Adverbial Subordinate Clauses Research Articles

Nominalization in Wutun

Abstract In this paper I discuss the various functions of nominalization in Wutun, a mixed Sinitic language spoken by ca. 4000 people in Qinghai Province, Northwest China. Nominalization in Wutun is expressed by the multi-purpose marker -de (cognate to Standard Mandarin de 的), which functions on both the lexical and clausal levels. Lexical nominalization takes the verb as its domain to derive nouns or adjectives, while clausal nominalization takes the entire clause as its domain and allows the clause to be treated as a noun phrase. Clausal nominalization in Wutun is used to form nominal complement clauses, relative clauses and adverbial subordinate clauses. In addition, the multi-purpose marker -de in Wutun has functions that go beyond nominalization, including pronominal function, pre-nominal modification and stand-alone usage, which is related to aspect and emphasis and plays an important role in stance-taking.

Examining individual variation in learner production data: A few programmatic pointers for corpus-based analyses using the example of adverbial clause ordering

ABSTRACTThis study examines the variable positioning of a finite adverbial subordinate clause and its main clause with the subordinate clause either preceding or following the main clause in native versus nonnative English. Specifically, we contrast causal, concessive, conditional, and temporal adverbial clauses produced by German and Chinese learners of English with those produced by native speakers. We examined 2,362 attestations from the Chinese and German subsections of the International Corpus of Learner English (Granger, Dagneaux, Meunier, & Paquot, 2009) and from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (Granger, 1998). All instances were annotated for the ordering, the subordinate clause type, the lengths of the main and subordinate clauses, the first language of the speakers, the conjunction used, and the file it originated from (as a proxy for the speaker producing the sentence so as to be able to study individual and lexical variation). The results of a two-step regression modeling protocol suggest that learners behave most nativelike with causal clauses and struggle most with conditional and concessive clauses; in addition, learners make more non-nativelike choices when the main and subordinate clause are of about equal length.

Examining the Effects of Multitiered Oral Narrative Language Instruction on Reading Comprehension and Writing

This early-stage feasibility study investigated the effects of a multitiered oral narrative language intervention on oral language, reading comprehension, and writing. Twenty-eight second-grade students participated in this quasi-experimental control group study with assignment at the classroom level. The independent variable was large- and small-group oral narrative language intervention that required students to retell increasingly complex stories that were strategically crafted to include academic language typically found in grade-level reading material. Story grammar, causal adverbial subordinate clauses, elaborated noun phrases, adverbs, and the acquisition of word meanings through context were explicitly taught. Students' performance on proximal measures of oral narrative retells, as well as distal measures of reading comprehension and writing, was assessed at pretest and posttest. Statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups were found on all outcome measures using nonparametric analyses. Large- and small-group multitiered oral narrative instruction improved not only oral narrative language but also reading comprehension and written composition.

About variations in translation non-finite forms of the verb from English into Russian in the belles-lettres

This article deals with the peculiarities of the translation of non-finite forms of the verb from English into Russian in the belles-lettres. This problem is not studied well enough in modern scientific literature, while when translating non-finite forms into Russian one can face some difficulties.Sometimes while translating a text the accent falls on the lexical aspect, first of all on the shades of meaning, but sometimes invisible syntactic mistakes lead not only to stylistic mistakes, but also the misrepresentation of the meaning. Non-finite forms can be used as a subject, a predicative, part of a compound verbal and modal predicate, an object, an adverbial modifier and an attribute.The infinitive has some nominal characteristics and can be used as a subject, part of a compound nominal predicate, an object and an attribute. As for its verbal characteristics it can take a direct object and has tense and voice distinguishes. As a subject, predicative and adverbial modifiers, it can be translated with the help of the infinitive or a noun. Complexes with the infinitive can be translated by subordinate clauses. If the infinitive is passive, the Russian subordinate clause should have either a passive construction or a non-finite form. If the infinitive is perfect the predicate in the Russian sentence should be used in the past tense. If the perfect infinitive has a passive form the predicative in the Russian subordinate clause should be used in the past tense and have passive voice or a non-finite form.Complex object can be translated by a subordinate clause, while complex subject can be translated only by a compound sentence.The gerund is such a non-finite form, which cannot be found in the Russian language. It can be translated into the Russian language with the help of the infinitive, a verbal noun or a subordinate clause.The combination of the gerund with a possessive pronoun or a noun in the possessive case form an equivalent of a subordinate clause.Russian present participles can be used only as an attribute, when used in the active voice, while English participles active can be used not only as an attribute, but also as an adverbial modifier. When translating a text, one should pay attention to the place of the participle in the sentence. If it is an attribute it is translated by a Russian participle, if it is used as an adverbial modifier, it is translated by a Russian adverbial participle in the imperative aspect.Participial constructions have no any equivalents in the Russian language, so they should be translated by an adverbial subordinate clause.

