Bare Nouns Research Articles

Variation in the Syntax of Plural Markers: The Case From Plural –Menin Mandarin

This paper provides a novel analysis of plural marker–menin Mandarin as a modifier: –mendoes not realize a head such as Num(ber); rather, it adjoins to a DP in the nominal structure. The proposed analysis can account for defining properties of –menas a modifier, such as the interpretation of a bare noun with respect to –men, lack of agreement, co‐occurrence with a classifier, and so on, which cannot be accounted for by the previous approaches that view –menas realizing a head, such as Num, in the nominal projection. The consequences of this paper support the recent view that the syntax of plural markers is not homogeneous but heterogeneous.

Early Acquisition of Plural Morphology in a Classifier Language: Data from Korean 2-4 Year Olds

ABSTRACT Korean is a classifier language in which bare nouns are not obligatorily number-marked. Children learning other classifier languages like Japanese and Mandarin are late in learning the plural morpheme. In this paper, we present two datasets that suggest that Korean plural marker -tul is acquired much earlier, in contrast to what has been previously claimed. In a comprehension study, we find that Korean children begin acquiring this morpheme by age 3, showing adult-like performance by age 4. We suggest that the higher frequency of plural marking on both types and tokens of nouns and the consistent marking of plural in the domain of definite nouns may facilitate Korean plural acquisition.

The Necessity of Minimal Representation of Genericity in a Newly Developed Language, Unish

The current study compares generic representations in different languages including English and Korean. It reviews important universal concepts of genericity denotation in languages and compares how genericity is realized in different languages. By comparing different genericity representations in different languages, the current study predicts possible acquisition difficulties. It also suggests difficulties of acquiring English article systems are also caused by the complex nature of article uses. Particularly, using a large corpus data (ICNALE), the current study reveals how L1 Korean L2 English learners use articles when they denote generic terms in their essays. Ample uses of bare Noun Phrase (NP) forms tentatively suggest that (i) probably uses of ‘articles’ are not necessarily the most efficient way of expressing genericity, and (ii) it can be marked by other grammatical functions, which are more simple and regular. Therefore, the current research argues that NP systems should be simplified and minimally represented in a newly developed language, which by nature will be learners’ extra language. In the current research, generic NPs in Unish language is introduced and it suggests that bare noun forms in Unish can denote genericity in a very regular and economical manner. Therefore, it may be easier for leaners to acquire because the configuration process is minimized in the Unish.

The (mis-)use of the English definite article in relation to the ‘of-phrase’ construction by speakers of Jordanian-Arabic and Cypriot-Greek

A plethora of second-language (L2) acquisition studies have tested the acquisition of English determiners in relation to simple noun phrases (NPs) of the generic versus non-generic type (e.g., Ionin., et al., 2008; Momenzadea & Youhanaeeb, 2014) rather than complex NPs, such as the ‘of-phrase’ construction, as in ‘the concept of love’. This study, therefore, contributes to our knowledge by addressing how first-language (L1) transfer from Jordanian-Arabic or Cypriot-Greek to English may influence the use of the definite and zero articles in relation to the configuration of the ‘of-phrase’ construction. This construction is comprised of two nominals (Ns): N1: definite noun+of+N2: bare noun. However, the definiteness feature in the equivalent L1 constructions is realised via an Arabic syntactic construct phrase and a Greek spreading feature. The statistical analyses of the data collected by a questionnaire and a forced-choice elicitation task indicated misuse of the before both Ns by the L2 groups at lower proficiency levels of English and provided evidence of L1 negative transfer, which resulted from the syntax-semantics mismatch between the participants’ L1s and L2. The results supported the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2008, 2009). With the increase in the quality and quantity of input in the form of daily exposure to English, the L2 groups figured out how to restructure their L1 features to match the configuration of the L2 regarding their use of the. The age of the Jordanian participants and exposure to English at university/school/work of both groups influenced the use of zero and the; respectively.

Of Beavers and Tables: The Role of Animacy in the Processing of Grammatical Gender Within a Picture-Word Interference Task.

