Nominative Case Marker Research Articles

Boundary-driven downstep induced by syntax-prosody mapping.

This study investigates whether downstep in Japanese is directly triggered by accents. When the pitch height of a word X is lower after an accented word (A) than after an unaccented word (U), X is diagnosed as downstepped. However, this diagnosis involves two confounding factors: the already lowered F0 before X and phonological phrasing. To control these factors, this study contrasts genitive and nominative case markers and adjusts measurement points. Eight native speakers of Tokyo Japanese participated in a production experiment. The results show six key findings. First, a structure-dependent F0 downtrend was observed in UX. Second, higher F0 peaks with larger initial lowering were observed after accents with a nominative case marker compared to those with a genitive case marker, suggesting a boosting effect by boundaries. Third, larger initial lowering was observed in AX compared to UX, contradicting the notion that X is more compressed in AX due to downstep. Fourth, the paradigmatic difference in F0 height between AX and UX decreases when F0 of X is increased, supporting that boundaries trigger downstep. Fifth, downstep is not physiologically constrained but is phonologically controlled. Finally, the blocking of initial lowering in heavy syllables is not phonological but rather an articulatory phenomenon.

Analisis Kesalahan Penggunaan Partikel Penanda Nominatif -i/ga dan Akusatif eul/reul dalam Karangan Pendek Mahasiswa

This article describes the types and frequencies of errors in the use of the nominative case marker 이/가 (i/ga) and the accusative case marker 을/를 (eul/reul) in short essays written by second-semester students of the Korean Language and Culture Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada. This study analyzed 93 short essays written on the midterm and final exams for the Korean Reading and Writing II course in the 2021/2022 academic year. This research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. The errors were classified based on the particle usage error classification theory proposed by Jo Cheol Hyeon (2002). The research results showed that there were 66 data in total found in the students' short essays. Of the total 36 data of nominative case marker이/가(i/ga) errors, there were 22 data (61.11%) of substitution errors, 13 data (36.11%) of deletion errors, and 1 data (2.78%) of form error. Then, of the total 31 data of accusative case marker을/를 (eul/reul) errors, there were 20 data (66.67%) of substitution errors and 10 data (33.33%) of deletion errors. One of the factors that is thought to contribute to the occurrence of errors in the use of nominative case marker이/가 (i/ga) and accusative case marker을/를 (eul/reul) is inadequate knowledge of the word class of a Korean sentence predicate. This causes learners to be unable to correctly determine the arguments that function as subject and object in a sentence.

Argument structure constructions in competition: The Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat alternation in Icelandic

Abstract Alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs in Icelandic are notorious for instantiating two diametrically opposed argument structures: the Dat-Nom and the Nom-Dat construction. We conduct a systematic study of the relevant verbs to uncover the factors steering the alternation. This involves a comparison of 15 verbs, five alternating ones, and as a control, five Nom-Dat verbs and five non-alternating Dat-Nom verbs. Our findings show that alternating verbs instantiate the Nom-Dat construction 54% of the time and the Dat-Nom construction 46% of the time on average for four of five verbs when both arguments are full NPs. However, in configurations with a nominative pronoun, the Nom-Dat construction takes precedence over the Dat-Nom construction. Also, for the double-NP configuration, a logistic regression analysis identifies indefiniteness and length as two key predictors, apart from nominative case marking. We demonstrate that the latter systematically correlates with discourse-prominence, which we show, upon closer inspection, correlates with topicality.

Patterns of Nominal Case Marking in Arabic Gospel Manuscripts

Patterns of Nominal Case Marking in Arabic Gospel Manuscripts

A Study on the Correspondence of Nominative Case Marker and Topic Marker in Korean and Japanese Texts

A Study on the Correspondence of Nominative Case Marker and Topic Marker in Korean and Japanese Texts

Simultaneous interpreting experience enhances the use of case markers for prediction in Turkish

Abstract This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in professional and student Turkish (A)–English (B) simultaneous interpreters as a function of simultaneous interpreting (SI) experience and working memory capacity (WMC). A Turkish visual-world eye-tracking prediction task examined whether the accusative versus the nominative case markers on the initial nouns of sentences could be used as cues to predicting an upcoming argument. The participants’ WMC was measured using an automated operation span task. We found a prediction effect (a significantly higher increase in fixations to the plausible agent with time in the accusative than in the nominative condition) for the professionals, but not for the students. WMC contributed positively to the prediction effect in the professionals. Our findings indicate an SI-related advantage for prediction in professional versus student interpreters. Importantly, the present findings revealed an SI-related advantage in a prediction task that did not require interpreting.

