Abandoning the EPP-feature in Polish dual copula clauses by redefining the predication relation

This paper questions the logic behind the presence and the working of the EPP-feature in Polish dual copula clauses (henceforth, DCCs) with the pronominal copula to, the verbal copula być ‘to be’, and two nominative 3rd person DPs, as represented in Bondaruk (2019). The criticism follows from: (i) – Chomsky’s (2000, 2001) downward Agree operation; (ii) – the view that the predicator encodes the predication relation between the pre-copular subject and the post-copular predicate; (iii) – selective multiple Agree, whereby the satisfaction of the EPP- and uφ-features is divorced. Adopting (i)–(iii), Bondaruk’s scrutiny allows either the pre- or the post-copular DP to occupy SpecTP, thereby accounting for DCCs’ agreement and configurational patterns, but, simultaneously, suffering from theoretical shortcomings it creates. We argue for a simpler satisfaction of the subject requirement which does not rely on the troublesome EPP-feature, but is motivated formally by the relation between T and the higher DP. We derive this requirement by following Zeiljstra’s (2012) upward Agree which only takes place once interpretable features c-command uninterpretable features, and Rothstein’s (2004) approach which is based on a neo-Davidsonian event semantics and which argues that be and its complement form a complex predicate, separated from the pre-copular DP both semantically and syntactically.

On the Integration of Dative Adjuncts into Event Structures in Yapa Languages

Warlpiri and Warlmanpa (Ngumpin-Yapa languages of Australia) exhibit a complex predicate construction in which a class of preverbs introduces a single argument that is not shared by the argument structure of the inflecting verb, nor is there necessarily any shared event structure. This is problematic for many theories of linking structures of complex predicates, since no arguments or events are shared between the predicative elements of the complex predicate. The same grammatical relation is instantiated by a beneficiary adjunct. In light of new research in event and argument structure, I propose a lexical rule which introduces an applicative argument to account for the beneficiary construction; and that the preverbs take another predicate as one of their arguments to account for the complex predicates. The applicative rule and the preverbs both introduce an argument of the same grammatical relation, leading to interesting interactions, given that two grammatical relations of the same type are not expected to co-occur within a single clause.

Generating Senses and RoLes: An End-to-End Model for Dependency- and Span-based Semantic Role Labeling

Despite the recent great success of the sequence-to-sequence paradigm in Natural Language Processing, the majority of current studies in Semantic Role Labeling (SRL) still frame the problem as a sequence labeling task. In this paper we go against the flow and propose GSRL (Generating Senses and RoLes), the first sequence-to-sequence model for end-to-end SRL. Our approach benefits from recently-proposed decoder-side pretraining techniques to generate both sense and role labels for all the predicates in an input sentence at once, in an end-to-end fashion. Evaluated on standard gold benchmarks, GSRL achieves state-of-the-art results in both dependency- and span-based English SRL, proving empirically that our simple generation-based model can learn to produce complex predicate-argument structures. Finally, we propose a framework for evaluating the robustness of an SRL model in a variety of synthetic low-resource scenarios which can aid human annotators in the creation of better, more diverse, and more challenging gold datasets. We release GSRL at github.com/SapienzaNLP/gsrl.

Analyzing Complex Predicates in Karo Language using Syntactic Parsing

This study characterized the complex predicate and multiple events where the multi-verb single clause realises a single event in syntax and examined the complex sentences containing multiple verbal predicates. This study used the descriptive qualitative method. The data sources used were sentences containing karo sentence clauses and was classified based on the elements of complex Predicates in a tree diagram and the RRG account of nexus-juncture relations theory by Nolan, 2005 & Van Valin, 2005. The findings showed that event, argument, and semantic could be realized in syntactic meaning to reveal complex predicates. The tightest syntactic linkages embodied the closer semantic relations and it was signaled by word order. Most of the complex predicates in Karo language have an embedded object. The core in the nucleus could be appeared not only as one core but two or more complex predicates and it followed by an argument with the form V+V+N and in the form of V+V+N. One argument (Participant/Actor) that involved one core. It assumed that there might be one participant in two events, and there may be two participants in one event. All of Karo language sentences have at least one NP + one VP and they consisted of more than one complex predicates.