Grammatical gender processing during language production has classically been studied using the so-called picture-word interference (PWI) task. In this procedure, participants are presented with pictures they must name using target nouns while ignoring superimposed written distractor nouns. Variations in response times are expected depending on the congruency between the gender values of targets and distractors. However, there have been disparate results in terms of the mandatory character of an agreement context to observe competitive gender effects and the interpretation of the direction of these effects in Romance languages, this probably due to uncontrolled variables such as animacy. In the present study, we conducted two PWI experiments with European Portuguese speakers who were asked to produce bare nouns. The percentage of animate targets within the list was manipulated: 0, 25, 50, and 100%. A gender congruency effect was found restricted to the 0% list (all targets were inanimate). Results support the selection of gender in transparent languages in the absence of an agreement context, as predicted by the Gender Acquisition and Processing (GAP) hypothesis (Sá-Leite et al., 2019), and are interpreted through the attentional mechanisms involved in the PWI paradigm, in which the processing of animate targets would be favored to the detriment of distractors due to biological relevance and semantic prioritization.

Uniqueness in languages with and without articles: Catalan vs Russian

The article compares the interpretation of singular topical nominals in Romance (Catalan) and Slavic (Russian), and its relation to the presence/absence of the article in the overt morphosyntax. The empirical study, presented in this paper, confirmed the theoretical prediction that in Catalan the presence of a definite article conveys uniqueness of the referent, while an indefinite article suggests nonuniqueness. In the absence of articles (in Russian), bare nominals are compatible with both a uniqueness and a non-uniqueness interpretation. The reading of a bare noun phrase is inferred pragmatically, depending on contextual factors and the background knowledge of the interlocutors.

The impact of animacy and speech rhythm on the word order of conjuncts in German preschoolers and adults

In this study, we investigated the impact of two constraints on the linear order of constituents in German preschool children’s and adults’ speech production: a rhythmic (*LAPSE, militating against sequences of unstressed syllables) and a semantic one (ANIM, requiring animate referents to be named before inanimate ones). Participants were asked to produce coordinated bare noun phrases in response to picture stimuli (e.g., Delfin und Planet, ‘dolphin and planet’) without any predefined word order. Overall, children and adults preferably produced animate items before inanimate ones, confirming findings of Prat-Sala, Shillcock, and Sorace (2000). In the group of preschoolers, the strength of the animacy effect correlated positively with age. Furthermore, the order of the conjuncts was affected by the rhythmic constraint, such that disrhythmic sequences, i.e., stress lapses, were avoided. In both groups, the latter result was significant when the two stimulus pictures did not vary with respect to animacy. In sum, our findings suggest a stronger influence of animacy compared to rhythmic well-formedness on conjunct ordering for German speaking children and adults, in line with findings by McDonald, Bock, and Kelly (1993) who investigated English speaking adults.

DP 생성 메커니즘을 통한 ‘X’의 고찰 -‘向/往/到+X’구를 중심으로

This study analyzed the DP generation mechanism regarding ‘X’ from a generative grammar point of view, after categorial features of ‘X’ in structures which consist of ‘direction(向/往/到)+X’ were classified into [-V] and [+V]. First, phrases related with ‘De(的)’ has been separated into three types as the DP(Determiner Phrase) with referentiality, the DeP(‘的’-particle Phrase) with modifier function, the NominalP(Nominalization Phrase) to nominalize properties of verbs or adjectives for the DP derivation of [±V]. As for conclusions analyzed, it suggests the results summary in order of the categorial features of ‘X’, the derivation of a DP in [-V] and the derivation of a DP in [+V] below. The categorial features of ‘X’ is summarized as follows. The figure is expressed as a percentage according to being placed before(B) and after(A) the predicate within structure in order of ‘向+X’, ‘往+X’ and ‘到+X’. In case of ‘向 +X’, 92.5%(B) and 93.5%(A) in [-V], 7.5%(B) and 6.5%(A) in [+V] ; in case of ‘往+X’, 84.5%(B) and 100%(A) in [-V], 15.5%(B) and 0%(A) in [+V] ; in case of ‘到+X’, 99.5%(B) and 89.5%(A) in [-V], 0.5%(B) and 10.5%(A) in [+V]. The derivation of a DP in [-V] is summarized as follows. One is that the explicit referential DP includes personal pronoun, only a few of time unit words, a demonstrative pronoun, ‘referential determiner +‘De(的)’+noun’ and so on. They are directly assigned to a ‘D(head)’ from the lexicon and then projected onto the DP. The other is that the implicit referential DP includes bare nouns(proper and common nouns), ‘NumP+ClP+NP’ and phrases by ‘yi(一)’. Bare nouns are projected onto the DP by the head movement principle from a N to a D. The rest can be projected onto the DP by a null determiner because of the head movement constraint. The derivation of a DP in [+V] is summarized as follows. The maximal projection of [+V] can be regarded as the implicit referential DP. NominalP to nominalize properties of verbs or adjectives is projected onto the DP by head movement from a Nominal to a D. AP/VP, AP/VP+(了/裏/處), VdP and CP are constituents to be projected as DeP which modifies null(empty) nouns phonologically. The derivation of a DP related with them is derived by a null determiner. Because the DeP is located in a specifier of a NP, it can not be raised to a D by head movement principle. Furthermore, the movement of a N causes contradiction between surface structures and deep structures. This studied with regard to the DP generation mechanism regarding ‘X’ and then showed only some opinions, this will be willing to do its best to make a progress of a better research continuously.