The Online Processing of Korean Case by Native Korean Speakers and Second Language Learners as Revealed by Eye Movements.

Previous experimental studies have reported clear differences between native speakers and second language (L2) learners as concerns their capacity to extract and exploit morphosyntactic information during online processing. We examined the online processing of nominal case morphology in Korean by native speakers and L2 learners by contrasting canonical (SOV) and scrambled (OSV) structures, across auditory (Experiment 1) and written (Experiment 2) formats. Moreover, we compared different instances of nominal case marking: accusative (NOM-ACC) and dative (NOM-DAT). During auditory processing, Koreans showed incremental processing based on case information, with no effect of scrambling or specific case marking. In contrast, the L2 group showed no evidence of predictive processing and was negatively impacted by scrambling, especially for the accusative. During reading, both Koreans and the L2 group showed a cost of scrambling on first pass reading times, specifically for the dative. Lastly, L2 learners showed better comprehension for scrambled dative than accusative structures across formats. The current set of results show that format, the specific case marking, and word order all affect the online processing of nominal case morphology.

Onpersoonlijke datief-nominatiefwerkwoorden in het hedendaagse Duits: definitie, inventaris en semantische classificatie

Several studies have drawn attention to the fact that subjecthood is not necessarily associated with nominative case-marking (Andrews 1976, Þráinsson 1979, Zaenen, Maling & Þráinsson 1985, Sigurðsson 1989, inter alia).1 This article seeks to contribute to the study of non-canonically case marked subjects by zooming in on nominative-dative verbs in Present-Day with a subject-like oblique argument (henceforth: impersonal dative-nominative verbs). The aim of this article is twofold. First, I present an exhaustive list of all German impersonal dative-nominative verbs, and secondly, I aim to classify them according to the semantic typology suggested by Barðdal et al. (2016). The results show that impersonal dative-nominative verbs are far more numerous than hitherto assumed, and that their semantic distribution gravitates towards meanings pertaining to emotions, cognitive processes, and contexts of gain and benefit.

From Bidialectal to Bilingual

The present work examines nominal case marking in Wisconsin Heritage German, based on audio recordings of six speakers made in the late 1940s. Linguistic data provide positive evidence for a four-case nominal system characteristic of Standard German. At the same time, biographical and demographic information show that the heritage varieties acquired and spoken in the home often employed a different nominal system, one that often exhibited dative-accusative case syncretism and lacked genitive case—features that surfaced even when Standard German was spoken. These data strongly suggest that speakers were proficient in both their heritage variety of German, acquired through naturalistic means, as well as in Standard German, acquired through institutional support in educational and religious domains. Over time, these formal German-language domains shifted to externally oriented, English-language institutions. Standard German was no longer supported, while the heritage variety was retained in domestic and social domains. Subsequent case syncretism in Wisconsin Heritage German therefore reflects the retention of preimmigration, nonstandard varieties, rather than a morphological change in a unified heritage grammar. This work concludes by proposing a multistage model of domain-specific language shift, informed by both synchronic variation within the community as well as by social factors affecting language shift over time.

Morphosyntactic Restructuring in Child Heritage Georgian

This study investigates morphosyntactic restructuring in Heritage Georgian, a highly agglutinative language with polypersonal agreement. Child heritage speakers of Georgian (n = 26, age 3-16) completed a Frog Story narrative task and a lexical proficiency task in Georgian. Heritage speaker narratives were compared to narratives produced by age-matched peers living in Georgia (n = 30, age 5-14) and Georgian children and young adults who moved to the United States during childhood (n = 7, age 9–24). Heritage Georgian speakers produced more instances of non-standard nominal case marking and non-standard verbal subject agreement than their homeland peers. Individual morphosyntactic divergence was predicted by lexical score, but not by oral fluency or age. Patterns of divergence in the nominal domain included overuse of the default case (nominative) as well as over-extension of non-default cases (ergative, dative). In the verbal domain, person agreement was more consistently marked than number. Subject agreement exhibited more divergence from the baseline than object agreement, contrary to previous evidence from similar heritage languages (e.g., Heritage Hindi, Montrul et al., 2012). Results indicate that morphosyntactic production in child Heritage Georgian generally displays the same divergences as adult heritage-language grammars, but language-specific differences also underscore the need for continued documentation of lesser-studied heritage languages.

