Issues in the syntax of sentential negation

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Order Restrictions ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Bipartite Negation ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The three major categories of negative markers found in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic are single negation, bipartite negation and enclitic negation. This chapter introduces these three categories in a descriptive manner, making minimal theoretical reference only when necessary. The distinctions made between these categories are relevant to the organization of the book and its discussion of empirical and theoretical issues. Contrasts in the distribution of these negative markers among the three varieties of Arabic under investigation in this book clearly show that negation in Arabic can occupy various syntactic positions, but that there are word order restrictions that regulate these occurrences. The chapter also introduces the Jespersen Cycle of negation in Arabic.

A Multi-locus Analysis of Arabic Negation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Order Restrictions ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Arabic Linguistics ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
New Perspective

This book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implications for the various structural positions. Thus accounting for numerous word order restrictions, semantic ambiguities and pragmatic interpretations without complicating narrow syntax with special operations, configurations or constraints. The book includes data from Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic, which shed light on word order contrasts in negative clauses and their interaction with tense/aspect, mood/modality, semantic scope over adverbs, and negative sensitive items. It also has new data challenging the standard claim in Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed parametrized position in the clause structure. The book brings a new perspective on the role of negation in licensing negative sensitive items, scoping over propositions and interacting with pragmatic notions such as presupposition and speech acts.

Linearization constraints on sentential negation in Russian Sign Language are prosodic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Rudnev ◽  
Anna Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Heavy Object ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Main Strategy

Abstract This squib documents exceptions to the main strategy of expressing sentential negation in Russian Sign Language (RSL). The postverbal sentential negation particle in RSL inverts the basic SVO order characteristic of the language turning it into SOV (Pasalskaya 2018a). We show that this reversal requirement under negation is not absolute and does not apply to prosodically heavy object NPs. The resulting picture accords well with the view of RSL word order laid out by Kimmelman (2012) and supports a model of grammar where syntactic computation has access to phonological information (Kremers 2014; Bruening 2019).

scholarly journals Design of a Multiword Expressions Database

2019 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Vondřička
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Word Sense ◽  
Multiword Expressions ◽  
Current State ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Abstract The paper proposes design of a generic database for multiword expressions (MWE), based on the requirements for implementation of the lexicon of Czech MWEs. The lexicon is aimed at different goals concerning lexicography, teaching Czech as a foreign language, and theoretical issues of MWEs as entities standing between lexicon and grammar, as well as for NLP tasks such as tagging and parsing, identification and search of MWEs, or word sense and semantic disambiguation. The database is designed to account for flexibility in morphology and word order, syntactic and lexical variants and even creatively used fragments. Current state of implementation is presented together with some emerging issues, problems and solutions.

scholarly journals The emergence of systematic argument distinctions in artificial sign languages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasamin Motamedi ◽  
Kenny Smith ◽  
Marieke Schouwstra ◽  
Jennifer Culbertson ◽  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Spatial Modulation ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Verbal Agreement ◽  
Role Shift ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Abstract Word order is a key property by which languages indicate the relationship between a predicate and its arguments. However, sign languages use a number of other modality-specific tools in addition to word order such as spatial agreement, which has been likened to verbal agreement in spoken languages, and role shift, where the signer takes on characteristics of propositional agents. In particular, data from emerging sign languages suggest that, though some use of a conventional word order can appear within a few generations, systematic spatial modulation as a grammatical feature takes time to develop. We experimentally examine the emergence of systematic argument marking beyond word order, investigating how artificial gestural systems evolve over generations of participants in the lab. We find that participants converge on different strategies to disambiguate clause arguments, which become more consistent through the use and transmission of gestures; in some cases, this leads to conventionalized iconic spatial contrasts, comparable to those found in natural sign languages. We discuss how our results connect with theoretical issues surrounding the analysis of spatial agreement and role shift in established and newly emerging sign languages, and the possible mechanisms behind its evolution.

