scholarly journals The role of verb semantics in Hungarian verb-object order

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Dorottya Demszky
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Logical Function ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Semantic Classes

Hungarian is often referred to as a discourse-configurational language, since the structural position of constituents is determined by their logical function (topic or comment) rather than their grammatical function (e.g., subject or object). We build on work by Komlósy (1989) and argue that in addition to discourse context, the lexical semantics of the verb also plays a significant role in determining Hungarian word order. In order to investigate the role of lexical semantics in determining Hungarian word order, we conduct a large-scale, data-driven analysis on the ordering of 380 transitive verbs and their objects, as observed in hundreds of thousands of examples extracted from the Hungarian Gigaword Corpus. We test the effect of lexical semantics on the ordering of verbs and their objects by grouping verbs into 11 semantic classes. In addition to the semantic class of the verb, we also include two control features related to information structure, object definiteness and object NP weight, chosen to allow a comparison of their effect size to that of verb semantics. Our results suggest that all three features have a significant effect on verb-object ordering in Hungarian and among these features, the semantic class of the verb has the largest effect. Specifically, we find that stative verbs, such as fed 'cover', jelent 'mean' and övez 'surround', tend to be OV-preferring (with the exception of psych verbs which are strongly VO-preferring) and non-stative verbs, such as bírál 'judge', csökkent 'reduce' and csókol 'kiss', verbs tend to be VO-preferring. These findings support our hypothesis that lexical semantic factors influence word order in Hungarian.

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.

Fronting, dislocation, and the syntactic role of discourse-related features

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvio Cruschina
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Syntactic Features

This paper focuses on the syntactic role of the features related to discourse and information structure. It is argued that information-structure notions are encoded in syntax as syntactic features projecting their own phrase structure, and are fundamental in accounting for cross-linguistic variation. The word order alternations and syntactic operations which are strictly dependent on the discourse/informational properties of the sentence, as well as the different grammatical properties characterizing different information-structure categories, can all be related to the syntactic role of discourse-related features, the functional projections with which they are associated, and the type of movement that these features trigger. Under this view, this paper offers an analysis of fronting and dislocation phenomena in Romance, which entails that variation with respect to these processes is correlated to the activation and to the attraction properties of the functional projections encoding information-structure distinctions. Keywords: discourse-related features; information structure; functional projections; topic; informational focus; contrastive focus; Romance; Sicilian

What are and what aren’t complex nominal expressions in flexible word order languages

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-79
Author(s):  
Uta Reinöhl
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
The One ◽  
Question Form ◽  
Australian Languages

AbstractThis paper tackles the challenge of how to identify multi-word (or “complex”) nominal expressions in flexible word order languages including certain Australian languages and Vedic Sanskrit. In these languages, a weak or absent noun/adjective distinction in conjunction with flexible word order make it often hard to distinguish between complex nominal expressions, on the one hand, and cases where the nominals in question form independent expressions, on the other hand. Based on a discourse-based understanding of what it means to form a nominal expression, this paper surveys various cases where we are not dealing with multi-word nominal expressions. This involves, in particular, periphery-related phenomena such as use of nominals as free topics or afterthoughts, as well as various kinds of predicative uses. In the absence of clear morpho-syntactic evidence, all kinds of linguistic evidence are relied upon, including, in particular, information structure and prosody, but also derivational morphology and lexical semantics. In this way, it becomes frequently possible to distinguish between what are and what aren’t complex nominal expressions in these languages.

scholarly journals Information Structure and Word Order Canonicity in the Comprehension of Spanish Texts: An Eye-Tracking Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina A. Gattei ◽  
Luis A. París ◽  
Diego E. Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Total Reading Time ◽  
Pragmatic Motivation

