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In this paper I investigate the anaphoric interpretation of null and overt pronominal subjects in temporal adjuncts in child Romanian. The results show that 5-year old Romanian children make no distinction between null and overt pronominal subjects (personal pronouns and demonstratives) with respect to antecedent choice. I tentatively interpret the results as indicating that 5-year olds cannot fully integrate knowledge of the syntax of subjects with discourse information.
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The present paper is an attempt to uncover some of the (syntactic) properties of idioms that present aspects mismatches between their literal and idiomatic interpretation. The novelty value of the proposal lies in its syntactic rather than semantic or cognitive approach: whereas most accounts in the literature deal with this conundrum from a semantic and cognitive point of view, the present analysis provides a syntactic aspects account by relying on AspP.
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The paper examines the unaccusative-unergative dichotomy of predicates, with a special focus laid on the class status of the verb TO DIE in English. The paper begins with a view of unaccusativity in the light of the Lexicon-Syntax Interface. Further, the verb TO DIE is tested against the six syntactic unaccusativity diagnostics valid for English. In consequence, the first three diagnostics (auxiliary selection, causative alternation and resultative constructions) do not work for the verb TO DIE, while the last three diagnostics (adjectival participle, there-insertion, locative inversion) appear to have been satisfied. This would lead us to the conclusion that the verb TO DIE should be regarded as a real example of an Unaccusative Mismatch (Levin 1986).
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Very little is known about the effect of syntactic complexity on written language production. This study investigated the effect of syntactic complexity on the accuracy of gender marking in written L1 and L2 French. We conducted two experiments in which L1 learners (n = 28) and L2 learners (n = 26) of French were asked to complete a fill-in-the-gap task. The test items were controlled for three types of gender agreement configurations with different syntactic complexity. The results show that the syntactic complexity of the agreement configuration has an effect on the accuracy of both L1 and L2 written gender marking. We conclude that, similarly to spoken L1 production, the accuracy of gender marking is influenced by syntactic complexity. Furthermore, we conclude that the observed effect of syntactic complexity does not only hold for L2 learners at the beginners level, but is still present in advanced L2 learners of French.
More...GO FOR IN THE CRUCIAN WIRETAPS CORPUS: INSIGHT ON MV FOR CONSTRUCTIONS AND THE ERB/PREPOSITION DISTINCTION IN AFRO-CARIBBEAN CREOLE
In this paper, I examine uses of the construction go for in Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier creole (AEC) to gain insight on the verb/preposition distinction in contact languages, as exemplified in the construction Motion Verb + for (hereafter MV for). The MV for construction is employed when speakers wish to profile the purpose substructure of the construction’s composite semantic value. If speakers were to use the verb get instead of for, the acquisition substructure would be profiled. In most cases, however, speakers choose the morpheme for, which adds prominence to the purpose value. The morpheme for also adds aspectual content to the overall constructional meaning, and that aspectual reading is performed on the fly. It is argued here that MV for is processed simultaneously in relation to the other constituents that co-occur with it, not only syntactically, but also in terms of the semantic roles that those units convey.
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I discuss various theories of sentence topics against the background of attested examples of topicalization in Romanian. I argue that non-referential topical phrases constitute a problem for the concept of aboutness topic proposed by Reinhart (1981) and can better be accounted for in a theory where topicalized constituents are indicators of the discourse topic (cf. von Fintel 1994). I examine various types of topicalized constituents, classified according to the relation they entertain with the previous sentences and the discourse topic. Furthermore, I discuss another function of sentence topics, which can be characterized independently of discourse relations: that of anchoring the new information in the common ground. I suggest a way in which this function can be subsumed under the general function of indicating discourse-topic dynamics.
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The paper identifies and analyzes major types of binominal qualitative constructions in Old Romanian. The corpus presented in the paper registers three types of double-definite binominals and two types of single-definite binominals. This paper has a two-fold aim: one is to provide clarifications on these constructions at a descriptive level; the other one is to provide support in favor of the “Double-DP / Single-DP hypothesis” (see Tănase-Dogaru 2012a, b, 2013a).