Updating the typology of definiteness: Evidence from bare nouns in Shan

This paper demonstrates that bare nouns in Shan (Tai-Kadai) can express both unique and anaphoric definiteness, a distinction first noted by Schwarz (2009). This pattern of data as well as similar patterns found in Serbian and Kannada motivate adding a category to the typology of definiteness marking described by Jenks (2018) to include languages that allow bare nouns to express anaphoric definiteness. An extended type-shifting analysis offers an account of the availability of bare noun anaphora, as well as the other bare noun interpretations, such as the indefinite, generic, and kind interpretations. Variation in the use of bare nouns versus more marked anaphoric expressions is tied to pragmatic factors such as what anaphoric definite expressions are available in the language, contrast, information structure, and potential ambiguity of nominal expressions. This account proposes that a constrained semantic account of the interpretations of nominal expressions combined with a pragmatic account of their use can model much of the cross-linguistic data on definiteness.

Common names and proper nouns: Morphosyntactic evidence of a complete nominal paradigm

The terms "common noun" and "proper name" encode two dichotomies that are often conflated. This paper explores the possibility of the other combinations—"common name" and "proper noun"—and concludes that both exist on the basis of their morphosyntactic behavior. In support of common names, inflectional regularization is determined to result from a "name" layer in the structure, meaning that common nouns that regularize are, in fact, common names (computer mouses, tailor’s gooses). In support of proper nouns, there are bare singular count nouns in English that receive definite interpretations and seem to be licensed as arguments by the same null determiner as proper names (I left town, she works at home). Not only does a four-way distinction between nouns, names, proper nouns, and proper names achieve greater empirical coverage, but it also captures the independent morphosyntactic effects of [PROPER] and [NAME] as features on D and N, respectively.

Anti-uniqueness without articles

We report on the expression of singular nominals in Burmese, an articleless language, from original elicitation work. Bare nouns are interpreted as singular definites, to which the numeral tiq 'one' is added to form indefinites. We propose that tiq 'one' restricts the domain of the nominal to a singleton, and that its addition is subject to a Non-Vacuity constraint; this is the source of the anti-uniqueness inference of indefinites. We furthermore investigate the availability of tiq 'one' in anaphoric definites. Such behavior forms an argument that the compositional semantics of anaphoric definites does not involve contextual restriction via a situation variable, unlike unique definites.

