The on-line emergence of Hebrew insubordinate she- (‘that/which/who’) clauses

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Maschler
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Relative Complement ◽  
On Line ◽  
Modal Type ◽  
Adverbial Clause

Abstract This study examines the on-line emergence of insubordinate clauses in Hebrew conversation as constrained by local interactional contingencies, questioning traditional notions of grammatical ‘subordination’ and contributing to conceptions of grammar as a locally sensitive, temporally unfolding resource for social interaction. The clauses examined are syntactically unintegrated (unembedded in any matrix clause), or loosely-integrated (cannot be viewed unambiguously as constituting a relative, complement, or adverbial clause), yet they all begin with she- – the general ‘subordinating conjunction’ in traditional Modern Hebrew grammar. All 102 insubordinate she- clauses found throughout a 5.5 hour audio-recorded corpus were classified according to their discourse function: modal, elaborative, or evaluative/epistemic. Leaving aside the modal type, the remaining insubordinate she- clauses (N = 70, 69%) are shown to emerge on-line while speakers are busy performing a variety of tasks and responding to local interactional contingencies. In all of these cases she- functions as a generic ‘wildcard’ tying back to immediately prior discourse and projecting an elaboration/evaluation of it, in either same- or other-speaker talk. The findings concerning insubordinate clauses suggest a usage-based perspective also on canonical subordinate clauses, positioning canonical and syntactically unintegrated clauses at two ends of a continuum.

Examining individual variation in learner production data: A few programmatic pointers for corpus-based analyses using the example of adverbial clause ordering

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Stefan Th. Gries ◽  
Stefanie Wulff
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clause ◽  
Temporal Adverbial

ABSTRACT This study examines the variable positioning of a finite adverbial subordinate clause and its main clause with the subordinate clause either preceding or following the main clause in native versus nonnative English. Specifically, we contrast causal, concessive, conditional, and temporal adverbial clauses produced by German and Chinese learners of English with those produced by native speakers. We examined 2,362 attestations from the Chinese and German subsections of the International Corpus of Learner English (Granger, Dagneaux, Meunier, & Paquot, 2009) and from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (Granger, 1998). All instances were annotated for the ordering, the subordinate clause type, the lengths of the main and subordinate clauses, the first language of the speakers, the conjunction used, and the file it originated from (as a proxy for the speaker producing the sentence so as to be able to study individual and lexical variation). The results of a two-step regression modeling protocol suggest that learners behave most nativelike with causal clauses and struggle most with conditional and concessive clauses; in addition, learners make more non-nativelike choices when the main and subordinate clause are of about equal length.

Subordinate clauses

2019 ◽  
pp. 237-288
Author(s):  
Jan Terje Faarlund
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Infinitival Clauses ◽  
Finite Verb ◽  
Nominal Clauses

In subordinate clauses, the C position is occupied by a complementizer word, which may be null. The finite verb stays in V. SpecCP is either empty or occupied by a wh-word, or by some other element indicating its semantic function. Nominal clauses are finite or non-finite. Finite nominal clauses are declarative or interrogative. Declarative nominal clauses may under specific circumstances have main clause word order (‘embedded V2’). Infinitival clauses are marked by an infinitive marker, which is either in C (Swedish), or immediately above V (Danish). Norwegian has both options. Relative clauses comprise several different types; clauses with a relativized nominal argument are mostly introduced by a complementizer; adverbial relative clauses relativize a locative or temporal phrase, with or without a complementizer; comparative clauses relativize a degree or identity. Under hard-to-define circumstances depending on language and region, subordinate clauses allow extraction of phrases up into the matrix clause.

Foregrounding of subordinate clauses by word order: Psycholinguistic evidence of the function of V>Adv (V2) word order in Danish

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-273
Author(s):  
Marie Herget Christensen ◽  
Tanya Karoli Christensen ◽  
Torben Juel Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
The Other ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Clause Complex

