Agreement in Promissive, Imperative, and Exhortative Clauses

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miok D. Pak ◽  
Paul Portner ◽  
Raffaella Zanuttini
Keyword(s):  
Rare Type ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Person Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Final Particles

Abstract. One of the unique features of Korean is that it marks sentences used to promise with the same grammatical mechanism - a paradigm of sentence final particles - with which it marks other clause types, like declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. In this paper we investigate this cross-linguistically rare type of PROMISSIVES and argue that they are members of the broader clause type of JUSSIVES, along with imperatives and exhortatives. However, within the jussive clause type, promissives, imperatives, and exhortatives differ from each other in having not only different sen-tence final particles but also different subjects. We argue that these two differences are correlated in such a way as to distinguish the three distinct clause types, promissives, imperatives, and exhorta-tives. We specifically argue that the jussive particle (sentence final particle in jussive clauses) is the head of a Jussive Phrase which carries person features and that the jussive particle enters an agree-ment relation with the subject. In studying various types of subjects allowed in both root and embed-ded jussive clauses we further argue that the Jussive head, as well as null pronouns in Korean has a shiftable person features while overt pronouns have unshiftable person features.

scholarly journals Prosodic effects on pronoun interpretation in Italian

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia White ◽  
Heather Goad ◽  
Jiajia Su ◽  
Liz Smeets ◽  
Marzieh Mortazavinia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
Topic Shift ◽  
The Subject

In this paper we offer a prosodic account of some well-known L2 findings relating to discourse requirements on pronouns in null subject languages like Italian. Discourse plays a role in determining when a null or overt pronoun in acceptable: in biclausal sentences, null subjects are strongly preferred when the antecedent is the subject in another clause (-topic shift). Overt subjects, in contrast, imply a change of topic and a preference for non-subject antecedents. Carminati (2002) expresses this as the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH), a processing constraint whereby null pronouns prefer antecedents in Spec IP whereas overt pronouns prefer their antecedents to be elsewhere. Previous methodology used tasks where participants made judgments based on sentences they read to themselves, making it impossible to determine what prosody had been adopted. Our results suggest that there are prosodic effects on pronoun interpretation; hence, prosodic factors should be taken into consideration in future experiments.

scholarly journals Effects of grammatical roles and topicality on Vietnamese referential form production

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binh Ngo ◽  
Elsi Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grammatical Roles ◽  
Referential Form

We conducted two studies on the use of null and overt pronouns and noun phrases in Vietnamese, with a focus on referents’ grammatical roles, grammatical parallelism and topicality. Vietnamese overt pronouns differ from English-type languages as they also function as kin terms. The first study investigated narratives and finds that referential form choice is influenced by the grammatical role and grammatical position of the antecedent: When the subject of the current clause refers to the subject of the preceding clause (subject parallelism), we find a high rate of (null and overt) pronouns. Lack of parallelism triggers mostly NPs. When the object of the current clause refers to the object of the preceding clause (object parallelism), we also find more pronouns than in non-parallel cases. Interestingly, null pronouns only occur in parallel cases. Crucially, we find no clear differences in the distribution of null vs. overt pronouns, suggesting that grammatical roles and parallelism have the same effects on both pronoun types. Using passivization to manipulate topicality, Experiment 2 further investigated the null vs. overt pronoun choice and found that pronouns are strongly preferred for topicalized subjects in passives and that null pronouns exhibit a stronger sensitivity to topicality than overt pronouns. To our knowledge, these experiments are the first experimental investigation of a kin-term-based pronoun system.

scholarly journals Derivation of the Apparent Narrow Scope of Sentence-Final Particles in Chinese: A Reply to Erlewine (2017)

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-126
Author(s):  
Victor Junnan Pan
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
The Real ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Entire Sentence ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Negative Form ◽  
Final Particles