Rules and construction effects in learning the argument structure of verbs

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE DEMUTH ◽  
'MALILLO MACHOBANE ◽  
FRANCINA MOLOI
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Learning Problem ◽  
Order Restrictions ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Applicative Constructions

Theorists of language acquisition have long debated the means by which children learn the argument structure of verbs (e.g. Bowerman, 1974, 1990; Pinker, 1984, 1989; Tomasello, 1992). Central to this controversy has been the possible role of verb semantics, especially in learning which verbs undergo dative-shift alternation in languages like English. The learning problem is somewhat simplified in Bantu double object constructions, where all applicative verbs show the same order of postverbal objects. However, Bantu languages differ as to what that order is, some placing the benefactive argument first, and others placing the animate argument first. Learning the language-specific word-order restrictions on Bantu double object applicative constructions is therefore more akin to setting a parameter (cf. Hyams, 1986). This study examined 100 three- to eight-year-old children's knowledge of word order restrictions in Sesotho double object applicatives. Performance on forced choice elicited production tasks found that four-year-olds showed evidence of rule learning, although eight-year-olds had not yet attained adult levels of performance. Further investigation found lexical construction effects for three-year-olds. These findings suggest that learning the argument structure of verbs, even when lexical semantics is not involved, may be more sensitive to lexical construction effects than previously thought.

Summary and Conclusions

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-224
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Negative Indefinites ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Polarity Sensitive ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This chapter summarizes the central points from each previous chapter and elaborates on the individual analyses of these PSIs (polarity-sensitive items) and their contributions to the critical issues in syntax and linguistic theory. This book studied the microvariation in the syntax of PSIs (negative and positive polarity, negative concord, and negative indefinites) in Standard Arabic and the major regional dialects represented by Jordanian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Qatari. Overall, the syntactic licensing of PSIs in Arabic bears on key theoretical issues in the cross-linguistic studies of polarity sensitivity. Such issues include the syntactic licensing configurations for these items, the feature of structure/specifications of these items, and the availability of syntactic agreement in the context of negation. Lastly, the chapter presents residual issues for future research.

scholarly journals Different Gender, Different Arabic? The Case of Israel

1970 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Torkel Lindquist
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Standard

The present article indicates that women and men write different Arabic in the Israeli press. These differences are observable in the frequency of main and secondary clauses (i.e. in sentence length and in variation), in word order, in the frequency of clauses containing adjectives, as well as those containing adverbs. We see these differences in the frequency of verbs without any visible noun, as well as in the choice of conjunction and the choice of particle of negating the past. These variations in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are due to the gender of the reader, as is the case with adjectives, where women writers use markedly fewer adjectives than men do, except when writing for men. But the variation is otherwise dependent on the gender of the writer. This alternation is not between grammatical or ungrammatical Arabic. Indeed, both genders write correct Arabic. Instead it is (mostly) a question of choice, of style.

scholarly journals An a priori typology of sentential negation from an HPSG perspective

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Crowgey
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Lexical Integrity ◽  
Bipartite Negation

In this paper I explore the logical range of sentential negation types predicted by the theory of HPSG. I find that typological surveys confirm that attested simple negation strategies neatly line up with the types of lexical material given by assuming Lexical Integrity and standard Phrase Structure Grammar dependencies. I then extend the methodology to bipartite negation and derive a space of predicted sentential negation types. I present details of the analysis for each type and relevant examples where possible.

scholarly journals Analyzing interacting phenomena: Word order and negation in Basque

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Crowgey ◽  
Emily M. Bender
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Free Word

We explore the interaction of sentential negation and word order in Basque using a small experimental implemented grammar based on the Grammar Matrix (Bender et al., 2002, 2010) to test the analyses. We find that the analysis of free word order (Fokkens, 2010) provided by the Grammar Matrix customization system can be adapted to handle the Basque facts, and that the constructional approach taken in that analysis supports the integration of negation.

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