Predicate Structure Research Articles

Специфика функционирования предикативных структур в русскоязычном научном тексте (на примере статей из журналов, входящих в базу данных «Cкопус»)

Relevance of the subject is conditioned by the fact that the theory of predicativeness attracts linguists’ special attention; besides, there is lack of studies on predicative structures in scientific texts. The paper aims to examine realization of the category of predicativeness in the Russian-language scientific texts and to develop an appropriate typology. This problem has not been previously investigated. The conducted research has allowed the author to identify frequency of predicative structures in scientific texts taking into account specificity of the Russian-language scientific discourse.

A verificação semântica de especificação de trajetória para verbos de movimento direcionado: os testes de adjunção e de paráfrase

Este trabalho discute dois testes de verificação do conteúdo lexicalizado por verbos de movimento do português do Brasil. A classe verbal investigada foi definida a partir da identificação de raiz de movimento, seguida de trajetória especificada ou não especificada. O referencial teórico que sustenta esta pesquisa se alicerça nos estudos de classes verbais produzidos pela teoria lexical, em especial pela semântica lexical, além de estar ancorado em pressupostos da semântica cognitiva, como a estrutura de predicados e os primitivos semânticos (movimento, causação, estado, direção, trajetória e outros). Nosso objetivo é apresentar a paráfrase e a adjunção como recursos linguísticos que podem atuar como teste de verificação para definirmos, entre os verbos de movimento do PB que possuem trajetória como parte de sua estrutura semântica, quais especificam a direção da trajetória e quais não possuem uma trajetória lexicalmente definida. Nossos resultados indicaram que os testes de adjunção e de paráfrase são suficientes para o estabelecimento distintivo das duas subclasses verbais: verbos do tipo de subir (com direção de movimento específica) e verbos do tipo de atravessar (com direção de movimento inespecífica).

The The Comparison of Lexical Bundles in EFL Teachers’ Talk between Non-native and Native English Teachers

Lexical bundles are multi-word expressions that usually hang together. They are considered as a main factor in building fluency in academic discourse; helping to shape meanings and coherence in a text. The objectives of the study are to analyse non-native and native English teachers’ talk in order to explain (1) the use of structural and functional types of lexical bundles in non-native and native English teachers’ talk, (2) the similarities and differences of lexical bundles used in the talk, (3) the relation between structural and functional types of lexical bundles used in the talk. This study is a qualitative study and designed as a classroom discourse analysis. The data are non-native and native English teachers’ talk. The results reveal that non-native and native English teachers used all types of lexical bundles structurally and functionally. Similarly, both teachers performed lexical bundles in form of verb phrase and they mostly functioned as stance expressions. However, they performed them differently in terms of the sub-types. Non-native English teachers used more 1st/2nd person pronoun+VP fragments while native English teachers employed more WH-questions fragments. Functionally, non-native English teachers used lexical bundles more in showing ability while native English teachers performed them more in showing intention/prediction. Both teachers frequently employed lexical bundles with verb phrase structures that functioned as stance expressions. The use of lexical bundles is important for teachers to perform native-like fluency and improve their oral proficiency. 

Modalitas Bahasa Jepang dalam Kalimat Berpola ~To Omou

This writing uses a syntactic study to analyze modality to analyze the sentence structure of verb phrases ~ to omou 'my taste/thought/intention'. From the data the author analyzes, the modality found is the modality of ganbou's' intention', the modality of gaigen 'possibility/uncertainty' and the modality of kakugen 'full of confidence statement’.  In a sentence it is possible to find two modalities, as in the data above which gives rise to two modalities, namely toui and gaigen modalities, while in other sentences it contains ganbou and gaigen modalities.

К вопросу о приемах развития смыслового восприятия переводчика

Translator’s professional skills development occurs in many respects due to cognitive processes development. The study of their formation within professional tasks performance caters to the needs of its effectiveness enhancement. The existing research of human perception and text processing skills can provide a framework for translation guidelines and translation-oriented text analysis guidelines, but is rarely employed for the sake of text analysis techniques development. The aim of this study is to work out a set of techniques which simultaneously addresses text processing skills and development of translator’s competencies, connected with source text comprehension. The resulting set of techniques was motivated by postmodernist approach to translation and its idea of text semantics instability. A few techniques employed the design of Münsterberg experiment on attention and Schulte tables which are used to identify the attention selectiveness, concentration and performance capacity. The succession of techniques in a set is built according to the three-step strategy of foreign language reading skills development that comprises before-reading, while-reading and after-reading phases. The paper presents an example set of tasks for one text; they include author’s communicative aims identification, anticipation, predicative structures and multilevel semantic links eliciting, textual semantic field identifying, analysis of alternative and invariant structural elements as imposed by the conventions of the genre.