Abstract Erlewine (2017) suggests that certain sentence-final particles (SFPs) in Mandarin Chinese such as “sentential le” and eryi are located lower than the C-domain, using a number of arguments relating to the scopal interaction of these SFPs, subjects, and other verb phrase (vP) level elements. The present paper proposes an alternative view of the phenomena considered by Erlewine (2017) and maintains the claim that sentential le and eryi are C-domain elements. First, I argue that shi ‘be’, in the negative form – bu shi ‘not be’ – should be analyzed as an independent verb, which takes a clausal complement headed by le or eryi. The apparent narrow scope of le and eryi is due to the biclausal analysis of the entire sentence. Second, the sentence-initial determiner phrase (DP) cannot be analyzed as the real subject of the verb shi ‘be’ but must be analyzed as the matrix topic of the entire sentence and, therefore, is higher than the complementizer phrase (CP) headed by le or eryi. This explains why sometimes le or eryi does not have scope over the subject. Third, the wh-subject cannot get an indefinite reading in a sentence with a final particle le because the ∃-closure triggered by le applies at the I′-level by excluding the subject systematically (Huang 1982). The ∃-quantifier, which is introduced in a position lower than the surface subject position, cannot bind the wh-subject as a variable. The position where ∃ is generated remains independent of whether the ∃-closure is triggered by low particles, such as le, or by high particles, such as the yes–no question particle ma. Therefore, the low peripheral particles le and eryi are still within the CP domain and thus higher than vP.

scholarly journals Repeated names, overt pronouns, and null pronouns in Spanish

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Gelormini-Lezama ◽  
Amit Almor
Keyword(s):  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns

On the role of person in the mapping of syntactic features onto their interpretable counterparts

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-672
Author(s):  
Ivona Kučerová
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Person Features ◽  
The Subject

AbstractPerson features play a role in narrow-syntax processes. However, a person feature is often characterized as [±participant], a characterization that suggests pragmatic or semantic features. Relatedly, person has been the subject of an ongoing debate in the literature: one family of approaches argues that 3rd person is an elsewhere case, while another argues that it is a valued interpretable feature. This article provides a programatic argument that this disagreement has a principled basis. I argue that the representation of the features we identify as person changes between narrow syntax and the syntax-semantics interface. The tests and empirical descriptions are incongruent because they target different modules of the grammar and in turn different grammatical objects. The article thus contributes to our understanding of the division of labour among the modules, with a special focus on the autonomous status of narrow syntax.

‘Only’ in Nguni: A Phrase-Final Particle Meets Antisymmetry Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Carstens ◽  
Jochen Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Complex Topography ◽  
Focus Particles ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
English Only ◽  
Final Particles

This article investigates the syntax of the phrase-final focus particles kuphela and qha ‘only’ in Zulu and Xhosa (Nguni; Bantu). We show that kuphela’s and qha’s associations with a focused constituent respect the complex topography of information structure in Nguni and, like English only, a surface c-command requirement. However, unlike English only, the Zulu and Xhosa particles typically follow the focus associate they c-command, a fact that poses a serious challenge for Kayne’s (1994) antisymmetry theory. We demonstrate that the Nguni facts are incompatible with recent Linear Correspondence Axiom–inspired approaches to phrase-final particles in other languages and, after weighing the merits of several approaches, we conclude that kuphela is an adjunct and that syntax is only weakly antisymmetric: adjuncts are not subject to the LCA.

On the use of uno in Colombian Spanish: the role of transitivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-64
Author(s):  
Luz Marcela Hurtado ◽  
Ivan Ortega-Santos
Keyword(s):  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Colombian Spanish ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Two Bodies ◽  
Impersonal Pronoun

Abstract Our goal is to explore the intersection of two bodies of literature, namely, the one on impersonal constructions with an emphasis on uno ‘one’, and the one on the effect of transitivity and the focus of attention on the distribution of overt vs. null pronouns, where it has been shown that overt pronominal subjects are disfavored in transitive contexts as opposed to intransitive contexts. Through a variationist analysis of the expression of uno in Barranquilla, Colombia, in the PRESSEA-BARRANQUILLA corpus, we extend this line of inquiry to this impersonal pronoun and study in detail for the first time the effect of the various components of transitivity on the distribution of overt pronouns. Specifically, various transitivity parameters put forward by Hopper and Thompson are shown to correctly predict the distribution of uno, namely, number of participants and kinesis whereas sentence polarity, aspect and individuation of the object yield mixed results meriting future research.

scholarly journals Turkish-Dutch bilinguals maintain language-specific reference tracking strategies in elicited narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Azar ◽  
Aslı Özyürek ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Reference Tracking ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns

