scholarly journals Syntactic categories informing variationist analysis: The case of English copy-raising

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Alana Brook
Keyword(s):  
Large City ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Finite Structures ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Copy Raising ◽  
As If ◽  
Subject Raising

<p>This paper re-examines variation between the comparative complementizers (AS IF, AS THOUGH, LIKE, THAT, and Ø) that follow verbs denoting ostensibility (SEEM, APPEAR, LOOK, SOUND, and FEEL) in the large city of Toronto, Canada. Given that younger speakers appear to be using more of these structures in the first place, I evaluate the hypothesis that there is a trade-off in apparent time between these finite structures and the non-finite construction of Subject-to-Subject raising. Focusing on the verb SEEM, I find that the non-finite structures are losing ground in apparent time to the finite ones. I subsequently address the issue of how best to divide up the finite tokens as co-variants opposite the finite constructions, and find that a split according to syntactic properties – whether or not the copy-raising transformation is permitted – tidily accounts for the patterning and reveals a straightforward change in progress. The results reaffirm the value of using variationist methodology to test competing claims, and also establish that variation can behave in a classic way even among whole syntactic categories.</p>

Taking it up a level: Copy-raising and cascaded tiers of morphosyntactic change

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Brook
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
British English ◽  
Finite Structure ◽  
Syntactic Change ◽  
Copy Raising ◽  
Over Time ◽  
As If

AbstractThis paper uncovers evidence for two linked levels of morphosyntactic change occurring in Canadian English. The more ordinary is a lexical replacement: with finite subordination after seem, the complementizer like has been overtaking all the alternatives (as if, as though, that, and Ø). On top of this, there is a broader syntactic change whereby the entire finite structure (now represented primarily by like) is beginning to catch on at the expense of infinitival subordination after seem. Drawing on complementary evidence from British English and several partial precedents in the historical linguistics literature, I take this correlation to mean that like has reached sufficient rates among the finite strategy to have instigated the second level of change, to the point that it has ramifications for epistemic and evidential marking with the verb seem. I propose that the best model of these trajectories is a set of increasingly large envelopes of variation, one inside the next, and argue that the envelope might itself be an entity susceptible to change over time.

TOPICS AND TANGENTS FOR MUTUAL HELP IN UNCERTAINTY

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parker Shipton
Keyword(s):  
Change Over Time ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Generalize Input ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
Over Time ◽  
As If

ABSTRACTSelf-help groups of varied kinds emerge when kinship, territorial governance or other accustomed associations prove unreliable. Interactions that appear helpful and mutual to one party need not always seem so to another. Shaping their character are not just reason and economic or political necessity, but also feelings, some of which humans share with other animals. These feelings often depend, however, on distinctly human symbolic and linguistic contrivances, sometimes of ironic kinds. Mutual help in Africa often spans generations, and by some interpretations both the living and the non-living. Rites and ceremonies can change over time in relation to other ones performed. Whether these conventions strengthen each other, as if by exercise, or substitute for each other in a more hydraulic way as a trade-off is hard to predict or generalize. Input from several sciences, once integrated with humanistic inquiry, may further enrich our understanding.

On the Argument Structure of Certain Haitian Predicates - Rete, To Remain', Posib 'Possible'

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Subject Raising

The paper presents a systematic description of rete and posib, including some patterns which have not been discussed before in the literature. The account confirms that these predicates do not provide examples of subject-to-subject raising constructions. A lexical subject with rete or posib is always assigned a theta-role by that predicate. The analysis provides a unified lexical representation of each predicate without resort to double lexical entries to represent different syntactic patterns which are phonolog-ically and semantically identical. The syntactic properties of these predicates are essentially parallel, with the basic exception of the distinction that rete is a Case assigner, but posib is not. Additionally, it is argued that rete requires an overt specification of the location or time of the event which it describes, but posib has no such requirement.

Who Gets to Be Wanton?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Dayan
Keyword(s):  
Trade Off ◽  
Domesticated Animals ◽  
As If

This chapter explains that in the trade-off between dignity and degradation, the rights of humans are pitted against the treatment of animals. Recall earlier discussions of retribution for unnatural deaths in biblical and classical texts—the ox that gores must be stoned—and the medieval trials and executions of animals: the pigs who ate children, the dogs who bit, or the cats who spooked. In the distant past, animals were taken as seriously as humans, given the dignity of trial, even the recognition that comes with sudden agony. Highly unnatural religious fictions gave rise to issues of legality. Punishments ritually communicated to animals the horror of their deed. Treated as if rational beings, they were expected to take responsibility for their crime. However, these legal rituals were granted only to domesticated animals, not to the untamed, such as tigers.