Verb Complementation in News Headlines by the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles

The English language has survived the pangs of giving birth to its variations commonly called as World Englishes. Though there are many “Englishes” in the globe today, they do have similarities and differences which are manifested in the different styles employed by writers around the world. In this regard, the study aimed to analyze the structure of verb phrases in news headlines of the different countries in Kachru’s three concentric circles leading to the identification of types of verbs used. This is done to give fresher ideas into the style of headline writing by understanding what types of verbs are used by the writers from the inner, outer, and expanding circles. Using Brinton, L and Brinton, D’s (2010) structure of verb complementation, the researchers analyzed five news headlines per circle which served as their corpus in identifying the complements present in the verb phrases. This, furthermore, led to the following results: a) inner and outer circles mostly use monotransitive verbs, b) outer circle is characterized by its use of copulative verbs, inner circle by its usage of intransitive verb, and the expanding circle by its usage of prepositional and ditransitive verbs c) expanding and inner circles use diprepositional verbs while outer circle does not, d) the expanding and outer circles both use complex transitive, e) the expanding circle exhibits the characteristics of both inner and outer circles, and f) the circles overlap each other.

Mbyá resultatives and the structure of causation

In Mbyá, target state resultative predicates can only be derived from inchoative verbs. This is in contrast with target state adjectival passives in better studied languages such as English, German and Greek, which can be derived from transitive causatives. I argue that the limited distribution of Mbyá resultatives reveals a point of variation in the association between roots and external-argument introducing Voice heads: while roots of non-agentive transitive causatives need not be lexically associated to agent or causer Voice in English and similar languages, they do in Mbyá. Together with the well documented incompatibility of target state resultatives with agent/causer Voice, this difference explains the restricted distribution of Mbyá resultatives. The proposed analysis stresses the importance of the distinction between target states and resultant states in the structure of adjectival passives and related resultative predicates cross-linguistically.

Non-culmination and Serial Verb Construction in Korean

In English the inherent result of a lexical causative (e.g. open and burn) must occur for a sentence headed by the verb to be true; it is simply contradictory to say, for example, that John opened a door, but it was not opened or that John burned a book, but it was not burned. By contrast, the corresponding sentences in some other languages are acceptable (e.g. Thai, Tamil, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and Salish languages), and the sentences are said to be interpreted as non-culmination (more specifically, zero result). Korean is one of those languages (Park 1993; Y-S. Lee 2004; J. Lee 2015; Martin 2016; Beavers and Lee In press). Although non-culmination research has recently attracted much attention, most studies on it in the literature have focused on lexical causatives. This paper aims to extend the coverage of non-culmination research to serial verbs, which are considered typical complex predicates in Korean. Particularly, it is shown, following J. Lee (2015), that V1 (the first verb) of a serial verb construction does not allow zero result, but V2 (the second verb) does. To account for this difference, I propose in this paper the Final Event Hypothesis that only the final subevent in the event structure of a causative predicate is cancelable whether the predicate encodes a direct or indirect causation. Some predictions of this hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis in J. Lee (2015) are tested with other similar data and resultative constructions in Korean, which I argue further supports the Final Event Hypothesis. (Jeonju University)

Hierarchy effects in copula constructions

AbstractThis paper develops a generalization about agreement in German copula constructions described in Coon et al. (2017), and proposes an analysis that ties it to other well-established hierarchy phenomena. Specifically, we show that “assumed-identity” copula constructions in German exibit both person and number hierarchy effects, and that these extend beyond the “non-canonical” or “inverse” agreement patterns described in previous work on copula constructions (e.g., Béjar and Kahnemuyipour 2017 and works cited there). We present experimental evidence to support this generalization, and then develop an account that unifies it with hierarchy phenomena in other languages, with a focus on PCC effects. Specifically, we propose that what German copula constructions have in common with PCC environments is that there are multiple accessible DPs in the domain of a single agreement probe, the lower of which is more featurally specified than the higher (see, e.g., Béjar and Rezac 2003, 2009; Anagnostopoulou 2005; Nevins 2007). We also offer an explanation as to why number effects are present in German copula constructions but notably absent in PCC effects. We then place our account within the broader context of constraints on predication structures.

