Locative Phrases Research Articles

Mandarin posture verbs

Abstract Posture verbs have attracted considerable interest within Cognitive Linguistics. This study continues this line of research by investigating usage-based patterns associated with these verbs when used in their literal posture senses. The data for the study comes from the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese and the CALLHOME Mandarin Corpus. We investigate the frequencies and distributions of the Mandarin posture verbs 坐 zuò ‘sit’, 站 zhàn ‘stand’, and 躺 tǎng ‘lie’ in four construction types: directional constructions, aspectual suffixes, serial verb constructions, and locative constructions. The analysis confirms the primacy of zuò, zhàn, and tǎng and, among other results, reveals a significant absence of locative phrases with the dynamic forms of the verbs as used with directionals.

Spelling out the Kirundi augment


 The Kirundi augment is a vowel found before noun class prefixes. I argue that the augment is an epenthetic vowel whose surface characteristics, including deletion, retention and weight, are conditioned by prosodic structure. While the augments of different noun classes present apparent asymmetries, my account unifies all surface representations under a single underlying structure. My arguments mainly focus on three nominal structures: simple nominals (syntactically φP), locative phrases (PP) and linker phrases (KP). I draw on the argument that both nP and DP are syntactic phases that correspond to prosodic words, as well as the observation that epenthetic vowels commonly pattern as weightless to quantity-sensitive phonological processes.

On the left periphery of the Kirundi noun phrase

In this paper, we examine the structure of Kirundi nominals and the elements that appear on their left periphery, in particulardemonstratives, the locative prefixes mu, ku and i, and the nominal linker na. We analyze these structures from the perspective of the phonology-syntax interface. We show that the Universal Spine Hypothesis, which assumes a fixed order of the functional categories inside the nominal, allows us to explain both the syntactic properties and phonological realization of nominals and demonstrative, locative and linker phrases. We conclude that all of these elements have different syntactic statuses and semantic roles in the nominal structure, despite some previous claims in the literature. Our proposal also adds to the typological picture of the structure of nominal and locative phrases and the role of the augment in Bantu.

Location, location, location: Anaphor selection in English locative prepositional phrases

This paper presents experimental work on the relative naturalness of subject-oriented reflexives (herself) and pronouns (her) in English locative prepositional phrases (e.g., Michele set a glass next to her/herself). Syntactic approaches to anaphor licensing have tended to focus on the lack of complementarity in such constructions; however, it has long been observed that preferences between forms may depend on verb meaning (change in location vs. perception vs. possession) and spatial relation (+contact vs. -contact), with very strong preferences reported in some cases. This study aims to clarify the extent to which these two factors shape anaphor choice. Results confirm that both play a significant role: reflexives are most natural in the expression of change in location and direct contact, while pronouns pattern oppositely. Importantly, preferences between forms are less stark than those found in constructions where syntactic constraints are assumed to render one form ungrammatical. I suggest that these findings favor a treatment of English anaphora that takes event structure into account.

Parallelism Between Sentence Structure and Nominal Phrases in Japanese: Evidence from Scrambled Instrumental and Locative Adverbial Phrases

The present study investigated the canonical position of instrumental and locative adverbial phrases in both Japanese sentences and noun phrases to determine whether the canonical positions are parallel. A series of sentence/phrase decision tasks were used to compare sentences with different word-orders, including sentences with SAdvOV (S is subject phrase, Adv adverb, O object phrase and V verb), AdvSOV, SAdvOV and SOAdvV word orders. SAdvOV word order was found to be the most quickly processed, for both instrumental adverbial (Experiment 1) and locative adverbial phrases (Experiment 2). Thus, the canonical position for these adverbial phrases is identified as the position immediately preceding the object (Theme argument). This finding was replicated when the same experimental methods were applied to event-denoting noun phrases. Adverbial adjuncts in the initial position (AdvON, N is noun phrase) were processed more quickly and accurately than noun phrases with adverbial phrases in the second position (OAdvN), for both instrumental adverbial (Experiment 3) and locative adverbial phrases (Experiment 4). Therefore, the position immediately preceding the object is the canonical position for both instrumental and locative adverbial phrases in sentences and in noun phrases. In conclusion, this indicates that the base structure of a sentence is shared by its related noun phrase.