Processing of German noun plurals: Evidence for first- and second-order schemata

This article addresses the question of how morphologically complex words are represented in the mental grammar of monolingual adult speakers of German. We contend that in perception, speakers assign a plural or singular meaning according to the degree of reliability to which a given shape is associated with the function singular or plural. In this article, we present the results of two lexical decision experiments with nonce words. In experiment 1, the nonce words presented are preceded by the article form die, and, in experiment 2, the same nonce words are presented as bare nouns. It turns out that the results for experiment 1 and 2 differ. Nevertheless, we argue that the results for both experiments can straightforwardly be explained by a schema account. More precisely, we distinguish between first- and second-order schemata. First-order schemata rely on the pure word form onto which a specific function is mapped. But, recent developments of the schema approach argue that in the speaker's representation of word forms not only single schemata are stored and mapped onto specific functions, but rather schema-pairs, e.g. a singular and its most likely plural partner, referred to as ‘second-order schema’. The results of our experiments support the assumption of first- and second-order schemata and their interaction.

Grammatical Gender in the German Multiethnolect

While major restructurings and simplifications have been reported for gender systems of other Germanic languages in multiethnolectal speech, this article demonstrates that the three-way gender distinction of German is relatively stable among young speakers from an immigrant background. We investigate gender in a German multiethnolect based on a corpus of approximately 17 hours of spontaneous speech produced by 28 young speakers in Stuttgart (mainly from Turkish and Balkan background). German is not their second language, but (one of) their first language(s), which they have fully acquired from childhood. We show that the gender system does not show signs of reduction in the direction of a two-gender system, nor of wholesale loss. We also argue that the position of gender in the grammar is weakened by independent innovations, such as the frequent use of bare nouns in grammatical contexts where German requires a determiner. Another phenomenon that weakens the position of gender is the simplification of adjective-noun agreement and the emergence of a generalized gender-neutral suffix for prenominal adjectives (that is, schwa). The disappearance of gender and case marking in the adjective means that the grammatical category of gender is lost in Adj + N phrases (without a determiner).

Definiteness in Chiyao

The aim of this paper is to examine the linguistic devices used to express definiteness in Chiyao, a Bantu language of Southern Tanzania, Southern Malawi, and north-western Mozambique. The analysis is guided by the familiarity theory of definiteness, and is based on the data collected through audio-recording of traditional narratives which were later transcribed to identify utterances with definite NPs. Findings establish three main strategies of signalling definiteness in the language, which include morphological, morphosyntactic, and use of bare nouns. The morphological indicators of definiteness include subject and object markers while the morphosyntactic indicators include demonstratives, locative particles, possessive determiners, genitive expressions, and relative clauses. Bare definiteness is mainly expressed by nouns of inalienable possession, including those denoting body parts and family relations. These findings enrich the existing literature on definiteness in Bantu languages and inform future typological and comparative studies on this subject.

The determin category in the acquisition of portuguese L2 by deafs

O estudo investiga o uso da categoria determinante na estrutura gramatical da interlíngua de surdos aprendizes de português brasileiro (PB) escrito como segunda língua. Adotando os pressupostos teóricos da gramática gerativa, assumimos a hipótese de que a Língua de Sinais Brasileira (LSB) lexicaliza a categoria determinante (D) pela apontação, que codifica a referência dos nomes, assim como o sistema de pronomes pessoais e demonstrativos. Os dados da interlíngua foram produzidos por 11 participantes surdos, falantes de LSB como L1, em atividade semiestruturada de produção escrita em português, tendo como referência sentenças produzidas na LSB. Os participantes foram distribuídos nos níveis básico (G1) e intermediário (G2), de acordo com a proficiência no PB. Verificou-se a presença de desenvolvimento linguístico, uma vez que, na comparação entre G1 e G2, existe redução do padrão estrutural em que o determinante está ausente (nominal nu). Em relação ao uso do determinante, observa-se maior taxa de uso do pronome demonstrativo do que do artigo definido. Esse resultado é analisado como interferência da L1, pela presença do traço dêictico no núcleo D na LSB.

Tmesis in Ebang (Heiban, Kordofanian)

Abstract This paper describes an intricate pattern of subject placement in Ebang, a Kordofanian language spoken in the Nuba Mountains (Sudan). In this construction, a lexical subject appears within a complex verb form. The lexical subject may consist of a bare noun or a whole noun phrase. The insertion point is immediately before the verb stem but after all inflectional morphology. The initial part of the discontinuous verb form is shown to be not a word but a bound form, suggesting that the notions of morphological word and syntactic atom need not coincide.

