Information structure and the anatomy of the noun phrase

1996 ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Irène Baron
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure

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.

Rheme before theme in the noun phrase

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 894-915
Author(s):  
Carlotta Viti
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
New Information ◽  
Prague School

Information structure in the noun phrase remains unexplored or limited to the study of the s-form and the of-form in English, which are interpreted from the perspective of the Prague School. Accordingly, the prenominal s-form is chosen if the possessor expresses old information; conversely, if the possessor expresses new information, the postnominal of-form is preferred. Ancient Greek, however, indicates that this is not the sole pattern attested. In our data, drawn from Herodotus, a postposed genitive refers to the topic of the immediately preceding clauses, and has no semantically compatible referent around it. Preposed genitives denote new or discontinuous participants, and are used in contrastive and emphatic contexts. In this case, the principle “rheme before theme” can be identified.

Information Structure, Discourse Structure, and Noun Phrase Position in Kiowa

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-126
Author(s):  
Daniel Harbour ◽  
Laurel J. Watkins ◽  
David Adger
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Discourse Structure

scholarly journals Shared information structure: Evidence from cross-linguistic priming

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 568-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZUZANNA FLEISCHER ◽  
MARTIN J. PICKERING ◽  
JANET F. MCLEAN
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Passive Sentence ◽  
Share Information ◽  
Active Sentence

This study asked whether bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure for the sentences that they produce. It reports an experiment in which a Polish–English bilingual and a confederate of the experimenter took turns to describe pictures to each other and to find those pictures in an array. The confederate produced a Polish active, passive, or conjoined noun phrase, or an active sentence with object–verb–subject order (OVS sentence). The participant responded in English, and tended to produce a passive sentence more often after a passive or an OVS sentence than after a conjoined noun phrase or active sentence. Passives and OVS sentences are syntactically unrelated but share information structure, in that both assign emphasis to the patient. We therefore argued that bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure during speech.

scholarly journals Locative Inversion as an Alternation Phenomenon in Setswana: The Case of Lexical Functional Grammar Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Setumile Morapedi
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Structure Approach ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Lexical Functional Grammar ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Locative Inversion

The paper has examined locative inversion constructions in Setswana, showing that the pre-posed locative phrase in these constructions is not the subject as it is viewed by other linguists in the literature. It has been argued, in this paper, that locative phrase occurs in the sentence initial position to perform the topic function which sets the scene for the focused noun phrase that alternates with it (locative phrase). The analysis has been achieved through information structure approach, showing the locative phrase that occurs in sentence initial position is a discourse phenomenon showing given information, and that the focused post-verbal noun phrase is new information that is emphasised on. Also, an appeal is made to Lexical Functional Grammar Approach to explain different ways of representing syntactic structures such as constituent structure and the functional structure.

Existential and Locative Constructions in the Romance Languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delia Bentley
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Categorial Status ◽  
Contextual Domain ◽  
And Function

Existential and locative constructions form an interesting cluster of copular structures in Romance. They are clearly related, and yet there are theoretical reasons to keep them apart. In-depth analysis of the Romance languages lends empirical support to their differentiation. In semantic terms, existentials express propositions about existence or presence in an implicit contextual domain, whereas locatives express propositions about the location of an entity. In terms of information structure, existentials are typically all new or broad focus constructions. Locatives are normally characterized by focus on the location, although this can also be a presupposed topic. Romance existentials are formed with a copula and a postcopular phrase (the pivot). A wide range of variation is found in copula selection, copula-pivot agreement, expletive subjects, the presence and function of an etymologically locative precopular proform, and, finally, the categorial status of the pivot, which is normally a noun phrase, but can also be an adjective (Calabrian, Sicilian). As for Romance locatives, a distinction must be drawn between, on the one hand, a construction with canonical SV order and S-V agreement and, on the other hand, another construction, with VS order and, in some languages, lack of V-S agreement. This latter structure has been named inverse locative. Both existentials and locatives have a nonverbal predicate: the locative phrase in locatives and the postcopular noun or adjectival phrase in existentials. In locatives the predicate selects a thematic argument (i.e., an argument endowed with a thematic role), which serves as the syntactic subject, exception being made for inverse locatives in some languages. Contrastingly, in existentials, there is no thematic argument. In some languages the copula turns to the pivot for agreement, as this is the only overt noun phrase endowed with person and number features (Italian, Friulian, Romanian, etc.). In other languages this non-canonical agreement is not licensed (French, some Calabrian dialects, Brazilian Portuguese, etc.). In others still (Spanish, Sardinian, European Portuguese, Catalan, Gallo-Italian, etc.), it is only admitted with pivot classes that can be defined in terms of specificity. When the copula does not agree with the pivot, an expletive subject form may figure in precopular position. The cross-linguistic variation in copula-pivot agreement has been claimed to depend on language-specific constraints on subjecthood. Highly specific pivots are only admitted in contextualized existentials, which express a proposition about the presence of an individual or an entity in a given and salient context. These existentials are found in all the Romance languages and would seem to defy the semantico-pragmatic constraints on the pivot that are widely known as Definiteness Effects.