AbstractIn modern Danish, main clauses have the word order X>Verb>Adverb (i. e., V2) whereas subordinate clauses are generally characterized by the “subordinate clause” word order Subject>Adverb>Verb. Spoken Danish has a high frequency of “main clause” word order in subordinate clauses, however, and in the article we argue that this “Main Clause Phenomena” (cf. Aelbrecht et  al. 2012) functions as a foregrounding device, signaling that the more important information of the clause complex is to be found in the subordinate clause instead of in its matrix clause.A prediction from the foregrounding hypothesis is that a subordinate clause with Verb>Adverb word order will attract more attention than a clause with Adverb>Verb word order. To test this, we conducted an experiment under the text change paradigm. 59 students each read 24 constructions twice, each containing a subordinate clause with either Verb>Adverb or Adverb>Verb word order. Half of the subordinate clauses were governed by a semifactive predicate (open to both word orders) and the other half by a semantically secondary sentence (in itself strongly favoring Verb>Adverb word order). Attention to the subordinate clause was tested by measuring how disinclined the participants were to notice change of a word in the subordinate clause when re-reading it.Results showed significantly more attention to Verb>Adverb clauses than to Adverb>Verb clauses (though only under semifactive predicates), and more attention to subordinate clauses under semantically secondary than semifactive predicates. We consider this as strongly supporting the hypothesis that Verb>Adv word order functions as a foregrounding signal in subordinate clauses.

scholarly journals The Internet as a framework for communication and social interaction

Comunicar ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (32) ◽  
pp. 231-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Félix Moral-Toranzo
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
On Line ◽  
La Red ◽  
The Web

This article addresses social interaction on the Internet using an online questionnaire. The sociodemographic characteristics are analysed as well as the web users habits and relationships. The Internet is a social interactive place where personal relationships among users develop into important aspects of their lives. These relationships develop in different ways to relationships where people meet face to face. Also, motivation and the consequences of maintaining a personal relationships reflect, different results when comparing the web users gender and marital status. En este trabajo se estudian las interacciones sociales en Internet, a partir de las respuestas de un cuestionario on-line. Se analizan las características sociodemográficas, los hábitos y las relaciones de estos usuarios en la Red. Internet se manifiesta como un espacio de interacción social, en el que las relaciones personales han tenido lugar en una gran mayoría de usuarios. Estas relaciones se muestran, en algunos aspectos, de forma diferente a las que tienen lugar cara a cara. Asimismo, las motivaciones y las consecuencias de mantener relaciones personales reflejan resultados diferentes con relación al sexo y al estado civil de los internautas.

scholarly journals On adverbial clauses in spoken Lithuanian

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Erika Jasionytė-Mikučionienė
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Private Communication ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Pragmatic Inference ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clause

The aim of the paper is to investigate adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession in spontaneous private communication. The study explores semantic relations between the main and subordinate clauses, grammatical features and predominant conjunctions.The data for the research was collected from the morphologically annotated Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian, namely, its sub-corpus of spontaneous private speech which is used at home, at friends’ place, or which is produced by close friends.The analysis of spontaneous private communication shows that the finite adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession are related to a set of conjunctions, but other indicators such as the use of verbal categories (especially tense, aspect and mood), contextual lexical markers as well as pragmatic inference also help to determine the semantic relationship between the main and the subordinate clause.In a spoken language, temporal clauses are usually combined with the conjunctions kai, kaip ‘when’, kol ‘while’, less frequently – with kada ‘when’; causal clauses are combined with the conjunction nes ‘because; since’, less frequently – with kad and kadangi ‘because’; conditional clauses are typically combined with the conjunction jeigu ‘if’, less frequently – with jei ‘if’, concessive clauses – with the conjunction nors ‘though’. The conjunctions kai ‘when’, kol ‘while’, kadangi ‘because’, jeigu and jei ‘if’ correlate with the particle tai that is very frequent in a spoken language, while the conjunction nors ‘though’ – with the contrastive conjunction bet ‘but’.In the natural language flow, the structure of adverbial sentences is modified: other sentential and discourse units can intervene between the main and the subordinate clauses, and the adverbial conjunction moves from the initial to the medial position.Traditional Lithuanian grammars emphasise that the position of adverbial clauses is undefined: they can appear before or after the main clause. However, the analysis of spontaneous speech shows that the position of a subordinate clause is influenced by the semantic relationship between the clauses. If a subordinate clause refers to a previous action or event, then it dominates in a preposition. Besides, the position of an adverbial clause is also influenced by correlative conjunctions: the main clause with the correlative particle tai dominates in the postposition.The research also revealed that Lithuanian adverbial clauses could function at the discourse level: in dialogues, the structure of a complex sentence is broken down and subordinate adverbial clauses can acquire additional – discourse – functions. Adverbial conjunctions, in their turn, can indicate relations with a previous discourse. 