Episodic versus generic eventualities and nominals

AbstractThis paper proposes an analysis of the DP structure of Chinese in comparison with German and other West Germanic languages, particularly English. The analysis is linked to sentence structure, particularly event structure of the respective languages and the relation between nominal classifiers and sentential tense. Chinese is a language without nominal declension; German is not as other Indo-European languages. Among the inflectional paradigms, German has retained from earlier periods, and developed further, the coding of topicality in terms of familiarity and anaphoricity. While Chinese shares with German clause syntactic topicality, it does so purely in terms of clause-early and clause-late word order. German, by contrast, involves specific positions in the serial middle field to code referential familiarity, anaphoricity, and, above all, weak versus strong referential weight to distinguish, among other functions, specific versus unspecific reference. The categories involved in coding such properties in German are determiners and the declensional morphology of attributes (‘strong’ versus ‘weak’ inflection providing specific reference). This paper investigates the regularities of weak and strong reference in Chinese. The discussion yields insight into the structural coding that Chinese provides instead of what is encoded in German in morphological terms on adjectival attributes and in terms determiners ((in)definite articles and bare nouns). In the course, the discussion around mass versus count nouns and the role of classifiers is brought up and newly evaluated on the basis of the new referential distinctions.

Complex predicates, simple inflecting verbs, and “uninflecting verbs” in Pre-Basque

AbstractHow might Basque have looked before it came in contact with Latin? This interesting line of research may give us an idea of what the pre-Indo-European languages of Europe might have looked like, and it may help clarify how much contact-induced change Basque might have undergone during the last two millennia or so. The present paper puts forward the hypothesis that, towards the end of the Era (BC), Pre-Basque used to have a small class of verbs. These verbs were inflected for person and tense-aspect (although we know little about the specific characteristics of this inflectional system). Together with this small class of verbs, Pre-Basque had a larger group of uninflecting elements that combined with the inflecting verbs to form complex predicates. The group of uninflecting elements included bare nouns, adjectives, possibly adverbs, ideophones, and what I will call “uninflecting verbs”. The exact nature of these “uninflecting verbs” is hard to determine at this point, but they may have constituted a distinct part of speech. Certainly, this type of verbal organization is reminiscent of one common in Northern Australia. Thus, this paper also compares the reconstruction proposed for Pre-Basque with the verbal system typical in Northern Australian languages, to conclude that the similarities are remarkable and, therefore, that the verbal organization of Pre-Basque was quite different from that of the modern Western European languages, including Modern Basque.

Crosslinguistic influence in development of reference realization: A comparison of foreign language learners and heritage language learners

Abstract Recent developments in the study of crosslinguistic influence have started to account for how the dynamic interaction between language and cognition influences transfer phenomena. This study examined the acquisition and use of referring expressions in narratives produced by 80 English-dominant learners of Chinese representing two proficiency levels (Low vs. High) and two linguistic backgrounds (Foreign Language vs. Heritage Language), as compared to two baseline groups of 40 Chinese native speakers (NSs) and 40 English NSs. Results showed that, while heritage language learners (HLLs) demonstrated a more idiomatic use of referential forms to introduce new characters and maintain reference to them than did foreign language learners (FLLs) at the same low-proficiency level, the advantage of early language exposure diminished at the high-proficiency level when HLLs were compared to High FLLs who had prolonged in-country experience. Meanwhile, three types of production errors persisted, including (i) failing to use definite reference when obligatory for simple bare nouns, (ii) struggling to supply item-specific classifiers, and (iii) avoidance of zero anaphora, when discourse coherence would prefer such a strategy. All three of these features involve the restructuring of L1 preferences to accommodate L2-specific patterns due to L1-L2 typological differences.

The count/mass distinction in Ye’kwana

AbstractThis paper presents a description of the count/mass distinction in Ye’kwana, a Cariban language spoken in Brazil and Venezuela. The methodology used was based on Lima & Rothstein’s questionnaire this volume). The data shows that Ye’kwana is a bare noun language and that mass and count nouns can be pluralized. However, numerals need a container phrase in order to be directly combined with mass nouns. Nominal quantifierswannaandoojecan be directly combined with count and mass nouns, but they show different interpretations.