Plural NP Research Articles

Agreement Mismatch in Partitive Relatives

Agreement Mismatch in Partitive Relatives

Expressing (inter)subjectivity with universal quantification: A pragmatic account of Plural NP + dou expressions in Mandarin Chinese

Dou ‘all, already, even’ is one of the most frequently used adverbs in Mandarin Chinese. While there is a vast literature on the nature and development of this token (widely known as a ‘universal quantifier’), there is virtually no analysis of dou expressions in interactive discourse. In this paper we use conversational data to investigate the discourse contexts and social interactive functions of dou expressions. Our findings show that quantification expressions with dou are more commonly used for (inter)subjectivity - building rapport, establishing common ground, and mitigating (apparently) conflicting stances - than for objectivity. We propose a continuum of rapport and the underlying intersubjectivity principle to account for the diverse range of uses of dou expressions in conversation. We take this to show that a discourse pragmatic approach can shed new light on seemingly objective expressions in Chinese and beyond.

Cognitive and geographic constraints on morphosyntactic variation

AbstractIn this paper, I examine whether the variation patterns ofhaberpluralization (e.g.,hubo/hubieron fiestas‘there was/were parties’) in Peninsular Spanish corroborate the hypothesis elaborated in earlier work that the phenomenon constitutes a competition between two variants of the presentational construction withhaberthat is constrained by domain-general cognitive constraints on spreading activation. In addition, this paper examines whetherhaberpluralization is incrementing in frequency in particular Peninsular regions and whether or not the phenomenon is spreading geographically. To meet these objectives, I analyze a dataset of more than 7,500 cases ofhaber + plural NP, which were culled from two publicly available data sources: theCorpus Oral y Sonoro del Español Rural(which represents only rural speakers born before the 1940s;Fernández-Ordóñez 2005-) andTwitter(which represents mainly young and middle-aged speakers). The results of a mixed-effects logistic regression analysis that tests the effects of tense, the absence/presence of negation, typical action-chain position of the noun, the regional origin of the examples, and the data sources support the competition hypothesis. This model also supports that pluralizedhaberis spreading westward from its epicenters (Valencia, Barcelona, and Murcia), while also incrementing in frequency in northern, eastern and southern Spain. However, its frequency appears to be declining in central Spain. A geographically more detailed, but similar picture is obtained with three generalized additive mixed models that test the effects of geography on the total dataset as well as on each of the two subcorpora.

On Definite Plural NP's and the Meaning of "all"

No abstract.

Restrições dos aspectuais do português brasileiro a predicados de achievement

The purpose of this research was to investigate the nature of the constraints that aspect verbs in Brazilian Portuguese (PB) offer to achievement predicates and the nominalizations to these predicates in the positions of their complements. Aspect verbs in Brazilian Portuguese taken into account in this study were comecar (begin), continuar (continue), parar (stop), deixar (quit), acabar (finish), and terminar (finish). Lamiroy (1987) and Rochette (1999) present plural NP, generic NP, and the addition of a time adverbial clause as strategies that generate a serialization effect in the event, licensing achievement predicates and their nominalized forms in the position of complement of aspect verbs. In our study, we have come to the comprehension that, besides these phenomena, the transformative predicates and the bare noun also react as licensing predicates of achievement as aspect verbs complements.

Referential Number Agreement and Disagreement of Pronouns and Anaphors: Why are pronouns and anaphors different?

This paper was intended to investigate the difference in the referential number agreement between Korean pronouns and reflexives. It was postulated that the difference is dependent on the fact that unlike Korean reflexives, Korean pronouns have a number feature. One major point to be noticed in this paper is that Korean pronouns such as ku he and ku-tul include their antecedents only by number agreement. More specifically, ku is a structurally or semantically singular NP, requiring a single entity as its referent, while ku-tul is a structurally or semantically plural NP requesting more than a single entity. Another major point which is worth emphasizing is that self and self-self are linked to antecedents by either the number agreement or number disagreement. Put differently, their referents can consist of either one entity or more than one entity. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the difference in the referential number agreement between pronouns and anaphors can be accounted for by the fact that pronouns have their own perfect number features, whereas Korean reflexives do not. This fact leads to the hypothesis that the referents of caki and caki-casin consist of one entity or more than one entity since they are semantically uncountable NPs.

