On the Strategy for Avoiding Preposition-stranding in Topic Clauses of Modern Mandarin

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 213-238
Author(s):  
Hyeyin Chong
Keyword(s):  
Preposition Stranding

The acquisition of preposition stranding by second language learners and parametric variation

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul van Buren ◽  
Michael Sharwood Smith
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Target System ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Government Binding

This paper discusses the application of Government Binding Theory to second language acquisition in the context of a project which is looking into the acquisition of preposition stranding in English and Dutch. The bulk of the discussion focuses on the theoretical problems involved. Firstly, the potential value of Government Binding Theory in principle is considered both in terms of the formulation of linguistic questions per se and also in terms of more specifically acquisitional questions having to do with the speed and order of acquisition. Secondly, some results in the pilot studies conducted so far in Utrecht are examined with respect to the theoretical usefulness of the framework adopted. The potential of the framework to generate sophisticated linguistic research questions is found to be undeniable. The acquisitional aspects need to be elaborated and adapted to cope with the special features of second, as opposed to first, language acquisition. This involves an elaboration of scenarios to be investigated: one in which the learner's initial assumption is that the unmarked setting of a given parameter of Universal Grammar holds for the target system, one in which the settings of parameters shared by the target and native systems are assumed to be identical, the second being a 'cross linguistic' scenario. These possibilities are considered in the light of the nature of evidence derived from the input and in the light of a set of possible learning strategies derived from the scenarios. The scenarios, the types of evidence and the strategies are spelled out in terms of the specific problem of preposition stranding in Universal Grammar, in Dutch and in English.

scholarly journals Preposition stranding under sluicing: Evidence from Hijazi Arabic

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 941-957
Author(s):  
Nouf Alaowffi ◽  
Bader Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Preposition Stranding

Formal Asymmetries between Active and Passive Clauses in Modern English: The Avoidance of Preposition Stranding with Verbs Featuring Omissible Prepositions

2017 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Rohdenburg
Keyword(s):  
Restricted Range ◽  
British English ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Diachronic Changes ◽  
Potential Use

AbstractThis paper reports on the results of a corpus-based study that deals with a hitherto neglected kind of formal asymmetry between active and passive clauses involving two-place prepositional verbs like agree. These contrasts are found in the context of two satisfied conditions: a) The preposition in question is omissible, which holds for agree in present-day British English as in They agreed (on/upon/to/with) the proposal. b) Unlike active uses, passivization of relevant prepositional options necessarily results in preposition stranding as in The proposal has been agreed on/upon/to/with. It is shown that – in both passive and active clauses – stranded prepositions tend to be omitted more often than non-stranded ones. Unlike the passive, the active provides only a restricted range of contexts compatible with the potential use of stranded prepositions. What is more, these environments are relatively infrequent with most verbs. This is what largely explains the active-passive asymmetries with the verbs explored in this paper. Crucially, however, stranded prepositions can in several cases be demonstrated to be more strongly avoided in the passive than the active, thus mirroring their cross-linguistic distribution (see e. g. Maling and Zaenen 1985; Truswell 2009). The voice contrast is found to be independent of diachronic changes resulting in either the loss or the acquisition of the prepositions involved.

Preposition Stranding in Spanish as a Heritage Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Pascual y Cabo
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
The Core ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers ◽  
Timing Of Exposure

Previous research examining heritage speaker bilingualism has suggested that interfaceconditioned properties are likely to be affected by crosslinguistic influence (e.g., Montrul & Polinsky, 2011; White, 2011). It is not clear, however, whether the core syntax can also be affected to the same degree (e.g., Cuza, 2013; Depiante & Thompson, 2013). Departing from Cuza’s (2013) and Depiante and Thompson’s (2013) research, the present study seeks to determine the extent to which this is possible in the case of Spanish as a heritage language. With this goal in mind, a total of thirty-three Spanish heritage speakers (divided into sequential and simultaneous bilinguals) and a comparison group of eleven late Spanish-English bilinguals completed a battery of off-line tasks that examined knowledge and use of preposition stranding (i.e., a syntactic construction whereby the object of the preposition is fronted while the preposition itself is left stranded), an understudied core syntactic phenomenon that is licit in English but precluded in Spanish. Overall findings reveal that the sequential heritage speakers pattern with participants from the control group. The simultaneous heritage speakers, on the other hand, seem to have a grammar that is not so restricting as they accept and produce ungrammatical cases of preposition stranding. Herein, we argue that these results do not obtain the way they do due to incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition but crucially because of the timing of exposure to the societal language. We propose that this property was completely acquired, although differently acquired due to the structural overlap observed between the two languages involved (e.g., Müller & Hulk, 2001), and most importantly, to the timing of acquisition of English (e.g., Putnam & Sánchez, 2013).

Daily jottings: Preposition placement in English diaries and travel journals from 1500 to 1900

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Late Modern

Abstract This paper explores register variation in diaries and travel journals during the early and late Modern English periods (1500–1900), based on the case study of preposition placement, specifically preposition stranding (which I refer to) and preposition pied piping (to which I refer). Findings show that diaries and travel journals in general have a similar frequency of stranded and pied-piped prepositions, but that sharp differences emerge in their diachronic evolution. The trends suggest that the two registers generally follow the same historical drift towards oral styles previously observed in non-specialised registers, albeit at different rates and with only a moderately oral-like pattern in the nineteenth century. Also of note is that the frequency of stranded prepositions in diaries is lower than expected. I will argue that, although norms on ‘proper’ style and eighteenth-century prescriptive norms of ‘correct’ English play an important role, especially in the second half of the eighteenth century, one should also take into account register-specific characteristics such as the topic and purpose of the text, the setting in which it is produced (private/public), the participants involved and the production circumstances of the text. Likewise, idiolectal differences should not be underestimated, since they can on occasions skew results.

Case and preposition stranding in Old English free relatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Alternative Analysis ◽  
Free Relatives ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Made In

Abstract Taylor (2014) observes that some of the factual claims made in Allen (1980), the most thorough examination of free relatives in Old English to date, are not entirely correct. Taylor presents some examples that Allen’s analysis of Old English free relatives does not account for and proposes an alternative analysis in which the relative pronoun can be internal to the relative clause and the case of the pronoun is determined by the case hierarchy proposed by Harbert (2007) for Gothic. This corpus-based study supplies new data showing that while Taylor’s relative-internal analysis is needed for some examples, the evidence does not support the suggested case hierarchy except in regulating optional case attraction. Latin influence may account for examples that do not fit the usual patterns.

Notes on Expletive There

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Kayne
Keyword(s):  
Blocking Effect ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Internal Position ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Existential Sentences ◽  
Definiteness Effect

AbstractSentences with the verb exist and with a lexical DP in subject position show no definiteness effect. This suggests that the definiteness effect is keyed in English to the presence of expletive there. More strongly put, a definiteness effect is invariably found whenever expletive there (or a counterpart of it in other languages, whether pronounced or not) is present. This effect may in some languages be limited to the case of unstressed pronouns.Expletive there and its counterparts originate within the associate (in a way that accounts for the expletive being there, and not then). In part, this conclusion is driven by anti-homophony. Freeze noted that English is exceptional in having expletive there in subject position. The proposal will be that this is related to English allowing preposition-stranding under A-movement.The definiteness effect itself results from a blocking effect, probably not specific to existential sentences, that certain determiners such as the impose on the movement of expletive there from its DP-internal position up to a sentential subject position.

The Parameter of Preposition Stranding: A View From Child English

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Sugisaki ◽  
William Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Preposition Stranding
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