scholarly journals Agreement with conjoined singular noun phrases in Icelandic

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorbjorg Thorvaldsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Singular Noun

scholarly journals Number Dissimilarity Effects in Object-Initial Sentence Comprehension by German-Speaking Children With Specific Language Impairment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Maja Stegenwallner-Schütz ◽  
Flavia Adani
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Comprehension Accuracy

Purpose This study examines the contribution of number morphology to language comprehension abilities among children with specific language impairment (SLI) and age-matched controls. It addresses the question of whether number agreement facilitates the comprehension accuracy of object-initial declarative sentences. According to the predictions of the structural intervention account for German, number agreement should assist the correct interpretation of object-initial sentences. Method This study examines German-speaking children with SLI and a control group of age-matched typically developing children on their sentence comprehension skills for auditory presented subject–verb–object and object–verb–subject (OVS) sentences. The sentences were manipulated with respect to the number properties of the noun phrases (e.g., one plural and one singular, or both singular) and the number agreement of the verb. Results The group of children with SLI demonstrated poorer comprehension accuracy in comparison to controls. Comprehension difficulty was limited to OVS sentences among children with SLI. In addition, children with SLI comprehended OVS sentences in which number agreement (with plural subject and verb inflection) indicated the noncanonical word order more accurately than OVS sentences with two singular noun phrases and therein did not differ from controls. Conclusion The study suggests that number agreement helps alleviate the difficulty with OVS sentences and enhances comprehension accuracy, despite the finding that children with SLI exhibit lower comprehension accuracy and more heterogeneous interindividual differences, relative to controls. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13718029

scholarly journals Do children derive exact meanings pragmatically? Evidence from a dual morphology language

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franc Marušič ◽  
Rok Žaucer ◽  
Amanda Saksida ◽  
Jess Sullivan ◽  
Dimitrios Skordos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Morphological Markers ◽  
Number Words ◽  
Pragmatic Enrichment ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
Pragmatic Inference ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
English Speaking

Number words allow us to describe exact quantities like sixty-three and (exactly) one. How do we derive exact interpretations? By some views, these words are lexically exact, and are therefore unlike other grammatical forms in language. Other theories, however, argue that numbers are not special and that their exact interpretation arises from pragmatic enrichment, rather than lexically. For example, the word one may gain its exact interpretation because the presence of the immediate successor two licenses the pragmatic inference that one implies “one, and not two”. To investigate the possible role of pragmatic enrichment in the development of exact representations, we looked outside the test case of number to grammatical morphological markers of quantity. In particular, we asked whether children can derive an exact interpretation of singular noun phrases (e.g., “a button”) when their language features an immediate “successor” that encodes sets of two. To do this, we used a series of tasks to compare English speaking children who have only singular and plural morphology to Slovenian-speaking children who have singular and plural forms, but also dual morphology, that is used when describing sets of two. Replicating previous work, we found that English-speaking preschoolers failed to enrich their interpretation of the singular and did not treat it as exact. New to the present study, we found that 4- and 5-year-old Slovenian-speakers who comprehended the dual treated the singular form as exact, while younger Slovenian children who were still learning the dual did not, providing evidence that young children may derive exact meanings pragmatically.

Generic noun phrases in mother–child conversations

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
ATHINA PAPPAS ◽  
SUSAN A. GELMAN
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Conceptual Organization ◽  
Single Instance ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Semantic Properties

Generic noun phrases (e.g. Tigers are fierce) are of interest for their semantic properties: they capture ‘essential’ properties, are timeless, and are context-free. The present study examines use of generic noun phrases by preschool children and their mothers. Mother–child pairs were videotaped while looking through a book of animal pictures. Each page depicted either a single instance of a particular category (e.g. one crab) or multiple instances of a particular category (e.g. many crabs). The results indicated a striking difference in how generics vs. non-generics were distributed, both in the speech of mothers and in the speech of preschool children. Whereas the form of non-generic noun phrases was closely linked to the structure of the page (i.e. singular noun phrases were used more often when a single instance was presented; plural noun phrases were used more often when multiple instances were presented), the form of generic noun phrases was independent of the information depicted (e.g. plural noun phrases were as frequent when only one instance was presented as when multiple instances were presented). We interpret the data as providing evidence that generic noun phrases differ in their semantics and conceptual organization from non-generic noun phrases, both in the input to young children and in children's own speech. Thus, this simple linguistic device may provide input to, and a reflection of, children's early developing notion of ‘kinds’.

scholarly journals Active prediction of syntactic information during sentence processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Ilkin ◽  
Patrick Sturt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
High Expectation ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Singular Noun

We describe an eye-tracking experiment that tested the effect of syntactic predictability on skipping rates during reading. We found that plural noun phrases were skipped more often than singular noun phrases, in syntactic contexts which induced a high expectation for a plural. We interpret this effect as evidence that the plural noun phrase has been predicted ahead of time. The results indicate that the examination of skipping rates might be a useful tool for the investigation of syntactic prediction effects.

