Deletion In English Research Articles

A Study of Vowel Deletion in English: A Foot-Based Approach

This study focuses on the deletion of base-final unstressed vowels when a base word is followed by a set of suffixes in English. The traditional analysis assumes that a schwa is inserted between consonants of the base-final syllable consisting of an obstruent followed by sonorants [r, l, m]. Contrary to this, we argue that the schwa before the [r] is underlying rather than an epenthetic. The schwa in rhythm[ðəm]~rhythmic is epenthetic while it is underlying in winter[tər]~wintry. The difference of the schwa can be observed in the realizations of the following word pairs: rhythm[ðəm]~rhythmize[ðmayz] and winter[tər]~winterize[tərayz]. If the schwa in winterize is epenthetic, there must be a proper reason to justify the presence of the schwa in winterize. Concerning the schwa deletion in wintry, we argue that the unstressed vowel deletes to achieve exhaustive syllable parsing into feet. The preservation of the same schwa in winterize is ascribed to blocking stress-class if the schwa deletes in the output. The realization of the schwa in the base-final syllable is decided by the properties of suffixes that belong to different suffix classes. It indicates that variant sets of suffixes behave differently in the base-final schwa realizations in English. A constraint-based analysis in this study tries to explain these by using two different constraint rankings.

Deriving frequency effects from biases in learning

This paper presents a phonological learner that derives frequency effects – the propensity of more frequent items undergo deletion and reduction processes at higher rates. The model is a bidirectional Maximum Entropy grammar which has two distinct learning steps, one mapping from UR to SR, and another mapping back from SR to UR using Bayesian inference. The model is tested on the case of t/d deletion in English and correctly derives the frequency-based pattern of deletion without access to surface patterns.

Some New Ways of Modeling T/D Deletion in English

The paper is concerned with the morpheme-final inter-consonantal T/D deletion in Standard British English. Its main aim is to explore some new ways of modeling this phenomenon and to test several new variables. Among the innovations suggested in the study are separate treatments of /t/ and /d/ as dependent variables, analysis of so-called neutralized contexts, testing of several previously unstudied predictors (including usage-based predictors), recategorization of most of the traditional formal linguistic predictors, and a proposition of a new articulatory-gestural model of T/D deletion. It is concluded that the strongest constraints on T/D deletion are the presence of the following consonant (a phonetic predictor) and the influence of /CC/-sequence text frequency (a usage-based predictor). The results of the study show that although the traditional (formal) linguistic predictors play a prominent role in T/D deletion, this process cannot be adequately explained without taking into account the frequency of occurrence and the mutual interplay of language patterns.

An Aspect of Schwa Deletion in English

The purpose of this study is to examine what factors motivate schwa deletion and to analyze how schwa deletion can be applied. Three main reasons of schwa deletion are stress position, sonority sequencing, and lexical frequency. First, deletion more frequently occurs in a post-stressed environment rather than in a pre-stressed environment. Second, sonority sequencing principle requires that a newly formed consonant sequence keep rising sonority. Finally, high frequency words undergo more schwa deletion than low frequency words because the frequency of a word is closely related to its recoverability. In OT analysis, ANCHORING constraints and FAITH-FINAL-V constraint play a crucial role in prohibiting deletion at the both edges of a word, With respect to foot assignment, PARSE-SYLL requires foot licensing as much as possible and *CLASH is used to ban stress clash. This study may imply the result that syncope or deletion is able to not only contribute the ease of articulation, but also improve foot licensing for syllables of a word. (Chonbuk National University)

Variable Schwa Deletion in English: A Corpus Study

This study investigates schwa deletion in American English using the Buckeye Corpus. To determine the contributions of grammatical (e.g., sonority of onset clusters) and non-grammatical (e.g., lexical frequency) factors to schwa deletion, the distribution of schwa-deleted word forms is examined in terms of phonological, morphological, and lexical environments. As expected, schwa deletion occurred more frequently in post-stressed environments than in pre-stressed environments. Of all the factors, the most significant factor affecting deletion rates in the post-stressed environment was the sonority profile of onset clusters that arise after deletion: deletion rates are higher when the prospective consonant cluster forms a sonority rise (large rise and small rise) than when it forms a sonority fall. The results show that the Sonority Sequencing Principle alone cannot explain the observed patterns of variable schwa deletion. This paper suggests that schwa deletion rates are modulated by English speakers’ knowledge of the universal sonority preferences. The nature of this knowledge regardine sonority preferences will be further discussed.

