scholarly journals How to start a V2 declarative clause: Transfer of syntax vs. information structure in L2 German

Nordlyd ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Bohnacker ◽  
Christina Rosén
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Control Data ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Discourse Pragmatics ◽  
Linguistic Means

This paper discusses V2 word order and information structure in Swedish, German and non-native German. Concentrating on the clause-initial position of V2 declaratives, the ‘prefield’, we investigate the extent of L1 transfer in a closely related L2. The prefield anchors the clause in discourse, and although almost any type of element can occur in this position, naturalistic text corpora of native Swedish and native German show distinct language-specific patterns. Certain types of elements are more common than others in clause-initial position, and their frequencies in Swedish differ substantially from German (subjects, fronted objects, certain adverbs). Nonnative cross-sectional production data from Swedish learners of German at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels are compared with native control data, matched for age and genre (Bohnacker 2005, 2006, Rosén 2006). The learners’ V2 syntax is largely targetlike, but their beginnings of sentences are unidiomatic. They have problems with the language-specific linguistic means that have an impact on information structure: They overapply the Swedish principle of “rheme later” in their L2 German, indicating L1 transfer at the interface of syntax and discourse pragmatics, especially for structures that are frequent in the L1 (subject-initial and expletive-initial clauses, and constructions with <em>så</em> (‘so’) and object <em>det</em> (‘it/that’)).

scholarly journals The clause-initial position in L2 Swedish declaratives: Word order variation and discourse pragmatics

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Bohnacker
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
New Information ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Transfer Of Information

In a recent study of the clause-initial position in verb-second declaratives (the prefield), Bohnacker & Rosén (2008) found significant differences between native Swedish and German concerning the frequencies with which constituents occurred in the prefield, as well as qualitative differences concerning the mapping of information structure and linear word order: Swedish exhibited a stronger tendency than German to place new information, the so-called rheme, later in the clause. Swedish-speaking learners of German transferred these patterns from their L1 to German. Their sentences were syntactically well-formed but had Swedish-style prefield frequencies and a strong pattern of Rheme Later, which native Germans perceive as unidiomatic, as an acceptability judgment and a rewrite-L2texts task showed. The present study extends Bohnacker & Rosén's work in three ways. Learners of the reverse language combination (L1 German, L2 Swedish) are investigated to see whether similar phenomena also manifest themselves there. Secondly, written and oral data from highly advanced learners are examined to see whether the learners’ persistent problems can be overcome by extensive immersion (3, 6 and 9 years of L2 exposure). Thirdly, besides investigating theme–rheme (old vs. new information), some consideration is given to another information-structural level, background vs. focus. The learners are found to overuse the prefield at first, with non-Swedish, German-style frequency patterns (e.g. low proportions of clause-initial expletives and high proportions of clause-initial rhematic elements). This is interpreted as evidence for L1 transfer of information-structural or discourse-pragmatic preferences. After 6 and 9 years, a substantial increase in clause-initial expletive subjects, clefts and lightweight given elements is indicative of development towards the target. The findings are related to current generative theorizing on the syntax-pragmatics interface, where it is often maintained that the integration of multiple types of information is one of the hardest areas for L2 learners to master.

Information Structure in First Language Acquisition

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Höhle ◽  
Frauke Berger ◽  
Antje Sauermann
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Focus Particles ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Early Production ◽  
Linguistic Means

So far, research on the acquisition of information structure (IS) is still relatively sparse compared to other areas of first language acquisition research. A growing interest in this area has emerged with an increasing number of results indicating an asymmetry of an early production but late comprehension of linguistic means related to IS—which contrasts common findings in other areas of acquisition with comprehension skills typically being in advance to production skills and thus provides a challenge for theories of language acquisition. This chapter will give a review on recent findings on the acquisition of linguistic means to mark IS in first language acquisition focusing on studies looking at the production and comprehension of accentuation and word order. A further part will look at children’s production and comprehension of sentences with focus particles.

