Noun Phrases Research Articles

The genitive alternation in German

Abstract The genitive case in German is predominantly used to form noun modifiers (die Sehenswürdigkeiten [Hamburgs] ‘the sights of Hamburg’). Such genitive modifiers occur in a variety of different registers in German, and they have been claimed to be especially characteristic of non-proximal, written language. In many instances, they are interchangeable with diachronically younger prepositional phrases headed by von, with no noticeable impact on interpretation, thus giving rise to a genuine syntactic alternation phenomenon. There is an ongoing debate in the literature as to the distribution and function of these constructions. Based on corpus data from newspapers and internet discussion forums (approximately 15,000 noun phrases), we discuss semantic and syntactic conditions that limit the scope of this alternation. We then use a mixed-effects logistic regression model to examine a number of intra- and extralinguistic factors that bear on the choice of one construction over the other. We find that von-modifiers are used much less frequently than genitive modifiers overall, but there are grammatical niches in which they seem to thrive and, perhaps, even spread.

The gender congruency effect in sentence context depends on gender transparency and L2 proficiency: A self-paced reading study with Polish–German bilinguals

Aims and objectives: The gender congruency effect, and so the facilitated retrieval of grammatical gender for translation equivalents of the same gender, has been documented in the recognition of isolated words in L2. Our study investigates whether this effect extends to word recognition in sentence context and whether it is modulated by gender transparency and L2 proficiency. Design/methodology/approach: Sixty late unbalanced Polish–German bilinguals completed a self-paced reading task with noun phrases manipulated for lexical gender congruency with L1 (congruent, incongruent) and noun-internal gender transparency in L2 (transparent, non-transparent). L2 proficiency was assessed through the Dialang test. Data and analysis: Reading times on the noun were analysed by means of linear mixed-effects modelling. Findings/conclusion: Results showed a gender congruency effect that was limited to transparent nouns and which was greater at lower L2 proficiency levels. Originality: The study is the first to investigate the gender congruency effect in the recognition of nouns embedded in grammatical sentences. Significance/implications: The study shows that the presence of a contextualising sentence does not eliminate the cross-language effects of grammatical gender. Furthermore, it provides first evidence that individual noun-internal gender cues modulate the gender congruency effect. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between gender transparency at the micro-level and the degree of activation of gender values.

Developing Linguistic Constructs of Text Readability Using Natural Language Processing

ABSTRACT Purpose Understanding what makes a text difficult to read is an important element of literacy instruction, materials development, and research into text readability. Readability formulas are often used to quantify text readability. However, readability formulas often focus on a relatively limited number of text features that inform the reading process and/or use single features to measure complex language constructs under the presumption that related features do not interact with one another. As a result, the formulas can be difficult to interpret by practitioners. Method A principal component analysis was used to combine text features from advanced natural language processing tools into theoretically-inspired language constructs related to text comprehension. Result Results indicate that text features aggregated into seven components related to informational text, syntactic constructions, noun phrase complexity, lexical ease, function word ease, narrativity, and lexical variety. These components predicted 44% of the variance in readability scores reported in a large readability corpus. Conclusion The results provide evidence that individual linguistic features related to text readability can be combined into reading components that are strong predictors of text comprehension. Practically, these components should be more easily interpretable allowing for more actionable feedback and use by practitioners.

LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL MEANINGS OF PARAPHRASES ATTITUDE

It is known that in any text, the noun phrase is used more than other word phrases. Especially in the process of learning paraphrases, it is observed that this condition is even more active. In our opinion, this is explained by the nature of paraphrases.In this article, the grammatical, more precisely, morphologicalfeatures of paraphrases were studied, and their relation to word groups was analyzed.

Age-related differences in memory encoding and retrieval during referential processing: A time-frequency analysis.

