Subject Noun Research Articles

Ellipses of the participle, the subject noun phrase in participle constructions and their explication based on the English-language economic discourse

Ellipses of the participle, the subject noun phrase in participle constructions and their explication based on the English-language economic discourse

The development of prosodic focus marking in French.

French is traditionally described as a language favoring syntactic means to mark focus, yet recent research shows that prosody is also used. We examine how French-speaking children use prosody to realize narrow focus and contrastive focus in the absence of syntactic means, compared to adults. We elicited SVO sentences using a virtual robot-mediated picture-matching task from monolingual French-speaking adults (N = 11), 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 12), and 7- to 8-year-olds (N = 15). These sentences were produced with narrow focus on either the subject or the object and contrastive focus on the object. Linear mixed-effects logistic regression modeling on duration, mean intensity, mean pitch, and pitch range of the subject and object nouns showed that the 4- to 5-year-olds did not use any of these prosodic cues for focus marking but the 7- to 8-year-olds distinguished narrow focus from non-focus through an increase in duration, mean intensity and to a lesser degree, mean pitch in the object nouns, largely similar to the adults, and tended to use mean pitch for this purpose in the subject nouns, different from the adults, who used duration. Our study corroborates previous findings that French-speaking 4- to 5-year-olds do not use prosody for focus. Further, it provides new evidence that 7- to 8-year-olds use prosody to mark narrow focus on the object in a more adult-like manner than narrow focus on the subject, arguably caused by a more dominant role of syntactic means in the subject position in French. Together, these findings show that syntax-dominance can influence both the route and the rate of acquisition of prosodic focus marking.

Planning for the future and reacting to the present: Proactive and reactive F0 adjustments in speech

Previous studies have examined whether speakers initiate longer utterances with higher F0. Evidence for such effects is mixed and is mostly based on point estimates of F0 at the beginning of the utterance. Moreover, it is unknown whether utterance length can influence F0 control solely at utterance onset or also during the utterance. We conducted a sentence production task to investigate how control of pitch register – F0 ceiling, floor, and span – is influenced by utterance length. Specifically, we test whether speakers adjust register both in relation to an initially planned utterance length – proactive F0 control – and in response to changes in utterance length that occur after response onset – reactive F0 control. Target sentences in the experiment had one, two, or three subject noun phrases, which were cued with visual stimuli. An experimental manipulation was tested in which some visual stimuli were delayed until after participants initiated the utterance. Evidence for both proactive and reactive control of register was observed. Participants adopted a higher register ceiling and broader span in longer utterances. Furthermore, they decreased the amount of ceiling compression upon encountering delayed stimuli. The findings suggest the presence of a mechanism in which speakers continuously estimate the remaining length of the utterance and use that information to adjust pitch register.

Lexico-syntactic constraints influence verbal working memory in sentence-like lists.

We test predictions from the language emergent perspective on verbal working memory that lexico-syntactic constraints should support both item and order memory. In natural language, long-term knowledge of lexico-syntactic patterns involving part of speech, verb biases, and noun animacy support language comprehension and production. In three experiments, participants were presented with randomly generated dative-like sentences or lists in which part of speech, verb biases, and animacy of a single word were manipulated. Participants were more likely to recall words in the correct position when presented with a verb over a noun in the verb position, a good dative verb over an intransitive verb in the verb position, and an animate noun over an inanimate noun in the subject noun position. These results demonstrate that interactions between words and their context in the form of lexico-syntactic constraints influence verbal working memory.

