Clause Order Research Articles

El resurgimiento de los pactos limitativos en la contratación internacional: propuesta de una nueva regulación para América y Europa

Excluding liability clauses are complicated to negotiate on an international level because its validity can be easily challenged. For the major part of doctrine, the international commerce needs the validity of these clauses in order to enhance the contracts' celebration. Otherwise, it would suppose a very high contractual risk. From a comparative point of view, we realize that national legal systems have developed specific control tools, as well as the international conventions of contractual unification. In this study, we have classified in three blocks the limits that affect the validity of the excluding or restricting liability clauses, we have therefore adopted a “lege ferenda” proposal in order to harmonize and to wrap up the existing limits in the legal systems so that the differences are no longer that significant. This formula tries to minimize the risks and to ensure to the maximum the legal security and efficiency in international contracts.

Offline interpretation of subject pronouns by native speakers of Spanish

Research on anaphora resolution reveals that speakers’ interpretation of pronominal subjects is often inconsistent, with results differing in terms of the antecedent preferences of these speakers and the factors that affect these preferences. The present study investigates anaphora resolution by native speakers of Spanish using an offline judgment task where participants are presented with globally ambiguous anaphora to test the predictions of Carminati’s (2002) Position of Antecedent Strategy (PAS) with Spanish intra-sentential Main-Subordinate anaphora. The results show that native speakers of Iberian Spanish have a clear preference for the object as the antecedent for the overt pronoun with this structure, while a preference for the subject as the antecedent for the null pronoun was not revealed. These findings appear to be at odds with the PAS and suggest that anaphora resolution is affected by clause order.

The Constituent Order ofHwæt-Clauses in Old English Prose

The aim of the present study is to conduct a comprehensive corpus analysis of the constituent order of main declarative clauses with the interjectionhwæt‘what’ in the clause-initial position in Old English prose texts. On the basis of his analysis of Ælfric'sLives of Saintsand Bede'sHistoria Ecclesiastica, Walkden (2013) claims that suchhwæt-clauses pattern with subordinate clauses with respect to their verb position. My study confirms Walkden's basic empirical findings thathwæt-clauses do not behave like typical main clauses as far as their constituent order is concerned. However, there are numerous differences between them and subordinate clauses introduced byhwæt, that is, free relatives and embedded questions. The analysis suggests that the conditions favoring the use of the V-final order in mainhwæt-clauses resemble the ones identified for ordinary V-final main clauses in Bech 2012. What is more, the study shows that the functional differences betweenhwæt-andhwæt þa-clauses noted in Brinton 1996 are blurred in Old English prose because of a regular variation betweenhwæt þa-S andhwæt-S-þapatterns. The data also suggest thatþainhwæt þa-clauses should rather be analyzed as an independent clause element.

Word Order in Portuguese Gerund Clauses: comparing Old Portuguese and Dialectal Portuguese

Differently from the standard contemporary variety of European Portuguese, in which subject-verb inversion is considered categorical in gerund clauses, in Old Portuguese and Dialectal European Portuguese we can find both subject-verb and verb-subject orders in gerund clauses. These variable word orders challenge classical assumptions that correlate word order in gerund clauses with the null subject parameter. Therefore, other factors have to be taken into account. This work investigates the factors that condition subject-verb word order in gerund clauses of Old Portuguese and Dialectal European Portuguese. Corpus data show us that there is a difference in the frequency of subject-verb inversion in both varieties: verb-subject is the predominant word order in Old Portuguese, while subject-verb is the predominant word order in the dialects, regardless of the presence of inflected gerunds. In what concerns the conditioning factors that may trigger one order or the other, we considered the type of verb, the type of subject, and the presence of a connective. In the dialects, regardless of overt inflection, the most important factor for the post-verbal occurrence of the subject is the type of verb. In contrast, in Old Portuguese subject-verb inversion is the dominant pattern and post-verbal subjects can be found with all verb classes. We hypothesize that differences between the two varieties may correlate with the productivity of gerund clauses introduced by a connective, the specification of the C-domain and information-driven movement.

The Limited Role of Number of Nested Syntactic Dependencies in Accounting for Processing Cost: Evidence from German Simplex and Complex Verbal Clusters.