Bare singular noun phrases are mass in Brazilian Portuguese

Lingua ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 121 (15) ◽  
pp. 2153-2175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Pires de Oliveira ◽  
Susan Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Singular Noun

The interpretation of singular nouns in the scope of an event-distributive quantifier

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Piotr Gulgowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Experiment ◽  
Multiple Objects ◽  
Multiple Events ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Distributive Operator

Abstract Singular nouns in the scope of a distributive operator have been shown to be treated as conceptually plural (Patson and Warren, 2010). The source of this conceptual plurality is not fully clear. In particular, it is not known whether the concept of plurality associated with a singular noun originates from distributing over multiple objects or multiple events. In the present experiment, iterative expressions (distribution over events) were contrasted with collective and distributive sentences using a Stroop-like interference technique (Berent, Pinker, Tzelgov, Bibi, and Goldfarb, 2005; Patson and Warren, 2010). A trend in the data suggests that event distributivity does not elicit a plural interpretation of a grammatically singular noun, however the results were not statistically significant. Possible causes of the non-significant results are discussed.

THE STUDY OF COMPLEMENTARY COMPLEXES IN MODERN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-86
Author(s):  
O. Tuhai
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Status ◽  
Clausal Complementation ◽  
Communicative Approach ◽  
Clausal Complements ◽  
Form Feature

The article focuses on the basic theoretical approaches to the analysis of complementary complexes in modern grammar paradigms. The phenomenon of clausal complementation has been presented. Subordinate sentences are characterized as object clausal complements with the status of a core internal argument of the main predicate. Grammatical configuration and functioning of finite/infinitive complementary sentences in English have been revealed. Grammatical status of clauses under the study is postulated as object predication or the internal verbal complement in the function of an object. Grammatical indicators of finite sentences are analyzed considering specific that/wh- markers of complementation, semantics of matrix verbs as well as temporal tense-form feature in a verbal phrase. Grammatical configuration of infinitive sentences is denoted by to-/wh-markers and noun phrases in a certain case. Identifying criteria of verbal clausal complements have been distinguished. Morphology of the predicate, internal/external syntax of a complementary construction are grounded as leading features of their definition. Typology of verbal complementation in terms of transitivity, complement attachment to the perculia part of speech, functional communicative approach has been reviewed. General monotransitive, complex-transitive and ditransitive complementation has been outlined. When being attached to a particular language constituent a clause is determined as nominal, adjective or verbal complement. Due to communicative peculiarity finite subordinate clauses are positioned as content declarative, interrogative and exclamative.

Ungkapan Bermakna Budaya Masyarakat Nelayan (Suatu Kajian Antropolinguistik)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irma Maria Lontoh ◽  
Jenny Hilda Pakasi ◽  
Martha Salea-Warouw
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Area ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
North Sulawesi ◽  
Community Language

The fishermen community is a community found in North Sulawesi, especially in the coastal area of Sario-Malalayang, Manado. With different cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, this group has its own uniqueness, especially in language. This research succeeded is finding expressions in the fishermen community in the coastal area of Sario-Malalayang. These expressions consist of forms of words, phrases, and clauses in accordance with the lingual forms of theory from Widdowson (1997: 3). The results of the study found a number of lingual forms in affixed words, which had a similar prefix as in the words ba-daseng, ba-kintu, ba-tono, ba-saoh, ba-pake. In addition, the majority of phrases contained in the results of the study are predominantly dominated by noun phrases, such as in the lips phrases of napo, puru loe, coolies, ikang itching, mulu sosoroka, gargantang tubir.This research also succeeded in exploring and discovering cultural meanings. The meanings in the form of words, such as ‘badaseng’, ‘sunga’, then the form of a phrase, like ‘puru loe’, ‘mulu sosoroka’, then sentence expressions in the form of expressions like ‘udang deng katang so kurang sama’, ‘kase wora mar jang talapas’, ‘karja cuma sampe di kuli aer’, etc. The expressions encountered generally contain various cultural meanings, namely advice, satire, ridicule, seduction, warning, insults, and despair. Based on the conclusion, the researcher suggests to the next researcher, to be more comprehensive related to the use of Manado Malay language expression in different background and contexts in order to get a whole description about expressions system of Manado Malay language, especially in the fishermen community in North Sulawesi.Keywords: fishermen community, language and culture

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