Objects in motion verb phrases

This article investigates the syntactic and semantic relationship between the unselected object and the unergative verb in examples like Mary waltzed John around the room. Current consensus holds that this sentence involves resultative secondary predication, so that it is structurally equivalent to resultatives like Mary sang her throat hoarse. Yet it is well known that the waltz vs. sing verb phrase structures do not have the same argument or event structural interpretations. Notably the object with waltz seems to be an agent, while the object with sing is a patient or theme. Previous studies propose lexical rules of composition associated with waltz to specify the “special” interpretation of its object. In this article I show that the waltz object is not formally agentive, but has (what I call) an in motion interpretation. I further show that the waltz and sing verb phrases have different syntactic structures: the waltz verb phrase is transitive, and is not resultative. I argue that the contrast in interpretation between the object of waltz and sing (and the other differences in these clauses) follows from this structural difference, and that a lexical approach overgenerates. I conclude that the interpretation of the waltz object accords with regular rules of syntax-semantics correspondence.

Unrestricted Quantification and the Structure of Type Theory

Semantic theories based on a hierarchy of types have prominently been used to defend the possibility of unrestricted quantification. However, they also pose a prima facie problem for it: each quantifier ranges over at most one level of the hierarchy and is therefore not unrestricted. It is difficult to evaluate this problem without a principled account of what it is for a quantifier to be unrestricted. Drawing on an insight of Russell's about the relationship between quantification and the structure of predication, we offer such an account. We use this account to examine the problem in three different type‐theoretic settings, which are increasingly permissive with respect to predication. We conclude that unrestricted quantification is available in all but the most permissive kind of type theory.

A corpus-based study of composite predicates in Early Modern English dialogues

Abstract Composite predicates (CPs), that is, complex predicate structures comprising a light verb and an eventive noun (e.g., make a move or give a speech) are common in Present-day English and are particularly characteristic of spoken language. The aim of the paper is to trace language changes involving CPs from 1560 to 1760, a period in which the use of CPs has not yet received adequate scholarly attention. Specifically, the study examines the frequencies, lexical productivity and syntactic patterns of CPs in two types of Early Modern English (EModE) dialogues, drawn from Trial Proceedings and Drama Comedy sampled in A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760 – a 1.2-million word computerized corpus of EModE speech-related texts. The results reveal significant differences between the two types of dialogue and shed light on the development of CPs in association with grammaticalization and lexicalization.

Psycholinguistic Characteristics of Secondary Predication in Determining the Construction of a Peculiar Picture of the World of a Reader

The article deals with the analysis of psycholinguistic characteristics of explication of secondary predication, which are considered as dominant determinants of constructing a peculiar picture of the world of the reader. It is noted that in the scientific literature predication is categorized as a category that facilitates the constitution of a sentence in the form of a minimal communicative unit, which helps to establish the identity of the content of the sentence and the content of the reality which is surrounding us. It was determined that predication is: a) a category that contains signs of time, modality and personalization; b) a category that is essentially quasi-communicative, that is one that manifests itself in the attitudes of the opposition to themes and rams; c) a category that contains signs of time and modality.
 In this article the novel of Frederick Forsyth “The Odessa file” was analyzed (according to the structures of secondary predication). This analysis suggests that the largest number of secondary predication structures are components of predication structures: 2137 cases, representing 51.38% of the total (4159 of all structures of secondary predication). This group includes the structures of secondary predication of all five types, but the most frequent are the structures of secondary predication, where the secondary predication is expressed by the adjective: in 35.47%. In addition, it should be noted that the structures of secondary predication with the infinitive are the most frequent of all types of structures of secondary predication and make up 34.82% of the total sample size, that is, almost the third part from all amount of cases. The structures of secondary predication, that are Participle II and the structures of it modification, make up 30.89% of the total. However, in the novel of Frederick Forsyth “The Odessa file” also there are the structures of the secondary predication of all five types. Cases when the structures of secondary predication act as components of the modification structures are the least frequent (only 39.07% of the total), however, this group also includes the structures of secondary predication of all types.
 It was clarified the concept of secondary predication. We believe that secondary predication is the amplification of features of the sentence, which amplifies the meaning of the sentence to the reality that is surrounding us, thus these structures are facilitating, building the image of the world or a peculiar picture of the world of a reader, the picture which, in turn, will determine the mental scripts, frames and images of this man in the future.

