Unlike wh-question questions in Standard Arabic (SA), which received much attention in the past decades in different approaches within generative grammar, question particles (yes-no questions) in SA have not yet been studied thoroughly in minimalist syntax, and less attention has been paid to them. There is a need to analyze SA question articles and explore their syntactic behavior within minimalism. The reason why this topic has been selected for study is that SA question particles have not been investigated in detail yet in Chomsky's Phase Theory; it has not been analyzed how question particles are derived and represented morpho-syntactically in a clause structure. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the morpho-syntax of SA question particles and provide satisfactory answers to the following questions: (i) Do question particles in SA undergo any syntactic movement to [Spec-CP] in the derivation of yes-no questions? If not, why?, (ii) Are question particles based-generated in [Spec-CP]?, and (iii) How can question particles be accounted for neatly in Chomsky's Phase-based Theory? The paper adopts Chomsky's Phase Theory to examine the interaction between the assumptions of this theory and the SA data on question particles. The study findings reveal that, unlike English, question particles in SA do not undergo any syntactic movement while deriving yes-no questions and are assumed to be base-generated in [Spec-CP]. Such question particles are not part of the verb morphology and are merely morphological affixes used as devices to mark interrogativity in the syntax; they do not carry any agreement and tense features that trigger syntactic movement to the clause-initial position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This article explores the relationship between theory and observation in scientific research, specifically in the field of linguistics. It discusses different perspectives on the role of observation and data in linguistic research, with a focus on generative syntax. The article emphasizes the importance of intuitive judgments and introspective data in this field, while also acknowledging the value of linguistic corpora and experimental methods. It concludes by presenting two papers that offer new perspectives on existing data in linguistics. The article is part of a collection of papers written to honor the 90th birthday of Mary A. Kato, a respected linguist. These papers cover various topics in linguistics, including language acquisition, syntax, semantics, and the use of judgment data in research. The authors present their findings based on extensive research and analysis of data from different sources, such as corpora and experimental studies. The papers provide valuable insights into the field of linguistics and highlight the significance of judgment data in linguistic research. [Extracted from the article]
Ross (1967) observed that the coordinate structure constraint can be violated in certain semantically asymmetric structures. In this article we consider one of these structures, namely type A coordination, in detail (the terminology is from Lakoff 1986; an example is Here's the whisky I went to the store and bought). We present experimental evidence showing that the pattern of argument and adjunct extraction from type A coordinate structures matches the pattern of argument and adjunct extraction from structures containing rationale clauses in all crucial respects. This near-perfect parallel behavior suggests that, like rationale clauses, the second conjunct in a type A coordination is an adjunct (see also Brown 2017). We explore the consequences of this finding for both interpretive and syntactic analyses of asymmetric coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The book "Current Issues in Syntactic Cartography: A crosslinguistic perspective" edited by Fuzhen Si and Luigi Rizzi provides a comprehensive study of syntactic cartography. The book is organized into 12 papers that focus on theoretical and descriptive issues of specific aspects of syntactic cartography. The chapters cover topics such as the left periphery, the Inflection Phrase (IP) zone, and the Verb Phrase (VP) zone. The book includes contributions from leading scholars and explores various languages, including Romance, Germanic, Semitic, Japanese, and Chinese. It is recommended for linguists interested in generative syntax and offers new theories and unfamiliar data for exploration. [Extracted from the article]
Guglielmo Cinque, the author of the book under review, once claimed that the asymmetries of linear order fit directly into Kayne's LCA (Cinque [5]). Berwick & Chomsky ([1]) and Chomsky ([4]) suggest that structures are created by the operation Merge in narrow syntax, and unordered structures are externalized in the sensorimotor system. Chomsky ([2]) partially agrees with Kayne ([8]) and "takes the LCA to be a principle of the phonological component" (Chomsky [2]: 313). [Extracted from the article]
In Chapter 1, "The structuralist ascendancy in American linguistics", Newmeyer considers how structuralism of a particular kind came to dominate American linguistics. The most interesting in my view is Chapter 6, 'The European reception of early transformational generative grammar', which sketches the very different ways in which generative grammar was received in the various countries of Europe. Newmeyer turns to generative grammar in Chapter 4, 'Early transformational generative grammar: Some controversial issues'. This book is concerned with the evolution of American linguistics from the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in 1924 until the 1960s. [Extracted from the article]
This paper investigates the behaviors of tag questions in Chinese and proposes a unifying analysis involving empty CP/DP pro-forms and predication. It is found that there are universally two types of Tag questions – (i) the invariable type and (ii) the (modal) verbal type, which correspond to the question-types in Chinese syntax. Previous research by Culivocer (1992. English tag questions in Universal Grammar. Lingua 88. 193–226) analyzed English tag questions as a pro-IP structure that is bound by a previous sentence. However, in Chinese, two types of tag questions include both A-not-A form and particle form. Furthermore, both the two kinds of tag questions display syntactic predication between the tag and an empty subject pro. An abbreviated "yes-no question" is attached to empty CP/DP constituents in these constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This sequence of elements is also compatible with R&D's proposal that the wh-phrase is in the Specifier of Foc, and Foc encodes the ! As a matter of fact, we had to assume that one morpheme, the declarative complementizer, is located in different syntactic positions and, at least in one case, it does not have the expected compositional import (examples (9)); moreover, we noticed that the interrogative complementizer, which by hypothesis corresponds to the ? R&D single out the special role of Foc in wh-questions by stipulating that "... a Foc head can only associate with wh-phrases if it is dominated by Int" (p. 58, discussion following [79]). Note that the anaphoric relation between Foc and the wh-phrase can be long-distance, as is the case in the extraction from a complement clause: (2) HT
