Feature Checking Research Articles

Feature Distribution and Word Order Variation in Arabic Clauses: A Minimalist Account

Arabic subject-verb agreement is asymmetrical: in VSO order the verb agrees with the subject in person and gender (partial agreement), whereas in SVO order the verb exhibits number agreement as well (full agreement). This agreement asymmetry has received a lot of attention in the generative literature over the past three decades. In fact, more than twenty proposals have been put forward in a number of different theoretical frameworks. At the same time, there have been no attempts for a formal treatment of OVS word order constructions. With respect to agreement, the OVS verb exhibits both of the properties that exist in the other word order types (VSO and SVO): partial agreement with the post-verbal subject and full agreement with the pre-verbal DP. A more thorough consideration of the data reveals that pre-verbal DPs share a number of other rather interesting properties. Our empirical findings lead to the conclusion that pre-verbal DPs (i.e., the superficial subject and object of SVO and OVS, respectively) are actually topics. The real subject of SVO and, similarly, the object of OVS is in fact verbally bound pronominal clitics. Using a Merge, Move and Agree-based theory of phrase structure and feature checking; and a Multiple Spell-Out model of phasal derivation, we hope to demonstrate that the computational systems of Minimalist Syntax can provide an adequate treatment of seven constructions: VSO, SVO and OVS, as well as four related variants (Ɂinna-headed SVO and OVS, and pro-drop SVO and OVS).

Licensing: Movement and Feature Checking in Standard Arabic and Minimalism

تحاول هذه الورقة استكشاف نظرية التحقق من الميزات في الأدنوية وإظهار كيفية عملها في التحليل النحوي الصرفي للغة العربية الفصحى. وهو يدرس كيفية عمل تمييزات تشومسكي (1995) الحد الأدنى بين الميزات (مثل السمات الفئوية، وميزات الحالة، وميزات فاي) في اللغة العربية الفصحى والإنجليزية ويشير إلى الاختلافات بين اللغتين من حيث [± قابلة للتفسير]. علاوة على ذلك، فإنه يحاول الإشارة إلى الاختلافات المعيارية بين اللغة العربية الفصحى والإنجليزية على أساس قوة/ضعف صيغتيهما وتوافقهما. ويوضح أيضًا كيفية التحقق من ميزات الفعل والفاعل العبارة الاسمية في اللغة العربية الفصحى في بناء الجملة العلني/الخفي.

Building a trustworthy AI differential diagnosis application for Crohn’s disease and intestinal tuberculosis

BackgroundDifferentiating between Crohn’s disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) with endoscopy is challenging. We aim to perform more accurate endoscopic diagnosis between CD and ITB by building a trustworthy AI differential diagnosis application.MethodsA total of 1271 electronic health record (EHR) patients who had undergone colonoscopies at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) and were clinically diagnosed with CD (n = 875) or ITB (n = 396) were used in this study. We build a workflow to make diagnoses with EHRs and mine differential diagnosis features; this involves finetuning the pretrained language models, distilling them into a light and efficient TextCNN model, interpreting the neural network and selecting differential attribution features, and then adopting manual feature checking and carrying out debias training.ResultsThe accuracy of debiased TextCNN on differential diagnosis between CD and ITB is 0.83 (CR F1: 0.87, ITB F1: 0.77), which is the best among the baselines. On the noisy validation set, its accuracy was 0.70 (CR F1: 0.87, ITB: 0.69), which was significantly higher than that of models without debias. We also find that the debiased model more easily mines the diagnostically significant features. The debiased TextCNN unearthed 39 diagnostic features in the form of phrases, 17 of which were key diagnostic features recognized by the guidelines.ConclusionWe build a trustworthy AI differential diagnosis application for differentiating between CD and ITB focusing on accuracy, interpretability and robustness. The classifiers perform well, and the features which had statistical significance were in agreement with clinical guidelines.

A Spatial Relation Model of Three-Dimensional Electronic Navigation Charts Based on Point-Set Topology Theory

Spatial relation models are the basis for realising three-dimensional spatial analysis. More researchers are now focusing on models that combine topological relations with distance or directional relations; however, a model that unifies all three relations has not yet been developed. In particular, it is more effective to use different spatial relations between features with different spatial characteristics in three-dimensional electronic navigation charts (3D ENC). Therefore, this paper proposes a 3D ENC feature spatial relation model (3DSRM) based on point-set topology theory, which combines 3D topological relations, distance relations and directional relations, and uses a unified model framework to describe 64 topological relations of 3D ENC features from both horizontal and vertical directions. Through the comparison and derivation of feature topological relations, it is demonstrated that the model can distinguish 3D spatial topological relations more comprehensively, realise the mutual derivation between spatial relations and spatial features, and improve the robustness of spatial relations judgement. The model can be used to judge the topological relations between features, realise 3D topological relation checking and topological creation of complex features, and improve the accuracy and interactivity of 3D ENC.

