The associative plural in Cantonese

Planning in sentence production: Evidence for the phrase as a default planning scope

Complex noun phrases (CNP) are a major vehicle of academic written discourse (Halliday, 1988; 2004). However, in spite of the view that they pose significant challenges to English language learners, they are often overlooked in preparatory English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs. This mixed methods study aims to investigate to what extent CNP present syntactic parsing challenges for upper-level college EAP students, and whether there is a perceived need for direct instruction in CNP in EAP programs. A special CNP proficiency test was administered to 70 upper-level Ontario college EAP students and a native speaker comparator group, and the results were compared with those obtained from interviews with seven of the test-takers. The results obtained from the statistical analyses and the interviews indicate that CNP are challenging to parse for upper-level EAP students and that direct instruction in CNP may be beneficial for improving their reading comprehension. Some teaching implications of the findings are also addressed.

The present study examines a particular syntactic phenomenon in Chinese discourse, namely complex noun phrases (CNPs), and investigates the occurrence and distribution of the various forms of such constructions. The study focuses on the presence and absence of classifier phrases that modify CNPs, and explores, from a cognitive-functional perspective, what specific functions such modifiers in CNPs serve in discourse and how their positioning in CNPs manifests our cognitive constraints underlying discourse processing. The study aims to explain (i) why, of several possible CNP constructions, one occurs more frequently in discourse than do others, and (ii) what motivates speakers and writers to choose a particular type of CNP at a certain juncture of discourse processing.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the noun phrase complexity of advanced Chinese EFL learners’ integrated writing and the score assigned by expert raters. Their written performance was also compared with those of native English speakers (NS) at university level with particular reference to the use of noun phrases. One hundred and twenty integrated writing samples were collected from an English writing test administered in a southeastern province of China. Results showed that there was a moderately positive correlation between the use of complex nominals in test-takers’ writing and the corresponding score. More specifically, non-native speakers of English (NNS) and NS groups differed significantly in the majority of noun phrase complexity measures. The implications are discussed concerning noun phrase complexity as a more reliable measure of syntactic complexity for an integrated writing test.

Objective To investigate the features of native Hakka speakers′ ability to identify Cantonese tones. Methods Twenty native Cantonese speakers and 12 native Hakka speakers were given the Hongkong Cantonese tone identification test. Results Neither group was troubled by similar vowel and consonant sounds. The Cantonese group could identify all tones well except distinguishing tones 5 and 2 (89%) and tones 4 and 6 (89%). The Hakkas had the most difficulty distinguishing tones 3 and 6 (70.0%), but significant differences were observed between the two groups in the identification of tones 2 and 5 and 2 and 4. Conclusion A native Hakka speaker′s ability to identify Cantonese tones may be closely related to the tone′s pitch, tonal patterns as well as the Hakka tone system. Key words: Cantonese; Hakka; Tones

This study investigates first-year students at the University of Vavuniya and their ability to construct complex noun phrases in academic essay writing. Complex noun phrases, including pre- and post-modifiers, are essential for mature academic writing and effective communication of compact information. With simple random sampling using a mixed-method approach, the study finds that students primarily used simple noun phrases with minimal embedding, mainly relying on prepositional phrases as post-modifiers. Most noun phrases were endocentric, and students frequently made errors, such as misordering, plural-singular misuse, malformations, and inappropriate word choices, highlighting a critical need for enhanced grammatical instruction. The findings reveal that students struggle with forming complex noun phrases, typically using only one or two modifiers, indicating a basic level of proficiency. The study recommends targeted training in noun phrase construction, emphasising <quantifier + head> agreement pattern and specific writing strategies. Strengthening students’ ability to use complex noun phrases improves their writing clarity, conciseness, and overall academic proficiency. Mastering noun phrase construction allows writers to convey detailed information efficiently, enhancing their ability to write well-structured and high-quality academic essays.