Stage-Level and Individual-Level distinction in morphological variation

<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">This work examines the role of the stage-level (SL)/individual-level (IL) distinction applied to nouns in a case of morphosyntactic regularization in Spanish: variable reanalysis of the NP argument as subject in the presentational <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>construction (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">había/habían perros</em>). We conduct variationist, quantitative analyses on all instances of existential <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>with a plural NP in corpora of spoken Puerto Rican Spanish (>500,000 words) to determine the linguistic factor groups that promote reanalysis and, hence, pluralized forms. Results of variable rule analyses reveal that the SL-IL distinction constrains the regularization. IL predicates significantly favor <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>regularization (e.g., <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">habían muchas personas de las Antillas</em> ‘there were a lot of people from the Antillas’) whereas SL predicates significantly disfavor pluralized forms (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">este año hubo menos tiros que en años pasados</em> ‘this year there were fewer shots fired than previous years’). These results are interpreted from within a usage-based framework in which the status of the noun introduced in the [<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>+ NP] construction, as either a likely or unlikely subject for <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber</em>,<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </em>influences the analogical leveling. IL predicates are more prototypical nouns than SL predicates because the former are temporally persistent. IL predicates promote nouns’ candidacy as subjects over direct objects because prototypical subjects present two temporally-persistent characteristics: independence existence and referentiality. As a result, IL predicates increase the likelihood of reanalyzing the direct object as subject, thus triggering agreement of the verbal form with plural NPs. SL predicates, on the other hand, because they display low temporal stability, inhibit regularization.</span>

Frequency Effects on the Morphological Conditioning of Syllable-fi nal / s / Reduction in Border Uruguayan Spanish

Abstract This research provides a usage-based account of the phonological reduction of syllable and wordfinal /s/ in the bilingual Spanish of the Uruguayan-Brazilian border. As with monolingual dialects of Uruguayan Spanish, patterns of aspiration and deletion seem to be conditioned by lexical frequency, with words of high frequency demonstrating higher rates of reduction than words of low frequency. Unlike these dialects, however, the deletion of /s/ in border varieties may be conditioned by Portuguese morphological patterns in which plural /s/ is deleted for head nouns and adjectives but retained for determiners. This possibility is explored by examining the linear and relative positions of plural NP constituents as well as the plural marking patterns of preceding constituents. Multivariate analysis shows that /s/ deletion is statistically probable in highly frequent words whereas aspiration is favored among words of low frequency. The latter finding may be the result of a social distribution of aspirated variants among more upwardly mobile residents. The use of both variants is conditioned by the morphological patterns of Portuguese, in which plural marking is carried out through the use of overt articulations for plural determiners and first position NP constituents while plural markers are deleted for nouns and adjectives, especially for second and third position constituents. These results provide further evidence of the uniqueness of bilingual dialects and support the claim that bilinguals have more expansive linguistic repertoires than monolinguals.

The neural underpinnings of semantic ambiguity and anaphora

We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in order to investigate how definite NP anaphors are integrated into semantically ambiguous contexts. Although sentences such as Every kid climbed a tree lack any syntactic or lexical ambiguity, these structures exhibit two possible meanings, where either many trees or only one tree was climbed. This semantic ambiguity is the result of quantifier scope ambiguity. Previous behavioural studies have shown that a plural definite NP continuation is preferred (as reflected in a continuation sentence, e.g., The trees were in the park) over singular NPs (e.g., The tree was in the park). This study aimed to identify the neurophysiological pattern associated with the integration of the continuation sentences, as well as the time course of this process. We examined ERPs elicited by the noun and verb in continuation sentences following ambiguous and unambiguous context sentences. A sustained negative shift was most evident at the Verb position in sentences exhibiting scope ambiguity. Furthermore, this waveform did not differentiate itself until 900 ms after the presentation of the Noun, suggesting that the parser waits to assign meaning in contexts exhibiting quantifier scope ambiguity, such that such contexts are left as underspecified representations.