Transitive Word Order in Karonese Language

The research aims to look for word-formation from suffix -i and -pe and the prefix-ken. The problem of the research was whether the suffix -i and -ken and the prefix pe- can form transitive in sentences. This study used the qualitative approach. The complex predicate data were analyzed using the agih method which is part of the language itself which becomes the determining tool. This is an appropriate method of analyzing language. This study indicates that sentence formation in the Karo language initially uses the VOS word order. At the suffix-i, the transitive word order VOS is found, the suffix -ken used the VO word order and at the prefix pe- also used the VOS word order. The suffix -i was initially used with adjectives, intransitive verbs, and nouns to form a root word in the form of a locative transitive verb (referring to a place). If suffix –ken combined with a root word which is a group of adjectives, intransitive verbs, or nouns, the meaning becomes causative, making the sufferer become/do something. The prefix pe- functions to change adjectives, intransitive verbs, and nouns into transitive verbs. The derivative form produces a causative meaning.

Simple Monotransitive and Complex Dative Alternation Predicates in Spanish Monolingual Child Acquisition Data

This work analyzes the acquisition of simple and complex constructions in Spanish monolingual children’s data. It examines the emergence and the role played by adult input in child production of simple monotransitive constructions when compared to two types of complex predicates that undergo dative alternation (DA), namely, a/para-datives and dative-clitic doubled (DCLD) structures. In order to shed light on these issues, we have analyzed data from Spanish monolingual children and from the adults that they interact with, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk [Dataset], 3rd edn. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://childes.talkbank.org (accessed 20 October 2019)). The results show that there is an order in the onset of simple and complex predicate constructions, as reflected in the earlier emergence of monotransitives when compared to DA constructions. The latter also show a subsequent order of first occurrence, namely, DCLDs before a/para-datives. Thus, the degree of syntactic complexity seems to have played a role in the acquisition of simple and complex constructions, as measured by the number of Case assignment relations between the verb and its internal argument(s). Moreover, the differences in the Spanish monolingual children’s incidence of the three structures under analysis do not appear to be explained by the relative frequency of exposure in the adult input.

Simple Monotransitive and Complex Dative Alternation Predicates in Spanish Monolingual Child Acquisition Data

This work analyzes the acquisition of simple and complex constructions in Spanish monolingual children’s data. It examines the emergence and the role played by adult input in child production of simple monotransitive constructions when compared to two types of complex predicates that undergo dative alternation (DA), namely, a/para-datives and dative-clitic doubled (DCLD) structures. In order to shed light on these issues, we have analyzed data from Spanish monolingual children and from the adults that they interact with, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk [Dataset], 3rd edn. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://childes.talkbank.org (accessed 20 October 2019)). The results show that there is an order in the onset of simple and complex predicate constructions, as reflected in the earlier emergence of monotransitives when compared to DA constructions. The latter also show a subsequent order of first occurrence, namely, DCLDs before a/para-datives. Thus, the degree of syntactic complexity seems to have played a role in the acquisition of simple and complex constructions, as measured by the number of Case assignment relations between the verb and its internal argument(s). Moreover, the differences in the Spanish monolingual children’s incidence of the three structures under analysis do not appear to be explained by the relative frequency of exposure in the adult input.

Verb verb complex predicates in Old and Middle Japanese

This chapter describes the main features of Verb Verb complex predicates in Old and Middle Japanese (8th to 16th centuries) and discusses changes that took place between Old Japanese and Modern Japanese. Old Japanese had complex verbal predicate constructions which resemble the Modern Japanese Types 1–3, and in addition a V1 aktionsart verb construction, which is not found in later stages and which is hypothesized to have played a crucial role in the development of complex predicates in Japanese. The wordhood of complex verbal predicates is addressed. Verb Verb complex predicates did not constitute tight morphological units in Old and Early Middle Japanese, but developed into morphological words in Late Middle and Modern Japanese. It is proposed that the loss of subordinating function of the infinitive played an important part in this change. It is also observed that the Modern Japanese Type 4 (Vte V) is a Late Middle Japanese innovation which is not a prototypical complex predicate verb construction but rather an auxiliary verb construction.

The matrix of verb-verb sequences in Tamil

Verb-Verb sequences characterize many types of grammatical constructions in Tamil. A subset of these sequences, called V-V sequences, characterize a predicate construction which is known otherwise as a complex predicate or compound verbs or serial verbs, though these are not identical. This predicate construction is shared by most Indian languages and found also in languages outside India such as Japanese. One of the verbs in the V-V sequence does not have lexical status referentially, or often even structurally. The comparison of Tamil and Japanese shows that the grammatical functions and the structural features of the verb sequence differ from language to language. An interesting conclusion drawn from this comparison is that specific members of each type of the sequence may be distributed differently across a matrix of types. In other words, an instance of a V-V sequence of Type 1 in one language may belong to Type 3 in another language.