Noun Phrases Research Articles

A ‘big DP’ analysis of Russian copular constructions with <em>èto</em>

This paper develops a novel analysis of èto copular constructions in Russian. First, we address ‘NOMpre èto NOMpost’ constructions, where NOM is a nominative noun phrase. We propose that there are two predication relations established in such clauses: one on the clausal level, with NOMpost being the subject of predication, and another one within the constituent headed by èto. The latter, we argue, constitutes a ‘big DP’: it contains NOMpre in the specifier position and pro in the complement position of D0; a predication relation is established between the two with the help of the predicativizer èto. The analysis is extended to account for ‘èto NOMpost’ constructions. The proposal goes against treating èto in ‘(NOMpre) èto NOMpost’ constructions as the subject of predication or as a dedicated functional head on the clausal spine; it also explicitly rejects treating NOMpre in all ‘(NOMpre) èto NOMpost’ constructions as a hanging topic. The proposed analysis captures all the relevant properties of èto constructions and makes important predictions about their distribution, the agreement pattern, and the properties of NOMpost. The ‘big DP’ approach also allows us to establish a link between èto copular constructions and specificational pseudo-clefts.

Rhymes and Syntax: A Morpho-Syntactic Analysis of Czech Poetry

A linguistically informed distant reading presupposes an adequate performance of Natural Language Processing tools. This article describes our evaluation of the UDPipe parser on a manually annotated sample of nineteenth-century Czech poetry in the following steps: (1) creation of a documented data set for this domain (poetry, nineteenth century, Czech); (2) domain-specific annotation decisions; (3) error analysis. The sample consisted of 29 randomly selected poems which were first automatically tagged and parsed with the UDPipe parser and then manually checked word by word. The following features were checked: word segmentation (chunking), lemmatization, part of speech assignment, assignment of more fine-grained morphological details, the position in the syntactic dependency tree (selection of the syntactic parent), as well as the label of the syntactic relation between the word and its parent. The findings were analyzed. The most typical parser errors are associated with complex noun phrases that contain other noun(s) as modifier(s), especially when these occur in a poetry-specific word order, that is, preposed to the governing noun. On the other hand, neither archaic orthography nor neologisms posed substantial issues.

Children's Interpretations of Numerically Quantified Expression Ambiguities: Evidence from Quantified Noun Phrases and Bare Cardinals.

Understanding how children comprehend text by forming links between sentences has been the focus of research for decades. Such research has consistently shown that children use anaphors and resolve ambiguities in a different manner than adults. The present study examined a less-studied anaphoric reference that arises when two numerically quantified expressions (e.g., "three cats… two cats…") are used in the text. Focusing on 249 six- to eight-year-old children and 50 adults for comparison, the study employed a picture selection task across six experiments to assess interpretative preferences in ambiguous and unambiguous discourses containing numerically quantified expressions. The findings indicate a pronounced difference in interpretative strategies: unlike adults, who predominantly adopted an anaphoric subset reading, children showed a consistent preference for the non-anaphoric reading, even in contexts explicitly disambiguated towards this interpretation. This preference persisted across various experimental manipulations, highlighting challenges in text integration and comprehension among children. Contributing to the developmental trajectory of language comprehension, this study underscores the complexity of cognitive development and linguistic interpretation, revealing significant developmental differences in processing numerically quantified expressions and anaphoric references within discourse.

Analysis of verb argument constructions (VACs) in L2 learners across proficiency levels: A corpus-based study in L1 Indonesian

This study investigated the constructional knowledge development of L1 Indonesian by examining nineteen Verb-Argument Constructions (VACs). The VACs examined in the present study are a verb pattern, followed by a preposition and a noun phrase, for example, “V about N” as in “He talkedaboutthe progress”. This study used the Indonesian subset of the Education First Cambridge Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT) corpus from beginner to advanced levels (CEFR A1 to C1; Council of Europe, 2001). This dataset comprises 2943 writing texts (224,763 words) from 623 learners. Frequency analysis of types and tokens was conducted to examine the distribution of the 19 VACs in learner writings across levels. Growth analyses were conducted to investigate the verbs that learners most frequently associated with the most productive VACs. Correlational analyses were conducted to explore how closely related the verb-VAC associations between proficiency levels and the verb occupants in the associations. The results indicate that learners’ constructional knowledge development was implied by: (1) the frequency increase in types and tokens of VACs from lower to higher proficiency levels, (2) the variety of verbs associated with VACs, and (3) the construction schematicity increase indicated by the use of general to more specific verb productions distinct to proficiency levels. The results suggest that English language learners need more exposure to lexicogrammatical features to facilitate VACs acquisition and usage.

ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION SHIFT IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN'S STORYBOOKS

lingual illustrated children's stories are excellent tools for teaching English to beginners, particularly children. Translating such stories requires the use of simple and easily understandable language to aid children's growth and development. Thus, it is crucial that translation shifts in children's stories effectively convey meaning and are suitable for young learners. This study focuses on the translation shifts in the illustrated bilingual children's story "The Mouse and the Frog," which is rich in moral values and character development.The urgency of this research lies in identifying and analyzing the types and forms of translation shifts in noun phrases within the story. The objective is to develop models and provide empirical evidence on these shifts, enhancing understanding of translation practices, particularly in the context of noun phrases. The research employs document analysis and data triangulation methods, with media sourced from a YouTube channel.Results indicate that translation shifts in noun phrases predominantly occur in the form of unit shifts. This study aims to contribute a new model to the field of English translation, improving and expanding knowledge in this area. The findings are expected to enhance readers' understanding of translation, particularly for beginners in English, and provide insights for translators working with children's literature.

Creativity in Narrative Writing: Utilizing Mind Mapping with Ethnic Identification Model in Higher Education

Arabic language learning innovations are developing with various learning media, such as mindmapping. The use of mindmapping-based media can provide learning experiences for students. This research aimed to test the effectiveness of Mind Mapping concept in narrative writing skills for ethnic groups in Indonesia. A mixed research design was used with a quantitative approach to test the effectiveness of learning writing skills using Mind Mapping and a qualitative approach to identify student creativity in developing narrative paragraphs. 35 students who studied writing skills at UIN Imam Bonjol Padang in the Arabic Language Education study program were involved. The results showed that; 1) The effectiveness of Mind Mapping in narrative writing showed an increase in the average learning outcomes for writing skills to 77.91 which showed positive significance; 2) Creativity in writing narratives about Indonesian ethnic groups was identified including the distribution of the meaning of ethnic groups, characteristics of ethnic groups and examples of traditional culture, characterized by varied writing structures with the choice of various grammatical structures such as the arrangement of verbal phrases, adjectives, prepositions, adverbial attributes and nominal phrases. This article confirmed that the use of Mind Mapping for learning writing skills can develop paragraph ideas for writing skills in higher education.

The dynamics of syntactic and lexical complexity measures in academic writing

This study explores the L2 production of university students enrolled in an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) course, by means of the analysis of the complexity of their academic writing performance. It focuses on syntactic and lexical complexity and their relationship with L2 writing quality and L2 proficiency. The participants were 182 L2 college-level students at difference levels of proficiency in English. The essays were evaluated by means of both global ratings of writing quality and quantitative measures of syntactic and lexical analysis. Results showed that the length of sentences and noun phrases, as well as subordination are all related to writing quality. In addition, the length of noun phrases along with lexical richness and diversity can differentiate proficiency levels. This study shows a greater use of complex phrasal constructions in the writing of more competent third-level students. Finally, our study that at advanced competence levels syntactic and lexical complexity are not synchronous, as syntactic complexity remains stable while lexical complexity continues increasing.

Automatic generation of nominal phrases for Portuguese and Galician

Abstract This paper presents XeraWord, an innovative tool for automatically generating nominal phrases. XeraWord can be used for different tasks, ranging from teaching languages to the creation of examples in lexicography, or even for the development of resources for natural language processing. In this area, Xera was the first experiment, allowing the automatic generation of nominal phrases in three languages: German, French and Spanish. This tool was extended to support other languages, namely, Portuguese and Galician. We start by presenting the theory behind the development of Xera and its new version, XeraWord, namely, the applied base methodology, and the natural language processing resources used to support it. Then, TraduWord, a tool specifically developed to construct resources for new languages, is presented. This tool allows the semi-automatic translation of the data required for the nominal phrase generation. For this, we discuss its advantages and disadvantages, analysing the quality of the translated resources, as well as the amount of manual work required to validate and correct these resources.