Six-year-olds’ comprehension of object-gapped relative clause sentences: Investigating the contribution of NP number mismatch

Comprehension of sentences with a center-embedded, object-gapped relative clause (ORC) is challenging for children as well as adults. Mismatching lexical and grammatical features of subject noun phrases (NPs) across the main clause and relative clause has been shown to facilitate comprehension. Adani et al. concluded that children’s comprehension improved under conditions of NP number mismatch (e.g., singular main clause subject and plural relative clause subject) as compared with NP number match (e.g., both singular subjects). However, their stimuli provided number information on verb phrases (VPs) as well as NPs creating a confound for conclusions about facilitative effects of NP number mismatch. In this study, we isolated the contribution of NP number mismatch. Notably, 32 6-year-olds with typical language participated in a center-embedded, ORC sentence comprehension task with 4 types of stimuli: (a) NP number mismatch without VP number information (NP mismatch only), (b) NP number match without VP number information (NP match only), (c) NP number mismatch with VP number mismatch (NP + VP mismatch), and (d) NP number match with VP number match (NP + VP match). Children selected one of four pictures in an array to a verbally presented relative clause sentence; 56 sentences were presented. The within-subjects comparison for NP mismatch only and NP match only was not significant. However, the within-subjects comparison for NP mismatch only and NP + VP mismatch was significant. Children were more successful in NP + VP mismatch sentence comprehension ([Formula: see text] = 0.70).

The Acquisition of Relative Clauses in Autism: The Role of Executive Functions and Language

PurposeRelative clauses present a well-known processing asymmetry between object-extracted and subject-extracted dependencies across both typical and atypical populations. The present study aimed at exploring the comprehension of object and subject relative clauses as conceptualized by the Relativized Minimality framework in autistic children and in a group of age- and IQ-matched typically-developing children. The study also explored the way performance in relative clauses would be affected by the children’s language and executive function skills.MethodRelative clause comprehension was tested through a sentence-picture matching task and language was tested with a receptive vocabulary task. Executive functions were assessed through backward digit recall and a Flanker test.ResultsObject relative clauses were harder to parse for both groups than subject relatives, while number mismatch between the moved object Noun Phrase and the intervening subject Noun Phrase in object relatives boosted both groups’ performances. Typically-developing children’s performance in object relatives was predicted by both language and executive functions, while autistic children failed to use language and did not systematically draw on their executive functions in object relative clause comprehension.ConclusionThe findings suggest that relative clause processing in autism follows a normal developmental trajectory, and that difficulty with parsing object relative clauses stems from reduced language and executive functions rather than deficits in the children’s morphosyntactic skills.

Constructive Analysis on English and Indonesia, Noun Subject and Verb Agreement in the Sentence

<p class="4Abstrak">The main focus in this research is the comparison of subject verb agreement on English and Indonesia. The comparison aimed to find out the similarities and difference subject verb agreement both English and Indonesia. The similarities and difference brought positive pedagogical aspect in the process of language learning. This research applied qualitative descriptive method and was library research. The research instrument were English and Indonesian sentences which generated by researchers and others sentences taken from books and internet citation supporting the main topic. The data was analyzed by applying Hsiu Fang Hsieh & Sarah E Shannon (2005) to draw interpretation. This research found that subject verb agreement English must based on singular, plural, first, second, and third pronoun and tenses in the sentences. On the other hand, Indonesian subject verb agreement can be used both singular, plural. First, second, third pronoun and it is not depend on tenses.</p>

Semantic fields in the book of the Arabs by Abu Al-Mansur Al-Jawaliqi The animal as a model

The Flandra Road novel is one of the most famous works of the French writer Claude Simon, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985. His novel, which dates back to 1960, is full of indications that show the extent to which the writer was affected by the horrors of war, especially the First and Second World Wars. He is a soldier who escaped from Nazi prisons. In addition to being greatly affected by France's defeats in wars ago. This is what left its influence on the plot of Flandra Road and the linguistic style used in it.
 The reader of the novel finds himself in front of unfamiliar linguistic methods, the writer's intention to include them in a way that draws attention, as if it is an implicit message that needs to be read between its lines, and this is the goal of the research that sheds light on three themes that were chosen to be studied and analyzed in order to know the motives for their appearance in this text. The writer deliberately fragmented the language in the narrative text. For example, the narrator appears once with the pronoun (I) and again with the pronoun (he), which refers to George, the main character, who is lost with his companions in the forests of Flandra.
 The second theme of the research deals with the frequent use of the subject's noun and the relationship of this use with the writer's influence on drawing and photography. As for the last axis, it deals with punctuation marks that disappear in some places, such as: comma, period, and quotation marks, especially in direct speech, or those that are repeated, such as parentheses, for example, in many passages within the novel.