Word order alternation has been described as one of the most productive information structure markers and discourse organizers across languages. Psycholinguistic evidence has shown that word order is a crucial cue for argument interpretation. Previous studies about Spanish sentence comprehension have shown greater difficulty to parse sentences that present a word order that does not respect the order of participants of the verb's lexico-semantic structure, irrespective to whether the sentences follow the canonical word order of the language or not. This difficulty has been accounted as the cognitive cost related to the miscomputation of prominence status of the argument that precedes the verb. Nonetheless, the authors only analyzed the use of alternative word orders in isolated sentences, leaving aside the pragmatic motivation of word order alternation. By means of an eye-tracking task, the current study provides further evidence about the role of information structure for the comprehension of sentences with alternative word order and verb type, and sheds light on the interaction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics. We analyzed both “early” and “late” eye-movement measures as well as accuracy and response times to comprehension questions. Results showed an overall influence of information structure reflected in a modulation of late eye-movement measures as well as offline measures like total reading time and questions response time. However, effects related to the miscomputation of prominence status did not fade away when sentences were preceded by a context that led to non-canonical word order of constituents, showing that prominence computation is a core mechanism for argument interpretation, even in sentences preceded by context.

scholarly journals Parallel corpora and contrastive linguistics: Where to look for pitfalls in the translation of information structure

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Libuše Dušková
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Linear Ordering ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Parallel Corpora ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Functional Sentence Perspective ◽  
Parallel Texts ◽  
Basic Distribution

This paper deals with some of the problems encountered in English-Czech contrastive studies of information structure based on parallel texts. It largely focuses on those arising from the different hierarchy of the respective word order principles, the primary one being grammatical function in English, and information structure / functional sentence perspective (FSP) in Czech. Three aspects are considered: linear ordering of clause elements, FSP structure, and the basic distribution of communicative dynamism. Owing to the character and complexity of the FSP factors, word order, context, semantics and intonation, and the lack of distinctive realization forms of the carriers of the FSP functions, the study is based on manual excerpts from passages of digitalized running text of three English novels and their Czech translations drawn from the InterCorp. The results show that most problems arise in the case of different linear ordering as it may indicate either an identical or a different FSP structure.

Understanding sentences in varying contexts

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Clark C. Presson
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Logical Function ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Sentence Meaning ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Two Factors

ABSTRACTThe present study tested Huttenlocher & Weiner's (1971) hypothesis concerning the role of grammatical function in sentence comprehension. Children arranged objects to correspond to descriptions of transitive relations in two tasks. The patterns of object placements provided evidence of how children understood the various sentence forms. Contrary to Huttenlocher & Weiner's hypothesis, grammatical function was not a critical factor in object placements. This was true based on the group data or individual-based analyses. Two factors were important: logical function and order of mention of the items in the sentence. Whether an item was grammatical subject or grammatical object did not affect subjects' choices. The order of mention effects resulted from inattention to sentence meaning prior to the initial choices on certain trials. If the logical relations in a sentence were understood prior to the response, only logical function influenced subjects' responses.

Postnominal relative clauses in Chinese

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1501-1542
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Fuyun Wu
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Distributional Patterns ◽  
Chinese Dialects ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Aspect Markers

AbstractIn contrast to well-studied prenominal relative clauses (RCs) in Chinese, little has been known about postnominal RCs that are non-canonical but existent in spoken Chinese. Focusing on Standard Mandarin, this paper examines in a large-scale spoken corpus the distributional patterns of postnominal RCs. Using distribution patterns of prenominal RCs in existing corpus studies as benchmarks, we show that postnominal RCs in our spoken corpus of Standard Mandarin tend to modify sentential objects more frequently than sentential subjects, and that they are likely to be short, with extremely rare presence of aspect markers. Based on these patterns, we propose that postnominal RCs in Standard Mandarin are mostly afterthoughts, motivated by information structure of spoken languages and word order principles. To better understand their general coverage, we further investigate postnominal RCs in Chinese dialects using available resources, including Yue, Min, Xiang, and Wu, followed by a raw comparison of cross-dialectal similarities and differences. We conclude that postnominal RCs in Chinese are similarly motivated, but their degrees of grammaticalization vary.

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