Come On, Be Good! It's Nearly Over... .German and Romanian Forms of Address in Communication between Pets, Vets or Pet Owners and the Animal to Be Treated

The form of address is one of the most important features for making contact in society. Dictionaries and grammars provide very little information on the subject, so in each situation, learners have to take into account factors such as Communication situation, age of interlocutors, social status, and official nature of the situation to make an appropriate decision. Based on recordings and interviews, I try to ascertain what pronominal and nominal forms of address occur in German and Romanian veterinary practices. In addition to the first names, pet names and nicknames with which the pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, cows, ducks, etc.) are addressed by the pet owners and the veterinarians, nominal phrases such as Guter Junge! or Un băiat cuminte! (A good boy) appear. In addition to the forms of address mentioned above, Romanian also has reverse forms of address and interjections of address.

Deictic center split in delayed interpretation paradoxes: Solutions inspired by evidence from Polish

Abstract This paper presents a nuanced theoretical approach to the semantic interpretation of indexical expressions in delayed interpretation scenarios such as the Answering Machine Paradox [AMP] (Sidelle 1991). In order for recorded messages containing indexicals to be true with respect to the context of interpretation rather than the context of recording, semantic indexical shift must take place (Kaplan 1979). This is something that truth-conditional approaches to indexicality struggle to explain. The solution proposed in this paper is inspired by evidence from the syntax of Polish negated locative statements. The occurrence of the Genitive of Negation in Polish locatives that forces a Nominative-to-Genitive shift on the main noun phrase suggests a cognitive distancing from the object whose presence at a location is denied. The fact that it occurs for sentences containing indexicals could point at a phenomenon that corroborates the need for indexical shift in such cases. The notion of deictic center split is proposed to explain how a reference-based framework can link the empty reference of an indexical at the context of interpretation with the real reference at the context of recording thus saving the intuitions behind the standard account while allowing for semantic indexical shift in AMP cases.

한국어 이항 서술어 ‘좋다’의 논항 실현 양상 연구

This study focuses on double subject constructions with the predicate ‘cohta((be) good/like)’, sourced from messenger corpus, finally categorizing them into six types in terms of their syntactic and semantic properties. A significant finding is that 97% of the analyzed sentences fall into type 1 and type 2, with a maximum of three noun phrases being realized. Type 1 and type 2 are notably distinct in several aspects including the semantic traits of noun phrases, the placement of adverbs of degree, the variability in the use of particles, and verb phrase expansion. Although the research is confined to specific conditions, limiting its general applicability to Korean double subject constructions, it can contribute to general Korean syntax by exploring a wide range of cases, including those typically unrealized, and highlighting the frequent syntactic and semantic variations beyond just the particles 'i/ka' and 'un/nun'.

Contrastive Analysis of Adjectives in English and Idọma Sentence Structures

English Language and its structural patterns share both similar and different features when contrasted with other languages. In this paper, the syntactic patterns of modification of the Noun Phrase (NP), a term rooted in Chomsky’s grammatical category, are examined in English and Idọma languages. The aim is to highlight potential implications for the Idọma learners of English language as a second language. Using Government and Binding theory for data analysis, the study draws insights from Contrastive Analysis. To provide data for analysis, two episodes of Okonone, a radio programme presented in Idọma and aired on Joy FM, are recorded and transcribed. Findings reveal that both languages have predicative adjectives and they function as subject and object complements. Adjectives can also occur after the indefinite pronouns in both English and Idọma sentence structures. Unlike in English language, adjectives are observed to predominantly occur post-nominally in Idọma Syntax. Similarly, while nouns can be used as adjectives in the English sentence structure, Idọma language does not provide for such a usage. To compare adjectives in English, standard morphological processes allow users to generate single words. Since Idọma speakers rely heavily on post-nominal modification, comparison is often embedded within the adjectival structure using two or three words. The study concludes that these similarities aid smooth learning of the English language while the dissimilarities impede the proficiency of Idọma learners of the English language.