处所类非受事宾语的语法化与认知语义特征 ― 以“在”处所类为中心

This paper uses cognitive grammar to analyze the locative non-patient object sentences such as “to have meals in a cafeteria” and “to sleep in a big bed”. Most of these non-patient object sentences can be transformed into “Zai” locative phrases. Through the analysis of its grammaticalization, we can know that except for a few new non-patient object sentences, the source of most of the sentences is the “Zai” locative phrase. At the same time, through the semantic comparison between the non-patient object structure and the “Zai” locative phrase, this paper briefly summarizes the limited conditions of their mutual transformation and the cognitive semantic characteristics of the non-patient phrase. When the “Zai” locative phrase is used before the verb, the object of “Zai” only has spatial meaning. When this noun is used as a non-patient object after a transitive verb, other non-spatial meanings are activated by the verb, showing both spatial meaning and a new concept related to the semantics of the verb. The non-patient object sentences which use intransitive verbs can be transformed into “Zai” locative phrases. At this time, the spatial meaning of the non-patient object is not as strong as that of the “Zai” locative phrase, but the semantic functions of the non-patient object are diverse, which can not only make a complete event, but also express the spatial meaning.

MOTT, BRIAN (UB): Postmodificación de frases preposicionales en inglés y español (con referencia especial a postmodificadores locativos)

Las frases preposicionales constituyen el tipo más frecuente de posmodificación en todos los registros del inglés (Biber et a. 1999: 634). En el español, las expresiones locativas suelen incorporar un pronombre relativo y un verbo (the books [which are] on the table > los libros que están encima de la mesa), o bien expresarse mediante una frase introducida por la preposición de (los libros de encima de la mesa). Wonder (1979) sostiene que el español permite el uso de preposiciones que no sean de en las frases locativas en el caso de “situaciones ‘activas’” (el aterrizaje en pleno campo) frente a “situaciones estáticas” (*el sofá en la sala), y también si la frase puede tener una función adverbial antes que, o además de, una interpretación adjetiva (el ruido en la calle), sobre todo si dicha frase encierra la idea de una posición alternativa para un objeto, o bien un contraste con otro objeto similar (el sofá en la sala contigua). El presente estudio pretende examinar este argumento y, además, explorar la posmodificación preposicional en español de un modo más general, a la par que propone una explicación sobre la elección de estructura en español que se basa en el criterio de la densidad léxica.

Locative determiner phrases and locative relative clauses in isiNdebele

This article discusses the structure of the locative determiner phrase and locative relativisation in isiNdebele. I argue that locative determiner phrases consist of three elements: the locative absolute pronoun, the demonstrative locative and a locative noun. Locative absolute pronouns are heads of locative determiner phrases. The locative absolute pronoun khona selects a locative demonstrative pronoun which takes a locative noun as its complement. I suggest that the locative absolute pronouns have been lost in classes 16, 18, 24 and 25, leaving the class 17 locative absolute pronoun khona as the default locative absolute pronoun in locative determiner phrases. The locative demonstrative pronouns have been lost in classes 17, 18 and 25, leaving classes 16 and 24 as the only locative demonstrative pronouns in isiNdebele. On locative relativisation, I argue that the head of the locative relative is base generated outside the relative clause and that a second position locative demonstrative pronoun lapho serves as a relative pronoun in a locative relative clause. The relative pronoun starts off as a complement of a locative absolute pronoun and then it is extracted from the relativisation site and copied to its surface position, leaving the locative absolute pronoun stranded in the relativisation site.

Prediction error and implicit learning in L1 and L2 syntactic priming

Aims and Objectives: This study examines the syntactic priming of adverb-first word order among 27 first language (L1) English, 33 L1 German, and 32 L1 German-second language (L2) English speakers to investigate the relationship between short-term priming and longer-term learning across different speaker groups. Design/Methodology: Participants completed a syntactic priming task in either English or German, in which they heard sentences containing fronted (i.e. adverb-first) or non-fronted adverbial phrases and described pictures containing similar adverbial phrases. Immediately before and after the priming task, participants completed picture description tasks containing similar sentence types to measure their baseline production of fronted adverbials, and whether subsequent production of fronted adverbials was modulated by the priming task. Data Analysis: We used mixed-effects logistic regression to compare participants’ production of fronted sentences during the priming task according to prime type (fronted vs. non-fronted) and their production of fronted sentences before versus after the priming task, including the additional factors of adverbial phrase (temporal phrase vs. locative phrase) and speaker group (L1 English vs. L1 German vs. L2 English). Findings/Conclusion: Participants exhibited greater short-term priming during the priming task for temporal versus locative phrases, with the L2 English speakers exhibiting the greatest short-term priming. There was a significant increase in the production of fronted sentences from baseline to post-test, with the L1 English speakers exhibiting the greatest gains. Originality: This study uses systematic between- and within-language comparisons to examine: (a) whether the extent of syntactic priming depends on the frequency of a construction in a speaker’s L1 or L2 (i.e. prediction error); and (b) whether prediction error and short-term priming lead to longer-term learning. Significance: Our findings show that the magnitude of prediction error influences both short-term adaptation and longer-term priming. However, the ability to harness prediction error for longer-term learning versus short-term adaptation may vary between L1 and L2 speakers.