The structure of the novel character In the novel "The Ring of Sand" by the storyteller Fouad Al-Takarli - an applied study

The Flandra Road novel is one of the most famous works of the French writer Claude Simon, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985. His novel, which dates back to 1960, is full of indications that show the extent to which the writer was affected by the horrors of war, especially the First and Second World Wars. He is a soldier who escaped from Nazi prisons. In addition to being greatly affected by France's defeats in wars ago. This is what left its influence on the plot of Flandra Road and the linguistic style used in it. The reader of the novel finds himself in front of unfamiliar linguistic methods, the writer's intention to include them in a way that draws attention, as if it is an implicit message that needs to be read between its lines, and this is the goal of the research that sheds light on three themes that were chosen to be studied and analyzed in order to know the motives for their appearance in this text. The writer deliberately fragmented the language in the narrative text. For example, the narrator appears once with the pronoun (I) and again with the pronoun (he), which refers to George, the main character, who is lost with his companions in the forests of Flandra. The second theme of the research deals with the frequent use of the subject's noun and the relationship of this use with the writer's influence on drawing and photography. As for the last axis, it deals with punctuation marks that disappear in some places, such as: comma, period, and quotation marks, especially in direct speech, or those that are repeated, such as parentheses, for example, in many passages within the novel.

Linguistic processes in La Route des Flandres by Claude Simon

The Flandra Road novel is one of the most famous works of the French writer Claude Simon, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985. His novel, which dates back to 1960, is full of indications that show the extent to which the writer was affected by the horrors of war, especially the First and Second World Wars. He is a soldier who escaped from Nazi prisons. In addition to being greatly affected by France's defeats in wars ago. This is what left its influence on the plot of Flandra Road and the linguistic style used in it. The reader of the novel finds himself in front of unfamiliar linguistic methods, the writer's intention to include them in a way that draws attention, as if it is an implicit message that needs to be read between its lines, and this is the goal of the research that sheds light on three themes that were chosen to be studied and analyzed in order to know the motives for their appearance in this text. The writer deliberately fragmented the language in the narrative text. For example, the narrator appears once with the pronoun (I) and again with the pronoun (he), which refers to George, the main character, who is lost with his companions in the forests of Flandra. The second theme of the research deals with the frequent use of the subject's noun and the relationship of this use with the writer's influence on drawing and photography. As for the last axis, it deals with punctuation marks that disappear in some places, such as: comma, period, and quotation marks, especially in direct speech, or those that are repeated, such as parentheses, for example, in many passages within the novel.

The specifics of lexicographic representation of phraseological units in the "Russian-English Phraseological Dictionary" edited by S. Lubenskaya