Miyagawa's monograph is a compelling, very well-written, and extremely insightful look at the syntax-discourse interface from a generative perspective. In Chapter 1 ("Setting the stage", 1-36), the author discusses the notion of "root (clause)" and its implications for the representation of speaker and addressee in the syntax. Miyagawa's monograph is organized in six chapters preceded by a foreword, preface, and list of abbreviations. [Extracted from the article]
Predictive Processing (PP) is an increasingly influential neurocognitive-computational framework. PP research has so far focused predominantly on lower level perceptual, motor, and various psychological phenomena. But PP seems to face a "scale-up challenge": How can it be extended to conceptual thought, language, and other higher cognitive competencies? Compositionality, arguably a central feature of conceptual thought, cannot easily be accounted for in PP because it is not couched in terms of classical symbol processing. I argue, using the example of language, that there is no strong reason to think that PP cannot be scaled up to higher cognition. I suggest that the tacitly assumed common-sense conception of language as Generative Grammar ("folk linguistics") and its notion of composition leads to the scale-up concerns. Fodor's Language of Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) plays the role of a cognitive computational paradigm for folk linguistics. Therefore, we do not take LOTH as facing problems with higher cognition, at least with regard to compositionality. But PP can plausibly play the role of a cognitive-computational paradigm for an alternative conception of language, namely Construction Grammar. If Construction Grammar is a plausible alternative to folk linguistics, then PP is not in a worse position than LOTH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The artificial grammar learning paradigm is a classic method of investigating the influence of universal constraints on shaping learning biases on language acquisition. While this method has been used extensively by linguists to test theoretical claims in generative grammar, one of the most prevalent frameworks in language acquisition, several studies have questioned whether artificial grammar learning reflects language acquisition enough to allow us to use it to draw inferences about the validity of universal constraints, particularly those arising from phonetic naturalness. The current study tests whether artificial grammar learning shows the effect of one robust phonetic naturalness constraint: the restriction on nasal harmony patterns arising from the sonority hierarchy. Nasal harmony is of particular interest because it is one of the few types of harmony that occurs between consonants and vowels, which is an under-researched topic. The results, contrary to the skeptical concerns, showed that participants (n = 120) could learn an artificial grammar involving a natural pattern, but could not learn one corresponding to an arbitrary/phonetically unmotivated pattern in the same way or to the same degree. This study contributes epistemic support to the large body of work using artificial grammar experiments to test phonological operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*ENGINEERS, *LINGUISTICS, *ORIGIN of languages, *INTEGRITY, *FUNCTIONAL linguistics, *GENERATIVE grammar
Abstract
Thomas contends that 'Bloomfieldian formalism...had a major impact on linguistics in the first half of the twentieth-century America' (22), and Chomsky's formalism dominated the second half. In her content-filled 118 pages of Formalism and Functionalism in Linguistics, Margaret Thomas provides a lucid, comprehensive and balanced history of a complex subject in contemporary linguistics. In the first chapter, 'Defining "formalism" and "functionalism"', Thomas prepares the reader for the difficulty of working with these terms that do not have either-or boundaries; instead, she compares it to political discourse, in which terms such as "liberal" or "conservative" are subject to varying viewpoints. In Chapter 2, "Background to the current debate", Thomas offers a brief history of the concepts of formalism and functionalism, claiming that 'Remarkably, there has been little reflection on whether the comparison between formalism and functionalism has much of a past' (15). [Extracted from the article]
In this work, computer-assisted writing techniques for linear expressions of the structure of polycyclic molecules, branched molecules and clusters, based on formal languages, are tested. The techniques used only require the ability to process written texts, even just using a text editor, and one of the many available molecular drawing/optimization programs that accept input in the form of a SMILES string. A few specific syntactic operators acting on strings are characterized in terms of their effect on the corresponding structure, and although they are simply examples, they are already capable of producing non-trivial structures. The aim of this work is to encourage experiments that may lead to potentially interesting molecular schemata, in view of their symmetry and stereochemistry, as revealed by optimization, and to develop insight into the connection between formal expressions and structures. Given the simplicity and availability of the required tools, it can also be useful for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*GENERATIVE grammar, *SPANISH language, *MORPHOSYNTAX, *ELECTRONIC dictionaries, *ROMANCE languages
Abstract
