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Left peripheral topics and foci often differ with respect to resumption: in languages such as Italian, Tzotzil Maya, and Warlpiri, while fronted topics may be co-indexed with a pronominal form in the corresponding argument position, fronted foci correspond to a gap. However, this contrast does not universally apply. In languages such as Anyi and Baule, two Kwa languages of Côte d'Ivoire, subjects and animate objects must be resumed by a pronoun whenever they appear in the left periphery – independent of information structure. The question is whether this instance of cross-linguistic variation arises through differences in the syntax of left peripheral positions in various languages or in the conditions of resumption. The present study examines data from Kwa languages and concludes that the difference lies in the conditions of resumption, which are orthogonal to the syntactic differences between topics and foci. Resumptives have a dual nature in these languages, serving as anaphoric constants (true resumptives) in topicalization and as bound variables (apparent resumptives) in focus constructions. A survey of the relevant facts in further Kwa languages reveals that resumption is determined by factors that are independent from information structure and relate to the recoverability of empty argument positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the syntactic–pragmatic behavior of two expletive-like elements, namely a and chiru, in Fornese and Cilentano, two Romance varieties spoken in Northern and Southern Italy, respectively. We argue that a and chiru are not bona fide expletive subjects but discourse-pragmatic expletives, which mark zero aboutness or the absence of an aboutness referent in an utterance. The investigation of Fornese and Cilentano points towards the existence of a sub-class of null-subject languages where aboutness as a discourse feature must be structurally satisfied by merging an overt or null topic in the syntactic spine of the clause. In the absence of such an element—for example, in thetic clauses—a discourse-pragmatic expletive is externally merged as a last-resort strategy to satisfy [uAboutness]. We argue that, in these null-subject languages, the satisfaction of the discourse feature [uAboutness] is an LF requirement, which is subject to a parametric choice. We show that, in Fornese, "default" [aboutness] is satisfied in SubjP, which is the canonical syntactic position for overt subjects within a cartographic approach. In Cilentano, on the other hand, [aboutness] is satisfied in a higher position within the C-domain, namely ShiftP, the canonical syntactic position that hosts overt aboutness/shift topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Tele-assessment (TA) has the potential to enhance access to speech therapy. This preliminary study aimed to investigate the impact of assessment mode (face-to-face [FTF] vs. TA) on the microstructure level and chosen topics of personal narratives produced by Arabic-speaking and Hebrew-speaking school-age children living in Israel. We also investigated whether performance variations, if evident, could be attributed to the children's language/culture. Methods: Eighty-nine 10-year-old children, 38 Arabic-speaking and 51 Hebrew-speaking, living in Israel, participated in this study. Forty participants were assigned to a TA group (via Zoom) and 49 to a FTF group. All participants were assessed using the Global TALES protocol, generating six personal narratives each. The narratives were analyzed regarding the following microstructural measures: total number of words, total number of utterances (TNU), number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words (MLU-W). Additionally, each narrative was categorized into a topic according to the Global TALES protocol. Results: The analysis revealed no significant main effect of assessment mode on any of the microstructure measures. However, a significant interaction effect between language/culture and assessment mode was found for TNU and MLU-W, with a significant main effect for TNU exclusively in the Arabic narratives, with the Arabic-speaking children producing more utterances through FTF compared to TA. Across language/culture groups, there was a significant effect of assessment mode on the chosen topic. Additionally, there were significantly higher scores in the Hebrew compared to the Arabic narratives in all microstructure measures, and language/culture also influenced the chosen topics. Conclusions: The results support the feasibility of TA mode for assessing personal narratives in school-aged children, using the Global TALES protocol. However, the results also suggest that TA results may be affected by the language/culture of the narrator. Finally, the findings highlight the potential influence of TA on the chosen topics of personal narratives, perhaps due to a decrease in the quality of communication in TA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effects of genre and topic on the metaphors used by Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners' writing. Using Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the theoretical framework, our study analyzed 900 essays, which include three genres (argumentative essays, narrative essays, and letter writing) and six topics, extracted from the HSK Dynamic Essay Corpus. The results show that both genre and topic