Automated Approach for Digitalizing Scope of Work Requirements to Support Contract Management

Scope of work requirements (SOWRs) specify the contractual obligations for the contractor to fulfill. Managing the information is crucial to the success of a construction project. This process is, however, often challenging because requirements are typically voluminous and written in an unstructured paper-based format. The current state-of-the-art models are mostly applicable to quantitative constraints for use in automated code compliance checking of design features. This study proposes a novel natural language processing (NLP) framework capable of digitalizing nonquantitative natural language SOWRs outlined in construction contracts. The model includes a comprehensive set of semantic and syntactic rules of linguistic features for extracting contractual work information including actors, actions, objects, constraints, tasks, and obligation. The framework was evaluated on a large textual corpus of provisions of design-build highway contracts. The model yields an impressive precision and recall of more than 93% and 87%, respectively. The proposed system is expected to help the project planner quickly develop an electronic database of contractual work requirements, enabling significantly improved efficiency in project planning and verification.

The Structure of the Determiner Phrase in Moroccan Arabic: A Minimalist Approach

This study analyzes the structure of the determiner phrase (DP) in Moroccan Arabic (MA) within the framework of the Minimalist Program (MP). The study focuses on the determiners, adjectives, and possessives within the DP. The findings show that the determination of definiteness or indefiniteness of the noun is crucial and affects the structure of the DP. In this respect, the head of the DP possesses a definiteness feature; thus, noun movement to the determiner position is triggered by both the definiteness feature and the Minimal Link Condition (MLC). Adjective phrases in the DP are analyzed through the functional category AgrP to satisfy the features of the nouns and adjectives locally. Specifically, the uninterpreted features of case, gender, and number are carried in the head of AgrP, and movement is triggered by the need to satisfy the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and to allow for feature checking while respecting the MLC principle. The paper argues that Carnie's (2013) arguments about the possessive DP are inadequate to account for MA and proposes the insertion of a functional projection "PossP" that dominates the whole DP, enabling the genitive case to be assigned to the possessor DP. The study shows that the MP approach is adequate in analyzing the DP structure in MA, the operations MOVE and MERGE, and the EPP and MLC principles play essential roles in forming DP structures. The paper also notes that when elements move, they leave behind a copy of the model element to preserve the original semantic interpretation.

Understanding Errors in Auxiliary Verb Usage in Korean Primary Students and Young Native English Speaking Children

In this paper, the four possible language acquisition models(the Structure Building Model, the Truncation Model, the Underspecification Model, the Linking Mechanism Switching Model) are considered to examine the auxiliary verb errors produced by the young native English speaking children(L1 young children) and the Korean primary students of English. The prefunctional stage analyses such as the Structure Building Model and the Truncation Model have shown the limitations in explaining the examples such as the interpretation of wh-questions without CP, the movement of default Case subjects within VP without TP and the wh-movement in the utterance of L1 young children, and the difficulties in accounting for the auxiliary verb errors in the Korean primary students over 10 years old, The Underspecification Model has also shown the limitations in explaining the auxiliary verb be insertion errors appearing in Korean primary students’ writings, but not in L1 young children utterance. As a last resort, under the Linking Mechanism Switching Model, it is argued that, unlike English, the syntactic feature checking and agreement in Korean are operated by Merge and Binding rather than Agree and Move. Thus, both L1 young children and Korean primary students have the same syntactic structures based on UG, but the different linking mechanisms of their first languages affect to some extent the process of acquiring English as a first or foreign language. This analysis makes it possible to explain not only the auxiliary verb be insertion errors appearing only in Korean primary students’ writings, but also the similar auxiliary verb errors between L1 young children and Korean primary students. This theoretical study of the auxiliary verb errors needs more experimental studies based on empirical data. However, this theoretical approach is expected to be of a great help in understanding the syntactic processing used by L1 learners and L2 learners.

ON THE SYNTAX OF VP DISLOCATION IN MANDARIN*

AbstractBy drawing on data of two types of VP dislocation in Mandarin, this paper argues that these two types represent a syntactic incarnation of XP‐split constructions providing an interesting argument for the conception of information structure starting in the numeration and multiple Spell‐Out of copies regulated by the checking of strong features over the course of a syntactic derivation. Building on Fanselow and Ćavar’s (2002) distributed deletion analysis, I show that Type 1 involves two autonomous nominals that form a nominal predicate structure in a VP, and the VP is copied and internally merged to a topic position, followed by multiple Spell‐Out of the copies whose information structural features are checked. In contrast, Type 2 is derived via base‐generation. I argue that the two types are derived employing the same set of operations in the computational system without extra postulations. Issues involved in dealing with Mandarin topic constructions are addressed.

