and children with typical development (n = 33). The three groups did not differ on raw scores on a test of non-verbal cognitive ability. Using a newly devised animation task, we examined how well individuals with DS (n = 33) could understand relative clauses, complement clauses and adverbial clauses compared to children with CI and typically developing controls. Participants also completed the Test for the Reception of Grammar-2, three measures of memory (forward and backward digit recall, visuo-spatial memory) and a hearing screen. Results: Results indicated that (1) with the exception of intransitive subject relative clauses, children with DS performed at floor on all other complex sentences, (2) they performed at a significantly lower level than both control groups, and (3) DS status accounted for a significant proportion of the variance over and above memory skills. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with DS have a disproportionate difficulty understanding complex sentences compared to two control groups matched on mental age. Furthermore, their understanding of syntax is not completely explained by poor cognitive or memory skills, rather it appears to be a specific deficit that may distinguish children with DS from other neurodevelopmental disorders.

scholarly journals The understanding of complex syntax in children with Down syndrome

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Frizelle ◽  
Paul A. Thompson ◽  
Mihaela Duta ◽  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Hearing Level ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Digit Recall

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is associated with poor language skills that seem disproportionate to general nonverbal ability, but the nature and causes of this deficit are unclear. We assessed how individuals with DS understand complex linguistic constructions, and considered how cognitive ability, memory and hearing level impact the ability of those with DS to process these sentence types. Methods: There were three groups participating in the study: children with DS (n = 33) and two control groups composed of children with cognitive impairment of unknown aetiology (CI) (n = 32) and children with typical development (n = 33). Both groups were matched to those with DS on cognitive ability. Using a newly devised animation task, we examined how well individuals with DS (n = 33) could understand relative clauses, complement clauses and adverbial clauses compared to children with CI and typically developing controls. Participants also completed the Test for the Reception of Grammar-2, three measures of memory (forward and backward digit recall, visuo-spatial memory) and a hearing screen. Results: Results indicated that (1) with the exception of intransitive subject relative clauses, children with DS performed at floor on all other complex sentences, (2) they performed at a significantly lower level than both control groups, and (3) DS status accounted for a significant proportion of the variance over and above memory skills. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with DS have a disproportionate difficulty understanding complex sentences compared to two control groups matched on mental age. Furthermore, their understanding of syntax is not completely explained by poor cognitive or memory skills, rather it appears to be a specific deficit that may distinguish children with DS from other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Subordination in 15th- and 16th-Century Judeo-Arabic

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Esther-Miriam Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Classical Arabic

Judeo-Arabic sources from the 15th and 16th centuries are of great interest for research into subordinate syntax, as they are written in a repertoire that echoes the Classical Arabic elements of Medieval Judeo-Arabic as much as the colloquial forms of Late Judeo-Arabic. The most interesting phenomena concern the adverbial clauses, which show a great variation of adverbial connectives. It is also notable that compounds of prepositions and relativizers or complementizers appear to have become very popular, whereas few of the inherited non-prepositional Classical Arabic adverbial connectives occur. This article also raises the possibility that adverbial clauses may have only developed in the course of the codification of the Semitic languages, and perhaps of languages in general. Relative and complement clauses in the 15th- and 16th-century sources are less conspicuous, but in relative clauses, the form ʾan, homophonous with the complementizer and originating from constructions using thetanwīn, may occur as relativizer after indefinite antecedent. A noteworthy point regarding complement clauses is the lack of asyndetical constructions as compared with earlier Judeo-Arabic documentary material.

An investigation of the verbal abilities of children with imaginary companions

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Bouldin ◽  
Edith L. Bavin ◽  
Chris Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Imaginary Companions ◽  
Verbal Abilities ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Modal Types

The purpose of this study was to investigate the language use of 40 children with imaginary companions (IC) and 40 children without imaginary companions (NIC) across two age levels: a younger group aged 4;0–5;11 and an older group aged 6;0–7;11. The study investigated the language of these children by examining their use of adverbial and relative clauses, complement clauses, co-ordinating conjunctions and modal types. The findings indicated that, compared with NICs, ICs used a significantly greater number of adverbial clauses, relative clauses, and and, with their use of but approaching significance. Overall, the results were interpreted as indicating that ICs use more mature language, and this demonstrates enhanced social-cognitive skills. It was concluded that the presence of imaginary companions is positively associated with language use and discourse competency of children.

