scholarly journals The Role of Prosody and Morphology in the Mapping of Information Structure onto Syntax

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Laura Colantoni ◽  
Liliana Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Extreme Values ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Level Information ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Agglutinative Languages ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

The mapping of information structure onto morphology or intonation varies greatly crosslinguistically. Agglutinative languages, like Inuktitut or Quechua, have a rich morphological layer onto which discourse-level features are mapped but a limited use of intonation. Instead, English or Spanish lack grammaticalized morphemes that convey discourse-level information but use intonation to a relatively large extent. We propose that the difference found in these two pairs of languages follows from a division of labor across language modules, such that two extreme values of the continuum of possible interactions across modules are available as well as combinations of morphological and intonational markers. At one extreme, in languages such as Inuktitut and Quechua, a rich set of morphemes with scope over constituents convey sentence-level and discourse-level distinctions, making the alignment of intonational patterns and information structure apparently redundant. At the other extreme, as in English and to some extent Spanish, a series of consistent alignments of PF and syntactic structure are required to distinguish sentence types and to determine the information value of a constituent. This results in a complementary distribution of morphology and intonation in these languages. In contact situations, overlap between patterns of module interaction are attested. Evidence from Quechua–Spanish and Inuktitut–English bilinguals supports a bidirectionality of crosslinguistic influence; intonational patterns emerge in non-intonational languages to distinguish sentence types, whereas morphemes or discourse particles emerge in intonational languages to mark discourse-level features.

Phonetic Correlates of Word and Sentence Stress

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-165
Author(s):  
Vincent J. van Heuven ◽  
Alice Turk
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Specific Structure ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Sentence Stress ◽  
Germanic Languages

This chapter reviews the acoustic correlates and perceptual cues of linguistic stress at the word and sentence level, mainly in English and other Germanic languages. A first theme is whether word and sentence stress can be ordered monotonically along the same phonetic scale, rather than involving different acoustic parameters and perceptual dimensions. Other topics are the phonetic reflexes of the Alternation Principle (‘NoClash’) and of changes in information structure as well as the effect of sentence stress on the temporal organization of words and phrases. The work on non-Germanic languages raises the issue of the weighting of stress correlates and its possible interaction with language-specific structure. Two hypotheses are evaluated: (i) languages will mark the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables more forcefully as word stress location is less predictable and (ii) a stress correlate will be less important if it is involved elsewhere in the phonology of the language.

scholarly journals Does pragmatic beat syntax? Evidence from focus accent placement in the semi-spontaneous speech of Italian learners of German

2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Vogt ◽  
Peter Paschke
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Data Types ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Initial Hypothesis ◽  
Better Than

In this paper, we investigate the prosodic marking of information structure by Italian L1 learners of German. We analyze two different contexts with non-final focus accents, i. e. narrow and broad focus contexts, mainly on sentence level while most studies discussing post-focal de-accentuation are restricted to noun phrases. For Italian learners, non-final placement of focus accents is likely to cause problems, given that in their L1, phonetic prominence is normally as-signed to the last constituent in the verbal phrase. Our initial hypothesis was that the hypothetical "cognitive universal" requiring de-accentuation of given elements might probably guide the learners in realizing the correct pitch contour in contexts with a non-final narrow focus (and pragmatic de-accentuation of the final given constituent). By contrast, the de-accentuation of phrase-final lexical verbs in broad focus contexts was expected to cause more problems given that this typologically marked syntactic structure does not exist in Italian. However, in a previous study based on read speech, de-accentuation of final given elements was managed by inter-mediate Italian learners of German L2 only slightly better than realizing a non-final focus accent in all new contexts on the argument in OV structures (success rate of 55% vs. 48%, with no statistically significant difference). In other words, both types of non-final focus accents seem to be balanced at this intermediate stage of acquisition. In this contribution, our goal is to discover whether in semi-spontaneous speech one can find the same distributional patterns of non-final focus accents in this learner variety of Italian learners of German. To this end, we analyzed recordings of oral exams from the same 10 Italian university students that had taken part in the previous study. The analysis shows that in semi-spontaneous speech production too, there is evidence for the hypothesis that pragmatics does not "beat" syntax in prosodic acquisition. Besides, when the two different data types were compared, a very high intra-speaker correlation emerged between read and semi-spontaneous speech.