The order of clitics (CLs) in Romance languages has been studied in depth by many scholars since Perlmutter's first approach. This author points out that person and case features impose a filter that results in the following pattern in Spanish: Se- II- I- IIIdat- IIIacc. This pattern has been revisited because it is not restrictive enough: it gives rise to impossible sequences. In this context, the goal of this work is to define a pattern of morphosyntactic features for River Plate Spanish clitics, and an ordering pattern, with the purpose of developing a computational model for an automatic analysis of this phenomenon. This kind of analysis is justified because the algorithm output shows the degree of success of the descriptive proposal. To this end, we use NooJ, a linguistic development environment that has diverse tools. The computational modeling involves two stages: (i) the creation of an electronic dictionary and (ii) the creation of a computational grammar. The algorithm developed can generate all correct sentences conformed by Nominative Pronoun + CL + CL + Verb, Non-Finite Verb-CL-CL and Imperative Verb-CL-CL, and it can recognize these kinds of expressions in written text assigning the correct semantic labels. With these results, we conclude that our descriptive proposal is adequate for the analysis of sequences of clitics in River Plate Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Verb-resultative complement “住 (zhu)” and “着 (zhao)” are divided into result complement and phase complement in Chinese. The results of synchronic and diachronic studies show that “着 (zhao)” continues to evolve into an aspect auxiliary after grammaticalization to phase complement, while “着 (zhao)” still stays as a phase complement. In generative grammar, functional category is the core of resultative constructions, so it is the cause of grammatical evolution. The resultative complement and the phase complement are introduced by the two functional categories of Bec and Path respectively. The former determines the achievement meaning of the resultative construction, and the latter determines the path or stage meaning of the resultative construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*COMPARATIVE grammar, *GENERATIVE grammar, *GRAMMAR, *SECOND language acquisition, *LANGUAGE & languages
Abstract
The goal of this note is to offer a critical review of the contrastive analysis hypothesis within the field of second language acquisition. The notions of interlanguage, universal grammar and mental grammar are discussed. Transfer is redefined as the output of underlying rules in the grammar of a second language. Through Jackendoff’s notion of a mental grammar we reconcile the contribution of structural and generative grammar to the understanding of the phenomenon of transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Although there is a broad consensus that both the procedural and declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language learning, use, and knowledge, the mapping between linguistic types and memory structures remains underspecified: by default, a dual‐route mapping of language systems to memory systems is assumed, with declarative memory handling idiosyncratic lexical knowledge and procedural memory handling rule‐governed knowledge of grammar. We experimentally contrast the processing of morphology (case and aspect), syntax (subordination), and lexical semantics (collocations) in a healthy L1 population of Polish, a language rich in form distinctions. We study the processing of these four types under two conditions: a single task condition in which the grammaticality of stimuli was judged and a concurrent task condition in which grammaticality judgments were combined with a digit span task. Dividing attention impedes access to declarative memory while leaving procedural memory unaffected and hence constitutes a test that dissociates which types of linguistic information each long‐term memory construct subserves. Our findings confirm the existence of a distinction between lexicon and grammar as a generative, dual‐route model would predict, but the distinction is graded, as usage‐based models assume: the hypothesized grammar–lexicon opposition appears as a continuum on which grammatical phenomena can be placed as being more or less "ruly" or "idiosyncratic." However, usage‐based models, too, need adjusting as not all types of linguistic knowledge are proceduralized to the same extent. This move away from a simple dichotomy fundamentally changes how we think about memory for language, and hence how we design and interpret behavioral and neuroimaging studies that probe into the nature of language cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
What Boeckx finds most compelling about generative linguistics is the earliest results pertaining to the Chomsky hierarchy, the necessity to posit forms of nested and crossing dependencies, and the consensus that 'natural languages are both strongly and weakly mildly context-sensitive' (14). His new book is a reference to Chomsky (1975), I Reflections on Language. i We might expect that his next book will explore ' I Paleoanthropological Aspects of the Theory of Syntax i ', although Boeckx never explicitly renounces his earlier minimalist work - but it seems implicit. Boeckx, Cedric, (Conceptual Foundations of Language Science 6). Boeckx's previous book was entitled I Elementary Syntactic Structures i (Boeckx 2014), a reference to Chomsky (1957). [Extracted from the article]
This article presents the results of a research that aimed to verify the acquisition of verbal forms related to tense and aspect, demonstrating the results of an investigation carried out after the study of the emergence of verbal structures (in simple form and in periphrastic form -- auxiliary and main verb) effectively produced by five monolingual children, between 2 years old and 5 years and 11 months old, in the process of language acquisition. The corpus used was cataloged by two members of the eLinC group -- Studies in Language and Cognition (in press). The objective was to understand, in addition, to what extent the notions of semantic/ lexical aspect influence or not on the appearance of grammatical aspect marks. This work has two hypotheses: (i) in children's grammar, the notion of aspect appears, more recurrently, before the notion of tense and (ii) when the verbal forms in the present tense and in the perfect past tense appear, the aspect is expressed. Based on qualitative analyses, we understand that the aspect is a category that appears before tense, but, even so, younger children present the tense category in their spontaneous productions, which is in line with what the Generative Theory advocates, which is the theoretical framework adopted to carry out this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