influence the use of metaphors by CFL learners, but their effects manifest in different ways. Genre influences the frequency of metaphor due to differences in pragmatic purposes. Specifically, we found that argumentative essays and narrative essays exhibit a notably higher frequency of metaphor use than letter writing. Argumentative essays have a higher frequency than narrative essays. Topic not only affects the frequency of metaphor use but also influences the selection and frequency of classic source domains. Additionally, differences in metaphor frequency across topics are more pronounced in genres with higher metaphor frequency (argumentative essays and narrative essays) and insignificant in a genre with the lowest metaphor frequency (letter writing). Our findings contribute to the further development of conceptual metaphor theory, as well as to the teaching of genre and metaphor in Chinese L2 writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Limitless Education & Research is the property of Journal of Limitless Education & Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper proposes a usage-based account of a largely productive pattern of dative experiential sentences in Modern Hebrew that stand in contra-distinction to their parallels in Indo-European languages. In the pattern under consideration, the dative-Experiencer is non-topical, following an invariable predicate in masculine singular form. The paper seeks to prove that the construction in Hebrew is essentially a subjectless construction. Its origin is traced back to Biblical Hebrew, but its proliferation in present-day language is assumed to be contact-facilitated by a parallel subject-like dative-Experiencer construction widespread in Slavic and Yiddish languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is aimed at exploring adverb even as the information structural component, viz., a Focus marker in Middle English records based on the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. Functioning as an adverb already in Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) provides evidence to gradual transformation of even into an additive marker according to the following pattern: OE degree/manner adverb→ME restrictive particularizer→ME restrictive exclusive→ME scalar additive. The latter meaning in Present-Day English can be singled out on the ground of such semantic criteria of the Focus phrase as [+likelihood], [+additivity], [+scalar], [+givenness] and [+surprise]. The three types of focusing even registered in Middle English texts are analyzed in terms of information novelty and various Foci types marked by the adverb, as well as, syntactic arrangement of sentence constituents. Corpus studies revealed that depending on the sense, even pertains to a specific Focus type and may cause word order to change. Specifically, when the adverb is used in its Present-Day English meaning, it highlights predominantly mirative Focus, and the analysis of word order patterns indicates the fronting of X-element in the clause, which may be put down to the fact that this scalar additive stresses surprising or unusual context for the reader. Therefore, inverted arrangement of elements may be used for stylistic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversation is important in everyday life and this importance is not diminished in aphasia. Context parameters such as topic and partner are known to influence the linguistic content of conversations. With gesture being closely linked to language, these parameters may influence gestures used in conversations. This has not been investigated in previous studies. This study explored the spontaneous use of gestures in the conversations of participants with aphasia (PWA) and neurologically healthy participants (NHP). It aimed to examine the influence of conversation topic and partner on gesture production overall and on the production of semantically rich and empty gestures. Twenty PWA and 21 NHP were filmed during conversations with different topics (narrative & procedural) and different partners (familiar & unfamiliar). Analysis 1 investigated the influence of the conversation topic on gesture production overall and on the production of semantically rich and empty gestures. In Analysis 2, the influence of the conversation partner on gesture production was investigated. Both groups produced significantly more gestures in procedural than in narrative conversations. Moreover, PWA and NHP produced significantly more semantically rich gestures in procedural conversations. In terms of the conversation partner, both groups produced significantly more gestures in the conversations with the unfamiliar than in those with the familiar conversation partner. For all findings, there were no group differences and no interactions between group and context parameters. These findings shed light on factors that influence gesture production and suggest that both modalities should be viewed together as a communicative resource for PWA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of English Studies is the property of Universidad de la Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper deals with the information function of two nominal suffixes, -i appearing in all nouns, and -n- in first- and second-person pronouns in Basketo, a North Omotic language predominantly spoken in the Basketo Special Woreda in Ethiopia. The suffix -i is often described as