The Substantivization of Vietnamese Adjectives in Noun Phrase Structures

The Substantivization of Vietnamese Adjectives in Noun Phrase Structures

Leksikon Makanan Jalanan Asal Luar Negeri di Kota Mojokerto: Kajian Etnolinguistik

This research aims to identify and describe the lexicon in the names of foreign street foods in Mojokerto City. The research method used by researchers is a descriptive qualitative method which aims to find data that falls into the category of street food from abroad to be analyzed in the lexicon aspect. The data collection technique used by researchers is the reading and recording technique by reading carefully from various sources, then recording the findings for analysis. The results of the research show that there are 15 names of street food from abroad in the city of Mojokerto. The names of these street foods come from various countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, Italy, and so on. Apart from that, from the results of the lexicon analysis, it was found that 8 data were in the form of words, and 7 data were In the form of nouns, 1 data was in the verb type, 1 data was in the adjective category, and 7 data were in the form of phrases which were in the noun phrase type.

A Structural Analysis of Noun Phrases in English and Vietnamese: A Comparative Study

Noun phrases play a crucial role and appear in almost all sentences of any languages, including English and Vietnamese. Understanding the meaning of noun phrases therefore facilitates the understanding of sentences. The structures of noun phrases are usually complicated as they consist of many constituents and layers, especially for noun phrases used in research articles published in high-ranking business and economic journals. In this article, based on the theories of Greenbaum (1989) on the structures of noun phrases, the authors aim to analyze the constituents or the structures of noun phrases used in English and Vietnamese business and economic articles, compare these constituents to identify the similarities and differences between the two languages, then propose some implications for the study and translation of noun phrases from one language to another.

Suffixation in Zhangzhou

Abstract This study is the first to comprehensively describe suffixing morphology in Zhangzhou Southern Min, an under-described Sinitic language spoken in southern China. Suffixation can be derivational in this language to create new lexemes and expand local vocabulary but can be inflectional to convey grammatical information. It can also induce special tone sandhi patterns on either the lexical bases or the suffix itself. The bases that can undergo suffixation are cross-categorical, ranging from nouns, verbs, adjectives, classifiers, noun phrases, verb phrases to adjective phrases. However, the occurrences of suffixes, lexical bases, and derived items are subject to severe constraints from diverse factors of semantics, word class, syntax, phonology, and pragmatics. These reflect that the suffixing is not an isolated morphological event but rather involves systematic and complex interfaces among different linguistic levels. This study is a breakthrough to fill the research gap, while substantially broadening and deepening our knowledge of suffixation as an important morphological device in Sinitic languages. The study also contributes well-attested empirical data to the typology of suffixation in the world’s natural languages while shedding important light on how Sinitic languages and other so-called isolating languages should be better defined from a modern linguistic perspective.

Discontinuity of the noun phrase in Roman statutes from the Republican period

Abstract This article discusses discontinuity of the noun phrase, i.e. the separation of adjectival, genitival, or other modifiers from their head noun in Latin legal texts from the Republican period. Despite the common view that discontinuity, often termed ‘hyperbaton’, is a stylistic device, the study shows that discontinuity is also found in legal texts. Discontinuity mainly occurs with relative and indefinite pronouns as well as with genitival modifiers, and it is pragmatically motivated. Additionally, noun and prepositional phrases are regularly split by the enclitic coordinators -que ‘and’ and -ve ‘or’ in legal texts.

