Grammar Competition and Word Order in a Northern Early Middle English Text

The Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians manuscript of Cursor Mundi and the Northern Homilies, a northern Middle English text from the early 14th century, contains unprecedentedly high frequencies of matrix verb-third and embedded verb-second word orders with subject–verb inversion. I give a theoretical account of these word orders in terms of a grammar, the ‘CM grammar’, which differs minimally in its formal description from regular verb-second grammars, but captures these unusual word orders through addition of a second preverbal A′-projection. Despite its flexibility, the CM grammar did not spread through the English-speaking population. I discuss the theoretical consequences of this failure to spread for models of grammar competition where fitness is tied to parsing success, and discuss prospects for refining such models.

The North Samoyedic interrogative verb meaning ‘say what’

A cross-linguistically rare interrogative category (i.e., an interrogative verb with the meaning ‘say what’) is observed in the North Samoyedic (Uralic) languages. The interrogative verb in these languages is used in content questions, and functions as the predicate of the main or the embedded clause. It takes the regular verb morphemes with two exceptions: it (i) does not display object agreement, and (ii) cannot combine with the regular past tense morpheme. Furthermore, there is also an ordering restriction on multiple questions containing the interrogative verb. The morphosyntactic evidence suggests that the North Samoyedic interrogative verb is analyzed as a result of a wh-object incorporation. Kokkuvõte. Nikolett Mus: Põhjasamojeedi keelte küsiverb tähendusega ‘mida ütlema’. Põhjasamojeedi (uurali) keeltes esineb keeleüleselt haruldane küsiv kategooria (st küsiverb tähendusega ’mis asja’). Nendes keeltes kasutatakse küsiverbi sisuküsimustes ja küsiverb toimib pea- või kõrvallauses predikaadina, liitudes tavaliste verbimorfeemidega, välja arvatud kahel juhul: küsiverb (i) ei väljenda objektiühildumist, ja (ii) ei kombineeru lihtmineviku morfeemiga. Lisaks on küsiverbil teatavad järjestuspiirangud küsiverbi sisaldava kompleksküsimuse korral. Morfosüntaktilised andmed viitavad, et põhjasamojeedi küsiverb on analüüsitav kui küsisõnalise objekti inkorporatsiooni tulemus. Аннотация. Николетт Муш: Северосамодийский вопросительный глагол ‘что сказать’. В северосамодийских языках (уральская языковая семья) есть типологически редкий вопросительный глагол со значением ‘что сказать’. Этот глагол используется в частных вопросах в качестве предиката главного или подчиненного предложения. Он принимает обычные словоизменительные суффиксы за двумя исключениями: он не сочетается (i) с объектным спряжением и (ii) с показателем прошедшего времени индикатива. Кроме того, существуют ограничения на относительный порядок вопросов с вопросительным глаголом. Данные морфосинтаксиса свидетельствуют о том, что северносамодийский вопросительный глагол возник в результате инкорпорации объекта — вопросительного местоимениия.

Voll- und Reduktionsformen im Dienst der Klammer

With rapid increases of token frequency, the formerly weak regular verb haben ›have‹ has been affected by processes of reduction and irregularization that led to a suppletive paradigm in New High German. In contemporary spoken German, haben may even show further reductions, resulting in a short-form paradigm. However, current empirical research documents extensive variation of full and reduced forms in spoken German and provides indications that this variation may be linked to the verbal brace. In this paper, we present the results of a corpus study testing the effects of the verbal brace on the form of haben. We find that the form systematically varies as a function of syntactic position, i. e. that reduced forms occur when haben is positioned in the left brace and full forms occur when haben is positioned in the right brace. First, a mixed-model regression analysis reveals that the verbal brace has the strongest effect on the variation net of theoretically relevant controls. Second, an interactional-linguistic analysis of deviant cases shows that reduced variants in the right brace are recurrently used for the management of turn-taking. We conclude by discussing the consequences for the paradigm of the verb and how the results shed light on the importance and development-in-progress of the framing principle in German.

AN ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT AT THE FIRST YEAR CLASSES OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

The objective of this research is to find out and analyze the types of error made by students at the first-year classes in writing a recount text. The methodology of the research used is qualitative methods and the research design is a case study. Moreover, the writers chose the first-year classes students of English Department and observed 40 students. The writers used a written test to gain the data about error in writing a recount text. Based on the analysis of students’ recount text writing, there were several mistakes made by the students, with the total number of percentages was 76%. Of these, 76% errors including 15% errors of irregular verb usage, 12% errors of regular verb, and the type of error most often done by the students was 32% errors of word choice, 2% errors of omission, 3% errors of auxiliary verb, 5% errors of intralingual transfer, 2% errors of adverb, error of misordering was 5%, and error of unclear meaning was only 2%. The number errors of be was 17%, and the use of personal pronoun errors was 7%.