nominative. However, object nouns without definite marker can be marked by -i, and as a result -i can appear in both subject and object in the same sentence. We analyze morpheme -i as a marker of specificity. Suffix -n- distinguishes short and long forms of the first- and second-person subject pronoun. The short form is the same as the possessive. In general, possessive does not bear any pragmatic information in discourse. Likewise, short pronouns also show no pragmatic function, but show what is subject or agent in a clause. On the other hand, long pronouns are morphologically and pragmatically marked. We analyze morpheme -n- as the foregrounded topic in discourse in contrast with zero anaphora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the cross-linguistic distribution of argument ellipsis (AE) with an emphasis on Chinese, an Asian language well-known for its lack of overt morphological agreement. It is observed in the literature that Japanese permits AE in both null subject and null object positions whereas Chinese permits it in null object positions, but not in null subject positions. Adopting Saito's (2007) hypothesis that the presence of $\unicode[STIX]{x03C6}$ -feature agreement associated with v or T blocks AE, Miyagawa (2013) and Takahashi (2014) argue that the absence of subject AE in Chinese follows from abstract subject agreement. After presenting three empirical arguments against this analysis from the Chinese literature, I propose that the distribution of AE is better predicted by topichood and link this proposal to Saito's (2017) recent analysis of AE developed for Japanese, whereby AE, analyzed as LF Copy, cannot apply to an operator–variable configuration. My analysis is supported by the novel observation that the null subject position in Chinese actually allows AE when it is not linked to the topic position, as in hanging topics, relative clauses and conditional clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental investigation of quantifier scope in Russian SVO and OVS sentences, in which the factors of word order, prosody, information structure, and indefinite form are manipulated, shows that native Russian speakers have a preference for surface scope under neutral prosody, though this preference is more pronounced with odin 'one' indefinites than with dva 'two' indefinites. Furthermore, contrastive focus on the fronted object QP in OVS order is found to facilitate the inverse scope reading, but contrastive focus on the subject in SVO order is not. These findings have implications for the syntactic analysis of noncanonical word order in Russian (Bailyn 2011 , Slioussar 2013) and support the link between contrastive focus and scope reconstruction in Russian (Ionin 2003 , Neeleman and Titov 2009). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this study was to discern the effect of different topics on the dynamics of one of the main variables of positive psychology, foreign language enjoyment (FLE). To do this, we used an idiodynamic method to explore the rapid moment-to-moment changes of FLE. Seven female university students engaged in a conversation involving both simple and difficult topics, and self-rated their moments of experiencing enjoyment during the conversation process. The results indicate that the dynamicity of enjoyment emerges not only within individuals, but also across individuals intra-personally under the influence of conversational topics. Furthermore, the idiodynamic method provided us with the opportunity to examine the underlying factors of the dynamic fluctuations of FLE and gain a deeper insight into FLE as a dynamic system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The results of two German speeded acceptability-judgement experiments suggest that placing a DP in the position before a sentence adverb in the German middle field, which has been argued to be a structural topic position ( Frey, 2004 ), has an impact on sentence processing. In object-before-subject orders, placing an object DP, whose referent is not normally topical, in the topic position increases acceptability and reduces acceptance latencies compared to structures where the object DP does not appear in the topic position. For subject-before-object orders, placing the subject, which is a typical topic, in the topic position does not yield such processing advantages. Locative adverbials, which do not mark topic boundaries, do not affect the processing of subject-object asymmetries in the way that sentence adverbs do. I suggest that these effects can be explained if Frey's topic position is indeed a topic position, and if topics serve as addresses in a structured mental representation of the discourse (cf. Repp and Drenhaus, 2015 ). Furthermore, evidence is provided for an influence of topic marking on the detection of case errors in ungrammatical structures with two DPs that are marked with the same case. Error detection also was found to be influenced by linear closeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their advantages over conventional n -gram language models, recurrent neural network language models ( rnnlm s) recently have attracted a fair amount of research attention in the speech recognition community. In this paper, we explore one advantage of rnnlm s, namely, the ease with which they allow the integration of additional knowledge sources. We concentrate on features that provide complementary information