scholarly journals Definiteness, Information Structure, and Indirect Modification in the Kunbarlang Noun Phrase

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Ivan Kapitonov
Keyword(s):  
Structure Analysis ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Structural Effects

Kunbarlang shows considerable variation in the word order patterns of nominal expressions. This paper investigates these patterns, concentrating on the distribution of noun markers (articles) and on attributive modification. Based on examination of spontaneous discourse and elicitation, I identify two main contributions of the noun marker: definiteness and predicative reading of modifiers. Furthermore, the order of adjectives with respect to the head noun is shown to correlate with information-structural effects. Taken together, these facts strongly support a hierarchical structure analysis of the NP in Kunbarlang. In the second part of the paper, Kunbarlang data are compared to the typology of determiner spreading phenomena. Finally, I entertain the prospects of a more formal analysis of the data presented and indicate their theoretical and typological relevance, including expression of information structure below the clausal level, typology of adnominal elements, and architecture of attributive modification.

scholarly journals Objektklitika und Informationsstrukturierung im Bulgarischen

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valja Janewa
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Generative Theory ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Object Clitics

Auf der Grundlage der Chomskyschen Grammatiktheorie sowie der jüngsten Ergebnisse zur Informationsstrukturierung erfolgt die Untersuchung von Syntax, Morphologie und Semantik pronominaler Klitika in der bulgarischen Sprache. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die morphosyntaktischen Konfigurationen, in denen die Objektklitika vorkommen und deren prosodische, semantische und informationsstrukturelle Interpretation. Dabei geht es vor allem um folgende Punkte: • lexikalische Kategorisierung der Objektklitika • Bedingungen für das Vorkommen der Objektklitika • Kongruenzbeziehung zum verdoppelten Objekt • Funktion der Klitika und ihre Bedeutung für die informationsstrukturelle Gliederung des Satzes Rudin (1995) und Franks (1998) faßten die bulgarischen Klitika als funktionale Köpfe in der erweiterten lexikalischen Projektion von Verben auf, bei Dimitrova-Vulchanova (1998) sind sie Köpfe einer komplexen klitischen Projektion in satzinitialer Position. Schick & Zimmermann (1995) betrachten die Klitika als Adjunkte einer funktionalen Kategorie mit der Funktion, Topikalität auszudrücken. In meiner Darstellung folge ich diesen Ansätzen nicht, sondern versuche für die Fälle, in denen Klitika Stellvertreter für Nominalphrasen sind bzw. diese verdoppeln, ein anderes Erklärungsmuster zu geben. On the basis of Chomsky's Generative Theory as well as of the latest results in information structure the syntax, morphology, and semantics of object clitics in modern Bulgarian are investigated. The study examines the morphosyntactic configurations in which object clitics occur, as well as their prosodic and semantic interpretation, and the interpretation of their information structure. The following points are emphasized: • lexical categorisation of object clitics • conditions under which object clitics occur • agreement relation between object clitic and argument noun phrase • function of clitics and their meaning for the information structure of the sentence. Rudin (1997) and Franks (1998) analyse the object clitics as functional agreement (nonargument) heads in the extended projection of the verb. Dimitrova-Vulchanova (1998) argues that pronominal clitics head their own projection ClP. Schick & Zimmermann (1997) analyse the pronominal clitics as non-projecting adjuncts to a functional category F. The functional category F triggers raising of topics from the lexical projection VP. In my analysis, instead of following this approach, I try to give a different explanatory model for those cases where the clitics stand in place of argument noun phrases or double these phrases.

scholarly journals Pre-D non-possessor positions in Hungarian

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Judit Farkas ◽  
Krisztina Karácsonyi
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Demonstrative Pronoun ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Internal Information ◽  
Deverbal Nominals ◽  
Shed Light

The paper investigates pre-D non-possessor positions in Hungarian. In Hungarian, non-deverbal nominal constructions containing pre-D non-possessor positions are acceptable only if they contain a demonstrative pronoun and also an adjective, and the appearance of a pre-D possessor does not impact the acceptability of the sentence. The paper also gives a brief discussion of similar constructions with pre-D non-possessors in German, mainly to shed light on the Hungarian data. Although German also allows for pre-D non-possessors, it does so under different conditions. A short topicalized element can readily appear in German sentences as a non-possessor dependent, but in this language a possessor can never appear in the same noun phrase. The paper also discusses deverbal nominal constructions with pre-D non-possessor dependents in Hungarian. In these constructions the presence of a possessor argument is indispensable. This is due to the fact that the placement of the non-possessor argument in a position preceding the possessor is legitimized by the fact that the former takes scope over the latter within the internal information structure of the matrix noun phrase. The paper also deals with the syntactic structure of said deverbal nominals.

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