We investigated how lexical form similarity of referential candidates and ambiguity of following pronouns impact the encoding and retrieval of words from memory during sentence processing in younger and older adults. Critical sentences included two noun phrases (henceforth NPs) that were either phonologically and orthographically similar (Jason and Jacob/Jade) or dissimilar (Jason and Matt/Hannah), followed by a pronoun (e.g., he) that was either ambiguous or unambiguous (depending on the genders of the preceding NPs). We analyzed brain activity time-locked to the onsets of the second NP (NP2) and the pronoun to investigate the encoding and the retrieval of the NPs, respectively. During encoding NP2, older adults exhibited greater alpha power when NP1 had the same-gender, whereas younger adults showed no such effect, suggesting an increased need for inhibition for older adults during encoding. Moreover, although both groups exhibited an increase in alpha power for similar NPs, only younger adults exhibited a theta power increase, suggesting similarity-induced inhibition for both groups, but an additional maintenance cost only for younger adults. During retrieval (i.e., on the pronoun), we found that both pronominal ambiguity and form similarity resulted in greater theta power for younger adults, suggesting full pronominal processing and therefore more difficult retrieval, but smaller theta/alpha power for older adults, suggesting good-enough processing and therefore easier retrieval. Together with complementary behavioral results, our findings suggest that older adults resort to good-enough referential processing when the retrieval of relevant representations is cognitively demanding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Potential objects and transitivity variations: A comparable corpus-driven study of Mandarin Chinese Verb-Object compounds

This study proposes a new approach to the transitivity variation of the Mandarin Verb-Object (VO) compound by focusing on the role of the potential objects instead of the incorporated object. This new approach highlights the interactions between language change and variation. Previous approaches to the transitivity variation of VO compounds, especially Mandarin Chinese VO compounds, have typically focused on the purported blocking effect of the incorporated object (O). Recent corpus-driven studies, however, have attested that Mandarin VO compounds can take objects. This study compared clausal contexts in two Chinese varieties when VO compounds take direct objects and showed that the same noun phrase tends to require a context of higher transitivity to function as a direct object in the Mainland variety, complementing the previously established tendencies that Taiwan Verb-Object compounds have higher object-taking abilities. Both changes and variations can be interpreted as lexical constructionalization, supplemented with insights from noun incorporation and lexical diffusion. Argument advancement after compound formation represents lexical constructionalization, motivated by a tendency to encode transitivity with less compositionality. The contrasting contextual and lexical transitivity trends in the two varieties support the shifting encoding of transitivity generalization, illustrating different stages of lexical constructionalization.

Reference to Patients in Nurse Shift Handover Meetings: Exploring the Dynamics of Referring Expressions

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the dynamics of referring expressions in hospital nurse handover meetings when discussing patients. We apply the methods of the Variable Length Markov Chain (VLMC) and network analyses to model the use of referring expressions and evaluate relationships between them. The models reveal second-order dependencies emerging for metonymy and noun phrases. Specifically, metonymy shows a greater association with the beginning of a reference, particularly in the context of other metonymies. In contrast, noun phrases tend to be more strongly associated with later points in the reference. Further, we introduce the notion of referential typicality, which measures the conformity of sequences of referring expressions to anticipated patterns. We show, for example, that consecutive noun phrases fall outside the typical pattern, whereas metonymical sequences and sequences of pronouns are highly typical. The transitions from metonymy or nouns to pronouns also closely align with a highly typical pattern. Using a Generalized Additive Model (GAM), we then track the overall evolution of referential typicality throughout the duration of handover meetings, from their beginning to end. The study reveals a subtle increase in referential typicality towards the end of these sessions, indicating a trend towards more consistent referencing as the discourse unfolds.