Multiclass and Multifunction Subordinate Clauses in Arabic

The clause is a unit lower than the sentence in the hierarchical rank scale of units though, like the sentence, it has a subject and a predicate. Some sentences may contain only one clause and are, therefore, called simple sentences, while others that include more than one clause are called non-simple sentences (compound, complex). The current study focuses on the second type and specifically the complex sentence which typically contains two clauses one of which is the main clause while the other is subordinate since it functions in the structure of the main clause to realize one of four functions, namely, subject(S), object (O), complement(C) or adverbial (A). Subordinate clauses (SCs)can be classified into two categories: nominal SCs and adverbial SCs. The former can function as S, O or C whereas the latter can function as A only. However , some SCs belong to different classes and realize different functions .The study tries to shed light on complex sentences in Arabic since they have not been investigated before.In fact,grammarians of Arabic do not acknowledge the existence of complex sentences in Arabic at all. The study ,therefore, tries to prove that complex sentences and ultimately SCs exist in Arabic just like other live languages. It aims at listing the categories of SCs in Arabic and the functions that can be achieved by each of these categories.

Consequential Constructions in Contemporary European Portuguese: A Contribution

The aim of this study is to provide an integrated description of consequential constructions in European contemporary Portuguese, relating their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic behavior. It will be argued that the discourse segment introduced by the connectives consequentemente, de forma que, dai (que), de modo que, por isso, assim can be analyzed in terms of a supplement (Huddleston & Pullum 2002), not syntactically integrated with its anchor, but semantically related to it. Semantically, consequential constructions may be paraphrased by causal ones involving an adverbial subordinate clause. But, unlike causal constructions, consequential ones connect two distinct speech acts. The suppression of the consequential connective may trigger two different readings, but it will be argued that, for pragmatic reasons (Levinson 2000), the preferential reading is still the consequential one.

Adverbiale Satzverknüpfungen im Portugiesischen und Deutschen: Schnittstellen zwischen Syntax, Semantik und Diskurs

Abstract This article deals with finite adverbial subordinate clauses and adverbial infinitivals. In Portuguese, as in other Romance languages, adverbial infinitivals are used more frequently and for a greater diversity of functions than in German. The article focuses on the semantic and textual differences between finite clauses and infinitivals. It is shown that infinitivals, by means of their introducing prepositions, link the described state of affairs to the surrounding text (sentence coherence). As they lack a verbal mood component, they cannot connect the state of affairs to the speaker and the ongoing discourse. Finite adverbial clauses are linked to their syntactic context by means of subordinating conjunctions. In addition, they are connected deictically to the speaker and the ongoing discourse by the verbal tense and mood components (discourse coherence).

The positioning of concessive adverbial clauses in English: assessing the importance of discourse-pragmatic and processing-based constraints

English permits adverbial subordinate clauses to be placed either before or after their associated main clause. Previous research has shown that the positioning is conditioned by various factors from the domains of semantics, discourse pragmatics and language processing. With the exception of Diessel (2008), these factors have never been investigated in concert, which makes it difficult to understand their relative importance. Diessel's study, however, discusses only temporal constructions and identifies iconicity of sequence as the strongest predictor of clause position. Since this explanation is, in principle, unavailable for other types of subordinate clauses, the generalizability of Diessel's findings is somewhat limited. The present study offers a multifactorial analysis of 2,000 concessive constructions from the written part of the BNC and assesses the variable importance of six factors for the ordering choice, showing that semantic and discourse-pragmatic factors are much stronger predictors of clause position than processing-based, weight-related ones. On a methodological note, the study proposes that random forests using conditional inference trees constitute the preferred tool for the general type of problem investigated here.

The role of genre in information structuring in English

In a recent paper, Biber and Gray (2010) provide empirical evidence for the dramatic increase of compressed structures in English academic writing over the last 100 years. According to their corpus findings, the grammatical complexity of academic writing displays a phrasal rather than clausal character, the corollary of which is a compressed rather than elaborated discourse style (the latter one being typical of spoken registers). Given this finding, the question arises as to how far the traditional view that information structure should be viewed as a single partition of information within a given utterance adequately accounts for genre-specific information packaging strategies. To provide an answer to this question, the current study sets out to explore and compare information structuring within what will be referred to here as ‘compression strategies’, namely the use of adverbial subordinate clauses, -ING constructions, and complex NP constructions across two different genres: the highly compressed genre of research article abstracts, and fiction. The findings reported here suggest that in more compressed discourse styles such as academic writing, there is a higher probability of encountering information structure partition not only at the clausal but also at the phrasal level. The present paper highlights the importance of genre variation as one predictor of variation in information structuring within constructions.

Introduction à la syntaxe de l’ « adverbe généralisé » en polonais

The purpose of the present research is to consider whether a syntactic approach proposed by Maurice Gross in "Syntaxe de l’adverbe" (1986) may prove helpful in analyzing Polish adverbs. The term of generalized adverb, proposed by M. Gross, is used for syntactically different structures (underived and derived adverbs, adverbials or adverbial subordinate clauses). In this paper we aim to present the basis for the delineation of morphological types of compound (frozen) adverbs in Polish which are classified according to their internal syntactic structure.