Broadcasting On-Line Social Interaction as Inhabited Television

ECSCW’ 99 ◽  
1999 ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Benford ◽  
Chris Greenhalgh ◽  
Mike Craven ◽  
Graham Walker ◽  
Tim Regan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
On Line

Some notes on central causal clauses in Venetian

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-572
Author(s):  
Nicholas Catasso
Keyword(s):  
Main Clause ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Internal Syntax ◽  
Split Cp ◽  
Adverbial Clause ◽  
Semantic Differentiation ◽  
Discourse Particle ◽  
The City

Abstract The goal of this paper is to provide novel evidence in favor of an integration of Haegeman’s (2002) taxonomy of adverbial clause subordination by discussing some data from C-introduced causal constructs in Venetian, the Italo-Romance dialect spoken in the city of Venice. Haegeman’s model is based on a two-class categorization of adverbial structures into central clauses, in which matrix-clause phenomena (such as the licensing of some sentence-initial or sentence-final discourse particle-like items, XP-fronting) are excluded, and peripheral clauses, in which these phenomena are licit. The external-syntactic distinction predicted by this model, namely a semantic differentiation resulting from TP/VP-adjunction for central vs. CP-adjunction for peripheral adverbial clauses, has severe consequences for the internal syntax of the a/m constructions, the most striking being the absence of the upper projections of the Split CP of central constructs. The data presented in this paper, however, suggest that (at least) in Venetian, (some) main-clause phenomena may also be licensed in central adverbial clauses under specific circumstances. Additionally, it will be shown that the conclusions drawn from the observation of the Venetian data match the behavior of the same constructions in Standard Italian, as well as in other languages, under the very same conditions.

On non-canonical clause linkage

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Holler
Keyword(s):  
Matrix Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Empirical Fact ◽  
Potential Matrix ◽  
Embedded Clauses

The present paper investigates a certain subset of clause linkage phenomena and develops a constraint-based account to the empirical fact that clauses need to be distinguished with respect to their degree of integratedness into a potential matrix clause. Considering as example German, it is shown that the generally assumed twofold distinction between main and subordinate clauses (or root and embedded clauses) does not suffice to deal with the presented data. It is argued that the discussed linkage phenomena originate from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of the clauses involved, and should hence be encoded in grammar.

Telling Something we can't Know: Experimental Approaches to Verbs Exhibiting Implicit Causality

1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 262-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven B. Greene ◽  
Gail McKoon
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
On Line ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Implicit Causality ◽  
Shed Light

An interpersonal verb such as annoy or admire can be categorized according to whether its grammatical subject or grammatical object initiates the interaction described by the verb Such a verb can also be categorized according to whether a derived adjective describes its grammatical subject (e g, annoying) or its grammatical object (e g, admirable) Although there has been much speculation (e g, Brown & Fish, 1983) that these and other characteristics of these verbs shed light on basic principles of human social interaction, we argue that research to date has failed to demonstrate directly any real-time consequences of these verbs during language comprehension We present evidence that the initiating-reacting distinction predicts on-line changes in the accessibility of these verbs' arguments, but that the existence of a derived adjective does not We conclude that tasks that question subjects explicitly about language may fail to reflect the ordinary processes of language comprehension

The Role of Gesture in the Establishment of Symbolic Abilities

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lock
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Major Significance ◽  
The World ◽  
On Line

Language develops in infancy as emerging cognitive abilities come on-line to handle the infant's experience of the world, and thereby enrich it. The attentional and motivational structuring of that experience is elaborated in the course of social interaction, but from a base in the a priori values that 'being an infant' create as to what infants find 'interesting' in their experiential worlds. There is a continuity of experience, but a reworking of it that yields apparently discontinuous stages. These stages do not map onto traditional notions such as preverbal stage, one-word stage, and combinatorial stage, but are more appropriately captured as presymbolic, symbolic, and propositional. Thus, some early word uses are pre-symbolic, and some later non-verbal gestures are propositional: that the production media might differ for words versus gestures does not appear to be a fact of major significance.

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