언어유형론적 관점에서 본 중국어 방언의 결과상/진행상 표지의 변이 유형과 발전 기제 : 동사에 후행하는 ‘着’류와 ‘在’류 형식을 중심으로

In this paper, we have investigated the variations of resultative and progressive aspect makers in 153 Chinese dialects corresponding to ‘zhe(着)’ and ‘zai(在)’ following the verbs in Mandarin. This study shows that there are various asymmetrical phenomena of ‘zhe(着)’ and ‘zai(在)’ in terms of their distributions, functions or usage overlapping, and that there are many different types of aspectual systems in different dialects: the same form can function as a resultative aspect or a progressive aspect while several different forms in a dialect can have the same aspectual function.BR In Chinese dialects, ‘zhe(着)’-type markers commonly indicate a state resulting from a preceding action, referred to as ‘resultative aspect’. They are grammaticalized from the verbal complement, and in many Chinese dialects ‘zhe(着)’-type markers are developed to progressive aspect makers through metaphoric semantic expansion. It’s why many dialects including Mandarin have ‘zhe(着)’-type markers indicating stative resultative meaning and active progressive meaning.BR In many Chinese dialects, ‘zai(在)’-type markers following verbs denote the state resulting from action. In some dialects, there may be cases that ‘zai(在)’-type markers are not followed by the locative phrases. It shows that ‘zai(在)’ can be regarded as an resultative aspect maker functionally equivalent to ‘zhe(着)’. In Mandarin, “Zai chifan ne(在吃饭呢)” and “Chi zhe fan ne(吃着饭呢)” have similar aspectual meanings which are layered into the same aspectual category through the grammaticalization process.BR In Chinese dialects, ‘zhe(着)’-type markers which are grammaticalized from the verb with the meaning of ‘attachment’ always follow verbs, whereas ‘zai(在)’-type markers can either precede verbs or follow verbs. It is due to the structural and semantic constraints. Both ‘zhe(着)’ and ‘zai(在)’ preceded by a verb follows the Principle of Temporal Sequence. But ‘zai(在)’ preceding a verb is grammaticalized from the verb that took the whole verb phrase as its object, while ‘zhe(着)’ can not have such a structural origin.BR In this paper, we have classified and analyzed the various aspectual types and systems of ‘zhe(着)’ and ‘zai(在)’ in Chinese dialects. This study on the resultative aspect and progressive aspect with empirical evidence and theoretical explanation shows that the development of the Chinese aspectual system has been following the universal tendency of human language evolution along the path of grammaticalization of aspect markers.

The use of the ablative clitic in locative phrases in Iraqw, a Cushitic language of Tanzania

Abstract This paper examines the use of the ablative case clitic in locative phrases in Iraqw, a South Cushitic language of Tanzania. In the typological classification of locative marker syncretisms, Iraqw has been classified as a language with a Source=Location≠ Goal pattern. This pattern is extremely rare in languages of the world and has been argued to be unattainable. The Iraqw ablative case clitic has been reported as both source and location marker. New data shows that the directional case clitic, a goal marker, appears on locative constructions as well, but that it is used to express purpose rather than location. The data also shows that the ablative case clitic is found mainly in locational clauses with a main verb with a durative aspect. Based on this, I argue that in locative constructions, the ablative clitic expresses duration rather than location and I propose the reanalysis of the ablative marker in locative phrases as a durational marker. The notion of location does not need to be expressed overtly, but is a zero-marker. Therefore, the rare Source=Location≠ Goal pattern is no longer valid for Iraqw, and instead I propose the pattern Source≠ Location≠ Goal, which is common in languages of the world.