Look and listen! The online processing of Korean case by native and non-native speakers

ABSTRACTWe used a forced choice visual world paradigm to examine when listeners integrate case when processing Korean, in native speakers and two groups of adult L2 learners. The L2 learners varied as concerns the typological proximity between their L1 (French or Kazakh) and Korean. Processing was compared for canonical (SOV) and scrambled (OSV) word order. Nominal case marking was either accusative (NOM-ACC) or dative (NOM-DAT). Native Koreans showed anticipatory looks to the correct image, regardless of word order or case. Neither L2 group showed anticipatory looks to the correct image prior to the final auditory verb. Both L2 groups demonstrated superior performance for the dative. However, the Kazakh group showed better capacities to correctly interpret utterances based on case than the French. Our results provide evidence of the incremental nature of processing in Korean for native speakers and, for L2 learners, the effect of L1–L2 overlap and specific case marking.

사용역에 따른 인용구문의 정보구조

This paper aims to observe the characteristics of the information structure of quotative constructions according to registers. Here, ‘quotative constructions, resisters and information structure’ are studied in separate domains; however, several interesting phenomena can be found when these concepts are considered together.BR In this paper, I accept the viewpoints of information structure of 전영철(2006) and 최윤지(2016) and divide each register into ‘newspaper, conversation, academic prose’. In the newspaper component, the subjects of quotative construction tend to take ‘은/는’ as the nominative case marker. In the quotative construction of conversation, the subjects are omitted or take ‘이/가’ as the case marker in general. In academic prose, the subjects of quotative construction can take only ‘은/는’.

일본인 한국어 학습자의 피사동주 격 표지 습득 양상 연구

The aim of the study is to investigate the causee case marking by Japanese L1 learners of Korean. Twenty Korean native speakers (NK) and 54 Japanese L1 learners participated (24 high level learners, HL and 30 low level learners, LL). The task was acceptability judgment task composed of 48 causative sentences. Linguistic contexts of sentences were divided by verb transitivity (transitive causation and intransitive) and type of causation (syntactic and morphological). The types of case marking were nominative, accusative, and dative. The result showed proficiency variability among LL and HL. LL showed different acceptability judgment from NK by taking permissive attitude in ungrammatical nominative and dative case marking contexts. Their L2 responses were not fully reflecting their L1 norm nor exhibiting target language-like norm. This indicates that L1 is not the fundamental resources of lower level L2ers when they face poverty of stimuli. They continue to test interlanguage hypothesis by keeping themselves open to L1 and L2 phenomenon. HL's acceptability judgment was not significantly different from both of NK and LL which indicated that they were in the middle of acquiring Korean causee marking even when they had arrived at the advanced level of Korean proficiency. This implies that explicit instruction on causee marking needs to be provided in L2 Korean classroom.

제주방언 격조사의 담화 기능

This paper dealt with the grammar and discourse functions of nominative, locative, directive and dative case markers in the Jeju Dialect. The four nominative case markers -i ,-ga, -iseo and -eseo in the Jeju dialect have the grammatical function similar to those of standard Korean and the latter two of them indicate the meaning of group. The discourse meaning of the four markers is to emphasize, confirm and conclude the meaning of a noun phrase preceding those markers. The one locative marker -e shows the discourse meaning concretizing, confirming, stressing a thing or a place in which an act of the predicate occurs. The discourse meaning of the other locative marker -di includes confirmation, designation and emphasis in addition to its grammatical meaning of place. The directive case marker -eorae whose grammatical meaning is location and direction signifies the discourse meaning of confirmation, conclusion, designation and emphasis and its function is to specifically determine the scope of agent's action. There are four dative case markers -sindi, -sinderae, -anti and -antirae in the Jeju dialect and their discourse meaning includes confirmation, conclusion, designation and emphasis.