w.r.t. the lexical identities of the words. We refer to such information as meta-information . We single out three cases and investigate their merits by means of N -best list re-scoring experiments on a challenging corpus of spoken Dutch (referred to as cgn ) as well as on the English Wall Street Journal ( wsj ) corpus. First, we look at Parts of Speech (POS) tags and lemmas, two sources of word-level linguistic information that are known to make a contribution to the performance of conventional language models. We confirm that rnnlm s can benefit from these sources as well. Second, we investigate socio-situational settings ( sss s) and topics, two sources of discourse-level information that are also known to benefit language models. sss s are present in the cgn data, and can be seen as a proxy for the language register. For the purposes of our investigation, we assume that information on the sss can be captured at the moment at which speech is recorded. Topics, i.e., treatments of different subjects, are present in the wsj data. In order to predict POS, lemmas, sss and topic, a second rnnlm is coupled to the main rnnlm . We refer to this architecture as a recurrent neural network tandem language model ( rnntlm ). Our experimental findings show that if high-quality meta-information labels are available, both word-level and discourse-level information improve performance of language models. Third, we investigate sentence length and word length (i.e., token size), two sources of intrinsic information that are readily available for exploitation because they are known at the time of re-scoring. Intrinsic information has been largely overlooked by language modeling research. The results of both experiments on cgn data and wsj data show that integrating sentence length and word length can achieve improvement. rnnlm s allow these features to be incorporated with ease, and obtain improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the effects of two intonation contours on the processing and cued recall of German sentences with a leftdislocated subject vs. object: (i) a rising accent on the dislocated phrase, followed by a rising-falling hat contour on the main clause; (ii) a falling accent on the dislocated phrase, followed by a falling accent plus subsequent deaccentuation. The contours had differential effects depending on the grammatical function of the dislocated phrase (subject/object) and, for the recall, on the cue type for the recall (subject/object), in certain conditions overriding the subject-before-object preference normally found in processing. To account for the findings, we propose: (1) Contour (i) signals the topic status of the referent of the dislocated phrase. Contour (ii) signals that referent's focus status. (2) Topics are referents that serve as an address in a structured discourse representation in working memory under which information about that referent is stored. (3) Subjects are default topics, whereas objects are not, so that topic-marking an object is motivated, which results in an object-before-subject preference for sentences with topical objects during processing. (4) Retrieval of information from an address incurs a lower processing load if the appropriate address is cued than if some other referent is cued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Burmese is usually analysed as directly related to the expression of information structure. Yet, this corpus-based study of DOM and the associated prosody finds that DOM is not based on information structure alone, but is also additionally motivated by discourse structure and content management. The suggested analysis proposes that DOM in Burmese provides a grammatical structure of information PACKAGING: a system of separating information into units (PACKAGES) and establishing relations between them. Different configurations of PACKAGING are employed to create an array of context-dependent interpretive effects related to information structure, discourse structure, and other factors. Hence, it is argued that information structure is not directly expressed in the language. Instead, it stems from an interpretation of the interplay between information PACKAGING and various pragmaticsemantic factors, and is but one of the possible effects created by PACKAGING. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topic marking with the particle wa is a prevalent phenomenon in Japanese, and it is generally considered a root phenomenon, as its appearance is much more restricted under embedding. While it has been pointed out that there are some types of embedded clauses that allow wa-phrases, relative clauses present the most restricted linguistic environment for the particle. This exceptional restrictiveness cannot be attributed to a general constraint on wa in embedded contexts. Adopting Kuroda's (Japanese syntax and semantics, ) theory of wa-marking, I argue that the restriction on wa in relative clauses is a result of the clash between two distinct notions of 'predication'; the general understanding of the term relevant to the predicate abstraction process in a relative clause and Kuroda's notion of predication, which is structurally manifested in a sentence with wa. Specifically, the lack of wa-marking in relative clauses is due to the illicit abstraction process that crosses over wa-phrases. It will be shown that the analysis has many consequences beyond relative clauses. In particular, it