Morphosyntactic Elements Research Articles

Self-repair in Korean conversation

This paper analyses the practice of self-initiated (same-turn) self-repair in Korean conversation, from a conversation-analytic perspective, with the focus on “post-positionally” conducted morphological repair. Korean is a predicate-final language with an agglutinative system, where a case marker or a sentence-ending suffix post-positionally marking the root (e.g., noun or verb stem) may become a repairable, being replaced by another, rearticulated, or even suppressed or blurred (in the case of turn-finally occurring repair). The analysis suggests that post-positional repair of the root or suffixes (e.g., sentence-ending suffixes or turn-final clausal connectives) embodies the repairer’s orientation towards rendering the action more “normatively appropriate” in a way that is more recipient-designed, face-sensitive, or solidary. Explicating the reflexive relationship between the repairable and the repair solution is shown to be a useful comparative-analytic practice, illuminating the way post-positional morphosyntactic elements in Korean are deployed as paradigmatically related interactional resources managing action, face and relationships

Language and identity in the Windrush generation

AbstractThis paper examines how the Windrush generation uses phonological and morphosyntactic elements of Jamaican Creole (JamC), London Jamaican (LonJam) and standard British English (SBE) to do identity work in interviews broadcast as part of a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. The data comprise oral history interviews with four members of the Windrush generation. The recordings were analysed using the method of lectal focussing in interaction. Results show variation across the four speakers, with some speakers using very few LonJam and SBE features, while others’ speech contains almost exclusively standard British variants. The use of JamC features clustered around topics such as home and family reunification, whereas LonJam features were especially present when interviewees talked about their youth. The study broadens the scope of world Englishes studies by including diasporic and elderly speakers and has important implications for the study of language and identity.

A study of easy-to-read adaptations in climate communication: a corpus analysis

AbstractAccess to clear and scientifically verified information is crucial to understand the scale of the challenge of the climate crisis, allowing policymakers, governments, and individuals to better respond to it. However, for some, including people with cognitive disabilities as well as individuals who have difficulty reading, climate science can be difficult to understand with complex sentence structures and jargon obscuring important environmental information. The aim of this paper is to assess the main linguistic barriers to information about the climate crisis for people with cognitive disabilities and reading difficulties. Using the examples of the Greater London Authority’s Environment Strategy Executive Report and the Northern Ireland Executive Discussion Document on a Northern Ireland Climate Change Bill, and their adaptations into Easy-to-Read as our corpus, we will examine the different morphosyntactic and lexical elements of each text to determine their overall level of complexity, such as sentence structure or vocabulary. Our results show that both Easy-to-Read versions were generally easier to understand than the standard versions. However, the Northern Ireland Easy-to-Read text was more syntactically complex with longer and more complicated sentence structures, owing to its function as a consultation document. We conclude that the main access barriers in the Northern Ireland Easy-to-Read text are related to its morphosyntactic elements, a conclusion supported by our manual analysis of the standard text. More generally, the lexical aspects of both Easy-to-Read texts showed positive results, which suggests that they may be more easily simplified compared to morphosyntactic aspects. However, more systemic and contrastive research is required to confirm our findings, in addition to user testing with people with cognitive disabilities and individuals who have difficulty reading.

Nominal linkers in Tati

This paper describes nominal constructions in the Takestani variety of Southern Tati (Northwestern Iranian). Noun phrases in Tati are head-final. The main focus in this chapter is on constructions involving a nominal linker known as Reverse Ezafe (Stilo 2004). This element appears in possessive and adpositional phrases as well as noun phrases modified by adjectives and nouns. We show that the Reverse Ezafe appearing with possessors and adpositions has different properties than the one appearing on attributive adjectives and nouns. We conclude that Reverse Ezafe in Tati involves two distinct morphosyntactic elements. This conclusion aligns with the pattern of Reverse Ezafe in other Reverse Ezafe languages (i.e., other Caspian languages, Balochi and Sangesari). In this chapter, we further address some of the morpho-phonological constraints on the form and distribution of Reverse Ezafe across the two types.