The decline of feminine gender: a cross-dialectal study of seven Norwegian dialects

This paper presents a cross-dialectal study of grammatical gender in Norwegian nominal phrases. Specifically, we investigate the decline of the feminine gender in three age groups across seven different dialects. The dialects vary in their morphological richness of gender marking: some dialects traditionally have more distinctive marking of the feminine gender. With an elicited production experiment, we investigate gender marking on the indefinite determiner and the definite suffix. We find that feminine gender is in decline in all dialects, but there are clear differences between the locations and between age groups. The feminine indefinite determiner ei is replaced by the masculine en at different rates and to a different degree in the various dialects. We furthermore find that the feminine definite suffix -a is retained in all locations except for Stavanger. We argue that the decline of the feminine gender can be explained by an interplay between the morphological richness of the given dialect and dialect contact. The former helps to retain the feminine as a separate category, while the latter accelerates the loss of the feminine.

Noun phrase complexity in English integrated writing placement test responses

Research has shown that the use of noun phrases is a salient characteristic favored in academic writing (Biber et al., 2011; Biber & Gray, 2011; Parkinson & Musgrave, 2014). Although studies have examined the structure of noun phrases, further research is needed to deepen our understanding of noun phrase complexity in order to inform the instructional content of academic writing courses. In response to this need and the call for more empirical evidence for the developmental stages for complexity features proposed by Biber et al. (2011), this study aimed to investigate differences in the use of noun modifiers among second language learners of English at varying proficiency levels. A corpus consisting of 286 essays, written by international students in response to an English integrated writing placement test, was analyzed for grammatical structures of noun phrases. Results indicated that more proficient writers employed significantly more attributive adjectives, prepositional phrases, finite relative clauses with non-animate head nouns, and nonfinite relative clauses. These findings support previous research on the relationship between writing proficiency and the use of noun modifiers and provide implications for both academic writing instruction and the development of writing assessment criteria.

Exploring challenges in audiovisual translation: A comparative analysis of human- and AI-generated Arabic subtitles in Birdman.

Movies often use allusions to add depth, create connections, and enrich the storytelling. However, translators may face challenges when subtitling movie allusions, as they must render both meaning and culture accurately despite existing language and cultural barriers. These challenges could be further complicated by the use of available AI tools attempting to subtitle movie allusions, while probably unaware of existing cultural complexities. This research investigates these challenges using qualitative and descriptive quantitative approaches by analyzing the movie Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), comprising13.014 words, to identify the types of allusions used and compare the human- vs. AI (ChatGPT)-generated Arabic subtitles in terms of the subtitling strategies, their frequency, and quality. The results revealed that the movie used 52 Noun Phrase (NP) allusions, where the writer intertextually employed a proper name to convey meaning, and 8 Key-Phrase (KP) allusions, where the writer used phrases that convey implicit meaning easily perceived by members of the source culture (by referring to religious, literary, or entertainment texts). For NP allusions, both the human translator and AI opted for retentive strategies; however, the human translator's preference to add guidance/parentheses to mark NP allusions was distinct. Additionally, it was observed that AI used neologism to render technology-related allusions, which could be a suggested strategy for NP subtitling into Arabic. For KP allusions, while the human translator seemed to be cognizant of the idea that KP allusions typically require a change in wording, AI fell short. Specifically, the human translator employed reduction in 5 out of 8 KPs, opting for minimum change/literal translation only three times. Conversely, AI utilized literal translation in all 8 examples, despite its awareness of the allusion and its intricate meaning/reference. As for the FAR assessment, for NP allusions, it revealed minor semantic errors in AI's subtitles that did not affect the plot. Regarding KP allusions, AI's subtitles were penalized in 5 out of its 8 Arabic renditions, in contrast to the human translator. Most of the errors were serious semantic errors that likely disrupted the flow of reading the subtitles due to conveying irrelevant meanings in the movie's/scene's context. Despite its functionality, this study suggests adding an extra parameter to the FAR model: consistency, as it plays a role in enhancing audience involvement and understanding. Its absence, as observed in some AI instances, can be misleading.