The study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities. TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

This work investigates verbal extensions that affect the valency of verbs in the Basa language (Western Kainji). It focuses on verbal inflections that result in the reduction of the verb’s valency by one argument with regard to the basic structure. This current study attempts to investigate the morphosyntactic effects of reciprocal and reflexive affixes in the Basa sentences. The significance of this work hinges on the fact that no known work has described these processes in Basa. The language is endangered because its native speakers neglect speaking it in favour of English and Hausa. Furthermore, there is dearth of information on Basa, especially in areas of morphology and syntax, which are basic to the study of language. This study will therefore attempt to fill this existing gap in the literature. In addition to the native intuitions of one of the researchers, as a native speaker of the Basa language, data collected for this work include discourse observation, staged and elicited spoken data from fluent native speakers. It was found in the study that affixes attached to the verb root result in deriving an intransitive verb from a transitive one, and a transitive verb from a bi- or ditransitive. Both operations are triggered by verbal extensions and move the internal argument (object) to the subject position. The derived structure, therefore, is headed by a complex noun phrase but the verb no longer subcategorizes an internal argument. The work explores the morphosyntax of Basa verbs and serves as a springboard for this aspect of Basa morphosyntax. It also contributes to the morphosyntactic literature.

This study investigates the acquisition and on-line processing of unaccusative and unergative verbs in second language (L2) Spanish by English-speaking learners. It asks whether L2 learners make a syntactic distinction between the two verb classes and whether there is an effect of semantic subclass, in accordance with a semantic hierarchy. Participants were 35 native Spanish speakers and 44 English-speaking learners of Spanish ranging from intermediate to advanced proficiency. The main task was an on-line visual probe recognition task. Subjects read sentences on a computer screen and had to decide whether a word had appeared in the sentence. The results of this study showed that native speakers who scan their syntactic representations to find a word contained in a complex subject noun phrase recognized the word faster with unaccusative-verb sentences than with unergative-verb sentences, suggesting that the syntactic presence of a trace in unaccusative-verb sentences facilitates comprehension. The L2 learners showed a similar response pattern, confirming that they differentiated between the two classes of verbs. Analyses of reaction times by verb class indicated that not all of the verbs in each class were responded to consistently: some subclasses induced shorter reaction times than others.

This research aimed to find out the most frequent types of inflectional suffixes, derivational suffixes, noun phrases and verb phrases produced by the Postgraduate Students in writing argumentative text. This research used Descriptive Quantitative Research. The data were obtained by using writing test. The samples of this research were 16 Postgraduate Students of English Education Master Program in Academic Year 2023 selected by using Total Sampling Technique. The results of data analysis from 16 samples found that 1) The inflectional suffixes of plurality {-s} were 46,06%, 3rd person singular {s/es} were 8.33%, past tense/passive {-ed} were 14.58%, participle {-ing} were 17.59 %, possessive {-s} were 3,93%, and comparative/ superlative degrees {er/est} were 3.47%. 2) The derivational suffixes forming noun were 52.4%, forming verb were 3.2%, forming adjective were 23.92%, and forming adverb were 19.28%. 3) The constructions of simple noun phrases were 18.86%, rather complex noun phrases were 23.58 %, and very complex noun phrases were 56.83%. 4) The constructions of simple verb phrases were 82.5% and rather complex verb phrases were 16.87%. Thus, it can be concluded that the most frequent types of inflectional suffixes used by the students were plurality {-s}, the type of derivational suffixes was noun formation, the type of noun phrases was very complex noun phrases, and the type of verb phrases was simple verb phrases.

The present study investigated the scope of planning in speech production by examining onset latencies for sentences describing moving picture displays. The experimental sentences began with either a simple or complex noun phrase, but were matched in length and content words. Results from young and old normal participants replicated previous findings of Smith and Wheeldon (1999) in showing longer onset latencies for sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase, supporting a phrasal scope of planning. Two aphasic patients were tested who, in previous studies, had shown a short‐term memory deficit either in semantic retention (patient ML)or in phonological retention (patient EA). Patient ML showed a markedly greater disadvantage for the sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase whereas EAshowed an effect within normal range. The present results from the patients, together with those from previous studies, indicate that the phrasal planning is occurring at a lexical‐semantic level using a capacity that is also involved in comprehension.