A Comparative Study of Case Markers in Korean, Japanese and Ryukyuan Languages: Focusing on Nominative Case Markers and Accusative Case Markers

A Comparative Study of Case Markers in Korean, Japanese and Ryukyuan Languages: Focusing on Nominative Case Markers and Accusative Case Markers

중세ㆍ근대국어 주격조사 연구의 쟁점과 과제

중세ㆍ근대국어 주격조사 연구의 쟁점과 과제

Strength of garden-path effects in native and non-native speakers’ processing of object–subject ambiguities

Aims and objectives: Our study addresses the following research questions: To what extent is L2 comprehenders’ online sensitivity to morphosyntactic disambiguation cues affected by L1 background? Does noticing the error signal trigger successful reanalysis in both L1 and L2 comprehension? Can previous findings suggesting that case is a better reanalysis cue than agreement be replicated and extended to L2 processing when using closely matched materials? Design/methodology/approach: We carried out a self-paced reading study using temporarily ambiguous object-initial sentences in German. These were disambiguated either by number marking on the verb or by nominative case marking on the subject. End-of-trial comprehension questions probed whether or not our participants ultimately succeeded in computing the correct interpretation. Data and analysis: We tested a total of 121 participants (25 Italian, 32 Russian, 32 Korean and 32 native German speakers), measuring their word-by-word reading times and comprehension accuracy. The data were analysed using linear mixed-effects and logistic regression modelling. Findings/conclusions: All three learner groups showed online sensitivity to both case and agreement disambiguation cues. Noticing case disambiguations did not necessarily lead to a correct interpretation, whereas noticing agreement disambiguations did. We conclude that intermediate to advanced learners are sensitive to morphosyntactic interpretation cues during online processing regardless of whether or not corresponding grammatical distinctions exist in their L1. Our results also suggest that case is not generally a better reanalysis cue than agreement. Originality: Our three L2 participant groups’ native languages were carefully chosen so as to create systematic typological contrasts. Our experimental materials and conditions were more closely matched compared to previous studies on German object-initial sentences, and our experimental design allowed us to link participants’ reading profiles to successful comprehension. Significance/implications: L1 influence on L2 processing is more limited than might be expected. Contra previous findings, even intermediate learners show sensitivity to both agreement and case information during processing.

Agency and Intentional Action in Kathmandu Newar

Author(s): Hargreaves, David | Abstract: The paradigm of verbal morphology in Kathmandu Newar involves a binary opposition of two sets of forms, the so-called conjunct/disjunct system. However, in its distributional properties, the system indexes a complex functional interaction between semantic representations and pragmatic principles:1) The construal of intentional action as a force dynamic with an appropriate mental representation,2) The deictic properties of speech acts and speech participant roles,3) An evidential principle requiring privileged access to internal states.In addition, related concepts of agency and causation are indexed via the system of ergative/absolutive nominal case marking and causative morphology. Although there is a fair degree of semantic overlap between notions of causation, agency and intentional action, the formal and functional properties of the three domains (verbal inflectional morphology, causative morphology and the ergative/absolutive case marking) exhibit significant degrees of formal and functional autonomy.

Complex negative adjectives in Japanese: The relation between syntactic and morphological constructions

Japanese has a fairly large set of complex adjectives formed by combining a noun with the adjective nai ‘null, empty’. The complex negative adjectives have the remarkable property that they allow nominative case marking to appear inside them optionally. We argue that these complex negative adjectives can be classified into three classes, and that the differences in their syntactic behaviour can be accounted for by positing three distinct morphosyntactic configurations (ranging from a fully phrasal structure to a complex word involving morphological compounding). Some, though not all, complex negative adjectives with case marking show a behaviour which suggests that they constitute single lexical units, while at the same time their components are susceptible to syntactic operations that normally do not apply to the internal structure of words. The data on the Japanese complex adjectives illustrate that adjectives formed via quasi-noun incorporation do not constitute words in a strict morphological sense, in that the entire complexes behave as lexical units, while their components remain visible syntactically.

The Acquisition of Nominative Case Marking in L2 Japanese: A Corpus Study

The Acquisition of Nominative Case Marking in L2 Japanese: A Corpus Study