Deep Case, Text Surface, and Information Structure

1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnel Källgren
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Textual Cohesion ◽  
Important Notion ◽  
Theoretical Apparatus ◽  
Empirical Analyses

This article is an attempt at combining sentence level and text level by similar means of analysis, based on a DEEP CASE MODEL. Tentative lists of DEEP CASES and TEXTUAL RELATIONS are given and discussed.The theoretical apparatus has been developed through empirical analyses of important notion of LINK FAMILY is introduced. The ultimate goal of this type of analysis is to find the INFORMATION STRUCTURE of texts, but its connections wiht e.g. “pure” TEXTUAL COHESION are also treated.

Neural network processing of radar scanning data array

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.E. Dmitriyev ◽  
D.V. Popov ◽  
V.A. Shakhnov
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Perception ◽  
Digital Processing ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Data Array ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Distribution Of Values ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Radar Data Processing ◽  
Made In

This article deals with the digital processing of a matrix radar image. The information received from the radar scanner needs to be transformed to enable visual perception. The article describes the main methods of digital processing of matrix data, presents the images transformed by them. The aim of the article was the development of a radar data processing algorithm that identifies the contours and edges of examined objects. The authors propose an algorithm for isolating the geometric structure of the scanned area. The difference between the processing method and the known analogues is based on the nature of the change in the values of the array being processed and consists in the double operation of extracting the gradient of the distribution of values. The software implementation of the algorithm is made in C++ using methods from an open library of computer vision. The efficiency of the algorithm was estimated based on comparison with the algorithms for determining edges based on linear filtering and neural networks. The results of the work can be used to create software for mobile short-range radar devices. Imaging from object boundaries and their edges provides spatial perception of the image by the operator, and free areas are available for rendering additional information. This solution allows you to combine scanning devices and thereby increase the information value of the result.

Clause structure, case and agreement in Polish existential, possessive and locative sentences: A phase-based account

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-696
Author(s):  
Joanna Błaszczak
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Case Alternation ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Existential Sentences ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Event Variable

Abstract In this paper it will be argued that the difference between existential and locative sentences is primarily structurally encoded at the vP/VP level (at the first phase of a derivation). The crucial question is which argument of the verb BE (the Location or the nominal argument (“Theme”)) is projected as the “external argument”, i.e., which argument is the subject of inner predication. In the case of existential sentences it is the Location argument which is the subject of inner predication, and in the case of locative sentences it is the nominal argument. The subject of inner predication becomes by default also the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence. Hence, in the case of locative sentences the nominal argument is the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence, and in the case of existential sentences it is the Location which becomes the topic. (Or, alternatively, the actual topic (the subject of outer predication) might be the situational/ event variable, and the Location functions as a restriction on it.) However, the actual arrangement of constituents in the sentences under discussion, as in any other Polish sentence, is determined by the pragmatic/communicative principles. Given this, it is reasonable to think that the NOM/GEN case alternation in negated existential/locative sentences is primarily a matter of syntax, and not one of information structure or scope of negation. The analysis will be modeled in accordance with the phasal model of Chomsky (2000 et seq.).

scholarly journals Marked and Non-Marked Attribute Structures within a Secondary Predicate in the French Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Iuliia Zelena
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
French Language ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status ◽  
Productive Potential ◽  
Semantic Transfer ◽  
Argumentative Structure ◽  
Transfer Mechanisms

The article is devoted to the study of marked and unmarked attributive constructions, considering the influence of semantic transfer mechanisms, taking into account their productive potential. Structuraland semantic characterization of types of attributive constructions is performed in light of two initial theories –in view ofreferentstatusand actual sentence fragmentation. An independent research of relationsbetween predication manifestations and the semanticand syntactic structure of a sentence has been performed by determining the valence properties of attributive verbs. The distinctionbetween different types of constructionswith the attribute complement isdescribed and it is specifiedthat there is a direct correlation between the type of attributive sentences and the emergence of predicative relation.The article is dedicated to the analysis of modification of the information structure and the status of the referent in sentences containing attributive object. Given the types of interpretation of attributive sentences and, based on the results of contextual analysis, it became possible to prove that change of argumentative structure in verbal group gives a reason to treat attributive verb with elements SN2 and X as a predicative focus of the sentence and permit to consider it as the complex secondary predicate.

scholarly journals Frequency-based Segregation of Syntactic and Semantic Unification during Online Sentence Level Language Comprehension

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 2095-2107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Bastiaansen ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Critical Word ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Oscillatory Dynamics ◽  
Band Power ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Word Onset ◽  
Semantic Unification