scholarly journals Specificational pseudoclefts in English

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun-Jung Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Theory Approach ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Copular Sentences ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
As If

Specificational pseudoclefts (SPCs) have been a great challenge for a syntactic theory, because, despite the surface division between the pre- and post-copular elements, the post-copular ˋpivot' behaves as if it occupied the gap position in the precopular wh-clause. This paper argues that movement-based or deletion-based syntactic approaches and purely semantic approaches have problems in dealing with syntactic properties and connectivity problems of SPCs in English. Observing the parallelism between SPC pivots and short answers to questions, it proposes an HPSG account based on a non-deletion-based QDT (Question-in-disguise theory) approach and on the equative analysis of the specificational copular sentences. The paper shows that SPCs must be handled by an integrated account of the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of the construction, and argues that the connectivity problems should be approached from such an integrated view.

Zur Syntax hypothetischer Vergleichssätze im Deutschen

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Bücking
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Free Relative ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Basic Semantic ◽  
As If

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the syntactic properties of hypothetical comparison clauses (¼ HCCs) in German. These are introduced either by als (‘as’) or wie (‘how’); for example, Ben fährt Rad, {als wenn er betrunken wäre / als ob er betrunken wäre / als wäre er betrunken / wie wenn er betrunken wäre} (‘Ben is cycling as if he were drunk’). I argue that als in als-HCCs contributes a prepositional C-head that involves idiosyncratic selectional restrictions regarding the embedded conditional clause. HCCs with wie, by contrast, are treated as by and large ordinary free relative clauses; what sets them apart from other free relative clauses is that their initial wh-phrase is extracted from an empty VP, which is licensed by the explicit conditional antecedent. The proposed analyses are backed up by evidence from the following sources: (i) the behavior of HCCs with regard to diagnostics for (dis) integration/subordination as opposed to coordination, (ii) basic semantic properties of HCCs, and (iii) structural contrasts between HCCs introduced by als and HCCs introduced by wie. I spell out the proposals in terms of Sternefeld’s (2006) featuredriven lexicalist syntax model.

Improvement of an artificial test substrate technique for evaluation of em immunocytochemical labeling

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 762-763
Author(s):  
G. D. Gagne ◽  
M. F. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Bovine Serum Albumin ◽  
Serum Albumin ◽  
Bovine Serum ◽  
Artificial Substrate ◽  
Chemical Fixation ◽  
As If

We recently described an artificial substrate system which could be used to optimize labeling parameters in EM immunocytochemistry (ICC). The system utilizes blocks of glutaraldehyde polymerized bovine serum albumin (BSA) into which an antigen is incorporated by a soaking procedure. The resulting antigen impregnated blocks can then be fixed and embedded as if they are pieces of tissue and the effects of fixation, embedding and other parameters on the ability of incorporated antigen to be immunocyto-chemically labeled can then be assessed. In developing this system further, we discovered that the BSA substrate can also be dried and then sectioned for immunolabeling with or without prior chemical fixation and without exposing the antigen to embedding reagents. The effects of fixation and embedding protocols can thus be evaluated separately.

Sentence Repetition: A Clinical Marker for Developmental Language Disorder in Danish

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 4450-4463
Author(s):  
Rikke Vang Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Likelihood Ratios ◽  
Clinical Marker ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Good Identification ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Purpose The aim of the study was to explore the potential of performance on a Danish sentence repetition (SR) task—including specific morphological and syntactic properties—to identify difficulties in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) relative to typically developing (TD) children. Furthermore, the potential of the task as a clinical marker for Danish DLD was explored. Method SR performance of children with DLD aged 5;10–14;1 (years;months; n = 27) and TD children aged 5;3–13;4 ( n = 87) was investigated. Results Compared to TD same-age peers, children with DLD were less likely to repeat the sentences accurately but more likely to make ungrammatical errors with respect to verb inflection and use of determiners and personal pronouns. Younger children with DLD also produced more word order errors that their TD peers. Furthermore, older children with DLD performed less accurately than younger TD peers, indicating that the SR task taps into morphosyntactic areas of particular difficulty for Danish children with DLD. The classification accuracy associated with SR performance showed high levels of sensitivity and specificity (> 90%) and likelihood ratios indicating good identification potential for clinical and future research purposes. Conclusion SR performance has a strong potential for identifying children with DLD, also in Danish, and with a carefully designed SR task, performance has potential for revealing morphosyntactic difficulties. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.10314437

A Flow-Preserving Algorithm for the Time-Cost Trade-Off Problem

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suleyman Tufekci
Keyword(s):  
Time Cost ◽  
Trade Off
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