I Subregular linguistics: bridging theoretical linguistics and formal grammar i (henceforth SL) argues that Subregular Linguistics (the application of very restricted subclasses of finite-state machinery to natural language) offers many profitable insights to theoretical linguistics, such as providing a unified view of phonology, morphology, and syntax, leveraging learnability considerations for informing the derivation of typological restrictions, and deriving island constraints from the computational nature of movement. 3.2 Restrictive formalisms and island phenomena SL's goal of seeking ever more restrictive metalanguages for the description of syntax ultimately stems from a research program introduced long ago, which is similarly intent on explaining away islands as syntactic phenomena. We believe that SL's goal is misguided - as is previous work in a similar vein discussed in Section 3.2 below - in that it assumes a kind of I native grammatical realism i : grammar formalisms are taken to be real in some cognitive sense, and to bear some deep relation to the psychology of language. 4 Conclusion The research program that SL builds on assumes that the ideal grammar formalism should impose restrictive expressiveness on the theory. [Extracted from the article]
Keywords: context; inheritance network; pseudogapping; question-under-discussion; VP ellipsis EN context inheritance network pseudogapping question-under-discussion VP ellipsis 457 494 38 09/06/22 20220901 NES 220901 1 Basic properties As illustrated in (1a) and (1b), gapping elides a finite verb in the non-initial conjunct of a coordinate structure while VPE (VP ellipsis) deletes a whole VP after an auxiliary. As we have seen in the analysis of VPE, the auxiliarihood of the head in the construction reflects the simple fact that VPE and pseudogapping are both sensitive to the presence of an auxiliary. (76) HT
a.
[[antecedent-VP]] = x[go.to(x.st)]
b.
[[antecedent-S]] = [go.to(k.st)]
ht The I pro i in the VPE clause in (75a) will refer to the VP meaning in (76a). Differing from an example where the VP complement is an overt one, in VPE sentences like (62), as noted earlier, the VP complement is realized as a covert I pro i expression. Ever since the pioneering work of [45], many have suggested that ellipsis involves a focus assignment to an expression and further that ellipsis resolution requires certain "parallelism" between the clause including the ellipsis and its antecedent clause (see, among others, [13]; [15]; [16]; [22]; [39]; [48]; [52]; [53]). [Extracted from the article]
*TEST interpretation, *GENERATIVE grammar, *DISCOURSE analysis, *NATIVE language, *PHILOSOPHY of language
Abstract
That is, we should find that for multiple wh-fronting questions and multiple sluicing, only pair-list answers are acceptable, while for single wh-fronting questions, either both answer types are acceptable, or only single-pair is. 3.2.3 Results and discussion Figure 2 shows the results of Experiment 1b: a violin plot of the acceptability ratings for single-pair/pair-list answers as potential responses to the three relevant constructions. Keywords: ellipsis; experimental syntax; Hungarian; multiple sluicing; multiple wh-questions EN ellipsis experimental syntax Hungarian multiple sluicing multiple wh-questions 401 423 23 09/06/22 20220901 NES 220901 1 Introduction An important theoretical claim in the ellipsis literature is that properties of non-elliptical sentences in a language should predict the properties of elliptical ones (i.a. HT
Different analyses of complex cardinal numerals have been proposed in Generative Grammar. This article provides an analysis of these expressions based on the Strong Minimalist Thesis, according to which the derivations of linguistic expressions are generated by a simple combinatorial operation, applying in accord with principles external to the language faculty. The proposed derivations account for the asymmetrical structure of additive and multiplicative complexes and for the instructions they provide to the external systems for their interpretation. They harmonize with those of coordinate nouns, and thus offer a unified Minimalist account of their core properties. Firstly, the empirical problem addressed is stated. Secondly, the theoretical framework is presented. Thirdly, Minimalist derivations for additive and multiplicative complexes are provided. Fourthly, the proposed derivations are contrasted with derivations not relying on the Strong Minimalist Thesis. Lastly, consequences for linguistic theory are identified as well as questions open to further inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The language development stages of a child born with the ability of language acquisition starts with the utterances of meaningful single words that function as sentences and continues till the stage where first sentences are formed by using two or more words. During this stage, in addition to the incomplete structures that appear in children’s sentences in general, phenomena such as the use of two languages together or influencing each other also appear in the sentences of bilingual children. These phenomena are natural to the language development of a bilingual child and they may manifest differently in each child. With these linguistic uses, the child takes an active role in communication, engages in dialogue, creates fictional narratives, and tries to express himself or even realize himself in direct or indirect ways. This study presents examples of the first sentences of a child who acquires Turkish and Kurdish simultaneously in early childhood and interprets the development process of these examples, and questions the possibility and seriousness of this child’s understanding, based on the unusual aspects of these productive linguistic uses. One of the main features of this stage is that the sentences or sub-units are in a constant change throughout and progress day by day. What the child conveys in these sentences is difficult to comprehend, and it can be better understood by the parents or caregivers who spend time with the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Standard proposals of scientific anti-realism assume that the methodology of a scientific research program can be endorsed without accepting its metaphysical commitments. I argue that the distinction between competence, the rules governing one's language faculty, and performance, or linguistic behavior, precludes this. Linguistic theories aim to describe competence, not performance, and so must be able to distinguish observations reflective of the former from those reflective of the latter. This classification of data makes sense only against the background of a psychologically realistic view of linguistic theory. So the very methodology of the science commits one to its realistic interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Chomsky and his followers routinely introduce linguistic minimalism as a «program», in the sense that it merely provides some guidelines for the elaboration of grammatical theories proper. According to this orthodox interpretation, these theories can be attributed factual content, that is, content open to empirical refutation, but the program as such is immune to this type of rebuttal. This article discusses this vision of the minimalist «program» and proposes a reconceptualization of both minimalism and generativism in its different phases of development. According to this proposal, the minimalist thesis has factual content and minimalism, although it can be trivially described as programmatic, has an inescapably theoretical character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