During sentence level language comprehension, semantic and syntactic unification are functionally distinct operations. Nevertheless, both recruit roughly the same brain areas (spatially overlapping networks in the left frontotemporal cortex) and happen at the same time (in the first few hundred milliseconds after word onset). We tested the hypothesis that semantic and syntactic unification are segregated by means of neuronal synchronization of the functionally relevant networks in different frequency ranges: gamma (40 Hz and up) for semantic unification and lower beta (10–20 Hz) for syntactic unification. EEG power changes were quantified as participants read either correct sentences, syntactically correct though meaningless sentences (syntactic prose), or sentences that did not contain any syntactic structure (random word lists). Other sentences contained either a semantic anomaly or a syntactic violation at a critical word in the sentence. Larger EEG gamma-band power was observed for semantically coherent than for semantically anomalous sentences. Similarly, beta-band power was larger for syntactically correct sentences than for incorrect ones. These results confirm the existence of a functional dissociation in EEG oscillatory dynamics during sentence level language comprehension that is compatible with the notion of a frequency-based segregation of syntactic and semantic unification.

Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natascha Müller ◽  
Aafke Hulk
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
Target Form ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Italian Children ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

In this paper we want to compare the results from monolingual children with object omissions in bilingual children who have acquired two languages simultaneously. Our longitudinal studies of bilingual Dutch–French, German–French, and German–Italian children show that the bilingual children behave like monolingual children regarding the type of object omissions in the Romance languages. They differ from monolingual children with respect to the extent to which object drop is used. At the same time, the children differentiate the two systems they are using. We want to claim that the difference between monolingual and bilingual children concerning object omissions in the Romance languages is due to crosslinguistic influence in bilingual children: the Germanic language influences the Romance language. Crosslinguistic influence occurs once a syntactic construction in language A allows for more than one grammatical analysis from the perspective of child grammar and language B contains positive evidence for one of these possible analyses. The bilingual child is not able to map the universal strategies onto language-specific rules as quickly as the monolinguals, since s/he is confronted with a much wider range of language-specific syntactic possibilities. One of the possibilities seems to be compatible with a universal strategy. We would like to argue for the existence of crosslinguistic influence, induced by the mapping of universal principles onto language-specific principles – in particular, pragmatic onto syntactic principles. This influence will be defined as mapping induced influence. We will account for the object omissions by postulating an empty discourse-connected PRO in pre-S position (Müller, Crysmann, and Kaiser, 1996; Hulk, 1997). Like monolingual children, bilingual children use this possibility until they show evidence of the C-system (the full clause) in its target form.

The change of Frisian infinitives

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Myrthe Bergstra
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Flexible Structure ◽  
The Difference

Abstract This paper discusses the two types of infinitives in Frisian: infinitives ending in -E (e.g. rinne “walk”) and infinitives ending in -EN (e.g. rinnen “walk”). It shows that their distribution can be accounted for by their different underlying syntactic structure: the -E infinitive has a fully verbal structure whereas the -EN infinitive has a flexible structure which always involves a DP. Moreover, I argue that the fact that the difference between the two forms is disappearing can be explained both by Dutch influence and by the fact that the structure of the infinitives already showed much overlap.

The syntax, information structure, and prosody of German ‘VP’-fronting

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-283
Author(s):  
Vera Lee-Schoenfeld ◽  
Anya Lunden
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
High Tone ◽  
New Information ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Vp Fronting ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
Definiteness Effect

Abstract This paper explores fronted verb phrases in German, drawing attention to the difference between passive/unaccusative VPs and fronted agentive vPs. While both kinds of verb phrases have been discussed in the literature as being frontable, it has been largely overlooked that fronted vPs typically come with a certain kind of post-fronting context and a rise-fall or bridge-contour intonation, which is characteristic of I-topicalization. We observe that, unlike VPs, agentive vPs essentially need to be I-topics, with a high tone at the right edge of the fronted domain, in order to be frontable. Given the special context required for fronted vPs, the situation described by the vP does not contain new information but must already have been under discussion and is now being commented on. We present the results of two experimental studies and appeal to the thetic/categorical distinction to offer a new angle on the definiteness effect that has been associated with fronted verb phrases. We propose that a subject-containing fronted vP is associated with a thetic rather than the default categorical judgment, which means that the fronted subject and predicate form only one information-structural unit (a topic) rather than two (topic and comment). Contributing to the literature on theticity, we observe that, unlike in non-fronting thetic statements, the subject in fronted vPs cannot be a true definite. We attribute this to clashing intonation restrictions on theticity in non-fronting constructions versus theticity in just the fronted portion of a sentence.

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