Segmental Insertion and Deletion in English: A Phonotactic Perspective

Segmental Insertion and Deletion in English: A Phonotactic Perspective

Left-edge deletion in English and subject omission in diaries

This article discusses deletion in spoken and written English. It notes that subjects are frequently dropped both in informal spoken English (Napoli 1982; Zwicky & Pullum 1983b) and in certain registers of written English such as diaries (Haegeman 1990, 1997, 2007; Haegeman & Ihsane 1999, 2001). The article argues in favour of Napoli's phonological analysis of left-edge deletion in spoken English, and provides a formalisation of Napoli's account in the framework of Selkirk's (1995, 2001, 2011) optimality-theoretic analysis of syntax–phonology mapping. A comparison is drawn with the case of subject drop in the diary register. Due to the difference in surface distribution of the phenomenon between the spoken and written cases, the analysis cannot transfer directly. However, I suggest that, combined with arguments made by Haegeman (2002) for a sentence-medial position for modifiers in written English, the phonological analysis can account for a large subset of the diary drop cases.

Deletion and Locality: Evidence from VP and TP Deletion in English

This paper investigates the contrast between VP and TP deletion/Sluicing in regard to repair by ellipsis, which has recently been one of the most puzzling aspects of ellipsis. Lasnik (2001) indicates that unlike TP deletion which amnesties island violations induced by wh-movement, in VP deletion the elided VP has to be a simple one when extraction takes place out of it. The situation is more striking as the extraction can be Wh-movement which can typically move long distance in syntactic derivation. Fox and Lasnik (2003) provide a principled analysis for impossible extraction from elided complex VP in contrast to possibile extraction from elided island-involving TP, but here we seek a better one. To this end we first examine extraction out of elided VP to its periphery, then extraction out of elided VP to clausal edge, and finally extraction out of elided complex VP. We show that movement of the survivor out of elided VP in a simple clause can proceed via object shift, heavy NP shift or quantifier raising that English grammar has in its resources. However, extraction out of elided complex VP is prohibited owing to the well-known parallelism condition on deletion.

Insertion preferred to deletion in learner speech: A study of Korean English.

Do language learners prefer insertion or deletion, when they are forced to produce the target speech that is not permissible in native phonology? To answer this question, we analyzed the speech data from 6,887 word data of L1 English, L2 English, and L1 English loanwords, which were elicited from 11 native speakers of American English, 181 Korean adult learners of American English, and 11 native speakers of Korean. We measured the acoustic features that are relevant to insertion and deletion in English. We focused on whether non-native English evidence effects of the native Korean more in the deletion of a consonant, as in [kansep] for the English loanword concept; or in the insertion of a vowel, as in [kanseptㅁ]. The results indicate that the learner speech manifests significantly more insertion errors than deletion errors, in both word-level and sentence-level production. The error rate drops drastically after instruction to support that explicit instruction is effective in phonological acquisition of the learner speech.

On the Absence of CP Ellipsis in English and Korean

This paper aims to show that CP deletion in English and Korean is not possible. We suggest that the absence of CP ellipsis results from the premise that lexical categories such as V dont bear an E feature, hence cannot license the deletion of their CP complements. We claim that apparent CP ellipsis is equivalent to DP deletion, which is subsequently subsumed to the occurrence of Pro.

Remarks on causative verbs and object deletion in English

Rappaport Hovav and Levin [Rappaport Hovav, M., Levin, B., 1998. Building verb meanings. In: Butt, M., Geuder, W. (Eds.), The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors. CSLI Publications, Stanford, pp. 97–134] contend that result verbs disallow object deletion because of their lexical semantic properties. Their point is that the distinction between result verbs and manner verbs with their different event structure representation constitutes the important factor, which dictates the possibility of the variation of argument realization, of which object deletion represents one instance. Responding to their claim, Goldberg [Goldberg, A.E., 2001. Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: the role of information structure in argument distribution. Language Sciences 23, 503–524] presents the evidence which mainly concerns the object deletion of causative verbs (which correspond to result verbs) in English in order to show that the distinction is not substantial. The purpose of this paper is twofold. One is to present several pieces of evidence for Goldberg’s contention based on the behavior of causative verbs with respect to object deletion. It is made evident that at least some causative verbs in fact behave even freer than Goldberg’s principle predicts. The other purpose is to examine some aspects of Goldberg’s principle and demonstrate that it has a wider applicability than originally intended, which eventually indicates that the principle comprises a part of a general set of conditions on the object deletion in English. The conclusion is that object deletion is not so much sensitive to the distinction between causative verbs and non-causative verbs as Rappaport Hovav and Levin claim it to be, and therefore object deletion fails to be a good diagnostic tool for the differentiation of the two verb classes. In other words, causativity is not a good parameter for the possibility of object deletion.

Heterogeneity of the ɛγδβ‐thalassaemias: characterization of three novel English deletions

SummaryWe have characterized three novel ɛγδβ‐thalassaemia deletions in three English families. Two of the deletions, 114 and 439 kb, removed the entire β‐globin gene complex, including a variable number of flanking olfactory receptor (HOR) genes. The 98‐kb deletion extended 90‐kb upstream of the ɛ gene to 8 kb upstream of the Gγ‐gene, leaving the γ,δ and β‐genes intact. The 439 kb deletion is the largest deletion reported so far to cause ɛγδβ‐thalassaemia; heterozygotes for this deletion were variably affected by neonatal haemolytic anaemia. Two of the deletions were de novo. Breakpoints of all three deletions occurred within regions of L1 or Alu repeats and contained short regions of direct homology between the flanking sequences, a feature that is likely to have contributed to the illegitimate recombinations.