We make two claims regarding weather expressions in Basque: first, based on Eriksen et al.'s (2010) typology, we show that Basque tends towards the argument type (and less frequently so to the predicate-argument type) when coding dynamic (precipitation or other) events and to both the argument and the predicate type when coding static events; Basque often has transitive structures (i.e. both transitive predicate and argument transitive types), apparently a rare typological feature. Second, with respect to two key issues in the study of weather predicates within Generative Grammar, we claim (a) that Basque supports the view that both lexicalizations of weather verbs (unaccusative and unergative/transitive) are possible across languages, as argued by Bleotu (2015) and Levin & Krejci (2019); and (b) that the empty pro subject of Basque transitive weather constructions is closer to a quasi-argument (Chomsky 1981; Levin & Krejci 2019) rather than to a true expletive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*LINGUISTIC typology, *GENERATIVE grammar, *CARTOGRAPHY, *ENGLISH language, *SPANISH language
Abstract
Adverbs and Functional Heads: a Cross-Linguistic perspective (Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press)—one of the founding works of "Syntactic Cartography"—combines some of the developments in Syntactic Theory from the 1980s and 1990s with insightful contributions from Linguistic Typology. This paper has two interrelated goals. First, it aims to review the fundamental theses of Cinque's monography of 1999—which are far from controversial among scholars working in Cartography—; at the same time it provides conceptual support to them. Secondly, it aims to explore some methodological tools of Syntactic Cartography presented and discussed by Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, namely the so-called precedence-and-transitivity tests—after a brief discussion on methodology used to recognise the functional categories, namely the criterion by Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press—and the use of the hierarchies as tools to detect intra and interlinguistic variation. With regard to this latter issue, the paper gathers data from Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian English and Colombian Spanish on verb raising. The discussion of the data not only favours Cinque, Guglielmo. 2017. On the status of functional categories (heads and phrases). Language and Linguistics 18(4). 521–576 recent updates of his theoretical approach to the cartography of the clause but also shows how Cartography offers a natural scenario for a methodological approach to both micro and macro-variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This predicts that extraction from EQs under rogative verbs should yield structural island effects, typically associated with stark unacceptability, whereas extraction from EQs under responsive verbs should yield no structural island effects and should obtain acceptable ratings. Applying this logic to EQs, we make the following predictions: If EQs under rogative verbs are necessarily analyzed as structural islands, extraction from EQs under rogative verbs should be consistently judged unacceptable and we expect to see large island effects. The preponderance of acceptable ratings in both EQ-island conditions suggests that neither EQ is a syntactic island in Spanish, contrary to the analysis in [60], where it was proposed that I ask i -EQs were syntactic islands and I know i -EQs were not. In the non-island conditions (10a), (10c), the embedded structure is a declarative clause, which does not give rise to island effects, whereas in the island conditions (10b), (10d), it is an EQ, expected to yield island effects. If, on the other hand, EQs under rogative verbs are not structural islands we either expect to see (i) no island effects at all, or (ii) smaller island effects characterized by inconsistent judgment distributions. [Extracted from the article]
*GENERATIVE grammar, *COMPARATIVE linguistics, *LANGUAGE policy, *SYNTAX (Grammar), *PHILOSOPHY of language
Abstract
If there is no adjunction to X', or D' specifically, the second construction cannot involve a Doubly-filled DP. 3.3.2 Option 2: complex Spec,DP In this option, the embedded DP and the indefinite article form a constituent inside the specifier of DP. As such, we could propose that the embedded DP is in Spec,DP, and the indefinite article is in D. Spec-head constellations are often employed to explain cases of adjacency (e.g., the Verb-Second constraint in the Germanic languages). To sum up thus far, I eyner i and I epes i are similar to the possessive pronoun in the second construction: these elements can precede the indefinite article, and they can be separated from it by other words. Focusing on the possessive pronoun, the latter and the indefinite article could form a doubly-filled DP (29a) where the pronoun is in Spec,DP and the article in D. Both of these elements could also form a complex specifier in Spec,DP (29b). Keywords: definiteness; DP-structure; possessives; Yiddish EN definiteness DP-structure possessives Yiddish 347 393 47 03/11/22 20220301 NES 220301 1 Introduction The interpretation of a possessive DP ( I John's book i ) depends on the definiteness of the possessor itself ( I John i ). [Extracted from the article]
