scholarly journals A corpus-based analysis of scrambling in Japanese in terms of anaphoric and cataphoric co-referencing

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 39-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Imamura
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Japanese Word ◽  
Topic Shift ◽  
Reverse Relationship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Shed Light

In Japanese, word order changes do not affect the grammatical relations between constituents, allowing both SOV and OSV word order. Although it has been assumed that the choice of word order is determined by information structure, it is unclear how OSV is related to information structure. In order to shed light on this issue, this article investigates the usage of OSV under the framework of the Givónian approach, using a corpus-based method. First, the study demonstrates that the object is informationally older than the subject in OSV while there is a reverse relationship between the object and the subject in SOV. Second, the study reveals that the referents of the subject both in SOV and OSV tend to be carried over to the following sentences. Consequently, I conclude that OSV correlates with the ‘topic shift’ from the referent of the scrambled object to that of the subject. Therefore, OACCSV is selected when the writer intends to start a new discourse and continues writing about the referent of the subject after OACCSV appears.

scholarly journals Subject case alternation in negated existential, locative, and possessive clauses in Latvian

Kalbotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Andra Kalnača ◽  
Ilze Lokmane
Keyword(s):  
Full Article ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Adverbial Modifiers ◽  
Strict Rule ◽  
Negative Form

[full article and abstract in English] The goal of this article is to analyse the alternation between the genitive and nominative cases in Latvian. As the alternation between genitive and nominative cases is possible in all clauses in which the verb būt ‘to be’ is used as an independent verb, this article examines existential, locative, and also possessive clauses, while also demonstrating that distinguishing these clause types is problematic for Latvian utilising the criteria given in the linguistic literature. Clauses containing the negative form of būt ‘to be’, i.e. nebūt, form the foundation of those selected for this study, as only in these sentences the genitive/nominative alternation can be seen for the subject in Latvian. There are only fragmentary descriptions of existential clauses as a unique semantic type, primarily in connection with the function of the verb būt ‘to be’ and the problems associated with distinguishing its independent and auxiliary meanings. Word order in existential, locative, and possessive clauses has, until now, been examined in connection with typical clause expanders – adverbial modifiers and the dative of possession as well as the information structure of the clause. At the same time, case choice for objects in negative existential clauses has traditionally been one of the most studied themes regarding language standardisation. In order to determine which factors affect the choice of either the genitive or nominative case, a corpus study was done analysing 979 examples: 882 with a genitive subject and 97 with a nominative subject. It was found that a connection exists between the definiteness of the subject, word order, and case choice; however, this manifests only as a tendency rather than as a strict rule.

scholarly journals The secret life of focus exponents, and what it tells us about fronted verbal projections

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kordula De Kuthy ◽  
W. Detmar Meurers
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Natural Explanation ◽  
Complex Word ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definiteness Effect ◽  
Focus Projection

The paper investigates a complex word order phenomenon in German and the interaction of syntax and information structure it exemplifies: the occurrence of subjects as part of a fronted non-finite constituent and particularly the so-called definiteness effect excluding (many) definite subjects from this position. We explore the connection between focus projection and the partial fronting cases and show that it is the subject of those verbs which allow their subject to be the focus exponent that can be included as part of a fronted verbal constituent. In combination with the observation by Webelhuth (1990) that fronted verbal constituents need to be focused, this provides a natural explanation of the definiteness effect in terms of the information structure requirements in these sentences. Interestingly, the generally ignored exceptions to the definiteness effect are predicted by our analysis; we show that they involve definite noun phrases which can bear focus, which allows them to be part of a fronted verbal constituent. Finally, building on the integrated grammatical architecture provided in De Kuthy (2002), we formulate an HPSG theory which captures the interaction of constraints from syntax, information structure and intonation.