This article is devoted to the study of the specifics of the lexicographic representation of the dictionary "Russian-English phraseological Dictionary" edited by S. Lubenskaya. Its comparative analysis with similar Russian-English phraseological dictionaries is carried out in the aspects of 1) the volume of the dictionary and 2) the lexicographic description of the phraseological units included in their dictionary entries. Russian phraseological units are considered, their English equivalents are identified, with an emphasis on the comparative analysis of the subject nouns of Russian phraseological units and their analogues in English equivalents. Special attention is paid to the structure of the dictionary article and the lexicographic representation of phraseological units in the dictionary of S. Lubenskaya, the parameters of Russian phraseological units are considered, their English equivalents are identified with an emphasis on the comparative analysis of the subject nouns of Russian phraseological units and their analogues in English equivalents. The purpose of the study is to compare the dictionary of S. Lubenskaya with other Russian-English phraseological dictionaries and to identify the specifics of the lexicographic description of phraseological units in the dictionary of S. Lubenskaya. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that in the article the author draws attention to the most complete and innovative, but little-studied Russian-English phraseological dictionary edited by S. Lubenskaya, published in 2013. The article fully demonstrates the advantages of S. Lubenskaya's dictionary over other bilingual phraseological dictionaries not only in terms of the range of coverage of materials, that is, the volume of the dictionary, but also in the completeness of the structure of the dictionary entry and a high degree of accuracy and detail of the presentation of the material. The article also notes the importance of S. Lubenskaya's dictionary for further and comprehensive research of Russian and English phraseological lexicography.

Effects of utterance length on word and phrase durations

This study examined the effects of utterance length on word and phrase durations to investigate how the planned length of an utterance influences the rate of speech. An experiment was conducted in which the visual stimuli cued the production of sentences with one, two, or three subject noun phrases (NPs)—e.g., “Nine green rhinos and eight red weasels and eight blue llamas live in the zoo.” In addition, a novel, delayed stimuli condition was tested in which the visual stimuli that cued non-initial NPs (“eight red weasels and eight blue llamas”) were presented after participants started production, and thus sentence length changed after utterance initiation. Word and NP durations were analyzed. NP durations were longer in sentences with more NPs, and moreover, durational increases were primarily observed in the rightmost words of the NPs. These findings are important first because they show that the previously observed effects of number of words on word durations extend to phrases, and second because they show that phrase duration effects are localized to phrase ends. When the utterance length changed after the start of production, participants lengthened the end of the initial NP and the following conjunction to plan for the newly presented NPs.

Discourse Context Immediately Overrides Gender Stereotypes during Discourse Reading: Evidence from ERPs

This study investigated how local gender stereotype information interacts with discourse context during Chinese discourse reading. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants read two-sentence discourses, in which the first sentence provided the discourse context that either introduced a gender stereotype-countering attitude towards roles, such as "One should strive for the target job, and getting a job should not be restricted by gender"., or was neutral. The second sentence contained the critical clause in which the stereotypical gender of the object noun (a role name) was either consistent or inconsistent with the gender specified by the head noun (a kinship term) of the subject noun phrase, as in "Li's [daughter/son] became a nurse…". The object nouns elicited a larger N400 and a larger late negativity (LN) for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions in the neutral contexts. Crucially, when the discourse context offered information countering gender stereotypes, both the N400 and LN effects were reversed, with the negativities being smaller for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions. The reversal of the N400 effects suggests that discourse contexts can immediately override the processing of gender stereotypes, and thus readers compute discourse context and local pragmatic information simultaneously during discourse reading.

Number feature distortion modulates cue-based retrieval in reading

In sentence comprehension, what are the cognitive constraints that determine number agreement computation? Two broad classes of theoretical proposals are: (i) Representation distortion accounts, which assume that the number feature on the subject noun gets overwritten probabilistically by the number feature on a non-subject noun, leading to a non-veridical memory trace of the subject noun; and (ii) The cue-based retrieval account, a general account of dependency completion processes which assumes that the features on the subject noun remain intact, and that processing difficulty is only a function of the memory constraints on dependency completion. However, both these classes of model fail to account for the full spectrum of number agreement patterns observed in published studies. Using 17 benchmark datasets on number agreement from four languages, we implement seven computational models: three variants of representation distortion, two cue-based retrieval models, and two hybrid models that assume both representation-distortion and retrieval. Quantitative model comparison shows that the best fit is achieved by a hybrid model that assumes both feature distortion (specifically, feature percolation) and cue-based retrieval; numerically, the second-best quantitative fit was achieved by a distortion-based model of number attraction that assumes grammaticality bias during reading. More broadly, the work furnishes comprehensive evidence to support the idea that cue-based retrieval theory, which aims to be a general account of dependency completion, needs to incorporate a feature distortion process.

