scholarly journals Diagnosing Learner Errors on Arabic Closed-Class Items

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayat Alrefaie ◽  
Allan Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Closed Class

Adjuncts as a diagnostic of polysynthetic word formation in Inuit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Compton
Keyword(s):  
Head Movement ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Diagnostic Device ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Variable Ordering ◽  
Mirror Principle

This chapter examines polysynthetic word formation in Inuit (Eskimo-Aleut), using the presence and variable ordering of a closed class of adverbs within verbal complexes as a diagnostic device to evaluate the adequacy of different accounts of word formation. It is argued that a head movement account of Mirror Principle orders within Inuit words undergenerates with respect to the observed variation in adverb ordering, particularly if a fixed hierarchy of adverbial functional projections is assumed, as in Cinque (1999). Instead, it is shown that an analysis that employs a right-headed structure, XP-sized phasal words, and Ernst’s (2002) semantically based framework of adverb licensing better captures the observed variation.

scholarly journals ‘Almost people’: A Learner Corpus Account of L2 Use and Misuse of Non-numerical Quantification

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Crosthwaite ◽  
Lavigne L.Y. Choy ◽  
Yeonsuk Bae
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Noun Number ◽  
L1 English

AbstractWe present an Integrated Contrastive Model of non-numerical quantificational NPs (NNQs, i.e. ‘some people’) produced by L1 English speakers and Mandarin and Korean L2 English learners. Learner corpus data was sourced from the ICNALE (Ishikawa, 2011, 2013) across four L2 proficiency levels. An average 10% of L2 NNQs were specific to L2 varieties, including noun number mismatches (*‘many child’), omitting obligatory quantifiers after adverbs (*‘almost people’), adding unnecessary particles (*‘all of people’) and non-L1 English-like quantifier/noun agreement (*‘many water’). Significantly fewer ‘openclass’ NNQs (e.g a number of people) are produced by L2 learners, preferring ‘closed-class’ single lexical quantifiers (following L1-like use). While such production is predictable via L1 transfer, Korean L2 English learners produced significantly more L2-like NNQs at each proficiency level, which was not entirely predictable under a transfer account. We thus consider whether positive transfer of other linguistic forms (i.e. definiteness marking) aids the learnability of other L2 forms (i.e. expression of quantification).

scholarly journals A broadened estimate of syntactic and lexical ability from the MB-CDI

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Trevor K.M. DAY ◽  
Jed T. ELISON
Keyword(s):  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Subsequent Investigation ◽  
Factor Analytic ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
Age Related Changes

Abstract A critical question in the study of language development is to understand lexical and syntactic acquisition, which play different roles in speech to the extent it would be natural to surmise they are acquired differently. As measured through the comprehension and production of closed-class words, syntactic ability emerges at roughly the 400-word mark. However, a significant proportion of the developmental work uses a coarse combination of function and content words on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI). Using the MB-CDI Wordbank database, we implemented a factor analytic approach to distinguish between lexical and syntactic development from the Words and Sentences (WS) form that involves both function words and the explicit categorizations. Although the Words and Gestures (WG) form did not share the factor structure, common WG/WS elements recapitulate the expected age-related changes. This parsing of the MB-CDI may prove simple, yet fruitful in subsequent investigation.

Constraints on Code-Switching: Evidence from Swedish and English

1986 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-82
Author(s):  
Beata Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Code Switching ◽  
Optimal Switching ◽  
Specific Point ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Clear Sense ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Category Equivalence ◽  
Communicative Context

In this paper, I have shown that Joshi's (1982) framework of codeswitching constraints can largely be applied to Swedish-English code-switches. I feel qualified to conclude that Joshi's claims concerning the non-switchability of closed class items and matrix language and embedded languages are held up by the Swedish- English data. The need for corresponding categories proved to be less clear-cut than originally proposed by Woolford (1983) and others. It seems that optimal switching conditions are given if the categories, rules and metarules correspond in the two languages. Apparently, however, it is also possible to switch if the node admissibility conditions for the matrix language only are met, as was shown by code-switched sentences containing RPs. This requires that the speaker has a clear sense of which language is the host and which is embedded. Rules from the embedded language only are not acceptable. This calls for some sort of determination strategy by the parser. I found no evidence for determining Lm at any specific point in the sentence, except at the topmost S. Rather, the judgments by code-switchers that a sentence “comes from” one language seems to coincide with the fact that the resulting sentence is based on the rules from that language. Other than that, the matrix language is determined by the communicative context as a whole.The data involving RPs also seemed to indicate that RPs are not separate ategories, but are NPs, introduced by a “de-slashing” rule (Sells 1984). If they were separate categories, this would be evidence for there being no need for category equivalence. In this case, we would have to explicitly state all other cases which require category equivalence (the majority of cases), which is undesirable.