Morphosyntactic aspects of agrammatism in Palestinian Arabic: Findings from a Semitic language

The present study uses a spontaneous speech task to investigate the production of morphosyntactic elements in Palestinian Arabic agrammatism (PA). Eight Palestinian-Arabic-speaking individuals with agrammatism (6 males and 2 females), diagnosed with mild to severe Broca’s aphasia, and 8 age- and gender-matched healthy speakers participated in the study. A speech sample of 100 words from each participant was transcribed and analyzed. Findings showed that substitutions, omissions, simplified sentence structure, and tense inflection errors mostly characterized Palestinian Arabic agrammatism. As for tense and agreement, the speakers with agrammatism showed more tense inflection impairments than agreement inflections. The results suggest that the individuals of PA with agrammatism had marked dissociations in producing certain types of specific morphosyntactic structures, confirming previous findings, mainly from Hebrew and Jordanian Arabic.

La traducción al español de las pasivas y adverbios franceses en «Un chant écarlate» de Mariama Bâ: LTAEDLPYAFEUCEDMB

The Spanish Translation of French Passives and Adverbs in «Un chant écarlate» by Mariama Bâ: LTAEDLPYAFEUCEDMB
 This article offers a translation into Spanish of a series of passages taken from «Un Chant écarlate» (1981), the second and last novel by the Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ and unpublished until now in Spain. This narrative, it is worth mentioning, relates not only the intercultural conflicts that can arise between Africans and Europeans, but also the harm caused by polygamy and the suffering of African women, often reduced to slaves by their husbands or mothers-in-law. It consists of three parts, which are further subdivided into untitled chapters. Although she did not use the epistolary structure, the author incorporates into this long narrative of 377 pages some letters which, although they do not have the same status as in « Une Si longue lettre » (1979), play a very important role in the way she structures certain parts of the novel, which sometimes adopts a lyrical register and sometimes a pathetic register to highlight the dilemma in which each of the characters finds herself. The use of letters inserted into the narrative thread also allows the author to distance herself from subjective expression while at the same time lending a certain realism to the action. This essay also analyses the passives and adverbs of the original text and reflects on the possible solutions to these translation problems. Prior to the analysis of these morphosyntactic elements, a brief survey of Senegalese literature, dominated mainly by the indefatigable defender of Negritude, Leopold Sedar Senghor, will be made. Within this, feminist literature, which began in the 1980s, is included. In this sense, the writing of the woman who was the spokesperson for African women in general, and Senegalese women in particular, will be examined. A member of several feminist associations, including the "Optimistic Sisters", which she herself created, Mariama Bâ was known and recognised worldwide for her first novel «Une si longue lettre» (1979), which won the Noma award in Frankfurt in November 1980.

Person-marking constructions in rewritten versions of a poem by Endre Ady

Genres are characterized by specific patterns of person-marking constructions including pronouns, morphosyntactic elements and vocatives. The goal of this paper is to verify this hypothesis through an analysis of rewritten versions of a poem. The paper analyses various rewritten versions of Hawk Mating on the Fallen Leaves (Hu. Héja-nász az avaron) by Endre Ady and conducts software-assisted qualitative research on basic devices for person-marking in order to explore the features of person-marking constructions in the categories of “bad” poetry, 1 pop song lyrics, rap and prose (Domonkosi–Kuna 2018a). The analysis reveals that in speakers’ everyday, intuitive knowledge of genres, schemas related to various opportunities for person-marking play a fundamental role. This is suggested by the fact that the rewriting of the poem, its transposition into new genres went hand in hand with changes in the choice of person-marking constructions.

Pemerolehan Morfosintaksis Bahasa Melayu Palembang : Studi Kasus pada Anak Usia 2 Tahun 8 Bulan

The purpose of this study was to describe in depth the acquisition of the Palembang Malay language, especiallythe morphosyntactic acquisition of children aged two years and eight months. Data analysis technique used in this study was the agih and matching method. The agih method was used to describe the morphosyntactic elements produced by the research participants. Furthermore, the equivalent method is used to analyze things that are out of the language focus. Therefore, the most suitable technique to use was the referential sorting technique. Thistechnique was used to see the relationship between the acquisition of Palembang Malay morphosyntax with the use of language at home, community, and school environment. The results showed that the acquisition of Palembang Malay morphosyntax in children aged two years and eight months developed very rapidly. Children are able to master and understand the meaning of the words and sentences they produce, even if those words were only in the form of simple sentences. Monomorphemic and polymorphemic forms have been used and mastered bychildren at the age of two years and eight months. Furthermore, children have acquired the syntax, interrogative, imperative and negative forms of language and have controlled them, although only simple sentences are producedby children.

