Grammatical complexity in cross-linguistic perspective

2008 ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Miestamo
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Complexity

scholarly journals Domain-specific and Domain-general Processing in Left Perisylvian Cortex: Evidence from Russian

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Klimovich-Gray ◽  
Mirjana Bozic ◽  
William D. Marslen-Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Language System ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Fmri Experiment ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Inflectional Affixes

The processing of words containing inflectional affixes triggers morphophonological parsing and affix-related grammatical information processing. Increased perceptual complexity related to stem-affix parsing is hypothesized to create predominantly domain-general processing demands, whereas grammatical processing primarily implicates domain-specific linguistic demands. Exploiting the properties of Russian morphology and syntax, we designed an fMRI experiment to separate out the neural systems supporting these two demand types, contrasting inflectional complexity, syntactic (phrasal) complexity, and derivational complexity in three comparisons: (a) increase in parsing demands while controlling for grammatical complexity (inflections vs. phrases), (b) increase in grammatical processing demands, and (c) combined demands of morphophonological parsing and grammatical processing (inflections and phrases vs. derivations). Left inferior frontal and bilateral temporal areas are most active when the two demand types are combined, with inflectional and phrasal complexity contrasting strongly with derivational complexity (which generated only bilateral temporal activity). Increased stem-affix parsing demands alone did not produce unique activations, whereas grammatical structure processing activated bilateral superior and middle temporal areas. Selective left frontotemporal language system engagement for short phrases and inflections seems to be driven by simultaneous and interdependent domain-general and domain-specific processing demands.

Predicting Patterns of Grammatical Complexity Across Language Exam Task Types and Proficiency Levels

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 639-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Bethany Gray ◽  
Shelley Staples
Keyword(s):  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Task Types

scholarly journals The Level of Accuracy and Grammatical Complexity in Written Texts by Chinese Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Yu
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
First Language ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Language Family ◽  
School Students ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
L1 And L2

The influence of the first language (L1) on the acquisition of a second language (L2) is inevitable. In addition, when L1 and L2 do not belong to the same language family, a negative influence, i.e., an interference, will occur. The current study aims to investigate the level of accuracy and grammar complexity in texts written by Chinese upper secondary school students from the perspective of language transfer. It involves an analysis of a small corpus comprising 54 texts with the use of the terminable unit (T-unit) measure. The finding shows that the Chinese writers produced a text with only a few error-free T-units largely due to the syntactical transfer from Chinese to English. With regard to grammatical complexity, subordinate clauses are frequent in the corpus but relative clauses are rare.

The Register-Functional Approach to Grammatical Complexity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Bethany Gray ◽  
Shelley Staples ◽  
Jesse Egbert
Keyword(s):  
Functional Approach ◽  
Grammatical Complexity

Overview

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Peter W. Culicover
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
General Perspective

This chapter lays out the general problem of explaining the form of grammars, and relates this problem to that of characterizing grammatical complexity. Following much recent work, it takes the view that reduction of complexity is a driving explanatory force whose effects can be seen in change and in variation. The chapter sketches out the general perspective taken in the book on universals, conceptual structure, constructions, complexity and change and variation, and how they are related.

Reflecting on the Register-Functional Approach to Grammatical Complexity

2021 ◽  
pp. 460-484
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Bethany Gray ◽  
Shelley Staples ◽  
Jesse Egbert
Keyword(s):  
Functional Approach ◽  
Grammatical Complexity
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