This study aims to reveal the similarities and differences between French and Nubian languages regarding the internal structure of their noun phrases and the order of the constituents in their simple and complex noun phrases. To this end, the contrastive analysis (CA) is applied which is composed of three steps as (1) description; (2) juxtaposition; (3) comparison. The contrastive analysis in this study shows that French and Nubian languages have many differences regarding the placement of a head noun, the placement of an adjective of size and quality, the placement of numerals and the case marker in a complex noun phrase and share fewer similarities such that both languages can use two adjectives successively in a complex noun phrase. The findings of this study contribute to comparative historical linguistics to establish language genealogy, to typological linguistics to create language taxonomies, to translation studies to investigate problems of equivalence in creating bilingual dictionaries.

Past research suggests that parsing processes in a bilingual's first language (L1) can undergo changes as a function of exposure to a second language (L2). Evidence for this claim comes from studies that have examined how Spanish-English bilinguals resolve temporarily ambiguous sentences containing a complex noun phrase followed by a relative clause, as is the case in “Peter fell in love with the daughter of the psychologist who studied in California.” Previous studies indicate that whereas monolingual Spanish speakers attach the relative clause to the first noun in the complex noun phrase (non-local attachment), monolingual English speakers interpret the relative clause locally (i.e., attach the relative clause to the noun immediately preceding it). With respect to bilinguals, recent research with Spanish-English bilinguals and professional translators (e.g., Dussias 2001, 2003; Parede, 2004) have shown that bilinguals attach the relative clause to the second noun in the complex noun phrase, when reading in Spanish, their first language. The differences observed between monolingual and bilingual speakers have been attributed to experience in a second language immersion environment. For example, Dussias (2003) argues that extensive exposure to a preponderance of English constructions resolved in favor of local attachment can render this interpretation more available, resulting in the low attachment preference observed in Spanish-English bilinguals. Of interest in the present paper is to assess whether speakers with fewer years of immersion experience in the L2 environment than those reported in previous studies employ the correct strategy in each of their languages. To this end, eye-movement data was collected while proficient L1 Spanish/L2 English speakers read ambiguous sentences of the type described above, in their first language, and their performance was compared to a monolingual Spanish group. Analyses revealed that the L1 Spanish speakers of English favored local over non-local attachment when reading in their first languages. The results are most congruent with exposure-based or parallel interactive models of sentence parsing as postulated by Brysbaert & Mitchell (1996), Mitchell & Cuetos (1991) and Mitchell, Cuetos, Corley & Brysbaert (1995), given the assumption within these models that frequency-based exposure affects parsing decisions.

“A thought group is a group, not a thought!” results of a teaching intervention on complex noun phrases in Canadian EAP programs

Academic writing favors lexical and phrasal nominal premodifications and postmodifications over the clausal type. However, for novice writers, whether the constructed complex noun phrases (NPs) maintain conciseness and grammatical accuracy is questionable. The present study analyzed the types of NPs and the grammatical devices used to construct complex NPs in abstracts authored by twenty-five English-majoring English as a foreign language undergraduates. Additionally, the extent to which the NPs maintained conciseness and grammatical accuracy was also examined. Following the content analysis procedures, the study revealed the frequent use of complex NPs over simple NPs. Regarding complex NP constructions, extensive use of multiple and mixed grammatical devices in the same complex NPs was observed. While this reflects an attempt to construct condensed academic discourse, excessive layered modifications and the unnecessary use of such modifications led to verbosity, grammatical inaccuracy, semantic errors, and reduced clarity. The findings highlight the need for targeted academic writing instruction that balances complexity, clarity, and grammatical accuracy.