Archi

2021 ◽  
pp. 279-316
Author(s):  
Marina Chumakina
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
The One

The chapter provides a description of Archi, a Lezgic language of the Nakh-Daghestanian family spoken in one village in the highlands of Daghestan. First, the current sociolinguistic situation delivers a view of the language endangerment risks, then the chapter gives an overview of Archi phonological system and discusses the morphosyntactic properties of Archi nouns, pronouns, and minor lexical classes. Next, the article gives an overview of the Archi verb morphosyntax. The chapter then discusses the structure of the simple clause covering such topics as word order, finiteness, valency classes, negation, and agreement, among others. Complex sentences (clause chaining and converbs, relative clauses, complement clauses, adverbial clauses, and long-distance anaphora) are discussed. The chapter closes with outstanding issues that require further research. Whenever possible, the chapter views Archi against the general background of Nakh-Daghestanian languages and discusses the similarities and differences. Due to its unusual history (a Lezgic language which lost the contact with other languages of the group very early on and developed with Lak and Avar as its immediate neighbors), Archi has preserved some archaic phonological as well as morphosyntactic features of Lezgic on the one hand and shows the results of the contact with non-Lezgic languages on the other.

scholarly journals Heterosemy of case markers and clause-linkers in Andaandi (Nile Nubian)

2016 ◽  
pp. 162-188
Author(s):  
Angelika Jakobi ◽  
. El-Guzuuli
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Functional Change ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Case Markers

Case markers are usually associated with nouns or noun phrases but, as shown in Aikhenvald’s (2008) cross-linguistic study on “versatile cases”, case markers are also used as clause-linkers in a wide range of genetically diverse languages. However, African languages are not found in Aikhenvald’s sample. Our paper shows that in some subgroups of Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic case markers are, in fact, attested on subordinate clauses. Focusing on Andaandi, a Nubian language classified as a member of the Eastern Sudanic subgroup of Nilo-Saharan, we first present an outline of the system of grammatical relations and an overview over the use of core and peripheral case markers on noun phrases. This overview serves as a background for our study of case markers. While the Accusative case marker is employed as subordinator of object complement clauses, various peripheral case markers are used as subordinators of adverbial clauses. The different morphosyntactic contexts in which the case markers occur, i.e. on noun phrases and on verbs of subordinate clauses, determine their functional change and heterosemy.

scholarly journals The Subjunctive Mood in Giryama and Tanzanian Nyanja

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Nancy Jumwa Ngowa ◽  
Deo S. Ngonyani
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Condition ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Condition ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Presupposition Triggers

This paper presents a study of the Subjunctive in the Bantu languages of Giryama in Kenya (E72a) and Nyanja in Tanzania (N201), and explores its distribution in the two languages. As in other Bantu languages, the Subjunctive is a morphological feature characterized by a verbal suffix -e, an obligatory subject marker, and the absence of tense. Syntactically, the Subjunctive appears in independent clauses, as well as dependent clauses with a certain class of predicates and adverbial subordinators. Independent clauses that may carry the Subjunctive are those that express exhortations or suggestions, and sentences marked with the future tense. Dependent clauses with Subjunctive verbs include: (a) complement clauses containing directive, volitional, and causative verbs, and (b) adverbial clauses such as clauses of purpose. Studies of the subjunctive have often associated its semantic distribution with irrealis, in contrast with the Indicative, which is associated with realis or assertion. We present evidence showing that the irrealis reading may sometimes appear to be absent. We argue that irrealis may not be a necessary and sufficient condition for the Subjunctive. However, the onstructions that give irrealis readings provide the best exemplars of Subjunctives in these two languages. Independent clause Subjunctives are shown to be clearly non-factive. Matrix verbs that take subjunctive complements are described as presupposition triggers of events that are non-factive relative to the matrix event.

A Study on the Fine Structure of the Lateral Line Organ of the Sea Eel

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 648-649
Author(s):  
K. Hama
Keyword(s):  
Fine Structure ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Lateral Line ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sensory Cells ◽  
Apical Surface ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
Sensory Epithelia ◽  
Low Frequency Vibration ◽  
Transmission Electron

The lateral line organs of the sea eel consist of canal and pit organs which are different in function. The former is a low frequency vibration detector whereas the latter functions as an ion receptor as well as a mechano receptor.The fine structure of the sensory epithelia of both organs were studied by means of ordinary transmission electron microscope, high voltage electron microscope and of surface scanning electron microscope.The sensory cells of the canal organ are polarized in front-caudal direction and those of the pit organ are polarized in dorso-ventral direction. The sensory epithelia of both organs have thinner surface coats compared to the surrounding ordinary epithelial cells, which have very thick fuzzy coatings on the apical surface.

Microbulldozing and Microchiseling

1969 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 134-135
Author(s):  
J.N. Ramsey ◽  
D.P. Cameron ◽  
F.W. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Material Handling ◽  
Microprobe Analysis ◽  
Foreign Matter ◽  
Specific Location ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Knoop Indenter ◽  
Scanning Electron ◽  
Microhardness Tester

As computer components become smaller the analytical methods used to examine them and the material handling techniques must become more sensitive, and more sophisticated. We have used microbulldozing and microchiseling in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy, replica electron microscopy, and microprobe analysis for studying actual and potential problems with developmental and pilot line devices. Foreign matter, corrosion, etc, in specific locations are mechanically loosened from their substrates and removed by “extraction replication,” and examined in the appropriate instrument. The mechanical loosening is done in a controlled manner by using a microhardness tester—we use the attachment designed for our Reichert metallograph. The working tool is a pyramid shaped diamond (a Knoop indenter) which can be pushed into the specimen with a controlled pressure and in a specific location.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document