This paper presents three acceptability experiments investigating German verb-final clauses in order to explore possible sources of sentence complexity during human parsing. The point of departure was De Vries et al.'s (2011) generalization that sentences with three or more crossed or nested dependencies are too complex for being processed by the human parsing mechanism without difficulties. This generalization is partially based on findings from Bach et al. (1986) concerning the acceptability of complex verb clusters in German and Dutch. The first experiment tests this generalization by comparing two sentence types: (i) sentences with three nested dependencies within a single clause that contains three verbs in a complex verb cluster; (ii) sentences with four nested dependencies distributed across two embedded clauses, one center-embedded within the other, each containing a two-verb cluster. The results show that sentences with four nested dependencies are judged as acceptable as control sentences with only two nested dependencies, whereas sentences with three nested dependencies are judged as only marginally acceptable. This argues against De Vries et al.'s (2011) claim that the human parser can process no more than two nested dependencies. The results are used to refine the Verb-Cluster Complexity Hypothesis of Bader and Schmid (2009a). The second and the third experiment investigate sentences with four nested dependencies in more detail in order to explore alternative sources of sentence complexity: the number of predicted heads to be held in working memory (storage cost in terms of the Dependency Locality Theory [DLT], Gibson, 2000) and the length of the involved dependencies (integration cost in terms of the DLT). Experiment 2 investigates sentences for which storage cost and integration cost make conflicting predictions. The results show that storage cost outweighs integration cost. Experiment 3 shows that increasing integration cost in sentences with two degrees of center embedding leads to decreased acceptability. Taken together, the results argue in favor of a multifactorial account of the limitations on center embedding in natural languages.

Exploring textual meaning in Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset at Dawn: a systemic functional approach

The goal of this research work is to apply one of the three meanings developed by Halliday (1985), the grammar of textual meaning, to two extracts selected from Chukwuemeka’s Sunset at Dawn (1976). This focus on textual meaning aims at unveiling the hidden linguistic resources or codes incorporated in the novel. It also aims at bringing out how the author of this novel has organized and established Themes to construct clauses in order to convey his message. Through a descriptive approach, the grammar of Textual meaning is studied in Chukwuemeka’s Sunset at Dawn (1976). The qualitative descriptive method used in this article is supported by a quantitative method in using descriptive statistical analysis to calculate the percentage of the different fields. The study reveals that the Theme/Rheme structure is an essential component in the construction of a cohesive and coherent text. This has enabled us to assert that Sunset at Dawn by Chukwuemeka Ike is a well-written novel.

Model klauzule o višoj sili i promenjenim okolnostima Međunarodne trgovinske komore

In today's global economy a high level of legal certainty and predictability of commercial relations is required, due to the large number and speed of contracting and execution. International trade requires a clear but also flexible system of legal rules that allow smooth functioning of the flow of goods and services. Traders from different countries bring with them individual trade practices and norms of national legislation that are often diametrically opposed, and sometimes legal institutes that are regulated in one country don't even exist in another. This is the case with the institutes of force majeure and hardship. Due to the large differences in the regulation of these two institutes in national legal systems there have been attempts of standardization and creation of a unified system of exemption from liability for non-performance due to force majeure or changed circumstances. Similarly to national legislation the sources of uniform law contain inconsistencies in the standardization of these institutes. Due to this situation, the participants in international trade often decide to incorporate the force majeure and hardship clauses into their contracts. Renowned international organizations, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, have set up their system of model contract clauses in order to ensure equity, legal certainty and fairness. This paper deals with the position of force majeure and hardship model clauses, published by the International Chamber of Commerce, in the international legal system, with reference to problems in uniform sources of commercial law.