explains the wide scope tendency of topic phrases and the distribution of wa in as diverse sentence types as wh-interrogatives, scrambled sentences, cleft sentences, and clausal comparatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the semantic and syntactic properties of wh-fronting constructions as well as the fine structure of the left periphery in Mandarin along the lines of the cartographic approach. It is discovered that wh-fronting constructions exhibit two salient properties associated with Identificational Focus (IdentF), namely, (i) exhaustive identification and (ii) the ability to occupy a scopal position, suggesting that wh-fronting is best analyzed as a strategy for licensing IdentF. It is proposed that two derivational mechanisms are in principle available to wh-fronting constructions: the wh-phrase is either derived by movement to Spec-FocP, or it may resort to a base-generation strategy when the wh-phrase is linked to an empty pronoun or a resumptive pronoun inside an island. It is argued that previous analyses that treat wh-fronting constructions as a type of topic structure cannot account for their different morphological and semantic properties. This view is further corroborated by an investigation of the topography of Topics and Foci in the left periphery, which shows that IdentF occupies a dedicated syntactic position distinct from that of the types of Topics available in Mandarin. The investigation also reveals that Focus constitutes an independent field that is situated below the Topic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars use various terms for the phenomenon of discourse peak. Only in the last forty years have some scholars suggested different types of peak. This study explores the application of multiple types of peak in the book of Hebrews. The problem of peak in Hebrews is evident by the diverse assertions concerning linguistic peaks by Neeley (1987), Guthrie (1994), and Westfall (2005) and the discrepancies of these peaks with the chiastic centre in Hebrews 8 as asserted by Vaganay (1940), Vanhoye (1977, 1989), Neeley (1987, 63), Gelardini (2009) and Heath (2011). Until more refinement of the notion of discourse peak and uniformity of terms emerges, it may be helpful to analyse the peaks of biblical texts in light of their natures (thematic peak, climax, and apex). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speaking process and language attention are hot topics in current psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics separately. By the example of Levelt's Speaking: From Intention to Articulation, taking Talmy's theory of language attention system as a guide, this paper explores how attention is represented in speaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functionally-oriented linguistic theories, such as cognitive grammar (CG), offer nuanced descriptions of the meanings and uses of grammatical features. A simplified characterization of the semantics of the English active and passive voice grounded in CG terms and based on the reference point model is presented, as it is the basis of the instructional treatment offered to one of the groups in the quasiexperimental study reported in the paper. The study compares the effects of feature- focused grammatical instruction covering the form and meaning/use of the English voices based on CG with those of teaching based on standard pedagogical grammar rules. The results point to relatively high effectiveness of both instructional options in fostering the use of the target structures in both more controlled and more spontaneous performance, with traditional instruction being more successful than that based on CG with respect to the latter. A possible explanation of this superiority is that the subset of the participants (n = 27) exposed to the traditional explanations found them simple and easy to apply, contrary to the situation in the other group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, most analyses assume that DOM and clitic doubling (CD) are two sides of the same mechanism, arising from a structure-dependent condition (i.e. Case for nouns). This assumption concerns Romance languages in general, including Romanian (old or modern). This paper points out that data from Early Modern Romanian (EMR) and data from other Balkan Romance languages contradict this assumption. The analysis I propose disengages DOM from CD and from structure-dependent constraints, and brings evidence for a discourse-based approach to both DOM and CD, separately or in conjunction with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since the comparative work by , we know that similar information packagings may resort to completely different formal mechanisms across languages. For instance, right-dislocation (RD) is a highly productive backgrounding strategy in Catalan, but a marginal one in English, resorting in stress shift. To our current understanding, one might take this situation to be a casual state of affairs, or rather, one may raise the stronger hypothesis that understandable and definable factors exist underlying crosslinguistic variation at the syntax/information structure interface. This enterprise has been partially pursued for typologically distant languages (e.g. Catalan vs. English vs. Finnish vs. Turkish), but unlike much recent work in syntax () very little or no attention has been paid to a microparametric comparative