Structural prediction during language comprehension revealed by electrophysiology: Evidence from Italian auxiliaries.

Prediction in language comprehension has become a key mechanism in recent psycholinguistic theory, with evidence from lexical prediction as a primary source. Less work has focused on whether comprehenders also make structural predictions above the lexical level. Previous research shows that processing is facilitated for syntactic structures which are predictable based on context; however, there is so far no direct evidence that speakers formulate structural predictions ahead of encountering input. We investigated whether subject noun animacy cues comprehenders to predict different verb phrase (VP) structures, with the incompatibility between a low animacy subject and an Agent interpretation of transitives/unergative VPs predicting a derived (passive/unaccusative) VP structure, using Italian auxiliaries. Native Italian speakers read sentences with subject nouns varying from high to low animacy followed by the auxiliary avereHAVE, which is compatible with underived VPs, or essereBE, which is compatible with derived VPs. The auxiliary avereHAVE elicited greater frontal negativity when preceded by a subject noun with lower animacy. The auxiliary essereBE elicited no differential ERP given subject animacy. We propose that this frontal negativity reflects violation of a structural prediction, with amplitude reflecting the strength of initial commitment or difficulty in revising a predicted structure. Differences between auxiliaries are proposed to follow from the more specific distribution of avereHAVE. We argue that this evidence unambiguously supports a predictive mechanism for phrase-level structure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Is it ‘Increase’ or ‘Rise?’ A Corpus-based Behavioural Profile Study of English Near-Synonym Verbs

This study emerged as a result of insufficient knowledge and descriptions of the behavioural profiles of the near-synonym English verbs, increase and rise, by non-corpus-based traditional reference sources used by students. We explored the behavioural characteristics of this group of near-synonym verbs using the British National Corpus (BNC) of 100 million words as our corpus. Using the Sketch Engine Tool, we examined their frequency, subject and object noun collocations, adverb collocations, and syntactic behavioural profiles. The results demonstrate that both words collocate with subject and object nouns. However, on their top ten subject collocation lists, increase only collocates with abstract nouns related to finance and economy, whereas rise collocates with three different kinds of abstract nouns related to finance/economy, the human entity, and the natural environment, and one concrete noun related to natural environment. In addition, they only have two collocates in common on their top subject noun collocates list. In terms of object noun collocations, increase only collocates with abstract nouns connected to finance/economy and the natural environment, but rise collocates with abstract and concrete nouns on their top list. They also only have three adverb collocations in common on the top list. Rise has 17 distinct syntactic patterns, whereas increase has 15 different syntactic patterns. In teaching near-synonyms, we propose using corpus-based reference resources.

Number Attraction in EFL Learners’ Subject-Verb Agreement and the Effect of Distance

The present study aims to investigate Korean EFL learners’ sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violation and to examine effects of local number attraction, plural markedness, and distance on their agreement computation. Sixty-six Korean adult learners of English at mid- and high proficiencies participated in an experiment which combined self-paced reading and timed acceptability judgement. They were asked to read sentences region by region and rate their acceptability. All sentences contained a local noun that disagreed with the subject noun in number. They varied in terms of (i) grammaticality (i.e., agreement-violating vs. non-violating) and (ii) noun number (i.e., singular subject N/plural local N vs. plural subject N/singular local N). Half of the items had a short-distance condition and half had a long-distance condition. Analyses of participants’ responses showed that learners were generally sensitive to agreement violation when judging acceptability. In addition, proficient learners exhibited biased sensitivity to noun plurality, resulting in mismatch asymmetry in both acceptability judgment and self-paced reading, showing native-like response patterns. Distance between the subject and the verb resulted in reduced sensitivity to agreement violation. These findings suggest that learners can gradually become more sensitive to agreement violation and process subject-verb agreement in a nativelike pattern even when relevant morpho-syntactic features are not instantiated in their L1.

