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This study focuses on the construction mira que + clause and analyzes the discursive functions it develops when it is fixed. Using a macrosyntactic methodology and based on the fundamentals of construction grammar, the article describes the distribution and behavior of this construction and the procedural contents it develops. In some contexts, mira que acts as intensifier of a valuation word. In others it is combined with gerunds, participles or nouns with negative content. It appears in these cases as a suspended statement. In combination with other sentences it may introduce a justifying argument or a concessive anti-oriented meaning. The distributional context predetermines the argumentative orientation of the construction and makes it work as a discursive element more linked to the procedural dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It used to be confusing for english as a foreign language (EFL) learners to understand the meanings of past participle functioning as modifiers. The data was taken from workbook entitled english for secretaries and administrative personnel written by MariselaToselli and Ana Maria Milan. This study results that past participle is labelled as a classifier when it precedes the thing, whereas the past participle is labelled as a qualifier when it follows the thing. Past participle functioning as a classifier expresses restriction. Past participle as a qualifier characterizes or provides additional information about the thing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many languages a set of adjectives are characterized by their 'past/passive' participial morphology. Lexicalist and syntactic approaches to word formation converge on the claim that such adjectives can be derived from verbal inputs with no external argument but never from verbal inputs with an external argument. That is, there are 'adjectival passives' but no 'adjectival antipassives' marked with the same morphology. I argue that a sub-class of adjectives marked with the 'past/passive' participial morpheme -do in Spanish, labeled participios activos in descriptive grammars, should be treated as adjectival antipassives in precisely this sense. I propose that Spanish has an Asp head that (i) is spelled out with 'past/passive' participial morphology and (ii) selects an unergative verbal input creating a state/property whose argument corresponds to the external argument of that verbal source. If on the right track, the proposal supports the existence of a typology of adjectivizing heads that are spelled out uniformly with 'past/passive' participial morphology but must be distinguished in terms of selectional and semantic properties (Bruening 2014, Word formation is syntactic: Adjectival passives in English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32. 363-422; Embick 2004, On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry 35. 355-392). It differs from previous approaches in claiming that such a typology must include root-derived adjectives, as well as 'active (=unergative)' and 'passive' deverbal adjectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain, from a theoretical point of view, the behaviour of past participle agreement with the object in situ (PPAOIS) in Majorcan Catalan. It is possible in perfect telic dynamic events, but not in Kimian and Davidsonian states, nor in some atelic dynamic constructions (like those ones with NP objects bounded by a D or Q), although it is perfectly grammatical with bare plurals and with bare mass nouns. In order for PPAOIS to be possible, it is proposed that a specific functional head (Asp, that is to say: Proc[uq][uϕ]), related to so-called inner aspect, must be present in the event structure. Asp establishes a double Agree relation with the object, in order to get its quantisation and [uϕ] features valued. The possibility is also explored that the [q] feature of Asp be interpretable. If Asp is not present in the structure, the impossibility of PPAOIS follows. Moreover, PPAOIS will be only materialised if a pro object co-referent with the full NP object moves through a LowTop position --similar to the AgrO projection proposed by Kayne (1989). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effectiveness of Zipfian frequency at facilitating the acquisition of English prenominal past participles. Chinese middle school students ( N = 103) were randomly assigned to a sequenced Zipfian frequency (SZF) group, a random Zipfian frequency (RZF) group, a balanced frequency (BF) group, and a control group. A mixed experimental design was used to detect the development of the learners' prenominal past participles. An untimed acceptability judgment task and a timed grammaticality judgment task were employed to assess the learning effect triggered by different types of frequency. Results of the timed grammaticality judgment task indicated that SZF was as effective as RZF and BF for learners to learn the grammatical prenominal past participles but more effective than RZF and BF for them to unlearn the ungrammatical ones in the midtest. Results of the untimed acceptability judgment showed that SZF was not superior to RZF and BF when learners learned the grammatical prenominal past participles, but more beneficial for them to unlearn the ungrammatical ones than RZF and BF in the post- and delayed posttests. Pedagogical implications for second language construction teaching are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally accepted in usage-based theories of language that language change is facilitated by contexts of use that allow for semantically and/or structurally ambiguous readings of a construction. While this facilitative effect is well attested in the literature, much less attention has been paid to factors that constrain language change. Furthermore, the idea that ambiguities may also promote stability and discourage change has not been explored in detail. In this article I discuss the development of three participle constructions that have gained increasingly adjective-like uses in recent history: ADJ-looking (e.g., modest-looking), N-Ving denoting a change in psychological state (e.g., awe-inspiring), and the adjectival -ed participle headed by a psych-verb (e.g., surprised). I argue that the development of these constructions has been significantly constrained by unresolved ambiguities as well as source structures that continue to support the earlier, verbal categorization instead of an adjectival one. As a consequence, the participles have acquired adjectival uses gradually and often at a slow rate. The data are analyzed from a constructionist perspective, where constructions are connected in a network, and categories like “verb” or “adjective” are regarded as emergent schemas that arise from actual patterns of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High vowel syncope, when applying in Old English past participles, is expected only to affect those that (a) contain a heavy root syllable, and (b) are inflected. However, numerous exceptions are noted in traditional handbooks (e.g. Campbell 1959). In particular, West Saxon displays a process by which high vowel syncope over-applies in weak Class 1 past participles with roots ending in t/d, with deletion occurring after light syllables, as in settan 'set' set+ed+um(Past. Part. Dat.)→settum, and also in uninflected participles: seted→ sett. The root-final dental and the stem-forming -ed come together following deletion to form a geminate: læded+e 'led' → lædde. However, phonological pressures cause the geminates to be simplified in certain environments. This paper focuses on the interaction of high vowel syncope and degemination, and aims to provide a synchronic account of both processes, arguing that deletion in dental-final forms is in fact not merely the extension of high vowel syncope. The paper also challenges the view that final geminates are merely orthographic in Old English. The analysis, which is formed within Optimality Theory (OT), is supported by newly collected data for the West Saxon past participles, which are taken from Cosijn's Altwests€achsische Grammatik glossary (1888). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English have-perfect can be traced to Old English [habban ‘have’ + noun + perfect participle]. A comparative look at the development of the have-perfect in Romance suggests a way to reassess the Old English corpus, which in turn reveals that the string [habban + noun + perfect participle] had three distinct structures and values aside from the periphrastic perfect. The author shows that the likeliest source of the have-perfect is a periphrasis denoting the achievement of a result or a persisting resultant state. This implies that the relationship between possessive and auxiliary habban is less direct than previously claimed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Previous studies of the English passive have not recognized a subtype whose auxiliaries are not simply be or get, but transitive grammatical verbs, in particular have, get, want, need, see or hear. These “indirect passives,” as I call them, are shown here to be verbal and not adjectival, and to not consist of embedded passive clauses containing simple passives, such as reduced relatives or other types of “small clauses.” Rather, indirect passives are structurally parallel to the traditional (“direct”) passives, except that their auxiliaries are transitive rather than intransitive verbs. Both passive and active participle phrases, of all subtypes, are argued here to be adjective phrases (APs), whose verbs have word-internal right hand heads, the As -en and -ing. Passive auxiliaries in both direct and indirect passives are then grammatical verbs that select adjective phrase complements. The limitation of passive auxiliaries to grammatical rather than open class verbs provides crucial evidence for dividing lexicons into two components, whose members enter syntactic derivations differently. Open class items, including the -en and -ing heads of lexically stored adjectives, enter trees only when derivational phases begin, while closed class items, including auxiliaries and the inflectional endings -en and -ing, can also enter derivations “late,”after a phasal domain is sent to Logical Form. Their “empty A heads” are neither interpreted as properties nor visible during the next derivational phase τ, prior to the late insertion of closed class items on τ. Consequently, even though they are distributionally and often morphologically APs, the inflectional participles (so called verbal passives and progressives) all exhibit familiar internal V-headed syntactic patterns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article addresses the information structure in the administrative and legal discourse, and posits that these texts are characterized by a marked discourse order. This proposal is based on van Kuppevelt's theory of information structure and identifies the information structure as presented by this scholar with an unmarked discourse order, which is modified in the legal discourse. The preference for a marked discourse order allows to explain the frequent use of past and present participle absolute clauses in administrative documents, since these syntactic constructions serve to topicalize the elements offered as a justification in these texts. These syntactic constructions, therefore, are useful to achieve the marked discourse order that is preferred due to argumentative reasons, but at the same time they make the interpretation of these texts more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the interchangeability of the forms -ende and -enne in the words of Old and Early Middle English. It says that the usage of participles and inflected infinitives has possible similarity to Old English and Modern English. Moreover, it states that texts in Old English adopt the original words in the Latin language in which its conformity varies from each other. Fredericus Visser says that the phonemic tendency in forming the -ende to -enne sporadically occur in the late Old English and extensively spread in the period of Middle English. It also mentions that the continuous interchange of the use of the said forms can be found on some texts during the Early Middle English particularly the "Laʒamon's Brut."