point. Crucially, a finer-grained comparison of closely related languages may shed light on the current hypotheses concerning the syntax/information structure interface. In this paper I will pursue this task, concentrating on the role of RD in two genetically related Romance languages: Catalan, and Spanish. My first goal is to quantify the degree of productivity of RD in these two kindred languages through a corpus based analysis. The second goal is to determine the range of formal mechanisms that Spanish resorts to in order to fulfil the discourse roles typically associated with RD in Catalan. Finally, my third goal will consist of putting forward a hypothesis to explain the factors that determine the quite different discourse management of the formal mechanisms available in these two languages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Previous work on the prosodic phrasing of left and right dislocations in Bantu languages has shown that one finds two basic patterns: an asymmetric phrasing pattern where only right dislocations are phrased separately from what precedes, and a symmetric pattern, where both left and right dislocations phrase separately from their surroundings. This paper identifies a third pattern, where right dislocations phrase separately, while some left dislocations do and some do not. The analysis of these phrasing patterns is developed in the OT version of the Edge-based framework, and, specifically, it is argued that prosodic phrases align with syntactic phase edges. Right dislocations phrase separately because they are external to a syntactic phase. Left dislocations phrase separately when they are clause-external: that is, external to a non-selected CP. CP-internal left dislocations phrase with the CP which contains them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cantonese is unusual as a VO language in having [PP V] as the dominant order instead of [V PP]. Dryer (1992) found that VO order correlates strongly with [V PP] order. Hawkins (1994) offered an explanation in arguing that VO language and [V [PP P NP]] order can be processed with optimal processing efficiency. This paper investigates the reasons why Cantonese still employs the [PP V] order despite its lower processing efficiency. While [[PP P NP] V] order in Cantonese conforms to iconicity, the inefficiency of the [[PP P NP] V] order is circumvented due to the availability of the topic PP construction, which is shown to have higher processing efficiency when compared to [[PP P NP] V] by Hawkins' (1994) metric of Early Immediate Constituents (EIC). Corpus findings show that the heavier the PP, the larger the percentage appearing in topic position. As I will argue, the topic PP construction which exhibits both iconicity and processing efficiency shows that the two seemingly competing functional motivations, iconicity and processing are compatible with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using conversation analytic methodology, this paper investigates one function of the discourse marker so in everyday German conversations. In particular, the paper describes how speakers of German use so to manage sequences of actions (both verbal and embodied actions). With the production of so, speakers indicate that they view the prior action as complete and that they are ready for the next action. Specifically, so is placed between two types of actions where the second action can be considered a “logical next phase” in the overall design of the activity. The article contrasts German so with other types of sequence closings in German and other languages. The findings of this paper contribute to our understanding of how co-participants structure and coordinate their own conduct, and how sequences and turns are designed. Moreover, it speaks to the various functions of different discourse markers in interaction and raises questions of cultural specificity and translatability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a commonly accepted view in the Hungarian linguistic literature that sentence structure is determined by information structure, viewed as a phrase structure theoretic interpretation of the topic–comment articulation of the sentence. There is a designated topic position at the left edge of the sentence, namely SpecTopP, hosting constituents that are claimed to be in a predicative relation with the rest of the sentence. On this view, topic–comment and logical subject–logical predicate are considered to be synonymous notions. We argue that the notion of topic as used in the Hungarian literature poses some serious problems, which can only be eliminated if the pragmatic aspects of topichood are separated from its semantic function entailing the development of a two-level approach to information structure. Topic and logical subject belong to two different levels with topic being an essentially pragmatic notion and logical subject being a syntactico-semantic notion. On this analysis the basic syntactic structure of the Hungarian sentence is determined by the articulation “logical subject–logical predicate” rather than by the articulation “topic-comment”. The proposed analysis has important typological consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sign linguists routinely parse ASL sentences using the category ‘topic’, by which is meant a constituent on the left edge of the main clause, structurally separate from it, and marked by a discrete formal