Linguistic Features and Patterns of Texting: Results of a Case Study at an Indian University

The main objective of the present study is to explore the linguistic features which characterize English used by texters. It also aims to investigate if texting follows any specific pattern. As this study aimed to investigate the linguistic features of texting and their impact on the structure of Standard English, the data of the study were collected from a sample of ninety students. The morphosyntactic elements, phonological elements and code mixing elements were linguistically analyzed separately, providing some examples from the data collected for the study. Although punctuation has been discussed under both morphosyntax and phonology, its significant presence in the data prompted us to look into the pragma-semantic elements in the use of punctuation by the texters. Five sent emails, five sent SMS and five sent Facebook chats from each of the respondents were collected to test the linguistic features of texting. SMS are more deviated from Standard English than Facebook chat texts in some cases such as deletion of subject and deletion of punctuation. It is found out that email texts were less deviated from Standard English than SMS and Facebook chat texts. It was found out that the respondents deviated from the Standard English in all the aspects which were examined, i.e. in morphosyntactic and phonological structures, which indicated that it could be a threat to Standard English. This study proved that texting followed some patterns in some cases but it was randomly used in other cases and it is difficult to control and find fixed patterns followed.

Language Sample Analysis in Children With Cleft Lip and Palate

Objectives: Cleft Palate (CP) with or without Cleft Lip (CL/P) are the most common craniofacial birth defects. Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP) can affect children’s communication skills. The present study aimed to evaluate language production skills concerning morphology and syntax (morphosyntactic) in children with CLP. Methods: In the current cross-sectional study, 58 Persian-speaking children (28 children with CLP & 30 children without craniofacial anomalies=non-clefts) participated. Gathering the language samples of the children was conducted using the picture description method. The 50 consecutive intelligible utterances of children were analyzed by the Persian Developmental Sentence Scoring (PDSS), as a clinical morphosyntactic measurement tool. Results: The PDSS total scores of children with CLP were lower than those of the non-clefts children. A significant difference was found between the studied children with CLP and children without craniofacial anomalies in the mean value of PDSS total scores (P=0.0001). Discussion: Children with CLP demonstrate a poor ability for using morphosyntactic elements. Therefore, it should be considered how children with CLP use the grammatical components.

On the development of two progressive constructions in U̠t-Ma’in

AbstractU̠t-Ma’in (Kainji, Benue-Congo), spoken in northwestern Nigeria, has two morphosyntactically distinct progressive constructions – the Intransitive Progressive Construction and the Transitive Progressive Construction. This paper presents the synchronic structure of each construction, proposed historical sources of the distinct morphological pieces, and a comparison of the U̠t-Ma’in Progressive Constructions with cognate elements from four Kainji language clusters. No single source component has grammaticalized to mark progressive aspect in U̠t-Ma’in. Rather, the combination of several elements created the progressive. Formal changes in several morphosyntactic elements within each of the constructions provide evidence that originally nominalized verb forms are gradually becoming less noun-like and more verb-like. These developments are examples of constructionalization, as the Progressive Constructions exist as new form-meaning pairs distinct from the source. These formal changes also show signs of adjustment, whereby a construction moves toward isomorphism, that is, a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning. Specifically, various stages of morphological loss are evident in particular lexemes when used in U̠t-Ma’in Progressive Constructions, gradually spreading throughout the lexicon.

