Polish main clause constituent order and FG pragmatic functions

Author(s):  
Anna Siewierska
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
Valentina Ferrari

Summary:This paper aims at describing some of the main structural and functional characteristics of completive clauses governed by verba dicendi et sentiendi in Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae. The characteristics of the use of the Accusativus cum Infinitivo (AcI) will be analysed in comparison with the uses of other Latin authors. The data will be described on the basis of two main aspects: constituent order, and the coreferentiality of the subject of the AcI with elements in the main clause. Compared to the predominance of AcI constructions, quod-clauses show a consistent pattern and are limited to well- defined contexts. Some aspects of the use of quin and ut will also be described. Special attention will be given to the problems of syntactic and semantic interpretation of the governing verbs, which can be difficult to define clearly. This study will also set the ground for further research on the influence of Boethius's Latin model on Italo-Romance literary texts in the Middle Ages, both on the syntactic and the stilistic level.


Kratylos ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-156
Author(s):  
G. Keydana
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Osamu Sawada

Chapter 8 investigates the interpretation of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers and considers the semantic mechanism behind subject- and speaker-oriented interpretations of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers and CIs. For a subject-oriented reading, it is argued that there is a shift from a CI to a secondary at-issue entailment at the clausal level when the embedded clause combines with an attitude predicate and has a subject-oriented reading. For a speaker-oriented reading of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers, it is claimed that the lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers have the distinctive property of projection: unlike higher-level pragmatic scalar modifiers/typical CIs, lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers can project out of the complement of a belief predicate only if there is a speaker-oriented modal in the main clause. This chapter shows that the interpretation of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers is not only a matter of context and involves semantic and pragmatic mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Hiroki Fujita ◽  
Ian Cunnings

Abstract We report two offline and two eye-movement experiments examining non-native (L2) sentence processing during and after reanalysis of temporarily ambiguous sentences like “While Mary dressed the baby laughed happily”. Such sentences cause reanalysis at the main clause verb (“laughed”), as the temporarily ambiguous noun phrase (“the baby”) may initially be misanalysed as the direct object of the subordinate clause verb (“dressed”). The offline experiments revealed that L2ers have difficulty reanalysing temporarily ambiguous sentences with a greater persistence of the initially assigned misinterpretation than native (L1) speakers. In the eye-movement experiments, we found that L2ers complete reanalysis similarly to L1ers but fail to fully erase the memory trace of the initially assigned interpretation. Our results suggested that the source of L2 reanalysis difficulty is a failure to erase the initially assigned misinterpretation from memory rather than a failure to conduct syntactic reanalysis.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
JOHN GLUCKMAN

I provide a syntactic analysis of the take-time construction (It took an hour to complete the test). The investigation provides insight into well-known issues concerning the related tough-construction. Using a battery of standard syntactic diagnostics, I conclude that the take-time construction and the tough-construction require a predication analysis of the antecedent-gap chain, not a movement analysis. I also conclude that the nonfinite clause is in a modificational relationship with the main clause predicate, not a selectional relationship. Broadly, this study expands the class of tough-constructions, illustrating crucial variation among predicates, and pointing the way to a unified analysis. The investigation also reveals undiscussed aspects of English syntax, including the fact that English has a high applicative position.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-222
Author(s):  
Hamada Hassanein ◽  
Mohammad Mahzari

Abstract This study has set out to identify, quantify, typify, and exemplify the discourse functions of canonical antonymy in Arabic paremiography by comparing two manually collected datasets from Egyptian and Saudi (Najdi) dialects. Building upon Jones’s (2002) most extensive and often-cited classification of the discourse functions of antonyms as they co-occur within syntactic frames in news discourse, the study has substantially revised this classification and developed a provisional and dynamic typology thereof. Two major textual functions are found to be quantitatively significant and qualitatively preponderant: ancillarity (wherein an A-pair of canonical antonyms project their antonymicity onto a more important B-pair) and coordination (wherein one antonym holds an inclusive or exhaustive relation to another antonym). Three new functions have been developed and added to the retrieved classification: subordination (wherein one antonym occurs in a subordinate clause while the other occurs in a main clause), case-marking (wherein two opposite cases are served by two antonyms), and replacement (wherein one antonym is substituted with another). Semicanonical and noncanonical guises of antonymy are left and recommended for future research.


1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1071-1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty Tuller ◽  
James R. Lackner

Primary auditory stream segregation, the perceptual segregation of acoustically related elements within a continuous auditory sequence into distinct spatial streams, prevents subjects from resolving the relative constituent order of repeated sequences of tones (Bregman & Campbell, 1971) or repeated sequences of consonant and vowel sounds (Lackner & Goldstein, 1974). To determine why primary auditory stream segregation does not interfere with the resolution of natural speech, 8 subjects were required to indicate the degree of stream segregation undergone by 24 repeated sequences of English monosyllables which varied in terms of the degrees of syntactic and intonational structure present. All sequences underwent primary auditory stream segregation to some extent but the amount of apparent spatial separation was less when syntactic and intonational structure was present.


Probus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-Marc Authier ◽  
Liliane Haegeman

AbstractThis paper investigates the restrictions on movement to the left periphery found in non-root environments such as French central adverbial clauses and argues that an analysis of main clause phenomena based on intervention/Relativized Minimality is to be preferred to one based on structural truncation. The empirical basis for this claim consists of an examination of some asymmetries between French infinitival TP ellipsis and infinitival TP Topicalization. Adopting Authie's (2011) approach to TP ellipsis whereby the to-be-elided TP undergoes fronting in the computational component but fails to be spelled out at PF, we argue that these asymmetries follow from the fact that in French, while a spelled out fronted TP is an intervener for


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