symbolic event, more fully brow raise + backward head tilt + pause, although brow raise is sometimes considered sufficient. This paper provides evidence confirming suspicions that these left-detached constituents need not be marked by brow raise, and suggests that brow raise is better regarded as signaling a type of momentary focus — thus explaining why sign languages tend to employ it as they do — and that it belongs to a larger set of ‘topic-marking’ devices whose iconicity remains active in day-to-day signing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents similarities and differences between Tzotzil, Jakaltek, Tembé, Xavante, Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) regarding the focus and topic distinction. Based on similarities and differences between these languages, we propose a linguistic grouping of them. We observe that beyond the distinction between them in relation to strategies of the focus and topic distinction, it is also possible to distinguish close languages, as EP and BP, considering the focus phenomenon. Whereas EP can distinguish different focus types by different strategies, BP signs focus essentially by the assignment of the main prominence of the sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued in this paper that equative sentences in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) conform to the general schema of (NP) NP+(PI+)NP, parenthesis marking optionality of elements. With respect to this schema, it is further argued, (a) that the function of the first NP in equative sentences is always topic; (b) that topics are marked syntactically, prosodically, and morphologically in FinSL; (c) that the preferred organisation of equative sentences in general is topic-comment; (d) that there are two structurally distinct topic-comment structures in FinSL, one having the topic at the beginning of the clause and the other having the topic in the left-detached clause-external position; (e) that the double-indexing phenomenon (cf. pronoun copy) is functionally a means to increase textual cohesion; and (f) that the sign PI in equative sentences is a certainty expressing modal device, although it may be in the process of grammaticalising into a copula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the characteristics and syntactic behaviour of a peculiar construction in which what seem to be two finite complementisers are allowed to co-occur in specific subordinate clauses. As well as providing a detailed description of the structure in a number of Romance varieties, this research focuses on the different roles played by items belonging to the category traditionally labelled as COMP and on the status of the subjects found in the left periphery. Adopting the so-called split-CP hypothesis the proposed analysis argues for the expression of both discourse and inflectional features at the C level, overtly realised as distinct heads, and claims that there are both topicalised and focalised positions available to pre-verbal subjects in the left periphery, be they a DP or a quantified element. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper argues for an alternative answer to Carstairs-McCarthy''s (1999) question “Why do all languages distinguish between NPs and sentences?” While agreeing on basic philosophical points with Carstairs-McCarthy, such as the lack of a distinction between truth and reference independent of grammar, I argue that the S/NP distinction is rooted in the basic communicative distinction between Topic and Comment. In the very earliest mental processes, long antedating language, binary structure can be found, with components that one can associate with the functions of identifying or locating an object and representing some information about it. When private thought went public, the earliest messages in any code with rudimentary syntax were of similar bipartite structure, with one part conveying information presumed to be already known to the hearer, and identifying the object that the message is about. The other part of the bipartite message conveyed information presumed to be new to the hearer. This bipartite structure, with its concomitant distinction between types of expression that could fulfil the respective roles, was so central to the main function of public language, namely communication, that it was never eroded away, and is the basis of the bipartite structure found universally in languages today. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Estonian clauses can be divided into two basic patterns: unmarked basic clauses and marked basic clauses, depending on whether the clause-initial topic is the subject or not. The main clausal topic of the unmarked basic clause has the typical coding and behavioural properties of the subject. The main clausal topic of the marked basic clauses is less grammaticalized than in the case of the unmarked basic clause. It may be realized not as a prototypical grammatical subject but as an adverbial (or an oblique or a direct object). If the sentence has the subject, it is a non-prototypical subject and its neutral position is after the verb (basic word order XVS). The main types of marked basic clauses include existential, possessive, source-marking resultative, and experiential clauses. The marked possessive, resultative and experiential clauses have their counterparts among unmarked clauses. Current trends in language use show expanding use of