Constructing lists to construct categories

The aim of this paper is to analyze list constructions as linguistic tools to build categories in discourse, identifying the inferential processes leading from list constructions to categorization and examining the semantic and morphosyntactic elements that activate abstractive reasoning within lists. Based on real occurrences of lists in written and spoken Italian, we will first of all propose a crucial distinction between exhaustive and non-exhaustive lists, arguing that (non-)exhaustivity determines the layer at which the construction of a category occurs, namely the layer of presupposition or the ‘what-is-said’ part of the utterance. We will then focus on non-exhaustive lists, arguing that they directly communicate a bottom-up, exemplar-driven abstraction, characterized by the presence of an inherently indexical reference (i.e. reference to further Xs characterized by some underlying Property P), which will lead us to call it ‘indexical categorization’. The linguistic analysis of how indexical categorization is expressed in discourse will show a major distinction between (i) elements characterized by an indexical semantics, which trigger the abstraction process, and (ii) elements providing semantic clues towards the correct construction of the indexical category. We will conclude by taking a broader perspective and by explaining the patterns observed for indexical categorization in the light of the wider process of online reference construction

Language learning and brain reorganization in a 3.5-year-old child with left perinatal stroke revealed using structural and functional connectivity

Brain imaging methods have contributed to shed light on the possible mechanisms of recovery and cortical reorganization after early brain insult. The idea that a functional left hemisphere is crucial for achieving a normalized pattern of language development after left perinatal stroke is still under debate. We report the case of a 3.5-year-old boy born at term with a perinatal ischemic stroke of the left middle cerebral artery, affecting mainly the supramarginal gyrus, superior parietal and insular cortex extending to the precentral and postcentral gyri. Neurocognitive development was assessed at 25 and 42 months of age. Language outcomes were more extensively evaluated at the latter age with measures on receptive vocabulary, phonological whole-word production and linguistic complexity in spontaneous speech. Word learning abilities were assessed using a fast-mapping task to assess immediate and delayed recall of newly mapped words. Functional and structural imaging data as well as a measure of intrinsic connectivity were also acquired. While cognitive, motor and language levels from the Bayley Scales fell within the average range at 25 months, language scores were below at 42 months. Receptive vocabulary fell within normal limits but whole word production was delayed and the child had limited spontaneous speech. Critically, the child showed clear difficulties in both the immediate and delayed recall of the novel words, significantly differing from an age-matched control group. Neuroimaging data revealed spared classical cortical language areas but an affected left dorsal white-matter pathway together with right lateralized functional activations. In the framework of the model for Social Communication and Language Development, these data confirm the important role of the left arcuate fasciculus in understanding and producing morpho-syntactic elements in sentences beyond two word combinations and, most importantly, in learning novel word-referent associations, a building block of language acquisition.

Diachronic extension of Linguistic Inventory Mightiness

It is widely believed that the order of morphosyntactic elements in Modern Chinese is to a large extent constrained by the Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS) proposed by Tai (1985, 2002, 2007). However, there are indeed some constructions in this language apparently deviating from PTS, e.g. 蹲到 dūn-dào ‘squat-to; go to squat’, with the two elements reverse-chronological. In the present paper I provide instead a new diachronic perspective, in the framework of Linguistic Inventory Mightiness (LIM) developed recently by Liu (2011, 2012), to account for constructions of this kind. I argue that it is the diachronic extension of the directional resultative-verb-compound (DRVC) pattern, since it shows the property of LIM that motivates the emergence of reverse-chronological constructions. It is argued that the LIM approach can also explain other related diachronic changes in the history of Chinese, e.g. 摸进 mō-jìn ‘touch-enter; enter accompanied by action of touching’, with the first verb being an static action verb originally but now having a manner-of-motion meaning in the construction, as well as the constructions of 回到 huí-dào ‘return-to’ and 进来 jìn-lái ‘enter-come’ which do not exist before Pre-Modern Chinese but emerge to be in use thereafter. The approach proposed in the present paper favors a two-fold standpoint, i.e. the organization of linguistic structure on the one hand follows cognitive principles, but on the other impact and constrain related conceptual organization in discourse as well.

The effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation on semantic and syntactic performance in spontaneous language production in people with Parkinson's disease

Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has become an established therapeutic option for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, the effects of unilateral and bilateral STN stimulation on spontaneous language production are explored, by comparing linguistic performance in different stimulation conditions with normative data of healthy subjects. Language samples of ten PD patients with DBS of the STN were obtained in four stimulation conditions: bilateral stimulation on, bilateral stimulation off, stimulation of the left STN only and stimulation of the right STN only. The spontaneous language production differed from the normative data in all four stimulation conditions. Especially morphosyntactic elements of spontaneous language production were altered. Despite these linguistic differences with normal controls no significant differences between stimulation conditions were found. These results emphasize that the effects of STN stimulation on spontaneous language production reflect a complex interplay of multiple factors.

