Relative Clauses Research Articles

Alt = 1. vechi; 2. bătrân – Übersetzung deutscher fachsprachlicher Komposita mit dem Adjektiv alt als Determinativ ins Rumänische

While compounding is not a preferred method of word formation in Romanian, it is highly productive in German. Composites are used in German to replace complex structures, such as relative clauses and extended attributes, for the sake of language economy. The Romanian compounds found in technical language are mainly loan words or formed using a foreign language model. The translation of compound words from German to Romanian typically necessitates a structural reorganization, resulting in lengthy and intricate phrases. The principal challenge in this type of translation is the identification of semantic connections, as a literal translation is insufficient. This study aims to examine the translation of technical language compounds containing the determiner "alt" into Romanian.

To compound or not to compound?

Abstract A characteristic trait of Vedic as well as Classical Sanskrit is the use of nominal compounds. Diachronic linguistic studies have observed an increasing use of compounds in Vedic texts. It is also generally accepted that compounds should be read as syntactic phrases and that they can be equivalent to subordinate clauses. However, it has not been studied so far whether and to which degree compounds replaced competing syntactic structures such as relative clauses or participial constructions over time. Using data from a syntactic treebank of Vedic and early Classical Sanskrit, this paper addresses the questions whether compounding replaced equivalent constructions and which textual and sociolinguistic factors may have driven this process. The paper studies compounds used as adnominal and adverbial modifiers, and compares their frequency distributions with those of subordinate clauses, adjectives, converbs, and participial constructions. Since the number of relevant cases is limited and the sociolinguistic factors driving the use of compounds are not well understood, the observed distributions are modeled with a hierarchical Bayesian framework that extracts an optimal subset from a set of possible explanatory factors (chronology, geography, poetry/prose alternation, genre, and school affiliation of Vedic texts).

Notes on the acquisition of L2 English intervention structures: a case of Japanese EFL learners

Abstract This paper discusses Japanese-speaking EFL learners’ acquisition of English object relative clauses (ORC), which have intervention (Relativized Minimality) structures. Specifically, we contrast their early understanding of the ORC and the Subject Control constructions with their late understanding of the Subject Raising (seem) construction that exhibits a structural effect of locality on the filler-gap relation. We argue that relativization and the Control structure in Japanese induce hierarchical structures on par with those in English. Therefore, the learners have acquired a way of avoiding intervention during the process of acquiring the ORC and the Control structures in Japanese. L1 grammatical knowledge helps nullify the intervention effect in acquiring the constructions in L2 English. On the other hand, it takes time for them to overcome the effect by learning the seem raising structure with a specific strategy because Japanese does not have a construction similar to it. L1 Japanese critically influences the acquisition of L2 English with respect to the intervention configurations.

Escape from Noun Complement Clauses in Avatime

This paper discusses the status of island phenomena in Avatime, an endangered Kwa language of Ghana. We focus on clausal adjuncts, specifically noun complement clauses (NCCs). We show that while standard adjuncts are strong islands in Avatime, NCCs allow argument extraction. We suggest that this is related to the fact that NCCs in Avatime are not a type of relative clause. Instead, NCCs involve a kind of serial verb construction, which independently allows for extraction.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Parenthetical Structures in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

This paper aims to investigate the functions of parenthetical structures in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It seeks to identify how these structures are employed from a pragmatic perspective and examines three specific types. The first type is comment clauses, which have pragmatic value; these expressions are important for readers to understand the intended meaning. The second type is relative clauses, which are used to present additional information, thereby enhancing meaning and interpretation. The final type is apposition, which helps the reader identify a referent. Hence, this paper focuses on the functions of these types, which hold significant contextual value in aiding the reader's interpretation. Therefore, it is asserted that such expressions cannot be analyzed solely through sentence grammar, as they are influenced more by contextual factors than by grammatical structures.

Noun phrase complexity in English integrated writing placement test responses

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

Possession and syntactic categories: An argument from Äiwoo

AbstractThis paper argues that possession is syntactically category-flexible. While it is clear that in many languages possession is mostly grounded in and operates in the nominal extended projection (Szabolcsi 1983; Kayne 1993), I show that this cannot be universal. The empirical part of this article is a case study of Äiwoo, which I argue has an inherently verbal counterpart of English ’s, an abstract transitive verb I label poss. This verb can be used by itself to form clausal possession: ‘I poss this boat’ ≈ ‘this boat is mine.’ Possessed DPs also contain the verb poss: the object of this verb is extracted, forming a relative clause. Informally, ‘my boat’ really is ‘the boati"Equation missing"’ ≈ ‘the boat that is mine.’ Given this, Äiwoo simply lacks true nominal possessives. The theoretical consequence is that possession can be mapped onto different syntactic categories in different languages. This is a welcome result, as it makes the syntax-semantics mapping as flexible as it needs to be: if possession is just a tool to assert that a certain relation holds between two entities, nothing in our theory of grammar predicts that such a notion should only be limited to a specific syntactic category.