Квазиусловные конструкции в каталанском языке

This article aims to single out quasi-conditional constructions in Catalan and describe their main types. The author proceeds from the hypothesis that Catalan quasi-conditional constructions must show considerable similarity with quasi-conditional constructions in Russian, English, French, and other languages. The number of the constructions addressed is about 1 000 examples from Catalan texts by native Catalan authors and about 2 000 examples from Catalan texts by non-Catalan authors, selected by total sampling. The paper shows that quasi-conditional constructions, although formally similar to conditional constructions, differ on certain points from them. Their protasis does not express hypothetical condition, apodosis doesn’t imply consequence, the condition-consequence meaning is often missing from them altogether. In contrast to conditional constructions, transformation of quasi-conditionals ones into formally narrative constructions doesn’t change their meaning. Quasi-conditional constructions can be split into five major groups: presumptive constructions, constructions with protasis in the function of parenthesis, conditional-evaluative constructions, conditional-causal constructions, and logical conclusion constructions. The observables selected as criteria for this classification include: Construction meaning (comparative, existential, evaluative, causative constructions etc.); Changeability of the main dependent clause order; Use of markers. Both my analysis and literature on conditional constructions in other languages confirm that the structure of Catalan quasi-conditional constructions is similar to their counterparts in other languages. The findings can be used for teaching purposes as well as for research in Catalan, other Romance languages, or in typology/syntax.

AN ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPIAL CONSTRUCTION AND ITS APPLICATION TO ENGLISH EDUCATION

This study analyzes participial construction and aims to give an answer to why conjunctions like “when” and “while” are used in some participial construction by considering the iconic principle of sequential order, which is explained in Radden and Dirven (2007). In order to consider why conjunctions are added to participial constructions, we collect examples from COCA and analyze the differences between preposed and postposed participle clauses. With the analysis, we can argue that the order of clauses plays a role in showing the ground. i.e., the ground can either be expressed by adding the conjunction while, or by putting the clauses that express the ground in front. On the other hand, in the case of the participle clause with the conjunction when, we could not see such differences in the position; the clause with when can either be preposed or postposed. This might be attributable to the fact that when clearly shows simultaneity. Also, through the analysis, we will propose a better teaching method for the Japanese EFL learners.

Iconicity affects children’s comprehension of complex sentences: The role of semantics, clause order, input and individual differences

Complex sentences involving adverbial clauses appear in children’s speech at about three years of age yet children have difficulty comprehending these sentences well into the school years. To date, the reasons for these difficulties are unclear, largely because previous studies have tended to focus on only sub-types of adverbial clauses, or have tested only limited theoretical models. In this paper, we provide the most comprehensive experimental study to date. We tested four-year-olds, five-year-olds and adults on four different adverbial clauses (before, after, because, if) to evaluate four different theoretical models (semantic, syntactic, frequency-based and capacity-constrained). 71 children and 10 adults (as controls) completed a forced-choice, picture-selection comprehension test, providing accuracy and response time data. Children also completed a battery of tests to assess their linguistic and general cognitive abilities. We found that children’s comprehension was strongly influenced by semantic factors – the iconicity of the event-to-language mappings – and that their response times were influenced by the type of relation expressed by the connective (temporal vs. causal). Neither input frequency (frequency-based account), nor clause order (syntax account) or working memory (capacity-constrained account) provided a good fit to the data. Our findings thus contribute to the development of more sophisticated models of sentence processing. We conclude that such models must also take into account how children’s emerging linguistic understanding interacts with developments in other cognitive domains such as their ability to construct mental models and reason flexibly about them.

Online processing of causal relations in beginning first and second language readers

We investigated online processing of causal relations in beginning first (L1) and second language (L2) readers (8–10years old). By means of eye-tracking, we measured children's processing times of two-clause sentences including a causal relation. Two text-related factors were investigated: coherence marking (i.e., presence vs. absence of the Dutch connective omdat ‘because’) and linear order of clauses (i.e., cause-effect vs. effect-cause). In addition, syntactic knowledge was included as a child-related factor of interest. The results showed that coherence marking and individual differences in syntactic knowledge influenced children's online sentence processing. In contrast to L1 readers, the absence of a connective led to longer sentence processing times for L2 readers with lower syntactic knowledge; they experienced more difficulty with processing sentences in which no connective was present. Apparently, L2 readers with limited syntactic knowledge benefit from coherence marking provided by a connective, which allows them to establish the causal coherence relation between clauses in a more efficient way. Reversing the linear order of clauses did not affect children's online sentence processing. This study provides an initial step towards the use of online measures to examine sentence processing in beginning L1 and L2 readers aimed at gaining more insight into L2 reading comprehension difficulties.

Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression

Abstract The goal of this study is to shed light on how empirical data on the discourse constraints of null and overt third person subject pronouns in L1 and bilingual Spanish meet linguistic theory. A (semi)spontaneous production task was administered to 34 Moroccan Arabic (MA)/Spanish early sequential bilinguals and 30 L1 Spanish controls. All 3rd person subject positions were coded: (1) morphosyntactic form (null pronoun vs. overt pronoun); (2) discourse function ([-Topic Shift] vs. [+Topic Shift]); (3) sentence relation (intrasentential vs. intersentential); (4) clause order within intrasentential contexts (main-subordinate vs. subordinate-main); and (5) access to the antecedent (clear vs. ambiguous antecedent). The results reveal general patterns of use in both L1 and bilingual Spanish: null pronouns express topic maintenance both in inter- and intrasentential contexts (both clause orders) and overt pronouns, especially in intersentential contexts, are generally used for topic change. However, additional analyses provide evidence that null pronouns in L1, but not in bilingual Spanish, are often used in change of reference contexts where the antecedent is not ambiguous. This reveals patterns that have gone unreported by most previous descriptive and theoretical studies. Finally, a higher use of ambiguous null pronouns is attested among bilingual speakers, which suggests a lower control of the mechanisms by which reference is established in discourse and supports, to some extent, the predictions derived from the Interface Hypothesis.

Expressing conditionality in Mandarin

AbstractAfter a broad overview of Mandarin Chinese conditionality marking, this paper presents a corpus-based analysis of two conditional connectives,rúguǒandzhǐyào(both translatable as ‘if’), from a syntactic and a cognitive perspective. We examine their use in narrative and informative texts along four parameters: clause order, position of the connective within the clause, domain, and counterfactuality. For all parameters, the two connectives displayed robust profiles across genres. Both connectives preferred an antecedent-consequent clause order. They displayed flexibility in their position, behaving like adverbs, withrúguǒshowing a stronger preference for the pre-subject position thanzhǐyào. In terms of domains,zhǐyàohas a stronger preference for content conditionals thanrúguǒ, which is also frequently used in the epistemic domain. In our data, onlyrúguǒwas used meta-metaphorically and in counterfactuals. We argue that both connectives can be translated with ‘if’, butzhǐyàoalso matches ‘so/as long as’.

Connecting the present and the past: cognitive processing and the position of adverbial clauses in Samuel Pepys's Diary

The present article studies the linear order of main and temporal adverbial clauses in theDiary of Samuel Pepys (1660–1669). In the development of a framework that combines cognitive and historical data, processing principles identified for Present-day English (e.g. Prideaux 1989; Diessel 2008) are tested for this ego-document from the seventeenth century. The factors investigated are the iconic temporal order of both clauses, the length of the adverbial clause and the implied meaning of the clauses. Moreover, the discourse function of the respective clauses will be discussed. On the basis of the Uniformitarian Principle, the present study assumes that processing principles that are valid for Present-day English predict the position of the clause in past language stages to a similar extent.

Stopgap subordinators and and but: A non-canonical structure emergent from interactional needs and typological requirements

AbstractThe present article examines the usage of coordinators as subordinating devices. An investigation of a corpus of spoken American English reveals thatandandbutcan occupy clause-final position and be used for marking syntactic and functional asymmetries. It has been pointed out that such final coordinators arise as a result of interactional contingencies (Barth-Weingarten 2014, Dialogism and the emergence of final particles: The case ofand. In Susanne Günthner, Wolfgang Imo & Jörg Bücker (eds.),Grammar and dialogism, 335–366. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter). However, a cross-linguistic observation suggests that not all coordinators can be used as clause-final elements. Our research demonstrates that the emergence of clause-finalandandbutdoes not only come from interactional needs but also presupposes typological requirements. Head-initial (VO) languages like English, where adverbial clauses are marked by clause-initial subordinators, are subject to three competing motivations for the ordering of main and adverbial clauses (Diessel 2005, Competing motivations for the ordering of main and adverbial clauses.Linguistics43(3). 449–470). Our study contends that clause-final coordinators serve asstopgap subordinators, which help to resolve such competition between the three motivating forces.