Gradience in Subcategorization? Locative Phrases with Italian Verbs of Motion

AbstractThe study of the argument vs. adjunct status of the locative phrase optionally occurring with verbs of motion in Italian, both bounded (directed motion) and unbounded (manner of motion), points to the notion of scalar change as a useful model for the argument/adjunct distinction: locative prepositional phrases referring to the scalar change component entailed by a verb (either its endpoint(s) or its direction) have an argument status, otherwise they are adjuncts. This finding has a distributional correlation in the differences in the association strength (i.e., head‐dependence) of locative prepositional phrases with this class of verbs.

The locative syntax of Experiencers. The case study of phraseological units as psych-predicates

The name psych-verbs is commonly assigned to verbs denoting mental or emotional states, such as fear, worry, frighten, or surprise. Such verbs select a participant/an individual who experiences an emotional or mental state, usually referred to as an Experiencer, and a non-Experiencer argument, sometimes called stimulus, trigger of emotion, causer or target/subject matter, or subsumed under the label of ‘theme’ (Landau, 2010, p. 5). The special behaviour of Experiencers, related to the so-called ‘psych effects’, is the reason why psychological predicates have been a subject of debate in theoretical syntax for several decades.
 The aim of this study is to check whether English verbal phraseological units, which denote a psychological condition of an Experiencer and occur with locative Prepositional Phrases (PPs), may serve as evidence for Landau’s (2010, p. 6) hypothesis of ‘Experiencers as mental locations’. Landau’s theory has been chosen since it covers a much broader variety of data, in comparison with the previous approaches, offered by Belletti & Rizzi (1988), Grimshaw (1990), and Pesetsky (1995), among others.
 The data analysed in the paper have been extracted from English dictionaries of idiomatic expressions, supported with the COCA Corpus. The study focuses on Object Experiencer verbal phraseological units that display a structure V + PP. The results of the study reveal that, in total, out of 3,000 tokens, there are only 50 psychological verbal idiomatic expressions with an Object Experiencer. However, the data show that a lexical P with the Experiencer as an object appears only in 13 (26%) idiomatic expressions out of the 50, whereas 37 items (74%) include an Experiencer preceded with no P. The latter might be treated as exhibiting an oblique Experiencer with a null preposition. However, no relevant syntactic evidence can be found in support the claim that there is a covert P in this type of phrase. Therefore, the results do not provide enough evidence in favour of Landau’s (2010) theory of Experiencers as mental locations, placed either in a covert or overt PP.

The priming of word order in second language German

ABSTRACTThe present study investigates the priming and subsequent production of word order variation (adverb–verb–subject vs. subject–verb–adverb order) with temporal phrases (Experiment 1) and locative phrases (Experiment 2) among intermediate English–German second language learners. Participants exhibited comparable short-term priming for adverb-first word order in both experiments. In the initial baseline phase, participants produced adverb-first sentences with temporal phrases but not locative phrases, and only temporal phrases led to significant long-term priming, as measured in a postpriming phase. This suggests that at lower proficiency levels, long-term, but not short-term, priming may depend on the stability of specific semantically constrained constructions rather than more generalized syntactic representations and that such cumulative effects may be shaped by preferences for a particular construction in the native language.

Acquisition of time and locative phrases in Mandarin Chinese

In this study we explore the role played by input saliency in L2 acquisition of the time phrase and the locative phrase in Mandarin Chinese. In Chinese the time phrase that indicates when an event takes place and the locative phrase that indicates where an event takes place are similar in that neither can occur after the verb. L1 English L2 learners of Chinese have to learn to place both phrases pre-verbally. Our goal is to find out whether learners acquire the placement of the two types of phrases equally well. On the basis of input saliency measured in terms of form-function mapping and type frequency, we predicted that the time phrase will be easier to acquire than the locative phrase. We then conducted an experiment and put the hypothesis to test on learners at an early stage. The findings largely support our hypothesis: Simple time phrases are easier to acquire than simple locative phrases for beginning learners. In addition, the same group of learners had difficulty with both complex time phrases and complex locative phrases, suggesting that structural complexity also plays a role.