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This paper analyses the acquisition of Romanian gender agreement in a Romanian-Hungarian bilingual setting, based on two longitudinal corpora and a corpus of narratives, with a view to identifying the causes that lead to the vulnerability of the gender feature in this particular language combination. The fact that Hungarian is a genderless language causes some delay in the acquisition of Romanian gender with bilinguals. While phonological and semantic transparency do not seem to have had much influence, it has been found that agreement at a distance represents an obstacle, probably due to processing difficulties inherent to bilingual language acquisition. The two main facilitating factors have been found to be adjacency to the noun and the presence of the definite and indefinite articles.
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Restricted relatives in Acadian French display the following peculiarities: generalization of que ‘that’ as the relative complementizer; deletion of que ‘that’; orphaned prepositions; failure of subject-verb agreement between the relative noun and the embedded verb. This paper argues that such peculiarities arise from the tendency of Acadian French to use a matching rather than a raising pattern of derivation in restrictive relatives, which further involves non-quantificational chains. This parametric setting contrasts with the systematically raising pattern in the restrictive relative of Standard French.
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light verb constructions, result nominalizations, Romanian, -ţie suffix, -re suffixThe aim of this paper is to analyze the class of Romanian nominalizations which enter light verb constructions with the light verbs a face ‘make, do’ and a avea ‘have’. We show that such nominalizations are not event, but result. In order to test this hypothesis, we have chosen two of the most productive suffixes which appear with these nominalizations in light verb constructions, namely -ţie and -re. As will be seen, the two suffixes may attach to the same verb stems, giving rise to doublets (e.g. from a afirma ‘state’: afirmaţie vs. afirmare). The syntactic analysis of these doublets proves that -re is specialized for event readings, while - ţie generally gives rise to result nominals. Returning to light verb constructions, when a verb has both -ţie and -re nominalizations available, the light verb will always select the result deverbal noun, the one ending in -ţie, while its -re counterpart will have an event reading and thus will be banned from the light verb construction.
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The present paper evaluates Fukuda’s (2007a, 2008) Functional Head Analysis of aspectual verbs on the basis of the analysis of aspectual verbs in Romanian with focus on whether they induce restructuring, whether they occupy functional projections, and whether the structural position which they occupy is reflected in their control and/or raising behaviour. The data indicates that Romanian aspectual verbs behave like lexical verbs. They merge in the same syntactic position, irrespective of the complement which they select and which can be uniformly analysed as ModP/FinP. Their control or raising behaviour is not correlated with different syntactic positions.
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I discuss some syntactic properties of GO in verbal Pseudo-Coordination, in which it is followed by an inflected lexical verb and preceded by an optional connecting element. Following the analysis in Cardinaletti and Giusti (2001, 2003), I consider examples from different Sicilian varieties to show that the ones from the Eastern Coast (Di Caro 2015), where GO can become grammaticalized as an aspect marker and thus lose its argument structure and its semantics of motion, are reminiscent of some Multiple Agreement Constructions displayed by most Arabic dialects (Jarad 2014). In both groups of languages, the grammaticalized GO can also occur in an invariant and phonetically eroded version. In the macro-comparison I am proposing, I suggest language contact between Arabs/Berbers and the indigenous people in Sicily from 9th to 13th century as a factor in the productivity of Sicilian Pseudo-Coordination as an isolated case in the Romance domain.
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Manner of speaking verbs (MoS) are said to induce strong island effects, in contrast with verbs of communication, which allow extraction. The main studies which tried to account for this distinction focused either on the existence of a manner component, of an added layer of meaning, or on that of a nominal element, corresponding to the resulting emitted noise. However, these intuitions according to which they simultaneously denote both manner and result would induce a violation of the Manner Result Complementarity (Levin & Rappaport 2011). What’s more, a closer look at the data shows that there are at least some cases where extraction out of the complement of MoS verbs is actually allowed. The goal of this paper is to put forth an analysis which first of all accounts for the ban on extraction, but also for the variable behaviour that these verbs evince. By postulating two structurally distinct subclasses of MoS verbs, I not only manage to reconcile the two intuitions present in the literature without violating the MRC, but also explain the syntactic behaviour of these verbs with respect to extraction from the post-verbal clause.