Examining Cross-linguistic Influence of Japanese Word Order: An Eye-Tracking Study on L2 English Learners’ Text Comprehension

Cross-linguistic influence is a systematic and unavoidable feature of language learning. This study aimed to investigate whether prepositive word order in Japanese noun clauses can serve as a cross-linguistic influence element in the acquisition of relative clauses (a form of a postpositive modifier) in English. To test this hypothesis, this study conducted an eye-tracking experiment with native Japanese speakers and showed the following results statistically. First, Japanese participants generally paid more attention to modifier clauses than the noun phrases they modified when reading English sentences with relative clauses. Second, when interpreting accusative relative clauses, longer fixations were observed both in the modifier clauses and in the antecedents, likely due to their complexity for Japanese L2 learners of English, as evidenced by the lowest accuracy rate. Finally, and most notably, the findings revealed that the participants who had not fully acquired the relative clause construction focused more on the left side of the relative pronoun than those who had. This tendency was most prominent when interpreting subjective relative clauses, a result that supports the hypothesis that prepositive L1 modifiers could be a CLI element in the acquisition of English postpositive modifiers.

Mandarin-speaking Children With Cochlear Implants Face Challenges in Using F0 Expansion to Express Contrastive Focus.

Children with cochlear implants (CIs) face challenges in perceiving fundamental frequency (F0) information because CIs do not transmit F0 effectively. In Mandarin, F0 can contrast meanings at the word level, that is, via lexical tones with distinct F0 contours, and signal contrastive relations between words at the utterance-level, that is, via contrastive focus with expanded F0 range and longer duration. Mandarin-speaking children with CIs have been reported to face challenges in producing distinct F0 contours across tones, but early implantation facilitates tonal acquisition. However, it is still unclear if utterance-level prosody, such as contrastive focus, is also challenging for these children, and if early implantation also offers benefits for focus production. Therefore, this study asked how accurately children with CIs can produce contrastive focus, and if early implantation leads to more accurate focus production, with acoustic patterns approaching that of children with typical hearing (TH). Participants included 55 Mandarin-speaking children (3 to 7 years) with CIs and 55 age-matched children with TH. Children produced noun phrases with and without contrastive focus, such as RED-COLORED cat versus red-colored cat. Three adult native listeners perceptually scored the productions as correct or incorrect. The "correct" productions were then acoustically analyzed in terms of F0 range and duration. Based on the perceptual scores, children with CIs produced focus with significantly lower accuracy (38%) than their TH peers (84%). The acoustic analysis on their "correct" productions showed that children with TH used both F0 and duration to mark focus, producing focal syllables with an expanded F0 range and long duration, and postfocal syllables with a reduced F0 range and short duration. However, children with CIs differed from children with TH in that they produced focal syllables with long duration but not an expanded F0 range, although they produced postfocal syllables with a reduced F0 range and short duration like their TH peers. In addition, early implantation correlated with the percept of more accurate focus productions and better use of F0 range in focal marking. This study finds that Mandarin-speaking children with CIs are still learning to apply appropriate acoustic cues to contrastive focus. The challenge appears to lie in the use of an expanded F0 range to mark focus, probably related to the limited transmission of F0 information through the CI devices. These findings thus have implications for parents and those working with children with CIs, showing that utterance-level prosody also requires speech remediation, and underscores the critical role of identifying problems early in the acquisition of F0 functions in Mandarin, not only at the word level but also at the utterance-level.

The influence of Guarani on gender agreement in Paraguayan and Correntino Spanish: A contrastive analysis

In this paper we analyze the influence of Guarani, a genderless language, on patterns of gender agreement in two distinct Spanish varieties, Paraguayan Spanish and Correntino Spanish. Using two unique conversational corpora, we show that, of the two varieties, Paraguayan Spanish more closely resembles Standard Spanish in patterns of gender agreement, but the cases of nonagreement that do occur are found in a wide variety of linguistic contexts, resembling the kinds of transfer effects common in L2 varieties of Spanish in speakers whose L1 is genderless. Correntino Spanish exhibits patterns of nonagreement that are not only more common but are limited in linguistic scope, i.e., only occurring in noun phrases involving feminine nouns with non-article modifiers. We attribute the differences between these two varieties to the differing presence of Guarani in the two regions where they are currently spoken. Paraguayan Spanish, in closer contact with Guarani, is subject to synchronic L2 transfer effects, while Correntino Spanish, a largely monolingual variety in the modern day, is characterized by diachronic L2 transfer effects that have fossilized and come to be found in the speech of monolinguals.