The relationship between the distribution of nominalizers in Lhasa Tibetan and the argument/adjunct property of relevant syntactic elements is approached from a generative perspective. The distribution of nominalizers in Lhasa Tibetan demonstrates a regular pattern. Some nominalizers are bi-functional in that they can mark both participant and event nominalizations while others are uni-functional in that they can only mark participant nominalizations. It is found that the difference between the two types of nominalizers correlates to whether the nominalizer (NML) is argument-associated or adjunct-associated. An account of the correlation is developed in the theoretical framework of generative grammar. It is argued that the syntactic derivation of an NML-phrase gives rise to a binding relationship between the nominalizer and the suppressed element in the source constituent Aspect Phrase (AspP) or the AspP itself, leading to a condition on its semantic interpretation. The condition is satisfied in a participant NML-phrase headed by a nominalizer of either type and in an event NML-phrase headed by a bi-functional nominalizer. It is not in an event NML-phrase headed by a uni-functional nominalizer for the reason that in the calculation of event semantics arguments align with events while adjuncts align with predicates. Specifically, a bi-functional nominalizer, being argument-associated, semantically matches both a suppressed argument in a participant NML-phrase and the source constituent AspP, whereas a uni-functional one, being adjunct-associated, semantically matches a suppressed adjunct in a participant NML-phrase but not the source constituent AspP. Consequently, no event NML-phrase headed by an adjunct-associated nominalizer is found in this language. The findings of this study have implications for both analyzing the distribution of nominalizers in other Tibeto-Burman languages and the syntactic and semantic mechanisms that constrain them, and for classifying the argument/adjunct asymmetry, which is fundamental in most current linguistic frameworks as well as research on human sentence processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
In subordinate clauses, the finite verb also belongs to the verb cluster, so that the terms "verb cluster" and "verb construction" in that syntactic context refer to the same verbs. Keywords: Dutch; functional category; selectional restriction; semantic scope; verb construction EN Dutch functional category selectional restriction semantic scope verb construction 123 176 54 01/18/22 20220101 NES 220101 1 Introduction Dutch is known for its ability to combine a wide variety of verbs into complex verb constructions. Our corpus data (Table 15) show that perception and causative verbs are overwhelmingly used as nonfinite verbs in three-verb constructions (point estimate proportion for finite perception/causative verbs 0.04; 95% CI, 5 comparisons, finite I zien: i 0 I . i 04-0.30, which means that I zien i is somewhat more commonly finite than the other perception/causative verbs, according to our data). In particular, the tendency for a particular verb or a group of verbs to appear as finite or nonfinite verbs in a three-verb construction is of interest, which is captured by the proportion of finite versus nonfinite occurrences for this verb or verb group. A last verb that requires some extra discussion is I gaan. i As an aspectual marker, it differs from other external aspect verbs, in that it is frequently used as a finite verb with scope over internal aspect verbs, causative verbs and passive auxiliaries. [Extracted from the article]
Under the P» M model, the generalization is that the glottal stop can only be realized when the stem is monosyllabic (as well as other phonological factors, such as the presence of a lexical glottal stop in the stem and if the stem begins with a cluster or not). The prosodic word in Tlapanec can consist simply of a stem, a stem + an affix, or possibly stem + stem compounds. Recall that the alternation was between the allomorphs I gita i - and I gi - i , the former occurring with disyllabic stems, while the latter with monosyllabic stems; with the latter, the glottal stop is deleted before a stem-initial consonant cluster or when the stem contains a glottal stop. (44) HT
ht 4.4 Glottal stop of the 3 sg and 1 pl.in agentive prefixes Finally, we saw in Section 3.4 that the glottal stop is deleted with disyllabic stems (and when it precedes a consonant-cluster or when the stem already contains a glottal stop, regardless of the stem size). Lastly, the 3 sg agent prefix has a glottal stop when the stem is monosyllabic (3b) while this glottal stop is not found when the stem is disyllabic, as in (3a). [Extracted from the article]
Relational triple extraction is a critical step in knowledge graph construction. Compared to pipeline-based extraction, joint extraction is gaining more attention because it can better utilize entity and relation information without causing error propagation issues. Yet, the challenge with joint extraction lies in handling overlapping triples. Existing approaches adopt sequential steps or multiple modules, which often accumulate errors and interfere with redundant data. In this study, we propose an innovative joint extraction model with cross-attention mechanism and global pointers with context shield window. Specifically, our methodology begins by inputting text data into a pre-trained RoBERTa model to generate word vector representations. Subsequently, these embeddings are passed through a modified cross-attention layer along with entity type embeddings to address missing entity type information. Next, we employ the global pointer to transform the extraction problem into a quintuple extraction problem, which skillfully solves the issue of overlapping triples. It is worth mentioning that we design a context shield window on the global pointer, which facilitates the identification of correct entities within a limited range during the entity extraction process. Finally, the capability of our model against malicious samples is improved by adding adversarial training during the training process. Demonstrating superiority over mainstream models, our approach achieves impressive results on three publicly available datasets. • Solving overlapping triples problems by employing global pointer. • Context shield window is designed to eliminate redundant information. • Merging entity type information with designed entity-type cross attention module. • Adversarial training is added to improve the generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The Lambek calculus with the unit can be defined as the atomic theory (algebraic logic) of the class of residuated monoids. This calculus, being a theory of a broader class of algebras than Heyting ones, is weaker than intuitionistic logic. Namely, it lacks structural rules: permutation, contraction, and weakening. We consider two extensions