A Matter of Memory? Age-Invariant Relative Clause Disambiguation and Memory Interference in Older Adults.

Past research suggests that Working Memory plays a role in determining relative clause attachment bias. Disambiguation preferences may further depend on Processing Speed and explicit memory demands in linguistic tasks. Given that Working Memory and Processing Speed decline with age, older adults offer a way of investigating the factors underlying disambiguation preferences. Additionally, older adults might be subject to more severe similarity-based memory interference given their larger vocabularies and slower lexical access. Nevertheless, memory interference and sentence disambiguation have not been combined in studies on older adults before. We used a self-paced reading paradigm under memory load interference conditions. Older (n=30) and Younger (n=35) readers took part in the study online; reading times were recorded and measures of comprehension accuracy and load recall were collected. This setup allowed for the implicit measurement of attachment biases and memory interference effects interactively. Results show that similarity-based interference affected both age groups equally, but was more pronounced in NP2-biased structures, which took participants generally longer to read. Attachment preferences did not differ by group and were unaffected by Working Memory span. However, accuracy on recall prompts was predicted by Working Memory span in both groups. Findings of greater interference in syntactically dispreferred structures support unified processing models where parsing constraints naturally interact. The lack of age differences on our measures further aligns with research finding age-invariant implicit language processing.

THE EFFECT OF DISCOURSE-LEVEL CUES ON RC ATTACHMENT PREFERENCE IN L2 ENGLISH: IMPLICIT CAUSALITY IN VERBS

Examining implicit causality and relative clause attachment ambiguity in bilingual participants, this study investigates whether adult second language (L2) English speakers share sensitivity with native speakers to implicit causality (IC) information during online resolution of relative clause attachment ambiguity. L1 Turkish/L2 English speakers and English natives participated in offline sentence completion and online self-paced reading tasks. Results revealed that L1 English speakers preferred high attachment in IC conditions and low attachment in non-IC conditions. In contrast, L2 speakers showed a preference for high attachment in both conditions, suggesting that L2 sentence processing relies more on lexical than syntactic information.

Definiteness matters as a discourse cue in L1 and L2 processing of relative clauses

Definiteness matters as a discourse cue in L1 and L2 processing of relative clauses

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

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

Why was Hungarian so Important for Brian?

Brian MacWhinney started to study Hungarian for a psycholinguistic perspective from the 1970s on. The paper surveys his work on the unfolding of child morphology based on diary data, his experiments on morphological productivity in children of different ages, and his experiments on sentence processing in children and adults. By studying the unfolding of morphology, the emergence of sentence interpretation patterns, and the processing of relative clauses Brian MacWhinney certainly made two services to Hungarian psycholinguistics. He provided the domain with rich data for anyone coming from all theoretical orientations. At the same time, by relying on some peculiarities of the structure of Hungarian, he has put Hungarian into the center of discussions about the status of rules, the analytic and holistic approaches of sentence processing, and in general the import of a functionalist attitude towards language.

Processing Chinese object-topicalization structures in simple and complex sentences

Abstract Chinese has the basic word order of Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), yet it is also known as a topic-prominent language, where an object can be topicalized from within a relative clause as well as from a main clause. In parsing Topic-Subject-Verb (TSV) structures, will a Chinese comprehender have difficulties in recognizing the second noun phrase (NP2) as the subject and in integrating the initial topic noun with the verb? Experience/surprisal-based theories and memory-based theories make testable predications at the NP2 and critically, at the verb. Focusing on these two regions in three self-paced reading experiments, we compared reading time patterns between TSVs and canonical SVOs in simple or complex sentences. Converging evidence showed processing costs at or prior to the NP2 in TSVs compared to SVOs, but no retrieval or integration costs at the verb regardless of dependency lengths. Our results are not predicted by memory-based theories, but are consistent with the predictions of experience/surprisal-based theories, suggesting that Chinese TSV processing is guided by structural frequencies and a universal subject-reading bias, with completion of dependency between topic and the verb (or empty category) likely to be fundamentally semantic.

Pricing models for small and micro loan portfolio insurance

From the perspective of the insurance deductible, this article constructs pricing models suitable for small and micro loan portfolio insurance under realistic conditions, and summarizes relevant pricing laws through examples. It is found that the option attribute of loan portfolio insurance contracts endowed by absolute or relative deductible clause can be used to price small and micro loan portfolio insurance. Meanwhile, owing to the offset effect of the loan portfolio on the credit risk of different single loans, the premium rate of loan portfolio insurance should be controlled between that of corresponding single loan insurance. Moreover, properly adjusting the deductible ratio, insurance period, and composition of the insured loan portfolio can create more space for reducing the insurance price of the loan portfolio or expanding insurance profits. Our study improves the pricing model system of small and micro loan insurance, which has important theoretical value and practical significance for the scientific pricing of loan portfolio insurance.