Agree as information transmission over dependencies

AbstractIn contemporary Minimalism agreement is the result of a syntactic operation. In contrast to Merge, Agree does not build structure, its role being to transmit morphological features from one head to another. We provide an alternative perspective on agreement in a Minimalist idiom, one that cuts the ontological pie in a different way. Syntax has as its only operation Merge, and agreement, now divorced from syntax, transfers purely morphological information from head to head along channels established via syntactic feature checking. Separating agreement from structure building seems to enable more elegant descriptions of even complicated agreement phenomena.

Clause Structure and Word Order in Ákè

Ákè is by historical and linguistic facts a dialect of Edo which has not received significant linguistic attention. This neglect informs an inquiry into the in ternal structure and organization of its basic clause. This paper studies data of everyday usage of competent speakers of Ákè and argues that it displays a subject-verb-object order. The study provides a not too elaborate description of the nominal and verbal constructions in Ákè and reduces the description to analysis using the X-bar theory as conceived within the Minimalist Program. It therefore states that nominal phrases can be analysed as a projection of Determiner Phrase (DP) because independent existence is not a requirement for considering an element as the head of a projection. The variable position which the head D occupies in the superficial syntax of Ákè is analysed as the effect of movement for feature checking. In the spirit of the Minimalist Program, this study recognizes the head of the clause as Tense (T), which could be overt or null and predicts that it dominates Negative Phrase (NegP) as Neg is assumed to c-select the Verb Phrase (VP).

Sentences with Object-oriented Adverbials and the Syntax-Semantics Interface

SOOAs refer to the phenomenon that the state adjective in the adverbial position is semantically associated with the object. In this paper this fact will be accounted for by invoking the properties of a pre-syntactic level of semantic representation and its interplay with syntax proper. It will be argued that the object-oriented adverbial is not derived from the attributive; in effect, it is base-generated in the complement position. A model of projection of arguments that allows for this will be proposed. It will be shown that the other special properties of SOOAs follow from the way the verb’s object and complement are represented at the pre-syntactic level. In particular, it will be shown that the underlying structure must satisfy both the requirement of the syntactic system and the requirement of the semantic system. The presence of any symbol in a representation is conditional. The theta-roles of internal arguments are assigned by the predicate, which is locally constrained, whereas the theta-roles of external arguments are assigned by the maximal projection of the predicate, viz. VP. When an external argument occurs, there is an empty predicate position in the representation, for there is an asymmetry between the conceptual system and the syntactic system. Derivation involves Move-α and Generalized Transformation. Different use of derivation methods gives rise to various forms of constructions in Chinese. Similarly, different semantic orientations result from different distributions. The state adjective is base-generated in the position behind the object because its nature is to serve the function of the complement of the object. It co-occurs with the object in the embedded VP because they are closely related to each other in terms of semantics. There is no overt predicate between the object and the state adjective. The state adjective occurs in other positions, which is the result of movement. Movement falls into two types, viz. object movement and state adjective movement. Object movement is prior to state adjective movement. In order to satisfy the requirement of feature checking, the object moves to the position NP. Then the state adjective moves to the major predicate and merges with it so as to maintain its semantic association with the state adjective and to serve the function of the complement. It follows that the difference between Chinese SOOAs and English as well as German SOOAs lies in the distance of movement of state adjectives. In Chinese, there are causative markers, resultative markers, and manner markers that can license the state adjective in the landing sites and help to maintain its semantic association with the object while in English and German there are no such markers. As a consequence, the object in Chinese-type SOOAs does not move while the state adjective moves out of the embedded VP to the empty verb position where the manner marker is inserted. The major predicate moves to the same position and merges with the newly-formed syntactic object ADJ-MANN. Furthermore, Chinese-type SOOAs allow the state adjective to precede the major predicate as the manner marker can license the state adjective. In contrast, in English-type SOOAs, neither the state adjective nor the object moves. Moreover, English-type SOOAs do not allow the state adjective to come before the major predicate because there is no manner marker to license it.