of the Lambek calculus with modalities—the exponential, under which all structural rules are permitted, and the relevant modality, under which only permutation and contraction rules are allowed. The Lambek calculus with a relevant modality is used in mathematical linguistics. Both calculi are algorithmically undecidable. We consider their fragments in which the modality is allowed to be applied to just formulas of Horn depth not greater than 1. We prove that these fragments are decidable and belong to the NP class. To show this, in the case of a relevant modality, we introduce a new notion of ℛ-total derivability in context-free grammars, i.e., existence of a derivation in which each rule is used at least a given number of times. It is stated that the ℛ-totality problem is NP-hard for context-free grammars. Also we pinpoint algorithmic complexity of ℛ-total derivability for more general classes of generative grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Generative grammarians typically advocate for a rationalist understanding of language acquisition, according to which the structure of a developed language faculty reflects innate guidance rather than environmental influence. This proposal is developed in developmental linguistics by triggering models of language acquisition. Opposing this tradition, various theorists have advocated for empiricist views of language acquisition, according to which the structure of a developed linguistic competence reflects the linguistic environment in which this competence developed. On this picture, linguistic development is accounted for by general statistical learning mechanisms. In this article I shall precisify the debate, provide a clearer picture of what is at stake, and show why an intermediate picture is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
In mainstream generative grammar (MGG), Logical Form (LF) is at the same time a syntactic representation delivered by the grammar and a representation that can be truth-conditionally evaluated. Iacona (2018) argues however that formal logic raises a problem for MGG's intrinsicalist notion of LF: logic requires that the logical form assigned to a sentence should not depend solely on the sentence itself, but also on the logical relations the sentence bears to other propositions in the language, making logicians' logical form dependent on something outside the sentence. This paper argues that LF is also not linguistic enough for linguistics because it is modelled on formal logic rather than on careful analysis of natural language and the natural articulations of linguistic utterances. This leads to a misidentification of the basic linguistic unit, which is not the sentence, and a misanalysis of the sentence's basic structure. The conclusion argues that the only methodologically sound basis for linguistic analysis is not truth, nor the sentence that expresses it, but rather the means that allow the speaker to produce the utterance in the first place, the stable pairings of meaning and sound corresponding to the units that the speaker has stored in memory. • Argues that Logical Form is not logical enough for logic because it does not meet formal logic's requirement that the logical form of a sentence should depend on the relations that it bears to other propositions. • Argues that Logical Form is not linguistic enough for linguistics because it is modelled on formal logic rather than on careful analysis of the natural articulations of linguistic utterances. • Argues that Minimalism is wrong in treating sentences as pairings of sounds with meanings. • Redefines the semantics-progmatics interface as located between notional content that is stably associated with a linguistic sign and notional content that is not. • Argues that the only methodologically sound basis for linguistic analysis is not truth, but rather the stable pairings of meaning and sound corresponding to the linguistic units that the speaker has stored in memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This paper provides an insight on the centrality of two main paradigms of the current linguistic theory in the field of Spanish as a second/foreign language acquisition, and its operative role in teaching. Generative Grammar (GG) as well as Cognitive Grammar (CG) are mentalist models, however, its postulates on the connection between human cognition and non-native linguistic knowledge are, in many cases, opposite; therefore, these models imply different conceptions of a pedagogical grammar. Throughout the paper, it is taken into consideration the way in which they are antagonistic, but also how they can be complementary. Even though GC has been more popular in classroom teaching, current GG may have a relevant impact on the curriculum, as well as on the instruction, by presenting a greater predictive capacity to identify the learner’s difficulties in processing certain linguistic structures. Finally, other key notions on linguistic knowledge, processability, and input, regarding didactic intervention, are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The object of this article is twofold: on the first hand, to give an account of the enormous and growing number of derivatives formed from Anglicisms in present-day European Spanish; and secondly, to examine the different derivational patterns found as well as the morphophonological, morphological and semantic variations involved in them. The article also tackles the lexicographic treatment followed in dictionaries when dealing with compound anglicisms. The data have been mainly drawn from the Spanish daily press of the last few decades and they are mostly part of those collected in the Gran diccionario de anglicismos, gda (2017) and in the recent Diccionario de anglicismos del deporte, dad (2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
I don't think that this is the only way to do linguistics, I don't think that it should have any particular priority, epistemologically or sociologically, over other ways to do linguistics, but I do think that it is an important approach and that we can learn much about FL/L by pursuing it. 3 On the "theoretical" in theoretical linguistics It will be clear from the discussion in the last section that I have a very different view of what theoretical linguistics is from that in GLU. I do have some quibbles about GLU's terminological proposal, that generative grammar is a "Natural Kinds Programme", mainly because I think the terminology is inexact. Haspelmath's 2021 target paper, I General linguistics must be based on universals (or nonconventional aspects of language) i (which I'll abbreviate here as GLU) seeks to address the question of how linguistics should deal with what he sees as a paradox at the heart of the enterprise, his General Linguistics Paradox in (1). [Extracted from the article]