Diminutive Noun Class in Bantu Languages: Is Kiswahili Deviant?

Noun class prefixes ki-/vi- and ka-/tu- found in Bantu diminutives are widespread despite claims that these affixes are missing in Kiswahili. This study was qualitative, employing data from Kiswahili native speakers, selected literary works of art written in Kiswahili by Kiswahili speakers, and Kiswahili chat messages from WhatsApp forums of Kiswahili speakers. The study reveals that Kiswahili speakers use ka- and tu- affixes in addition to ki-/vi- to form diminutives. These affixes may attach to noun stems as in ka-toto/tu-toto ‘tiny child/tiny children’; or may attach to prefixed stems as pre-prefixes as in ki-m-nazi ‘small/short coconut tree’ and vi-mi-nazi ‘small/short coconut trees. The study findings also reveal that the noun class prefixes trigger agreement on modifiers and verb complexes regardless of their forms as prefixes or pre-prefixes as observed in ki-toto ki-moja ki-zuri ‘one pretty little girl’; or in ka-dada ka-na-miliki-gari ‘pretty little girl owning a car’ where the ki- and ka- on the subject noun stems (-toto and -dada) re-surface as subject markers (SMs) on the modifiers -moja ‘one’ and -zuri ‘pretty’; and on the verb complex -na-miliki ‘owning’. These facts provide strong support for arguing that Kiswahili projects special diminutive affixes in class 12/13 that triggers agreement on other modifiers.

Danish bare singular count nouns in subject position

This paper aims at investigating under which conditions Danish Bare Singular Count Nouns (BSCNs) can function as subjects in standard categorical statements, i.e. outside special discourse types such as proverbs, newspaper headlines, titles of paintings, etc. Taking as a point of departure a brief discussion of the distributional differences between, on the one hand, Bare Plural count nouns (BPs) and mass nouns and, on the other, BSCNs, it is shown that, contrary to BP- and mass noun subjects, BSCNs in subject position are non-referential and do not imply existential presupposition. On these grounds, and on the basis of analyses of phenomena such as agreement features, genericity and pseudo-incorporation, it is argued that the BSCN-subjects of categorical statements are objects which, owing to the lack of realisation of nominal functional categories, act as property-denoting modifiers restricting the denotation of a covert predicate. Consequently, it is concluded that BSCNs in subject position do not function as arguments in themselves, but are instead pseudo-incorporated into the covert predicate as modifiers.

Moment-to-Moment Processing of Complex Sentences by Adults with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Introduction. Limited evidence suggests that adults with developmental language disorder (DLD) take different information into account as they process sentences as compared to peers with typical language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how two factors affect sentence processing in adults with DLD: online storage costs and lexical expectations created by nouns. Methods. Forty-three adults, 21 with DLD, listened to complex sentences presented word-by-word, and their listening times were recorded. The sentences included either object relative clauses or sentential complements which differed in online storage demands. The main clause subject nouns differed in co-occurrence frequency with “that” in sentences produced by typical adults. Participants completed a running span task to assess verbal working memory capacity. Results. Mixed effects models found differences by sentence region. Participants with DLD processed embedded clause verbs faster than participants with typical language, and poorer language ability was associated with faster processing of conjunctions “that” and “which.” Participants with greater verbal working memory capacity or typical language were affected by noun co-occurrence frequencies but those with lower working memory or DLD were not. Conclusions. The results align with prior findings that verbal working memory capacity influences what information affects moment-to-moment sentence processing. Those with greater capacity appeared to be more affected by temporary ambiguity. As compared to adults with typical language, processing times of adults with DLD were less sensitive to information on words that frequently co-occur with nouns. This aligns with prior findings suggesting that adults with DLD are less sensitive to the frequency of the structures and arguments that co-occur with verbs.