unmarked possessive and experiential basic clauses at the expense of marked clauses. This could be seen both as a language contact- induced shift from the Finno-Ugric clause patterns towards Standard Average European (SAE) patterns and as (just) simplification of the internal structure of the language. Resultative constructions show a tendency to use the focussed clause-final subject in both clause patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the substantial literature dedicated to it, the status of French subject clitics is still an unresolved issue within morpho-syntactic theory. Two main analyses have been proposed and defended over the past three decades: one advocating that French subject clitics are syntactic arguments beating a theta-role and the other viewing such clitics as inflectional morphemes on the verb. This paper demonstrates that the empirical basis motivating the morphological analysis of French subject clitics is much narrower than has been assumed in the literature and shows that the implementation of such an analysis faces numerous theoretical and empirical difficulties. It concludes that the limited similarities between the behaviour of French subject clitics and that of morphemes should be treated as accidental rather than as decisive factors in favour of a morphological analysis. Under a derivational approach to grammar, the syntactic analysis appears to be the only viable one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topic-comment structures are an important ingredient of the grammars of languages that are not normally thought of as topic-prominent or discourse-configurational. This paper presents an integrated topic-comment approach to a subtype of specificational pseudo-clefts and three constructions generally grouped under the rubric of relative clause constructions: ‘subject contact relatives’ in dialects of English, ‘V2 relatives’ in Dutch and German, and extraposed relative clauses. All are argued to have a syntactic structure in which the first clause is the topic, occupying the specifier position of a TopP whose head takes the second clause, the comment, as its complement. The restrictive or specificational relationship between the second clause and the focus of the first clause, common to all the constructions discussed under the rubric of topic-comment structures in this paper, is shown to be the interpretive reflex of the fact that the second clause is introduced as the complement of the abstract head ‘Top0&rsquo, and is thereby earmarked as a comment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to giving an overview of the structure of the languages of the East Caucasian or the Nakh-Daghestanian language family. It will mainly concentrate on the fields of phonology and morphosyntax. At the same time it provides the necessary socio-linguistic background and touches upon the subject of the genetic affiliation of the Nakh-Daghestanian languages. A history of the study of the East Caucasian languages is provided. Research in the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow resulted in the early descriptive works on Daghestanian languages. A broader perspective reflects the research of the Caucasian linguistics department as a whole. A socio-linguistic background on the language is outlined. The phonology and morphology of the language is explained.

This study investigates the roles of biological and psychological gender, as well as assigned discussion topic, in the written language use of nonprofessional writers. University students wrote passages on three specific topics--one socioemotional and descriptive, one functional, and one involving political debate. Effects of biological gender were minimal. Psychological gender played a greater role, particularly when measured explicitly rather than implicitly. Passage topic played the greatest role in language use. Rather than enacting their own gender through their writing, writers used language befitting the passage topic. More female-preferential devices featured in passages involving socioemotional descriptions and more male-preferential features were employed in passages involving political debate. The study demonstrates the relative impacts of gender and contextual constraints on communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to show that the word order of a non-configurational language can be sensitive to the grammatical encoding of (non)topicality or obviation. The new data presented also provide evidence that the left periphery of an East Cree sentence plays a role for information packaging instructions. It is shown that an analysis that assumes that Focus is a functional projection fails to explain the East Cree data. Our analysis rather supports a treatment of Focus as an interpretation rule which is not encoded directly in the syntax. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We rebut Pappas’s critique (this issue) of our treatment of Late Medieval Greek clausal syntax and clitic placement (Condoravdi & Kiparsky 2001), point out some weaknesses of his counterproposal, and suggest directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criticizes the approach to language analysis and development by Elena Levy. Discussion on the notion of aboutness of language as discourse practice; Discourse practice and development; Relevance of active participation in language practices for a theoretical notion of development.