The subject advantage in LIS internally headed relative clauses: an eye-tracking study

The subject advantage in LIS internally headed relative clauses: an eye-tracking study

Focus on form in the uptake, stability and transfer of relative clause use across tasks

Focus on form in the uptake, stability and transfer of relative clause use across tasks

The Impact of Explicit Metalinguistic Knowledge in L1 on the Usage of the Present Subjunctive in Relative Clauses in L3

This study aimed to investigate how learners from India, whose first language (L1) is Hindi, second language (L2) is English, and third language (L3) is Spanish, recognize and consciously utilize the cross-linguistic similarities and differences related to the present subjunctive mood in relative clauses. Notably, the subjunctive mood shows significant parallels between Hindi (L1) and Spanish (L3). The research involved 64 participants enrolled in the second year of Bachelor of Arts programs in Spanish at Jawaharlal Nehru University, representing different proficiency levels. An acceptability judgment task and a metalinguistic knowledge test were used to assess whether a high level of metalinguistic knowledge (MLK) and metalinguistic awareness (MLA) facilitated the transfer from L1 Hindi to L3 Spanish in acquiring the present subjunctive mood. Key findings from a mixed-effects model revealed varying levels of MLK among participants, but no statistically significant effect on overall performance was observed. These results suggest that, while MLK may vary, it does not necessarily translate into improved acquisition of the present subjunctive in L3 Spanish.

Clausal Postpositioning in German Regional Language

This article presents the results of a corpus study of clausal postpositioning, that is, the occurrence of a sentential constituent in the postfield of the matrix clause to which it is syntactically linked, in German regional language. Analysis of 11,027 clauses from 60 spoken regiolect and dialect texts reveals that clausal postpositionings occur most frequently as non-relative finite clauses, followed by relative clauses, and lastly, infinitival constructions. Notably, while non-relative finite clauses comprise a smaller proportion of postpositionings in regiolect compared to dialect, relative clauses and infinitival constructions show the opposite trend. Adjunct clauses occur most frequently, followed by complement clauses, in both regiolect and dialect. Furthermore, in both varieties, postpositioning is more prevalent in verb-first and verb-second clauses than in verb-final clauses. This finding is attributed to restrictions on syntactic subordination. Finally, non-relative finite clause and relative clause types that may be embedded in both the postfield and inner field are center-embedded at mean relative frequencies of 13.42% and 28.17%, respectively. These findings shed light on contradictory claims in the literature regarding the possibility and frequency of clausal embedding in the inner field.

Incremental Discourse-Update Constrains Number Agreement Attraction Effect.

While a large body of work in sentence comprehension has explored how different types of linguistic information are used to guide syntactic parsing, less is known about the effect of discourse structure. This study investigates this question, focusing on the main and subordinate discourse contrast manifested in the distinction between restrictive relative clauses (RRCs) and appositive relative clauses (ARCs) in American English. In three self-paced reading experiments, we examined whether both RRCs and ARCs interfere with the matrix clause content and give rise to the agreement attraction effect. While the standard attraction effect was consistently observed in the baseline RRC structures, the effect varied in the ARC structures. These results collectively suggest that discourse structure indeed constrains syntactic dependency resolution. Most importantly, we argue that what is at stake is not the static discourse structure properties at the global sentence level. Instead, attention should be given to the incremental update of the discourse structure in terms of which discourse questions are active at any given moment of a discourse. The current findings have implications for understanding the way discourse structure, specifically the active state of discourse questions, constrains memoryretrieval.

Triangulating learner corpus and online experimental data: Evidence from gender agreement and relative clauses in L2 Greek

AbstractThe article introduces triangulation to converge evidence from corpus and experimental data, by means of two case studies in second language (L2) learners of Greek. The first case study investigates the acquisition of gender agreement, while the second probes the development of relative clauses. In both studies, findings from the corpus are tested against online experimentation using eye‐tracking and self‐paced reading tasks, a combination that is scarce in research implementing triangulation. The findings suggest that methodological convergence yields both congruous and incongruous evidence. However, both types of evidence contribute to a nuanced understanding of the linguistic phenomena under study, as well as the different perspectives from which they are approached. The article concludes that such an approach to triangulation can significantly contribute to enhancing the reliability and validity of the findings, provided that methodological convergence has been achieved at the design level of the study.