Heterogeneity of the εγδβ Thalassemias: Characterization of 3 Novel English Deletions.

The thalassemias are inherited disorders classified genetically into α, β, γ, δβ, δ and εγδβ varieties according to the type of globin(s) that are underproduced. At the molecular level, the εγδβ thalassemias fall into two categories; Group I removes all, or a greater part, of the β globin gene cluster which is embedded in an array of olfactory receptor genes on chromosome 11p15. Group II removes extensive upstream regions leaving the β globin gene itself intact despite which, its expression is silenced due to inactivation of the upstream locus control region (β LCR). Recently, two novel deletions causing εγδβ thalassemia have been reported; a 153 kb deletion removing the entire β globin cluster in a Chilean family (Game, L., et al., Br J Haematol 2003, 123:154–9) and an upstream deletion of 112 kb in a Dutch family (Dutch III) (Harteveld, C.L., et al., Br J Haematol 2003, 122: 855–8). We describe here the characterization of another three novel εγδβ thalassemia deletions, in three English families, named English II, III and IV, to differentiate them from the previously reported English (I) deletion (Curtin, P., et al., J Clin Invest 1985, 76: 1554–8). Deletion English II removed 98 kb extending 90 kb upstream of the ε gene to 8 kb upstream of the Gγ gene, and included 4 upstream olfactory receptor (HOR) genes. Deletion English III removed 114 kb extending 60 kb upstream of the ε gene to 9 kb downstream of the β globin gene, thus including the entire β globin gene cluster as well as two upstream HOR genes. English IV is the largest deletion (439 kb) reported so far; starting 326 kb upstream of the ε gene to 70 kb downstream of the β gene and included 13 upstream, and 3 downstream, HOR genes plus the intervening β globin gene cluster. Breakpoints of all the 3 deletions occurred within regions of L1 or Alu repeat elements and contained short regions of direct homology between the flanking sequences, a feature that is likely to have contributed to the illegitimate recombinations. Deletions English II and III appear to be de novo while English IV is not. The proband for the English IV deletion had neonatal hemolytic anemia and required blood transfusions while 3 other family members who were heterozygous for the same deletion, had uneventful post-natal periods. The English III proband also required a blood transfusion soon after birth while the English II proband did not. Although in later life, heterozygotes for εγδβ thalassemia are transfusion-independent, and have a blood picture typical of β thalassemia trait but with normal Hb A2 levels, our data suggest that heterozygotes for εγδβ thalassemias have more severe microcytosis and hypochromia than β thalassemia carriers. To date, a total of 15 deletions causing εγδβ thalassemia have been described - five upstream deletions (Group II) associated with intact β globin genes and ten (Group I) that include the entire β globin gene cluster. These deletions are all unique and illustrate the heterogeneity of the εγδβ thalassemias.

Comparative Deletion And Optimality In Syntax

This paper investigates the syntax of comparative deletion and comparative subdeletion in English and argues that the apparently paradoxical behavior of these two types of clausal comparative constructions is due to a derivational distinction between them: comparative deletion involves overt movement plus deletion of a compared phrase, while comparative subdeletion involves covert movement of the compared phrase. Although this derivational difference must be stipulated in standard approaches, it follows from general constraints on the relation between movement and deletion in English in a model of syntax in which syntactic constraints are ranked and violable, and well-formedness is determined by evaluating competing representations against the set of constraints, as in Optimality Theory. The analysis receives independent support from the interaction of comparatives and ellipsis, and achieves a higher level of descriptive and explanatory adequacy than alternative analyses that do not make reference to ranked and violable constraints.

Verb phrase deletion in English: a base-generated analysis

Sentences (1) and (2) have traditionally been related by a process that is called Verb Phrase Deletion (VPD).(1) If I wanted to collect bottles, I would collect bottles.(2) If I wanted to collect bottles, I would.The earliest analyses of this phenomenon suggested that (2) was derived from (1) by a syntactic deletion rule (hence the ‘deletion’ in the name of the process – cf. Ross (1969a)). Later (Jackendoff, 1972; Wasow, 1972; Fiengo, 1974; and Williams, 1977a, among others), it was suggested that a null anaphor was generated in the base followingwouldin (2), and that the semantic component read this anaphor as meaningcollect bottles, hence accounting for the synonymy of (1) and (2). A third possibility is that (2) is generated in the base with nothing followingwould, woulditself serving as a proform forwould collect bottles. And fourth, (2) could be derived from (1), leavingwouldas a proform, in a process resembling pronominalization more than deletion (perhaps ‘proverbalization’).