The Problem of Word Order and Verbal Movement in Moroccan Arabic

This paper attempts to investigate word order and verbal movement in Moroccan Arabic in the Minimalist framework. We observe that the unmarked word order in MA is SVO while the derived structure is VSO. SVO follows an English-like derivation where the subject moves from [Spec, vP] to [Spec, TP] whilst the verb moves from v to T. This paper raises the issue of the verbal movement when it comes to VSO order in languages that have VSO as the derived order and SVO as the underlying order. To derive VSO, we propose that the verb moves from T to Focus based on pragmatic reasons: verbs positioned in the left-periphery denote new information that is focused compared to SVO. We also test our new proposal against the marginal word orders OSV and OVS and propose that object topicalization is the result of the object moving to [Spec, TopicP] which dominates FocusP. Moreover, we go back to the issue of verbal movement and trace the verbal cyclic movement. We argue that the verb moves from V to v based on the position of the adverb. The verb further moves to T based on the quantifier evidence and feature checking: Focus and T form a complex and probe into v to check [TNS] and [V] features. Moreover, T-to-Focus occurs in wh-constructions except when /lli/ ‘that’ is present. In WH-VO (WH as a wh-subject), the verb stays in T while the wh-subject stays in [Spec, TP]. If /lli/ ‘that’ is present, then the wh-subject is forced to move further to [Spec, FocusP]. In WH-SV, the wh-elements move to [Spec, FocusP] while the subject moves to [Spec, TopicP] and the verb moves to Topic. In WH-VS, the wh-elements move to [Spec, FocusP] while the verb moves to Focus.

Deriving preverbal position in a verb-final language: the case of Hittite

The paper presents an analysis of clause structure in Hittite, a coherently head-final language with SOV word order and an elaborated preverbal position hosting various functional elements of the clause. We argue that the best approach to capturing these phenomena is to assume a universally right-branching structure coupled with phrasal movement driven by selectional feature checking under adjacency of relevant heads.

THE MORPHOSYNTACTIC FEATURES AND TENSE ASPECT MARKING IN SAMOR OF BARINGO COUNTY, KENYA. A MORPHO- PHONOSYNTACTIC STUDY

Purpose: The present study focuses on the role of morphosyntactic features in tense marking among the Samor people residing in Baringo County. The desire to study Samor is because this sub- dialect of Tugen has not been studied before. Dialects vary in the way in which TA is marked. This assertion is based on previous research which classified languages and dialects as follows: agglutinating, polysynthetic, fusional and isolating. Since human languages display distinct differences in tense marking, the current study sought to investigate how Samor speakers mark tense. The objective of the study is to examine the various morphosyntactic that mark tense. To achieve the objective of this study, one hundred Samor utterances were used to analyze tense marking. The research targeted Samor speakers from Baringo County.
 Methodology: Data in form of speeches during diverse ceremonies were collected using tape recordings, interviews and natural observation. The researcher sourced 50% of speeches from tape recordings, 30% from the interviews and 20% from naturalistic observations. The study is anticipated to be a reference point in tense marking in Samor a sub- dialect that has not been studied. The research focused on tense which falls under the verb phrase, this means the other parts of speech were not investigated. The design in this study was cross- sectional case study of a target phenomena i.e. Samor. To investigate how tense is marked, Chomsky’s Feature Checking Theory (FCT) and Hardley’s Grounded Theory (GT) were used as conceptual frameworks. FCT identifies grammatical features in an utterance and checks each feature to ensure grammaticality. On the other hand, GT a theory in qualitative research was responsible for assigning chaotic data labels and categories. The data in this research was analyzed using GT. GT is a methodological framework in analyzing text.
 Findings: The theory proposes three steps used to analyze data. These steps are open, axial and selective coding. The findings in this research show the unique tense marking strategies used in Samor. The paper found out that Samor is a verb initial sub- dialect and morpho- syntactic features such as tense and aspect are marked in the verbal stem by attaching affixes.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The sub- dialect is agglutinating in nature since affixes expressing various features affix to the root verb. These affixes as seen in figure 1 are /ka-, ko-, ki-/ that express immediate past, recent past and distant past accordingly.

Comparative Ergative and Accusative Structures in Three Philippine Languages

Cebuano, Filipino, and Isamal are classified as Austronesian languages that are spoken in the Philippines. This paper deals with the comparative ergative and accusative structures of the aforementioned languages with focus on the syntactic relations and processes. The varieties of these languages are the ones used in Samal Island, Davao, Philippines. Aimed at the structural configurations, the verb phrase (VP) and the tense phrase (TP) are analytically scrutinized as the cartographic projections of the lexical information encoded in the argument structures and the thematic structures of the verbs. With the employment of the Minimalist Program in the analysis, the computation includes the movement, checking of features, and assignment of theta roles within the structures of the three languages. Findings include the (1) similarity of structural relations and processes in the VP and the TP of the three languages, (2) movement of the verb from the VP to the TP, and (3) merger of the verb complements occur in the VP that ensures the local assignment of theta roles and the checking of cases.