scholarly journals Acquisition of Double-Nominative Constructions by Italian L1 Learners of Chinese

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Morbiato
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Chinese Word ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Learner Corpora

This paper presents new results of an ongoing cross-sectional corpus study investigating the acquisition of Chinese word order by Italian L1 learners. Specifically, it focuses on the acquisition of ‘double-nominative constructions’, as well as the correct sequential organisation of topical and focal information in the Chinese sentence. The analysis is conducted on three learner corpora, created by the Author on the basis of a test submitted to three groups of university (BA and MA)-level Italian L1 learners of Chinese, for a total of 132 learners. Quantitative and qualitative analysis conducted on the collected data show that, while the double-subject construction may appear as a simple and straightforward pattern, it is in fact a rather difficult construction to acquire and spontaneously produce for Italian L1 learners. Rather, students tend to use patterns they are used to in their L1 (or other L2s, such as English). These include the [NP1 have NP2], [NP1 的 NP2], or [NP1 adjectival predicate] patterns, among other types, thus confirming the inhibitive L1 transfer hypotheses of this study.

Information structural transfer in advanced Dutch EFL writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 173-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne van Vuuren
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Transfer Of Information

This article presents a case study on the role of L1 transfer of language-specific features of information structure in very advanced L2 learners. Cross-linguistic differences in the information status of clause-initial position in a V2 language like Dutch compared to an SVO language like English are hypothesized to result in overuse of clause-initial adverbials in the writing of advanced Dutch learners of English. This hypothesis was tested by evaluating advanced Dutch EFL learners’ use of clause-initial adverbials in a syntactically annotated longitudinal corpus of student writing, compared to a native reference corpus. Results indicate that Dutch EFL learners overuse clause-initial adverbials of place as well as addition adverbials that refer back to an antecedent in the directly preceding discourse. Although there is a clear development in the direction of native writing, transfer of information structural features of Dutch can still be observed even after three years of extended academic exposure.

SIMILATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN HITTITE «SONG OF ULLIKUMMI»

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Mariya Molina
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Focus Position ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Standard Sequence ◽  
Standard Of Comparison ◽  
A Chain

The article is aimed at the analysis of similative constructions with the semantics «X like Y» in Hittite epos the «Song of Ullikummi». Contextual analysis allows the author to detect this type of collocations without any markers like asyndetic constructions (with juxtaposition, a chain of accusatives). The author of the article has studied the word order in these constructions. It has been shown that the similarity phrase regularly takes place in the immediate preverbal position after the object and the adverbial modifier of place in a linear structure. It is interesting to find contexts with a standard of comparison in the initial position of the clause, which points out to the upper (and marked) focus position. This type of placement mostly correlates with right dislocations, frequent in the Hittite poetic language. As for the linear word order, constructions with conjunction «like X», as a rule, appear as a sequence «a comparee – a standard of comparison – a marker of the standard». The rare sequences «a standard – a comparee – a marker» show markedness connected to the needs for information structure, which demands further research. In asyndetic constructions the standard sequence appears as «a comparee – a standard». In the paper it has been shown that similative constructions in the «Song of Ullikummi» actually lost the proper similarity semantics and serve as markers of certain qualities of poetic images.

An Information Structure scenario for V2 loss in Medieval French

Diachronica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Larrivée
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Order Change ◽  
Informational Cues ◽  
Word Order Change ◽  
Informational Value

Abstract This paper discusses word order change in Medieval French. Verb-second (V2) configurations are generally understood as having an initial XP and the verb in the left periphery. How has this configuration been lost in French? Under an Information Structure scenario, the XP is in initial position because of its characterized (discourse-old) informational value, which motivates the left-peripheral position of the verb. The decline of the characterized informational value of the XP thus accounts for the gradual loss of V2. The informational behaviour of XPs was examined in unambiguous V2 configurations with an overt post-verbal subject in Medieval French. This detailed quantitative study of a calibrated corpus shows that XPs with a characterized informational value were predominant with productive V2 configurations, that they gradually declined as productive V2 was lost, and that they increasingly failed to attract the verb to the left periphery. These observations can be accounted for if V2 in Medieval French was driven by informational values and if it disappeared along with the informational cues provided by the XPs.