Malcher, Andreas, Hirvensalo, Mika, Mráz, František, and Průša, Daniel
Subjects
*GENERATIVE grammar, *POLYNOMIAL time algorithms, *FOREIGN language education, *FINITE, The
Abstract
Insertion systems or insertion grammars are a generative formalism in which words can only be generated by starting with some axioms and by iteratively inserting strings subject to certain contexts of a fixed maximal length. It is known that languages generated by such systems are always context sensitive and that the corresponding language classes are incomparable with the regular languages. On the other hand, it is possible to generate non-semilinear languages with systems having contexts of length two. Here, we study decidability questions for insertion systems. On the one hand, it can be seen that emptiness and universality are decidable. Moreover, the fixed membership problem is solvable in deterministic polynomial time. On the other hand, the usually studied decidability questions such as, for example, finiteness, inclusion, equivalence, regularity, inclusion in a regular language, and inclusion of a regular language turn out to be undecidable. Interestingly, the latter undecidability results can be carried over to other models which are basically able to handle the mechanism of inserting strings depending on contexts. In particular, new undecidability results are obtained for pure grammars, restarting automata, clearing restarting automata, and forgetting automata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
In his essay Cognitive Linguistics and Autonomous Linguistics, published in the 2007 Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, John R. Taylor suggests dialogue and even integration between cognitive linguistics and other approaches in language studies. Following Taylor's line of argument this article reviews George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor. This study intends to address both authors' empirical and rhetorical excesses since publishing Metaphors we live by forty years ago as an outcome of their rejection of Noam Chomsky's generative grammar. Thus, it is expected to further converge generativism and cognitivism, as already initiated by researchers such as Taylor, Ray Jackendoff, Peter Culicover, Alan Prince, and Paul Smolensky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
In this article, we present corpus data from Dutch and English on long-distance movement and discuss its diachronic development in Dutch, English and German. Long-distance movement is the displacement phenomenon characterized by the appearance of a part of a dependent clause in a higher clause (e.g. What crimes did the FBI discover he had committed?). It has played a central role within generative grammar over the past few decades. The picture that emerges is that long-distance movement appears to be currently most productive in English and least productive in German, whereas Dutch occupies an in-between position. As we will argue, the productivity of long-distance movement is strongly tied to the availability of functional alternatives. German has at least three of such alternatives that are fully productive, whereas Dutch has one particularly productive one. The alternative constructions do not involve long-distance movement: the dependency between the constituent in the matrix clause and the position in the embedded clause where it is interpreted is formed indirectly, in the semantics, and not via syntactic movement. In English, long-distance movement is most productive when the complementizer is deleted. This is not just the case for subject movement but also for non-subject movement. Special attention is paid to the so-called that-trace effect and its alleged absence in German and Dutch. The general conclusion is that long-distance movement is possible in all languages under consideration, but more restricted than commonly assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Her general preference is for simplex items over complex representations: truthmakers over clauses specifying truth conditions, attitudinal and modal objects over possible-world predicates, attitudinal-and-modal-object predicates over orderings and divisions among possible worlds as attitudinal and modal bases. The clause in the complement of this head is a predicate over situations, in line with the standard view of clauses and propositional meanings. If the noun emerging through raising refers in the domain of special types of objects, then already the item in the specifier of the respective functional projection, the one that derives a complement clause by moving out of it, may be of this type: a predicate over attitudinal or modal objects. These data indicate that the complement clause effects maximization: there cannot be two beliefs that disinfectants cure from viruses, there cannot be two claims that the earth is concave - unless the noun is interpreted to refer to an event of claiming rather than to the content expressed by a clause, where only the latter is relevant for our discussion. [Extracted from the article]
The authors present preliminary results on successfully training a recurrent neural network to learn a spatial grammar embodied in a data set, and then generate new designs that comply with the grammar but are not from the data set, demonstrating generalized learning. For the test case, the data were created by first exercising generative context-free spatial grammar representing physical layouts that included infeasible designs due to geometric interferences and then removing the designs that violated geometric constraints, resulting in a data set from a design grammar that is of a higher complexity context-sensitive grammar. A character recurrent neural network (char-RNN) was trained on the positive remaining results. Analysis shows that the char-RNN was able to effectively learn the spatial grammar with high reliability, and for the given problem with tuned hyperparameters, having up to 98% success rate compared to a 62% success rate when randomly sampling the generative grammar. For a more complex problem where random sampling results in only 18% success, a trained char-RNN generated feasible solutions with an 89% success rate. Further, the char-RNN also generated designs differing from the training set at a rate of over 99%, showing generalized learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]