Focus on Russian Scope: An Experimental Investigation of the Relationship between Quantifier Scope, Prosody, and Information Structure

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 741-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Ionin ◽  
Tatiana Luchkina
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Quantifier Scope ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scope Reading ◽  
The Relationship

An experimental investigation of quantifier scope in Russian SVO and OVS sentences, in which the factors of word order, prosody, information structure, and indefinite form are manipulated, shows that native Russian speakers have a preference for surface scope under neutral prosody, though this preference is more pronounced with odin ‘one’ indefinites than with dva ‘two’ indefinites. Furthermore, contrastive focus on the fronted object QP in OVS order is found to facilitate the inverse scope reading, but contrastive focus on the subject in SVO order is not. These findings have implications for the syntactic analysis of noncanonical word order in Russian ( Bailyn 2011 , Slioussar 2013 ) and support the link between contrastive focus and scope reconstruction in Russian ( Ionin 2003 , Neeleman and Titov 2009 ).

scholarly journals The Interaction of Input and UG in the Acquisition of Verb Movement in a Dialect of Norwegian

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.61 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit R. Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Early Production ◽  
The Subject

In this paper it is argued that a principle of information structure provided by Universal Grammar (UG) may interact with input in the acquisition of word order. In a study which investigates three children from the age of approximately 1;9 to 3 acquiring a Northern dialect of Norwegian, it has previously been shown that word order patterns in certain types of wh-questions which are sensitive to subtle distinctions in the information value of the subject (given vs. new) are acquired extremely early (Westergaard 2003a). This paper presents a study of the same children’s topicalization constructions, and it is shown that, although these patterns of information structure do not appear in the input, the children nevertheless show traces of these patterns in the non-target forms that they occasionally produce. Thus, in their very early production of topicalization constructions the children seem to be guided by a word order principle based on information structure, which could be taken as support for this as a word order preferred by UG.

Prosodic segmentation and functional correlations

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Massimo Moneglia ◽  
Emanuela Cresti
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Information Functions ◽  
Information Unit ◽  
Japanese Word ◽  
Definition Of

This paper presents a pilot based on the NUCC corpus aimed at verifying the consistency of the Language into Act Theory (L-AcT) for the annotation of information structure in spoken Japanese. L-AcT focus on the perceptual relevance of prosodic breaks, foresees a strict correspondence between prosodic units and information units and bases the Information structure on the unit bearing the illocutionary cues (Comment). The model also foresees a language independent typology of information functions. The pilot shows that the detection of terminal breaks in speech goes hand in hand with the identification of speech acts by competent speakers. L-AcT works fine in all its basic principles and specifically for the illocutionary definition of the Comment. The main information unit types (Topic, Parenthesis and Appendix and Dialogic Units) also fit with Japanese. Information structure turns out largely language independent, for instance Japanese word order (SOV) applies within the Information unit but it does not across information units.

scholarly journals ON THE WORD ORDER OF SIMPLE SENTENCES IN TELEUT

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Денис Михайлович Токмашев
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Simple Sentence ◽  
Linear Distribution ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Simple Sentences

Типология порядка слов относится к слабо разработанной области тюркского синтаксиса. Телеутский язык относится к SOV-языкам левого ветвления. Глагол-сказуемое располагается в конце простого предложения, содержащего одну пропозицию, с непосредственно примыкающим к нему прямым дополнением. Позиция косвенного дополнения и обстоятельства может варьировать в зависимости от коммуникативной перспективы (информационной структуры) предложения. В придаточных клаузах порядок слов стремится к порядку в главных. Функционально порядок слов отвечает за линейную дистрибуцию вершины-сказуемого и его зависимых. Базовый порядок слов регламентирует дистрибуцию аргументов глагола без учета позиции адъюнктов. Семантические роли аргументов не влияют на их синтаксические функции и их позицию в предложении. Изменение SOV-порядка слов в телеутском языке возможно при изменении его информационной структуры, например, рематизации субъекта и тематизации предиката. На современном этапе под влиянием русского языка отмечается прагматически не обусловленное построение предложения по модели SVO. Word order typology can be referred to as a poorly developed area of Turkic syntax. The Teleut language belongs to the SOV-type of the left-branching languages. The predicate verb is located at the end of a simple sentence containing one proposition, with a direct object directly adjacent to it. The position of the indirect object and the adverbial may vary depending on the communicative perspective (information structure) of the sentence. The word order in the subordinate clause tends to copy that in the main clause. Functionally, the word order is responsible for the linear distribution of the predicate head and its dependents. The basic word order defines the distribution of verb arguments regardless of the adjuncts’ position. The theta roles of the arguments do not affect their syntactic functions and their position within a sentence. A change in the SOV-word order in Teleut may be concurred by its information structure, for example, when the subject and the predicate become focal and topical parts of the sentence respectively. At the present stage, the influence of Russian bringing about the pragmatically unconditioned SVO-pattern model is noted.