The article provides information on the absolute participle construction in Old English. It notes that the absolute participle constructions are known to have developed from the Latin language as evident in the 1889 monograph of Morgan Callaway Jr. It further examines frequent use of absolute participle in the vernacular prose works of the homilist Ælfric and the possibility that Latin had directly influenced such constructions. The patterns in his work "Catholic Homilies" illustrate participles that directly render ablative absolutes and those that are independent of Latin. The effect of syntax alterations in translating several passages in Ælfric's prose is noticeable so as to clearly instill to readers the intended message of the text.

This paper revisits the issue of English phrasal verbs from the perspective of particles and the meaning they contribute to the composite meaning as a whole. The question it addresses is whether particles are purely idiomatic (i.e. arbitrarily or chaotically used) or whether they rather consist of clusters of related and transparent meanings so that they can he used in a quite motivated, logical way. Following the cognitive linguistic approach, the paper will consider the spatial domain as the source for a large variety of semantic extensions to non-locative domains through metonymy and metaphor and will analyze the meanings of two of the most frequently used particles in English: OUT and UP. Therefore, the analysis is meant to demonstrate that English verb particles disclose figurative related meanings derived from a central/prototypical locative meaning. The abstract senses did not develop at random hut systematically, and this systematicity should not he disregarded if we really want to reduce the amount of memory work that learners of English (including non-native speaking teachers and translators) must invest in learning how particles and phrasal verbs are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English physical perception verbs can appear followed by an NP (Noun Phrase) and an --ing form. In the literature, they are generally assumed to represent two separate constituents. However, we claim that an alternative interpretation is also possible: the "NP + -ing form" can be considered as a single constituent. We provide semantic, syntactic and thematic evidence in favour of this hypothesis. We will especially dwell on the relationship between physical and cognitive perception verbs. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this analysis on the possible readings of the --ing form with physical perception verbs (abstract and concrete readings). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the syntactic contexts of nonstandard past participles in spoken American English. Recording of past participles in present perfect construction; Distribution of contexts; Leveling of preterit and past participle forms; Developments in the English verb system.

The article discusses the present participle using that appears in a dangling position in scientific articles. It mentions editing of research literature by editors along with the language experts disagreement about whether "using" in passive constructions. It adds difference in literary writing and scientific writing.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the grammatical complexities of to-infinitives, the rise of the have-perfect, and the pronunciation of the STRUT vowel among migrants to Manchester, England.