Brain responses to subject‐verb agreement violations in spoken language in developmental dyslexia: an ERP study

This study investigates the presence and latency of the P600 component in response to subject-verb agreement violations in spoken language in people with and without developmental dyslexia. The two groups performed at-ceiling level on judging the sentences on their grammaticality, but the ERP data revealed subtle differences between them. The P600 tended to peak later in the left posterior region in the dyslexic group compared with the control group. In addition, the group of dyslexic subjects did not show a P600 in response to sentences with a plural NP subject. These results suggest that brain activation involved in syntactic repair is more affected by linguistic complexity in developmental dyslexia compared with non-dyslexic individuals.

Reversing the trajectory of language change: Subject–verb agreement with be in New Zealand English

This article examines the historical evolution of subject–verb concord in New Zealand English. We investigate the usage of the singular form of be with plural NP subjects (existentials and nonexistentials) over the past 150 years. The results demonstrate that the New Zealand English subject–verb concord system has undergone considerable reorganization during this time. Singular concord in nonexistentials occurred in early New Zealand English, but is now largely absent. In existentials, it steadily declined during the late 19th century, and then reversed this trajectory to become a well established feature of modern New Zealand English. Singular concord in New Zealand English existentials is now conditioned by a range of social and linguistic factors, and largely resembles other varieties in this respect.We are indebted to the ONZE team, particularly Elizabeth Gordon, Margaret Maclagan, and everyone involved in the collection and transcription of the corpora over the years. Thanks also to the students of Ling 203 2002 for their preliminary analysis of the data and lively discussion. Helpful feedback on this paper has been provided by David Britain, Elizabeth Gordon, Margaret Maclagan, Andrea Sudbury, Peter Trudgill, Heidi Quinn, the audience at the New Zealand Linguistic Society conference, and three anonymous referees. The authors are listed in alphabetical order.

Différent vs autre et l’opposition réciproque vs comparatif

Summary This paper tests on French Beck’s (2000) analysis of plural and quantified NP dependent readings of different in English. According to her, different works as a relational adjective when it depends on a plural NP, and as a comparison operator when it depends on a universally quantified NP. Beck treats as evidence in favour of her thesis the fact that German uses two distinct ‘different’ (verschieden and ander) to produce the range of possible readings of different in English. We show, however, that the opposition between différent and autre in French does not locate the border of lexical differentiation there where we find it in German and where Beck sets the functional split. Furthermore, a close scrutiny of the English data exposes inconsistencies in her analysis of different as a comparison operator. In sum, our contrastive study of the three languages does not provide evidence for a clear-cut opposition between different uses of ‘different’. On the contrary, the situation depicted is better described as a gradient divided up in different ways by the various languages when realised as lexical items.

Les différentes interprétations de pareil ou comment un adjectif relationnel devient un marqueur anaphorique

Marleen Van Peteghem : Interpreting pareil or how a relational adjective becomes an anaphoric device Pareil is a relational adjective, which expresses a relation of identity between two or more entities. Unlike même and différent, it does not give rise to referentially dependent interpretations. Nevertheless the arguments of the relation can be expressed in various ways, which allows us to distinguish three different uses of pareil: (i) pareil used with an overt item of comparison, taking the form of a PP introduced by the preposition à; (ii) an anaphorical use of pareil, in which one of the arguments of the relation is expressed in the preceding context, and finally (iii) an internal or reciprocal use of pareil, in which the different arguments are expressed by the plural NP pareil is predicated of. The aim of this contribution is to study the factors that bring about the latter two interpretations. It is shown that the anaphorical reading is the most frequent one and that it is the only one possible whenever pareil is used attributively preceding the noun. In these uses, pareil is very close to tel: both adjectives establish what could be called a generic anaphora. As for the reciprocal interpretation, it is made possible by the presence of a quantifier, which focalises the part structure of the referent of the NP. This quantifying element can be a determiner, a floating quantifier, an adverbial or even a durative copular verb such as rester. interpretations. It is shown that the anaphorical reading is the most frequent one and that it is the only one possible whenever pareil is used attributively preceding the noun. In these uses, pareil is very close to tel: both adjectives establish what could be called a generic anaphora. As for the reciprocal interpretation, it is made possible by the presence of a quantifier, which focalises the part structure of the referent of the NP. This quantifying element can be a determiner, a floating quantifier, an adverbial or even a durative copular verb such as rester.