Open class and closed class: Sentence-imitation experiments on intrasentential code-switching

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Azuma ◽  
Richard P. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Speech Errors ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Japanese English

ABSTRACTOne of the most striking facts about exchange errors in speech is that open class items are exchanged, but closed class items are not. This article argues that a pattern analogous to that in speech errors also appears in intrasentential code-switching. Intrasentential code-switching is the alternating use of two languages in a sentence by bilinguals. Studies of the spontaneous conversation of bilinguals have supported the claim that open class items may be codeswitched, but closed class items may not. This claim was tested by two sentence repetition experiments, one with Japanese/English bilinguals and the other with Spanish/English bilinguals. The results show that the switching of closed class items caused significantly longer response times and more errors than the switching of open class items.

Lexically specific constructions in the acquisition of inflection in English

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN WILSON
Keyword(s):  
General Construction ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Do So ◽  
Learning English

Children learning English often omit grammatical words and morphemes, but there is still much debate over exactly why and in what contexts they do so. This study investigates the acquisition of three elements which instantiate the grammatical category of ‘inflection’ – copula be, auxiliary be and 3sg present agreement – in longitudinal transcripts from five children, whose ages range from 1;6 to 3;5 in the corpora examined. The aim is to determine whether inflection emerges as a unitary category, as predicted by some recent generative accounts, or whether it develops in a more piecemeal fashion, consistent with constructivist accounts. It is found that for each child the relative pace of development of the three morphemes studied varies significantly, suggesting that these morphemes do not depend on a unitary underlying category. Furthermore, early on, be is often used primarily with particular closed-class subjects, suggesting that forms such as he's and that's are learned as lexically specific constructions. These findings are argued to support the idea that children learn ‘inflection’ (and by hypothesis, other functional categories) not by filling in pre-specified slots in an innate structure, but by learning some specific constructions involving particular lexical items, before going on to gradually abstract more general construction types.

Comparing productive vocabulary measures from the CDI and a systematic diary study

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
BYRON F. ROBINSON ◽  
CAROLYN B. MERVIS
Keyword(s):  
Growth Curves ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Fitting Model

Expressive vocabulary data gathered during a systematic diary study of one male child's early language development are compared to data that would have resulted from longitudinal administration of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories spoken vocabulary checklist (CDI). Comparisons are made for (1) the number of words at monthly intervals (9;10.15 to 2;0.15), (2) proportion of words by lexical class (i.e. noun, predicate, closed class, ‘other’), (3) growth curves. The CDI underestimates the number of words in the diary study, with the underestimation increasing as vocabulary size increases. The proportion of diary study words appearing on the CDI differed as a function of lexical class. Finally, despite the differences in vocabulary size, logistic curves proved to be the best fitting model to characterize vocabulary development as measured by both the diary study and the CDI. Implications for the longitudinal use of the CDI are discussed.

Type/Token Ratios: what do they really tell us?

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Richards
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Sample Size ◽  
Linear Relationship ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Diversity Measure ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Non Linear

ABSTRACTType/Token Ratios have been extensively used in child language research as an index of lexical diversity. This paper shows that the measure has frequently failed to discriminate between children at widely different stages of language development, and that the ratio may in fact fall as children get older. It is suggested here that such effects are caused by a negative, though non-linear, relationship between sample size (i.e. number of tokens) and Type/Token Ratio. Effects of open and closed class items are considered and an alternative Verbal Diversity measure is examined. Standardization of the number of tokens before computing Type/Token Ratios is recommended.

Be happy when your stomach is

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
Dorothea Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
River Region

Abstract In this paper I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and other semantic extensions in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Daly River area. Body-based expressions denote events, emotions, personality traits, significant places and people and are used to refer to times and number. Particularly central in the language are men ‘stomach’, pundu ‘head’ and tjewurr ‘ear’ associated respectively with basic emotions, states of mind and reason. The figurative extensions of these body parts are discussed systematically, and compared with what is known for other languages of the Daly River region. The article also explores the grammatical make up of body-based emotional collocations, and in particular the role of noun incorporation. In MalakMalak, noun incorporation is a central part of forming predicates with body parts, but uncommon in any other semantic domain of the language and only lexemes denoting basic emotions may also incorporate closed-class adjectives.

scholarly journals On degrammaticalization: Controversial points and possible explanations

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlotta Viti
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Semantic Component ◽  
Directional Change ◽  
Theoretical Conception

AbstractThis paper discusses the problem of degrammaticalization, that is, the exceptions to the unidirectionality of grammaticalization. After analyzing the criteria that allow us to distinguish between various instances of counter-directional change, two principles underlying degrammaticalization are identified; one is related to the type of language and the other to the type of target structures in which degrammaticalization occurs. Firstly, the targets of degrammaticalization are usually closed-class parts of speech with an abstract semantic component. Secondly, the languages in which counter-directional grammatical changes occur turn out to be deprived of an elaborate fusional morphology. These findings may also have an impact on the theoretical conception of grammaticalization, some of whose definitional properties are discussed. The paper ends with a discussion of a more controversial point, namely, counter-directional changes by folk etymology rather than by etymology proper.

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