Information Structure in Slavic

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Jasinskaja
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Focus Particles ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Concise Overview ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
Free Word ◽  
Linguistic Means ◽  
Focus Projection

This chapter presents a concise overview of the linguistic means that express categories of information structure (IS) in Slavic languages. Concentrating especially on (a) the realization of broad vs narrow focus (focus projection); and (b) the expression of given information, topic, and delimitation, the chapter covers intonation and ‘free’ word order—the two most widely discussed ways of IS encoding. It further presents less well studied IS-sensitive devices and phenomena in Slavic: clefts, predicate doubling, topic and focus particles, as well as the interaction of IS with the Slavic clitic systems, in particular, in the expression of positive and negative polarity (or verum) focus.

scholarly journals THE CLAUSE-INITIAL POSITION IN L2 GERMAN DECLARATIVES : Transfer of Information Structure

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Bohnacker ◽  
Christina Rosén
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Transfer Of Information ◽  
Informational Value

This article investigates the information structure of verb-second (V2) declaratives in Swedish, German, and nonnative German. Even though almost any type of element can occur in the so-called prefield, the clause-initial preverbal position of V2 declaratives, we have found language-specific patterns in native-speaker corpora: The frequencies of prefield constituent types differ substantially between German and Swedish, and Swedish postpones new (rhematic) information and instead fills the prefield with given (thematic) elements and elements of no or low informational value (e.g., expletives) to a far greater extent than German. We compare Swedish learners of German to native controls matched for age and genre (Bohnacker, 2005, 2006; Rosén, 2006). These learners master the syntactic properties of V2 but start their sentences in nonnative ways. They overapply the Swedish principle of rheme later in their second language German, indicating first language (L1) transfer at the interface of syntax and information structure, especially for structures that are frequent in the L1.

scholarly journals Optional word order in wh-questions in two Norwegian dialects: a diachronic analysis of synchronic variation

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit R. Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Critical Level ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Spontaneous Production ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Split Cp

Based on a corpus of spontaneous production data, this paper compares the word order of wh-questions in two Norwegian dialects, Kåfjord and Tromsø. While the choice of word order (V2 or non-V2) in Tromsø is dependent on information structure, the Kåfjord speakers produce considerably more non-V2 in questions with monosyllabic wh-elements. The majority of questions with multisyllabic wh-constituents, on the other hand, occurs with V2. This synchronic variation is given a diachronic analysis within a Split-CP model of clause structure and a cue-based approach to acquisition and change, where an economy principle (head preference) also plays an important role. Furthermore, an information structure drift from V2 to non-V2 is argued to cause the cue for verb movement to fall below a critical level in the input to children, the result being that V2 only survives in lexically marked cases in Kåfjord, i.e. with the verb ‘be’.

Pragmatics for Latin

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Devine ◽  
Laurence D. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Informational Content ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Association With Focus ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Order Language ◽  
Free Word

Latin is often described as a free word order language, but in general each word order encodes a particular information structure: in that sense, each word order has a different meaning. This book provides a descriptive analysis of Latin information structure based on detailed philological evidence and elaborates a syntax-pragmatics interface that formalizes the informational content of the various different word orders. The book covers a wide ranges of issues including broad scope focus, narrow scope focus, double focus, topicalization, tails, focus alternates, association with focus, scrambling, informational structure inside the noun phrase and hyperbaton (discontinuous constituency). Using a slightly adjusted version of the structured meanings theory, the book shows how the pragmatic meanings matching the different word orders arise naturally and spontaneously out of the compositional process as an integral part of a single semantic derivation covering denotational and informational meaning at one and the same time.

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