The Optimal Placement of the Head in the Noun Phrase. The Case of Demonstrative, Numeral, Adjective and Noun

ABSTRACT The word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the centre of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last). A critical question is when surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) should surpass syntactic dependency distance minimization. In the context of single head structures, it has been predicted that this is more likely to happen when two conditions are met, i.e. (a) fewer words are involved and (b) words are shorter. Here, we test the prediction on the noun phrase when it is composed of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. We find that, across preferred orders in languages, the noun tends to be placed at one of the ends, confirming the theoretical prediction. We also show evidence of anti-locality effects: syntactic dependency distances in preferred orders are longer than expected by chance.

Mengzian knowledge practicalism

ABSTRACT I argue that, for Mengzi, the kind of knowledge that features in expressions of the form ‘knowing N’, where N is a noun or a noun phrase, is not a kind of belief but is instead a capacity for intelligently performing relevant actions. My argument proceeds by showing that, first, Mengzi is committed to the view that a person knows N iff she is relevantly capable and, second, that the best explanation for this is that the kind of knowledge involved in knowing N is a capacity. Finally, I motivate such a practicalist interpretation by arguing that it offers us a general but informative explanation of what it is that knowing N makes the knower capable of doing.

Relevance of Prosodic Focus and Lexical Stress for Discourse Comprehension in Turkish: Evidence from Psychometric and Electrophysiological Data.

Prosody underpins various linguistic domains ranging from semantics and syntax to discourse. For instance, prosodic information in the form of lexical stress modifies meanings and, as such, syntactic contexts of words as in Turkish kaz-má "pickaxe" (noun) versus káz-ma "do not dig" (imperative). Likewise, prosody indicates the focused constituent of an utterance as the noun phrase filling the wh-spot in a dialogue like What did you eat? I ate----. In the present study, we investigated the relevance of such prosodic variations for discourse comprehension in Turkish. We aimed at answering how lexical stress and prosodic focus mismatches on critical noun phrases-resulting in grammatical anomalies involving both semantics and syntax and discourse-level anomalies, respectively-affect the perceived correctness of an answer to a question in a given context. To that end, 80 native speakers of Turkish, 40 participating in a psychometric experiment and 40 participating in an EEG experiment, were asked to judge the acceptability of prosodic mismatches that occur either separately or concurrently. Psychometric results indicated that lexical stress mismatch led to a lower correctness score than prosodic focus mismatch, and combined mismatch received the lowest score. Consistent with the psychometric data, EEG results revealed an N400 effect to combined mismatch, and this effect was followed by a P600 response to lexical stress mismatch. Conjointly, these results suggest that every source of prosodic information is immediately available and codetermines the interpretation of an utterance; however, semantically and syntactically relevant lexical stress information is assigned more significance by the language comprehension system compared with prosodic focus information.

Understanding ‘many’ through the lens of Ukrainian багато

We reveal an ongoing language change in Ukrainian involving a construction with a subject comprised of the indefinite quantifier багато ‘many’ modifying a noun phrase in the Genitive Plural. Number agreement on the verb varies, allowing both Singular (in 69.1% of attestations) and Plural (in 30.9% of attestations). Based on statistical analysis of corpus data, we investigate the influence of the factors of year of creation, word order of subject and verb, and animacy of the subject on the choice of verb number. We find that, while all combinations of word order and animacy are robustly attested, VS word order and inanimate subjects tend to prefer Singular, whereas SV word order and animate subjects tend to prefer Plural. Since about the 1950s, the proportion of Plural has been increasing, overtaking Singular in the current decade. We propose that this Singular vs. Plural variation is motivated by the human embodied experience of construing a group of items as either a homogeneous mass (and therefore Singular) or a multiplicity of individuals (and therefore Plural). This proposal is supported by the identification of micro-constructions that prefer Singular and show reduced individuation of human beings.