Typological profile of the Great Andamanese family

Abstract Great Andamanese constitutes alongside Ongan one of the two indigenous language families of the Andaman Islands. The phonological typology of the Great Andamanese languages includes a number of features of areal interest, including retroflex consonants (characteristic of South Asia) and lack of phonemic fricatives (reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian). Its morphosyntactic typology has some unremarkable features from a global typological perspective, such as verb-final clause order combined with postpositions and possessor-before-possessed but with postnominal attributive adjectives, alongside highly unusual features such as: somatic prefixes; several series of personal pronouns whose choice depends not only on grammatical relation/semantic role but also, for instance, on clause type; negation of a verbal clause by expressing it as the non-finite subject of a negative copular clause; and root ellipsis.

Conditional Inference Tree Modelling of Competing Motivators of the Positioning of Concessive Clauses: The Case of a Non-native Corpus

Concessive adverbial clauses may precede or follow their associated matrix clauses. Previous research has revealed that multiple discourse-pragmatics and processing-related factors affect the ordering of these clauses. The present study purports to investigate the relative importance of competing motivators of the positioning of concessive clauses in a non-native discourse community. To this end, a corpus of 100 research articles written by Iranian non-native writers was used and all the finite concessive clauses accompanied by their main clauses were gathered. Random forest of conditional inference trees is the main statistical modelling in this study. The results demonstrated that Iranian writers use pre-posed concessive clauses more frequently than post-posed clauses. In addition, subordinator choice and bridging, which are discourse-pragmatics constrain on clause positioning, are far better predictors of the ordering of concessive clauses in this corpus. Finally, random forest modelling turned out to be slightly more efficient than logistic regression for the task of prediction.

Acquisition of Zero Relative Clauses in English by Adult Turkish Learners of English

Studies on acquisition of relative clauses by first and second language learners have evoked considerable interest in recent decades. In line with such studies, in this present study we aim to show the possible effect of first language (Turkish) on second language (English) in zero relative clause constructions. English uses certain stranded prepositions in zero relative clauses, whereas Turkish uses the same suffix in non-subject relative clause constructions. This observation in two typologically different languages led the study to claim that Turkish word order in non-subject relative clauses affects the acquisition of zero relative clauses in English. Fifty sentences in Turkish were prepared and composed of five categories. Each category consisted of ten sentences. Each category referred to one of the five cases in Turkish. These cases were accusative, locative, ablative, dative and instrumental. The participants (N=91) were asked to translate these Turkish sentences into English. The results showed that the participants tended to omit prepositions in English zero relative clauses except the construction that did not entail any preposition. Therefore, the study implies that Turkish language learners may be under the effect of their mother tongue while producing zero relative clauses in English.

Expressing conditionality in Mandarin

After a broad overview of Mandarin Chinese conditionality marking, this paper presents a corpus-based analysis of two conditional connectives,rúguǒandzhǐyào(both translatable as ‘if’), from a syntactic and a cognitive perspective. We examine their use in narrative and informative texts along four parameters: clause order, position of the connective within the clause, domain, and counterfactuality. For all parameters, the two connectives displayed robust profiles across genres. Both connectives preferred an antecedent-consequent clause order. They displayed flexibility in their position, behaving like adverbs, withrúguǒshowing a stronger preference for the pre-subject position thanzhǐyào. In terms of domains,zhǐyàohas a stronger preference for content conditionals thanrúguǒ, which is also frequently used in the epistemic domain. In our data, onlyrúguǒwas used meta-metaphorically and in counterfactuals. We argue that both connectives can be translated with ‘if’. Butzhǐyàoalso matches ‘so/as long as’.

Verbstellung in Nebensätzen im Texasdeutschen

This article discusses word order of dependent clauses in Texas German, a German speech island on the brink of language death. The focus lies on dependent clauses that are introduced by subordinating conjunctions. The question is whether the verb placement differs from the Standard German word order, and, if such a difference can be established, whether the change is due to language internal or external factors. To answer this question, various theories from the general research on language contact are used to interpret the Texas German data, and to connect it to the larger discussion of language change in German speech islands in the US.