영어 능격 동사의 내부상: 행위자성의 관점에서

English inner aspect is divided into accomplishments, achievements, activities, and states(Vendler 1967). Pustejovsky(1991) proposes to integrate accomplishments and achievements into transition, arguing the difference between the two verb types is agentivity. However, it is inappropriate to apply his argument to general accomplishments and achievements in that the verb cited as an example in his proposal is an English ergative verb which is used as both a intransitive verb and a transitive verb. In addition, since the proposal is mainly focused on a semantic event structure, it is difficult to represent inner aspect from a minimalist point of view. Also, Pustejovsky(1991)’s proposal does not correspond the inner aspect interpretation domain suggested by MacDonald(2008). The purpose of this paper is to explain the inner aspect of English ergative verbs with a Probe-Goal feature checking mechanism proposed in Chomsky(1998) from a minimalist point of view.

Syntactic Gender Agreement Processing on Direct-Object Clitics by Spanish-Speaking Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence from ERP.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a psycholinguistic profile evincing multiple syntactic processing impairments. Spanish-speaking children with DLD struggle with gender agreement on clitics; however, the existing evidence comes from offline, elicitation tasks. In the current study, we sought to determine whether converging evidence of this deficit can be found. In particular, we use the real-time processing technique of event-related brain potentials (ERP) with direct-object clitic pronouns in Spanish-speaking children with DLD. Our participants include 15 six-year-old Mexican Spanish-speaking children with DLD and 19 typically developing, age-matched (TD) children. Auditory sentences that matched or did not match the gender features of antecedents represented in pictures were employed as stimuli in a visual–auditory gender agreement task. Gender-agreement violations were associated with an enhanced anterior negativity between 250 and 500 ms post-target onset in the TD children group. In contrast, children with DLD showed no such effect. This absence of the left anterior negativity (LAN) effect suggests weaker lexical representation of morphosyntactic gender features and/or non-adult-like morphosyntactic gender feature checking for the DLD children. We discuss the relevance of these findings for theoretical accounts of DLD. Our findings may contribute to a better understanding of syntactic agreement processing and language disorders.

Same Degree of Intensification with Different Degrees of Sentential Projections

Abstract In Chengdu Chinese, degree intensifiers for APs/VPs are attested to pair with three different types of sentence-final particles (SFPs), i.e., the FinP-level, the FocP-level and the ExclP-level SFPs, which function to complete a sentence, encode a focus and express exclamation. In our analysis, a degree intensifier projects a DegP, which pairs with one of the three sentential projections, viz., FinP, FocP and ExclP. This pairing is motivated by feature checking, as intensifiers contain the uninterpretable semantic features of [+Fin], [+Foc] or [+Excl], which need to be checked by sentential projections. Due to the inalienable sentential functions, intensifiers are barred from occurring in any kind of non-finite contexts. Furthermore, FinP and FocP are within the vP-domain, whereas ExclP is in the CP domain. Thus, ExclP-type intensifiers, unlike FinP-type and FocP-type intensifiers, defy relativization. This study of associating degree intensification with sentential functions not only explains the syntactic behaviors of Chengdu intensifiers but also sheds new light on the well-known Mandarin hen puzzle.

New Algorithm for Fault Location Integrating Voltage Phasor Feature and Phase Angle Jump Checking

New Algorithm for Fault Location Integrating Voltage Phasor Feature and Phase Angle Jump Checking

Telicity and object position in Taiwanese Southern Min and Hakka

Abstract This paper investigates the phenomena of obligatory object preposing in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) and Hakka. We first refute the previous treatment of having the information-structural theory as an exclusive account of TSM and Hakka obligatory object preposing and show that telicity is another important dimension to object prespoing in the two languages. In particular, object preposing always takes place when a given verb bears a designated telicity marker, independent of the referential and information structural properties of its object. Consistent with recent work on the syntax of lexical aspect that telic readings are reflected in certain syntactic configurations, we suggest that in TSM and Hakka, telicity involves feature checking of the verb and its objects in the checking domain of a functional projection InAspP. For a theme argument to be able to measure out an event, it must enter an Agree relationship with the [telic] feature in InAsp, which has the edge property that triggers movement of the theme to its specifier. The proposed aspectual structure is further supported by distributional and interpretational properties including object preposing asymmetry, height of interpretation site of ambiguous adverbials, as well as the distribution of time-frame adjuncts and durative adjuncts.