On Definite Plural NP's and the Meaning of "all"

No abstract.

Comitative coordination: A case study in group formation

This paper argues that in Russian a (singular) NP can combine with a comitative PP to form a complex plural NP, and that this NP denotes a group in the sense of Landman (1989). A single-headed GPSG analysis of the construction is proposed and argued for, and the implications of the analysis for number agreement are discussed. The semantic properties of the construction (and its counterpart in Polish) are subsequently detailed and are compared with those of ‘ordinary’ NP coordination; the preliminary conclusion is that the construction differs both in denotation and in conventional meaning from NP coordination.

Functional Constraints on Plural Marker Deletion in Peruvian Spanish

The object of this paper is to investigate the various factors which condition the deletion of plural /s/ in Peruvian Spanish. Word-final /s/ in Spanish may appear in monomorphemes: Dios, as the second person singular marker: tienes, and as the plural marker: las nin-as. The plural marker appears redundantly across the noun phrase, i.e., in each determiner, adjective, and noun in the string: las verdaderaspenias criollas. In coastal Peruvian Spanish, word-final /s/ is variably subject to two well-documented weakening processes: aspiration ([h]) and deletion ([0]).1 The deletion of the plural markers from the NP, while reducing sentence redundancy, can theoretically render a plural NP indistinguishable from a singular NP, leading to potential ambiguity: la[g] nina[f] bonita[o]. In light of the above information, and following a hypothesis, that is, that there is a tendency for semantically relevant information to be retained in surface structures (Kiparsky 195; Labov et al. 130), we would expect word-final /s/ to be retained more often in plural forms like ninas, where it carries a heavy functional load, than in monomorphemic forms like Dios, where it carries no functional load. Conversely, we would expect more /s/ deletion in monomorphemes like Dios than in plural forms like ninas.

Indefinite se vs. inanimate subjectwith reflexive

According to John Knowles, (A) Se alquila (los) apartamentos, ‘PRO rents (the) apartments’, and (B) Se alquilan (los) apartamentos, (The) apartments get rented’, do not have a common deep structure. A-types, he observes, always have a singular verb, nerver occur with por si mismos (or solos) phrases and all have a near paraphrase with uno. B-types have a plural verb with plural NP, cannot always be paraphrased by uno, and a por si mismos phrase can often be used with a plural NP. He proposes different phrase structure trees which give PRO as subject for A-types and the NP as subject for B-types particularly if the plural noun shows surface agreement with the plural verb. In opposition to Knowles, we propose 1.1. which coincidescompletely with his type-A: singular verb, paraphrasing of se with uno. Our 1.2 (Knowles' type-B) never occurs with por si mismos paraphrases. Our 1.1 and 1.2 have the same semantic interpretation: Se venden los coches, ‘Cars are sol’. Our 2.0 (some of Knowles' B-types) is really a reflexive with inanimate noun phrase as subject: Se venden los coches por si mismos, ‘The cars sell themselves’. Its meaning is quite distinct from our 1.1 and 1.2. Lima speech allows either our 1.1 or 1.2 although 1.1 with singular verb is more frequent. On the other hand, only our 1.2 is permitted in Mexico City. Dialect constraints must be considered in the analysis of grammatical structures.