scholarly journals ЗА ЕДНА ТЕНДЕНЦИЯ В СЛОВОРЕДА В ЧАСТНИТЕ ВЪПРОСИ В СЪВРЕМЕННИЯ БЪЛГАРСКИ ЕЗИК / ON A TENDENCY IN THE WORD ORDER OF CONTENT QUESTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (PR) ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
IVAN DERZHANSKI
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Middle Position ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Auxiliary Verb ◽  
Over Time

The word order in content questions in Bulgarian is largely determined by the information structure of the sentence, whereby the wh-word most commonly assumes the position immediately preceding the verb and the subject is located after the verb. In recent years the author believes to have observed a growth in the frequency of content questions in which the subject precedes the verb, as is usual in declarative sentences. If this is the case, it may be due to the waxing influence of English, where an auxiliary verb usually precedes the subject in content questions (inversion), but the main verb retains its place after the subject. A study was conducted on a provisional corpus of 138 thousand content questions beginning with an initial adverbial wh-word защо ‘why’, как ‘how’, кога ‘when’ (докога ‘until when’, откога ‘since when’) or къде ‘where’ (докъде ‘up to where’, закъде ‘due where’, накъде ‘whither’, откъде ‘whence’) extracted from original Bulgarian as well as translated texts, mostly fiction. The material shows a tangible correlation between the source language of the translated texts and the frequency of inversion in content questions: it is most common in translations from Romanian and much rarer in translations from Turkish, with the original Bulgarian texts occupying a middle position. In the translations from English, which prevail in the corpus in terms of number, the frequency of questions without inversion increases over time. This supports the hypothesis about the influence of English on Bulgarian with respect to the word order in content ques-tions. Keywords: Bulgarian, interrogative sentences, word order

scholarly journals Predicationele en specificationele objectcomplementen in het Frans

1970 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
Els Tobback
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
The Subject

In this article it is shown that the direct object complement and indirectobject complement of the French verbs of nomination élire andnommer function differently with regard to information structure. Thedirect object complement has the characteristics of the "predicate-focus"structures, whereas the indirect object complement can be considered tobelong to the "argument-focus" structures. This way it seems possible torelate the two types of object complement to the typology of subjectcomplements, the direct object complement corresponding to the predicationalsubject complement, and the function of the indirect objectcomplement being analogous to that of the specificational subject complement.It is shown, furthermore, that the word order potential (i.e. thepossible positions of the direct object constituent and the object complementconstituent) is different for both object complement types. Onceagain, a parallelism can be drawn with the subject complement sentences.

scholarly journals Word order in wh-questions in a North Norwegian dialect: some evidence from an acquisition study

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Richardsen Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
New Information ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
The Subject

While standard Norwegian is a V2 language, some Norwegian dialects exhibit V3 in certain types of wh-questions. In some previous work on the Tromsø dialect, V3 has been considered the ‘true’ dialect and speakers' acceptance of V2 simply a result of the influence from the standard language. Based on child and adult data from a study of the acquisition of word order in the Tromsø dialect, I will argue that both V2 and V3 orders are part of the dialect – used by adult speakers and acquired (more or less) simultaneously by children. It will further be argued that the choice between the two depends on the information structure of the sentence, more specifically, on the interpretation of the subject as given or new information.

Sandawe

2020 ◽  
pp. 681-691
Author(s):  
Helen Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Subject Clitics ◽  
Object Marking

Sandawe (Khoisan, Tanzania) is a highly suffixal language with an intricate system of marking grammatical relations and number. The language makes extensive use of derivation between word classes and uses tone to create genitive noun phrases and distinguish certain clause types. The realis/irrealis distinction is key to understanding the different means of subject marking in Sandawe. Realis verbs allow multiple pronominal subject clitics and a subject focus marker, whereas in the irrealis, the subject is marked only on the verb itself. Aspect marking is achieved by coordinating verbs or through object marking. Conjunctions which are marked for the subject of the clause are used to express consecutive events in narratives. Constituent order is SOV, but preposing and postposing of constituents may take place, according to information structure considerations.

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