Argument structure of classifier predicates in Russian Sign Language

We analyze classifier predicates in Russian Sign Language (RSL) using a combination of naturalistic corpus and elicited data in order to determine their argument structure, and to test the generalization, based on research on other sign languages, that there is a clear relation between argument structure and classifier type (Benedicto and Brentari 2004). We propose that whole-entity classifier predicates are intransitive unaccusative, and that body-part classifier predicates are optionally transitive. Contrary to previous research on other sign languages, we argue that handling classifier predicates in RSL describe complex events with two subevents: one of handling, and one of movement, which are not necessarily causally connected. We further suggest that the ‘moving legs’ classifier predicate in RSL also describes a complex event consisting of two subevents. To account for these facts, we develop a formal analysis of classifier predicates in RSL. Specifically, we argue that whole-entity and body-part classifier handshapes are agreement markers, while handling classifier handshapes as well as the ‘moving legs’ classifier handshape represent an argument in combination with a verbal root. This casts doubt on the observation made in the literature that classifiers straightforwardly determine the argument structure of classifier predicates, since different classifiers in RSL represent different grammatical phenomena. In addition, we show that event structures associated with some classifier predicates are more complex than those associated with monoclausal structures in spoken languages.

The structure of Verb phrase in the Kurdish language

Linguists define language as a means to communicate. There are many varieties of language in the world; each one is somewhat independent in some aspects, but generally shares some characteristics with all the others. Languages also tend to impact each other in various ways, especially by “borrowing” words through technology and politics. There is no doubt that every language has its own set of rules and characteristics such as grammar, sentence structure, and phonetics. This paper examines the structure of verb phrases in the Kurdish language — the paper will clarify just what a verb phrase is. The X-Bar theory is used to illustrate the structure of verb phrasing in the Kurdish language. This theory dictates that each sentence structure has a “head,” and all other sentence components are under the rule of this head. In sentences, the verb is the head and rules the sentence while in phrases, the head is usually either the noun or the verb. This research will illuminate the structure of verb phrasing in the Kurdish language and compare it with that of the English language.

The Syntax and Semantics of Nonfinite Forms

The syntactic and semantic properties of nonfinite verb categories can best be understood in relation to and distinction from the corresponding properties of finite verb categories. In order to explore these issues, it is necessary to provide a crosslinguistically valid characterization of finiteness. Finiteness is a prototypical notion, understood in relation to a language-specific finite verb prototype; nonfiniteness is therefore understood in terms of degrees of deviation from this prototype. The syntactic properties of nonfinite verb categories, so defined, can be considered from two perspectives: the functions of nonfinite clauses within superordinate clauses (e.g., argument and adjunct functions) and the internal structure of nonfinite verb phrases. Typical of the second aspect is that nonfinite phrases tend to be defective in one or another respect, relative to finite phrases, which may be understood in terms of lacking functional projections or features which are an obligatory part of finite phrases. This defectiveness relative to the finite prototype plays out also in the semantics; typically, certain aspects of the meaning of nonfinite phrases are not independently specified, but must be derived from semantic properties of a superordinate finite clause.

LA CONSTRUCCIÓN NO SÉ EN ESPAÑOL COLOQUIAL. VALORES PRAGMÁTICOS Y POSICIÓN DISCURSIVA

La expresión del ‘no saber’ en primera persona del singular del presente de indicativo posee, en español, diversas posibilidades de manifestación formal, algunas de las cuales entrañan valores alejados a los propios de su funcionamiento dentro de la estructura predicativa de la oración y próximos al desempeño de funciones relacionadas con el ámbito de la marcación discursiva. Este trabajo se centra en una de esas construcciones, la expresión no sé en los usos en que no forma parte de una estructura de predicación con complemento directo. A partir de su rastreo en un corpus de conversaciones orales espontáneas, se aborda su descripción formal y funcional con ayuda (i) del modelo de segmentación de la conversación coloquial del grupo Val.Es.Co., en la última visión de conjunto ofrecida a propósito de su sistema de unidades (Grupo Val.Es.Co., 2014), (ii) de la propuesta de figuras de sintaxis del grupo GARS (cf. Blanche-Benveniste, 1985, López Serena, 2007) y (iii) de la aproximación funcional al comportamiento de los marcadores del discurso en el continuum entre inmediatez y distancia comunicativa llevada a cabo por López Serena y Borreguero Zuloaga (2010). La triangulación de los resultados de los tres tipos de análisis efectuados permite identificar interesantes correlaciones entre ciertos valores pragmáticos y determinadas regularidades y complementar la información que sobre esta construcción ofrecían ya algunos diccionarios de partículas, marcadores u operadores del español. Desde un punto de vista teórico, el artículo pone de relieve el interés de introducir, en el análisis de construcciones discursivas que, como la estudiada aquí, van «más allá de los marcadores del discurso» (cf. López Serena, 2011a), la consideración del tipo de unidad discursiva en la que aparecen, así como de los tipos de figuras de sintaxis con que concurren.