An Error Analysis of Students in Writing Narrative Text

This research is aimed to find out the typical errors on students in writing narrative text by using simple past tense at grade IX of SMP SwastaTalitakum Medan. The researchers used a descriptive qualitative method in this research. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the errors of misinformation are the most frequent errors in which the ninth grade students committed 233 errors in regular verb. Moreover , it was followed by errors of misinformation with 150 errors, addition with 38 errors, omission with 29 errors and misordering with 16 errors. Then errors in regular verb, it was followed by errors of misordering with 36 errors, omission with 38 errors, addition with 56 errors and misinformation with 156 errors. It can be concluded that after analyzing through the research, the writer got the data about students’ errors, which are commonly made in narrative writing using simple past. Their errors are misinformation, addition, omission and misordering. Keywords: error analysis, simple past tense

AN ANALYSIS ON STUDENT’S ERROR OF PASSIVE VOICE IN THE SIMPLE PRESENT

This research is aimed to analyze and to know an error of the passive voice in the simple present, passive is needed in daily speaking and writing activity. In this research, the writers use a qualitative method and took 25 students as a sample of this research. While the result of this research, among others: 1. there are 5 students who error on the use of verb, the students are looked confused to choose between Verb 2 and Also Verb 3 (Past Participle), the student cannot distinguish between irregular verb, regular verb and Verb 3 (Past Participle), 2. 4 students’ error on the use to be they can distinguish to be in the passive voice with the use to be in past tense, 3. 6 students’ error in the use to be and verb on passive voice of simple present. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis dan mengetahui kesalahan passive voice pada simple present, passive voice sangat dibutuhkan dalam kegiatan berbicara dan menulis sehari-hari. Dalam penelitian ini penulis menggunakan metode kualitatif dan mengambil 25 siswa sebagai sampel penelitian. Adapun Hasil penelitian ini antara lain: 1. ada 5 siswa yang melakukan kesalahan dalam penggunaan kata kerja, siswa terlihat bingung untuk memilih antara kata kerja 2 dan kata kerja 3 (Past Participle), siswa tidak dapat membedakan antara kata kerja tidak teratur, kata kerja reguler dan Kata kerja 3 (Past Participle), 2. Ada 4 siswa yang melakukan kesalahan dalam menggunakan to be, para siswa tidak dapat membedakan to be passive voice dan past tense 3. Ada 6 siswa yang salah dalam penggunaan menjadi dan kata kerja pada passive voice.

De interactie tussen gender en homofoondominantie bij dt-fouten in de informele online communicatie van jongeren

We examine unintentional spelling errors (“dt-fouten”) on regular verb homophones in informal social media writing of Flemish adolescents. Our study reveals a high overall error rate: 28 percent of all target forms were spelled incorrectly. In addition, we found some clear patterns with regard to gender and the psycholinguistic variables that played a role in previous experimental research. Boys made significantly more verb spelling errors than girls. This effect of gender suggests that girls display greater error awareness or norm sensitivity. However, in both gender groups we found the same error pattern: a psycholinguistic effect of homophone dominance which causes more errors on the lower frequency form. These findings reveal that a greater focus on spelling errors may reduce the number of dt-errors, while it has no effect on the nature of those errors.

Interactions between prosody and morphosyntax in Fuzhou VO phrases

This study examines how tone sandhi domains (TSDs) are determined in Fuzhou. The data include: (i) regular verb-object phrases (VOs) where the verb takes a direct bare noun object; and (ii) non-canonical VOs where the verb takes an adverbial expression as a surface object. Several observations are made. First, a three-way sandhi exists within every TSD. All antepenultimate syllables neutralize to low tones. A penultimate syllable’s sandhi tone is dependent on the final syllable’s citation tone, which remains unchanged. Second, in regular VOs, a monosyllabic verb consistently forms a single TSD with its direct bare noun object, but a disyllabic verb and its object are separated into two TSDs. Third, in non-canonical VOs, a monosyllabic verb never forms a single TSD with its adverbial object. Three questions are raised. First, what is the nature of each TSD? Second, why does the number of syllables in a verb determine the distinct TSDs formed in regular VOs? Third, how can we account for the different patterns of TSD formation in two types of VOs? We propose that each TSD equals to a prosodic word (PrWd). OT analyses are provided to show how PrWds are derived. The analysis of regular VOs relies on the ranking of a prosodic markedness constraint ft bin above the word-level interface correspondence constraints. The contrast between two types of VOs is explained by applying the model of Multiple Spell-Out and a cyclic interaction of morphosyntax and prosody. This approach is new in explaining the TSDs that are constrained by morphosyntax.

THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE UNDERSTANDING IN SMA MAITREYAWIRA BATAM

Penelitian ini membahas tentang pengaruh pemahaman aspek tata bahasa (grammar) terhadap keterampilan menulis (writing skills) oleh Siswa Kelas 11 SMA Maitreyawira Batam Tahun Akademik 2012/2013. Peneliti membatasi permasalahan penelitian pada pemahaman simple past tense meliputi kata kerja beraturan (regular verb) dan tidak beraturan (irregular verb) terhadap keterampilan menulis teks narasi (narrative writing skills).Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan pengaruh pemahaman simple past tense terhadap keterampilan menulis dalam teks narasi. Peneliti menggunakan data kuantitatif dalam desain penelitian cross-sectional (satu waktu). Instrumen utama untuk memperoleh data ialah kuisioner tata bahasa dan keterampilan menulis yang diproses melalui aplikasi SPSS®. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan koefisien F-Hitung (124.312) bernilai lebih besar dari F-Tabel (4.043). Hal ini membuktikan bahwa terdapat pengaruh pemahaman simple past tense terhadap keterampilan dalam menulis teks narasi. Lebih lanjut, hasil pengolahan data menunjukkan nilai R-square yaitu 84.1%. Nilai ini menggambarkan bahwa pengaruh pemahaman simple past tense terhadap keterampilan menulis teks narasi adalah dominan.