Determinante e doppio determinante nel code-switching arabo-italiano

This article explores the phenomenon of code-switching, specifically focusing on bilingual Arabic-Italian determiner phrases which consist of a determiner, such as an article or a demonstrative, followed by a noun phrase as a complement. The data examined were selected from a corpus of Arabic-Italian spontaneous speech with the aim of (1) comparing and describing the characteristics and differences of the determiner systems of the two languages; (2) illustrating the features of code-switching in determiner phrases and the various types found in the collected data; and (3) studying the mutual influence of the two languages in contact contexts. The data analysis revealed two types of code-switching: switching at the beginning of a determiner phrase, where both the determiner and its complement are in the same language, and switching within a determiner phrase, where the determiner and the head noun are from different languages. This latter category also includes determiner phrases with double determiners, which will be analyzed in detail in this article to discuss the features of this linguistic structure in Arabic-Italian bilingual phrases.

The Use of English Relative Clauses by Indonesian Authors: A Case Study in Business, Engineering, and Science Journal Articles

The ability to effectively use relative clauses is pivotal in English journal articles, as it allows authors the flexibility to modify various noun phrases within sentences to convey clearer and more precise writing. This research explores the strategies employed by Indonesian authors from three distinct disciplines - business, engineering, and science. To accomplish this, we analyzed thirty papers published in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Makara Journal of Science, and Gadjahmada International Journal of Business. In total, 1453 relative clauses were collected and analyzed. A cross-classification analysis was performed to examine the distribution of relative clauses. The findings of the study indicate a preference among Indonesian writers to use non-reduced relative clauses, specifically those that serve as restrictive modifiers for objects. We also observe that the past participle is employed with greater frequency than the present participle. The results reveal that Indonesian authors prefer non-reduced relative clauses over reduced ones, opt for restrictive clauses over non-restrictive ones, and consistently favor relativizing the subject (S-form) in their relative clauses over the object (O-form). Our results also show that the choice of relative clauses is subject-specific, influenced by the distinct communicative requirements and preferences within each field. Our examination of relative clauses has provided insights into the syntactic choices, including their reduction status, restrictiveness, the use of participles, connectors, and the syntactic category modified by the clause.

Silent Nominal Heads in Manner Adverbials

In this study we will start from a suggestion taken from Kayne’s proposal (2016) about silent heads, in order to analyse the structure of some specific adverbial PPs in different languages. It will be argued that behind certain manner constructions consisting of a preposition plus an adjective may lie a full nominal phrase, whose head is generally – but not exclusively – silent. This study will show that there is a cross-linguistic tendency to create manner expressions using a nominal head meaning ‘way’ or ‘manner’, and also that this head may change diachronically, either becoming silent to form idiomatic expressions, or being reanalysed and grammaticalised into a productive adverbial suffix.

Виленский базар Подгале: происхождение и бытование названия<b></b>

The article is devoted to the Russian name of the oldest Vilnius covered market (lit. Halės turgus), the history of which is directly related to the ups and downs of the political life of Lithuania, important historical events, engineering and technical achievements in the field of civil engineering at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The change in the urban landscape and the emergence of a new accent in it, the change of authorities and the dominant language in the country, specific of the motley social and speech environment in the city as a whole and on its trading floors affected the difficult history of the new name. The immediate subject of analysis was the word Подгале (Podhale), which goes back to the Polish nominative phrase Pod Halą with the reference word hala (← German Halle). Since an important object of urban infrastructure is necessarily displayed on city plans and recorded in signs to them, the article examines in detail these documentary sources from different historical periods and in different languages: Russian — from the time of the Tsarist Empire; Polish — pre-war and inter-war; Lithuanian — after the First World War. Along with the plans of the corresponding time, other sources of information are analyzed — address books and postcards with images of the object of interest to us, which to a lesser extent can claim to be historical evidence, but often reflect the actual existence of naming among townspeople. The article traces the role of the state Lithuanian language in the fate of the unofficial Russian urbanonym.

Noun Phrase Complexity in Saudi University Students’ Academic Writing

Noun Phrase Complexity in Saudi University Students’ Academic Writing

태국인 초급 학습자의 관형 명사구 사용 양상 연구 -어순을 중심으로-

태국인 초급 학습자의 관형 명사구 사용 양상 연구 -어순을 중심으로-