Processing controlled PROs in Spanish

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the processing of the empty category PRO and the time-course of this in Spanish. Eye movements were recorded while participants read sentences in which a matrix clause was followed by a subordinate infinitival clause, so that the subject or the object of the main clause could act as controller of PRO, and therefore as implicit grammatical subject of the infinitive. In Experiment 1, verb control information was manipulated: The matrix clause contained either subject-control verbs like prometer (‘promise’) or object-control verbs like forzar (‘force’). In Experiment 2, the preposition that headed adverbial subordinate clauses was manipulated: Two different kinds of infinitival adverbial clauses were used, expressing purpose (preposition para) and reason (preposition por) and in which control information is primarily induced by the prepositions (para tends to trigger subject-control; por object-control). Experiment 1 showed that readers make immediate use of verb control information to recover the antecedent of the empty category PRO in Spanish obligatory control constructions. The data obtained in Experiment 2 suggest that during the processing of the empty category PRO in purpose vs. reason adverbial subordinate infinitival clauses the control information induced by the prepositions por vs. para is not initially used as a constraint to guide the selection of the nominal antecedent of PRO. In addition, both experiments showed that PRO antecedent selection is a very fast process and that, together with verb control information, recency played an important role. The results are discussed in terms of current psycholinguistic hypotheses about empty categories and in relation to formal linguistic hypotheses about PRO control. We argue that obligatory control ties (which are co-referential ties) are processed fast because they are launched from the same lexical platform that launches all fast syntactic connections (complements, as opposed to modifiers). In short, that such lexically-specified co-referential ties are regulated by linguistic form.

La distribución de participio concertado y subordinada adverbial en la lengua literaria griega del s. V a. C.

This paper aims at finding out the rule(s) that determine(s) the distribution of adverbial subordinate clauses and connected circumstantial participles in the Attic literary language of the V century B.C. For this purpose, the relevant instances of both constructions in Soph. O. T. , Thuc. II 1-60 and Pseudo-Xenophon Ath.Pol. are systematically considered. The main conclusion is that a purely mechanical rule governs the choice between both constructions: the circumstantial participle is used when its governing substantive fulfills any given function in the main sentence; on the contrary, the adverbial subordinate clause is limited to the contexts in which its subject cannot be in agreement with any other element of the leading sentence. A number of grammatical conditions specified through the article explain most of the examples in which the general rule does not apply.

Head-initial/head-final parameter in adult Chinese L2 acquisition of English

In this study, we investigate the role of the head-initial/head-final parameter in adult second language (L2) acquisition of English. Sixty Chinese speaking adults were tested in their elicited production of complex sentences which involved pre-and postposed adverbial subordinate clauses both with and without pronoun anaphors. Results obtained in this study match those reported earlier for Japanese speakers learning English (Flynn, 1981; 1983a; 1983b; 1984; in press). Both Japanese and Chinese are head-final languages (Kuno, 1973; Huang, 1982). Findings are used to argue for the role of the head-initial/head-final parameter in adult L2 acquisition of pronoun anaphora. They are also used to argue for a model of grammar in which parameters associated with head-direction are differentiated from parameters associated with word order (Travis, 1983; 1984). Results also provide additional empirical support for the parameter setting model of L2 acquisition currently proposed by Flynn (1983a; 1983b, in press; forthcoming).

Subordinate clauses and discourse

Abstract In this paper I discuss adverbial subordinate clauses from the point of view of their function in discourse. It is shown that in various languages there are parallels between the levels of simple sentence and complex sentence in respect to the expression of discourse meaning: (a) adverbial subordinate clauses, like thematic elements (e.g. the subject) at the simple‐sentence level, present old information; (b) there is homophony between simple‐sentence theme‐markers and conjunctions at complex‐sentence level; and, furthermore, (c) the order of constituents plays an important role as marker of discourse meaning at both levels: at the level of simple sentence, subject position is shown to be the basic marker of the theme (or “communicatively less important”; element) while at the level of complex sentence the order of clauses has the same function as, or (in the cum‐inversum sentences in European languages) actually overrides, conjunctions in signalling the relation of subordination of the clauses.

Aplinkybinio anglų kalbos I dalyvio vartojimo ir vertimo į lietuvių kalbą klausimu (chemijos tekstų pagrindu)

According to the syntactical relations in the sentence participles as elements of word-group structure and as elements of sentence structure can be distinguished. Adverbial Participle I can be rendered into Lithuanian by different adverbial participial constructions, adverbial subordinate clauses and co-ordinate clauses. The choice of the means of translation is determined by the grammatical meaning and the lexical character of the participle and by the relation of its agent to the agent of the main action expressed by the finite verb form.

The Effect of Adverbial Subordinate Clause Position on Reading Comprehension

This study investigated the relationship that exists between syntax and reading comprehension. To measure this relationship, data were collected from ninth grade students by administering three tests to them: a cloze test, a chunk test, and a standardized reading test. Analysis of the results indicated that adverbial clause position does not appear to affect the reading comprehension of ninth grade students.

Instead of and rather than clauses in English

1. Adverbial subordinate clauses introduced by instead of and rather than exhibit certain unique syntactic and semantic properties. I will propose an account of the interaction between the structure and the meaning of sentences containing these two clause types, and suggest some explanations for the rather clear-cut variation which exists among speakers with respect to these sentences.