Language Production and Reception: A Processability Theory Study

Pienemann's Processability Theory (PT) predicts an order of emergence of morphosyntactic elements in second language (L2) production data. This research investigates whether the same order of emergence can be detected in L2 reception data, specifically, data from a timed audio grammaticality judgment task (GJT). The results from three related studies are reported. Overall, evidence from two groups of learners of English as an L2 who took an audio GJT does not demonstrate the order of emergence predicted by PT. However, results from a production task followed the predicted order. These findings suggest that the processing routines in PT are operative during production only, raising questions about PT and the interconnectedness of the productive and receptive systems.

Structural and semantic non-correspondences between Chinese splittable compounds and their English translations: A Chinese-English parallel corpus-based study

Splittable Compounds (SCs henceforth) are a rather productive type of disyllabic verbal construction in Chinese, whose two morphological elements can be used together or separated by other interposing elements while the semantic integrity remains. The present study examines the English translations of SCs in a Chinese-English parallel corpus of five million Chinese characters and English words. The study takes a form-meaning combined approach to the structural and semantic differences or non-correspondences between SCs and their English translations. The non-correspondences of lexico-grammar and argument structure of SCs and their translations were thoroughly annotated and analysed. The predominant pattern revealed by our corpus investigation is that the English translations of SCs are characterised by semantic explicitation as well as structural explicitation. This is especially true in the English translations of non-split SCs. The split and non-split SCs are translated in different ways morpho-syntactically and semantically. The translations of non-split SCs more often involve rearrangements in argument structure, such as argument addition and semantic alternative, while the translations of split SCs are more likely to involve changes in grammatical properties. The reconfiguration of morpho-syntactic elements and semantic roles may well be explained from the typological differences of the two languages, the verb semantics, and the syntactic contexts of the SCs.

Agrammatism in Jordanian-Arabic speakers

The studies of agrammatism show that not all morpho-syntactic elements are impaired to the same degree and that some of this variation may be due to language-specific differences. This study investigated the production of morpho-syntactic elements in 15 Jordanian-Arabic (JA) speaking individuals with agrammatism and 15 age-matched neurologically healthy individuals. Two experiments were conducted to examine the production of complementizer, tense, agreement and negation morphology in JA. The results indicated that the speakers of JA with agrammatism had marked dissociations in producing specific morpho-syntactic elements. The observed impairment patterns overlapped, in many respects, with those observed in other linguistic groups. The findings are discussed with respect to current theories of agrammatism, including both morpho-syntactic and computational accounts.

Focus and uninformativity in Yucatec Maya questions

Crosslinguistically, questions frequently make crucial use of morphosyntactic elements which also occur outside of questions. Chief among these are focus, disjunctions, and wh-words with indefinite semantics. This paper provides a compositional account of the semantics of wh-, alternative, and polar questions in Yucatec Maya (YM), which are composed primarily of these elements. Key to the account is a theory of disjunctions and indefinites (extending work by others) which recognizes the inherently inquisitive nature of these elements. While disjunctions and indefinites are inquisitive, they differ from questions since they are also truth-conditionally informative. Compositionally, then, the role of focus in YM questions is to presuppose the informative component of an indefinite wh-word or disjunction, rendering the inquisitive component the question’s only new contribution to the discourse. In addition to deriving question denotations compositionally, the account also captures a potentially surprising fact: focused disjunctions in YM can function as either questions or assertions, depending solely on the discourse context.

The Relation of Switch-Reference, Animacy, and Obviation in Plains Cree

This paper offers a novel approach to the classical referential categories described for Plains Cree (Algonquian), paying particular attention to the notions of “animate obviative” and “inanimate obviative.” Based on the asymmetric morphological expression of these two proposed categories, I argue that the term “obviative” ought not to be applied equally to animate and inanimate, and that the grammatical category “inanimate obviative” is not relevant for Plains Cree. A compositional approach is developed instead, which demonstrates that the semantic and syntactic properties of “obviative” are predictable from the properties of the elements that construct them. So the grammatical category “obviative” is a property of constructions but not of particular morphosyntactic elements. I then consider the typological implications of this discussion, both for Algonquian and cross-linguistically.