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本文認為時間副詞「在」的功能可以表動作進行或狀態持續。這兩種來源不同，表狀態持續義是「處所動詞＞時間副詞」的演變，這是在靜態語境中，誘發隱喻機制而形成。表動作進行義則是「處所動詞＞處所介詞＞時間副詞」的演變，這是在動態語境中，連動結構發生語義級降後，再藉由「在+指示代詞」的虛指用法，進而脫落處所詞而產生。此兩條演變途徑，具類型學上意義，可藉由跨語言比較得到印證。時間副詞「正在」的形成是在因果語境中，「〔正〕_(副)+〔在+VP〕_(動賓／介賓)」無法以「正+在+VP+之時」解釋，使VP轉為動作事件焦點，而重新分析為「〔正在〕_(副)+〔VP〕_(動詞組)」。

A Cognitive Grammar approach to the SLocPAdjC in Mandarin Chinese

SLocPAdjC (Locative subject + adjective-predicate construction) is an idiosyncratic construction in Mandarin Chinese. It has its own specific structural and cognitive properties which are different from those of other constructions. Its structural properties are that it has locative phrases as its subject and adjective phrases as its predicate without the help of any linking verb. In addition, only state adjectives, and not property adjectives, can normally occur in SLocPAdjC as predicates. As is observed from the Cognitive Grammar perspective, what the predicate describes in SLocPAdjC is not the subject proper, but a certain facet of the spatial region of the entity designated by the subject. This depends on two cognitive mechanisms. One is the spatial region profiling mechanism of the subject, and the other is the active zone activating mechanism of the predicate. The former means that the signified entity of the nominal phrase in the subject functions as the base. The postposition serves to profile a certain spatial region of the base and makes this region a prominent candidate for the predicate to describe. The latter means that the adjective in the predicate, based on the cognitive domain it belongs to, activates a certain facet of or in the spatial region as the active zone which eventually becomes the actual matter to be described by the predicate. What’s more important, the meaning of the SLocPAdjC in Mandarin Chinese resides in the joint function of the profiling mechanism of the subject and the activating mechanism of the adjective-predicate.

Locative phrases

10.1. Distribution A locative phrase consists of either a locative noun, which may or may not have syntactic dependents on the left, or a noun phrase with a locative postposition. On top of that, locative phrases also usually have a deictic marker on the right edge, see 10.3. Locative phrases occur in a variety of contexts: as postverbal modifiers, as predicates in clauses of adverbial type (see 12.4), as prenominal modifiers, or referentially in all NP positions. 10.2. Semantics Locative phr...

A contrastive analysis of (English) ‘there’ and (Spanish) hay existential sentences

This study is devoted to the grammatical, semantic and informative analysis of the so-called existential sentence (“There is a girl in the garden” in English, or Hay una niña en el jardín ‘There-is a girl in the garden’ in Spanish) in an attempt to establish a multi-linguistic prototype of the construction. To that end, data from several corpora of contemporary spoken English and Spanish are analysed in a number of ways, including the frequency of this construction in the two languages, the basic elements of its syntactic structure, and the semantic and informative constraints which operate in the existential/presentational construction. This study also deals with the degree of variation which these sentences exhibit and how this affects the selection of the marker of the construction (‘there’, hay), agreement between the marker or the verb and the postverbal noun phrase, the accommodation of additional constituents such as locative phrases or nominal postmodifiers and complements, the so-called indefiniteness restriction, and the compliance with general informative principles to which English and Spanish are claimed to be subject. A corpus-based contrastive methodology leads both to a prototypical and to a language-specific description of the existential construction in English and Spanish, in which the notion of grammatical, semantic and informative versatility plays a significant role.

Locative object marking and the argument-adjunct distinction

This paper examines the status of locative phrases in Bantu and the argument-adjunct distinction. We look at verbal locative agreement and at other morphosyntactic patterns related to locative phrases in different Bantu languages including Kiswahili, Sambaa, Haya, and several Nguni languages. We propose that object marking cannot be taken to be evidence for the objecthood of the corresponding NP in Bantu. We focus on three domains where verbal agreement marking of locative complements differs from the corresponding marking of non-locative complements: (i) object-marking paradigms without locative markers, (ii) contexts in which locative object markers may be used, but where other, non-locative object markers are disallowed, and (iii) locative complements marked by post-verbal locative clitics rather than, or in addition to, locative object markers. We then show how variation in locative object marking is related more generally to corresponding variation in locative marking in Bantu on one hand, and on the other hand to several processes of grammaticalisation for which locative markers serve as a starting point. We propose that, because the system of morphosyntactic coding of locatives in Bantu is in flux, locative object marking may be related to more or less object-like grammatical functions, depending on the particular state within the wider process of transition of locative marking, and hence presents a mixed picture.