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The present study conducts an analysis on the treatment of the syntactic function of "attribute" in several English grammar books, written by native and non-native writers. The syntactic role of 'attribute' within grammars of the English language is a topic of ongoing interest and scholarly discourse. Attributes, being a basic component of syntactic structure, play an important role in modifying nouns, determining and shaping the intricate patterns of English sentences. By analysing the perspectives presented in various grammars, this study aims to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the syntactic landscape of "attribute" in English. It is, nevertheless, imperative to recognize a significant distinction that arises in the treatment of "attribute" in English grammars. Some grammarians do include, among the mentioned syntactic functions, the one specific to "attribute". However, the vast majority of studies, while examining the syntactic links and semantic contributions of adjectives and nouns inside sentences, concentrate mainly on their attributive responsibilities. They thus do not specifically deal with the general syntactic function known as "attribute" but only mention of "attributive roles" of adjectives, nouns, and other essential clause elements.
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Teaching verbal groups in terms of their complementation types can be a fairly difficult process since they often trigger confusion among students. Therefore, teachers need to be aware of the most common errors that their students make in order to find the right strategies that help them understand those aspects better. After providing 60 students in a group with all significant information on verb complementation types, we organised an online progress test held via Google Classroom and Google Meet. The assignment covered 12 simple sentences which had to be analysed syntactically by identifying types of verbal groups and functions of their obligatory and/or optional adjuncts. The students had one hour to complete the task and turn in their papers. Following the correction of the papers, we drew up a list of the most frequent errors and processed the data statistically. The students’ results in the test paper revealed that most of them found it hard to identify intensive, complex transitive, and prepositional verbal groups and, implicitly, to analyse their complements by pointing out the right syntactic functions. We consider that the findings offered us a valuable insight into the aspects that most students find difficult and made us think of improving our teaching strategies so that students can be provided with a clearer approach in order to achieve better results.
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Since grammar and lexicon are in a continuum, this paper examines the multi-component units that create continuum. Namely, multi-component units such as idiom, collocations, multi-part onymes, multi-part terms, periphrastic constructions, complex subjunctives and complex prepositions are united by one syntactic role, and often there is no clear line of demarcation that could be drawn between them. This clearly shows how the enumerated class of constructions also reflects the continuum in which grammar and lexicon exist. The boundaries between them are permeable, but each of the mentioned categories is characterized by at least one (categorical) peculiarity – by which they can be classified as prototypical. According to the theory of prototypes – each category has a centralized member, according to which boundaries are drawn and prototypical characteristics are transmitted to other members of the given category. This means that they are organized radially and that, moving towards the periphery, we should expect a larger number of units that also take on the characteristics of other categories. In this paper, using the example of the relationship between the mentioned multi-component units, we try to show what can be considered their central feature and which features they share with each other. One should remain aware of the fact that the question of the finality of defining the differences between the mentioned lexical connections cannot be exhausted by one such work. Therefore, this paper only tries to touch on the given topic in order to open further discussions about “solid” lexical links and their relationship in Bosnian.
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The pronoun en is usually described in the literature as an adverbial pronoun, although the adverbial value is only one of several functions in which it can appear. It is a pronoun whose use is very diverse and complex, which is best seen based on numerous syntactic functions that we will present first in this paper. Then we will emphasize the analysis of examples of its use in the corpus, which includes student works divided into three stages (PI / INT / AH). Our goal is to determine to what extent this pronoun is represented in the mentioned corpus and in which syntactic functions it appears most often, i.e., to what extent students master its use. The analysis will also include those examples in which the use of this pronoun was absent as well as those in which its use is unacceptable.
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The objective of this work is to compare the position of clitic pronouns in the Lisbon and Sevillian editions of the History of the Most Noble Vespasian, a narrative text published in both Portuguese and Spanish at the end of the 15th century. The selected topic, the position of the clitics, has received much attention in the literature specialized in both synchrony and diachrony. According to the results outlined to date, the evolution of the rules that determine the position of such unstressed elements, apparently common to Portuguese and Spanish in the medieval period, subsequently follows divergent lines in the two languages, mainly due to the distancing of the second of the essentially common structural starting point. The comparative analysis of the two aforementioned editions of the aforementioned work proposed here wishes to take advantage of the fact that the versions present almost complete parallelism in both content and structure, which facilitates the examination of truly parallel constructions and structures in the two languages. This analysis can help to understand the stage in which the evolution of this component of the syntax was in each of the languages at the time of the publication of these versions.
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