Aim: This paper examines whether second-generation Turkish heritage speakers in the Netherlands follow language-specific patterns of reference tracking in Turkish and Dutch, focusing on discourse status and pragmatic contexts as factors that may modulate the choice of referring expressions (REs), that is, the noun phrase (NP), overt pronoun and null pronoun. Methodology: Two short silent videos were used to elicit narratives from 20 heritage speakers of Turkish, both in Turkish and in Dutch. Monolingual baseline data were collected from 20 monolingually raised speakers of Turkish in Turkey and 20 monolingually raised speakers of Dutch in the Netherlands. We also collected language background data from bilinguals with an extensive survey. Data and analysis: Using generalised logistic mixed-effect regression, we analysed the influence of discourse status and pragmatic context on the choice of subject REs in Turkish and Dutch, comparing bilingual data to the monolingual baseline in each language. Findings: Heritage speakers used overt versus null pronouns in Turkish and stressed versus reduced pronouns in Dutch in pragmatically appropriate contexts. There was, however, a slight increase in the proportions of overt pronouns as opposed to NPs in Turkish and as opposed to null pronouns in Dutch. We suggest an explanation based on the degree of entrenchment of differential RE types in relation to discourse status as the possible source of the increase. Originality: This paper provides data from an understudied language pair in the domain of reference tracking in language contact situations. Unlike several studies of pronouns in language contact, we do not find differences across monolingual and bilingual speakers with regard to pragmatic constraints on overt pronouns in the minority pro-drop language. Significance: Our findings highlight the importance of taking language proficiency and use into account while studying bilingualism and combining formal approaches to language use with usage-based approaches for a more complete understanding of bilingual language production.

The time course of long-distance anaphor processing in Korean

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-hye Han ◽  
Dennis Ryan Storoshenko ◽  
Betty Hei Man Leung ◽  
Kyeong-min Kim
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Anaphor Resolution ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Null Pronoun ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Matrix Subject

While early studies on the Korean long distance anaphor caki describe it to be subject-oriented in that it can only take subject antecedents, similarly to long distance anaphors in many other languages, more recent studies observe that it can take non-subject antecedents as well, especially in the context of certain verbs. This paper presents a visual-world eye-tracking study that tested whether the antecedent potential of caki in an embedded subject position is a function of the matrix subject, the matrix verb, or both, and whether the subject and the verb effects constrain the interpretation of caki in the same way as null pronouns, a commonly used pronominal form in Korean. These questions were addressed through an investigation of how the subject effect and the verb effect were manifested in processing these pronouns. We found that when caki, but not null pronouns, was first processed, there were more fixations to the images representing the matrix subject than the images representing the matrix object regardless of the matrix verb. We further found that the proportions of fixations to the images in both caki and null trials changed after the processing of some sentential verbs. These findings demonstrate that while null pronoun interpretation is a function of the verb effect only, caki-interpretation is a function of both the subject and the verb effect, supporting a multiple-constraints approach to anaphor resolution.

The emergence of creole subject–verb agreement and the licensing of null subjects

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Meyerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Person Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Consistent Support

A corpus of conversational Bislama (a Melanesian creole spoken in Vanuatu, related to Tok Pisin and Solomon Islands Pijin) suggests that during the 20th century the creole has developed a set of regular inflectional morphemes on the verb that agree in person and number with the subject of the finite clause. It is shown that, where the agreement paradigm is referentially richest, the language is also beginning to grammaticize a tendency towards phonetically null subjects (pro-drop). Three possible analyses of the Bislama verb phrase are evaluated; consistent support for only one is found in the spoken Bislama corpus. The resulting paradigm of subject–verb agreement (i, oli, and Ø) is analyzed in terms of the historical development of Bislama. It is argued that the synchronic agreement marking reflects properties derived from (i) the lexifier (English), (ii) the substrate languages, and (iii) universal grammar. No one component fully accounts for the patterns of agreement marking observed. Instead, a synthesis of all three is required, as previously observed by, for example, G. Sankoff (1984) and Mufwene (1996). Substrate languages provide a model for subject agreement prefixing on the verb; the person features associated with the lexifier ‘he’ continue to be reflected in the distribution of Bislama i; and phonetically null subjects are emerging as the norm where the agreement paradigm best serves to identify the subject referent. This is consonant with generative accounts of null subject systems. Parallels with other languages (e.g., Italian, Franco-Provençal, Hebrew, Finnish) are examined.

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