Commissive Pragmatics of Elucidative Speech Acts in Modern English

Despite a number of studies that deal with the construction of the communicative-and-pragmatic system of the utterances-commissives of different types, today the English elucidative utterances of commissive type and their differentiation into the communicative-and-pragmatic subtypes remain poorly studies and require a thorough analysis at the communicative-and-pragmatic level of their actualization, which explains the relevance of this research. Moreover, the relevance of this issue has been caused by the necessity to clarify the specificity of formation of the commissive speech act in the structure of the analyzed utterance. The object of the study is the English elucidative utterances-commissives.
 The purpose of this article is to reveal the communicative-and-pragmatic organization of these commissive utterances-acts. The utterances with the key predicates of mental activity, selected from the British National Corpus texts, served as the material of the study. The intent-analysis has been applied for revealing the communicative-and-pragmatic peculiarities of the elucidative utterance of commissive type. The latter has been conducted at different levels – from the pragmemic structure of the key illocutionary predicate to the communicative-and-pragmatic organization of the entire utterance-commissive. This in turn has facilitated the revealing of the micropragmatic and pragmatic parameters of the object of the study. On the basis of the theoretical and practical analysis results the elucidative utterance-commissive is considered as a communicative-and-pragmatic unit of the speech activity aimed at the speaker’s obligative intention realization in the communicative situation of interaction. The results of the study also prove that the commissive pragmatics of the analyzed type of the utterance has been predetermined by the key commissiveness in its principal clause, and its subordinate clause only supplements, specifies it.
 The key commissiveness of the utterance has been expressed with the key illocutionary predicate in the affirmative form. The latter plays a crucial role in the revealing its commissive pragmatics and the developing an extended communicative-and-pragmatic typology of the elucidative utterances-commissives.

Automatic Detection of Negated Findings in Radiological Reports for Spanish Language: Methodology Based on Lexicon-Grammatical Information Processing.

We present a methodology for the automatic recognition of negated findings in radiological reports considering morphological, syntactic, and semantic information. In order to achieve this goal, a series of rules for processing lexical and syntactic information was elaborated. This required development of an electronic dictionary of medical terminology and informatics grammars. Pertinent information for the assembly of the specialized dictionary was extracted from the ontology SNOMED CT and a medical dictionary (RANM, 2012). Likewise, a general language dictionary was also included. Lexicon-Grammar (LG), proposed by Gross (1975; Cahiers de l'institut de linguistique de Louvain, 24. 23-41 1998), was used to set up the database, which allowed an exhaustive description of the argument structure of predicates projected by lexical units. Computational framework was carried out with NooJ, a free software developed by Silberztein (Silberztein and Noo 2018, 2016), which has various utilities for treating natural language, such as morphological and syntactic grammar, as well as dictionaries. This methodology was compared with a Spanish version of NegEx (Chapman et al. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 34(5):301-310 2001; Stricker 2016). Results show that there are minimal differences in favor of the algorithm developed using NooJ, but the quality and specificity of the data improves if lexical-grammatical information is added.

Categori Cal characteristics of the English noun from the point of view of the prototype theory

The object of the study of this article is the formation of the prototypical categories in human mind and analysis of the process of development of prototypical grammatical categories The subject of our investigation is prototypical characteristics of the English nouns. Its purpose is to try to find adequate criteria for prototypical classification of nouns in Modern English. Methodologically our research is based upon the laws of cognition, on the theory of the logico-grammatic dynamics (O. A. Zhaborjuk), on such psychological categories as conceptual category, prototype. The descriptive analysis and comparison were used. The findings of our work include principles of prototypical classification of nouns in Modern English. Practical value of our research consists in possibility of acquiring its results in the course of teaching English as a foreign language and in possibility of their use in fundamental cognitive investigations of the parts of speech of the English language. Results of our work are: human way of expressing the thought is based on the structure of predication, verbal expression of the constituents of this structure is subconsiously morphologically and syntactically connected with prototypical concepts created in human mentality and language in the process of evolution. Thus, the definitions of the parts of speech have to include all their prototypical characteristics: semantic and formal.The prototypical semantics of the English noun is substantiality. Basic prototypical formal characteristics of the noun are: case, ability to be determined by the definite article and to be combined with a preposition; syntactically it functions as a subject, predicative and attributive modifier of other nouns.