Grammatical Relations Research Articles

How much receptive affix knowledge do L1 speakers and L2 learners have?

Abstract Although there is a growing interest in assessing how much L2 receptive affix knowledge learners have, research testing this knowledge using an extensive, standardized measure is relatively scarce. This study tested 21 L1 and 107 L2 learners of English to assess receptive knowledge of forms, meanings, and grammatical functions of 118 derivational affixes. Participants’ responses on the Word Part Levels Test were analyzed in mixed effects logistic regression models that examined the effects of affix difficulty, affix knowledge aspect, and vocabulary levels in predicting response accuracy. Results indicated that L1 and L2 affix knowledge differed depending on affix difficulty and knowledge aspect, L2 affix knowledge increased as a function of L2 vocabulary levels, and there was a clear difference between learners that had not mastered the first 1,000 frequency level and the rest of the learners. This suggests that developing the knowledge of the highest frequency vocabulary is critical to improve affix knowledge. The importance of using standardized measures of vocabulary in teaching and researching vocabulary knowledge is also discussed.

USE OF PUNCTUATION IN ARABIC AND TRANSLATION METHODS

This article analyzes the role and significance of punctuation marks (spelling marks) in Arabic in linguistics and translation. The article examines the system of punctuation marks in Arabic, its syntactic and semantic functions, as well as their significance in translation and methods of changing them. The problems associated with punctuation marks in the process of translation from Arabic to other languages, in particular, into Uzbek, and methods for solving them are analyzed. The article may be useful for those involved in the theory and practice of translation, as well as for those studying the Arabic language.

Kalimat Aktif dan Kalimat Pasif Bahasa Melayu Tengah Dialek Lembak di Kota Bengkulu

The Lembak dialect is one of the dialects commonly used by the Lembak people, also known as the Lembak ethnic group, which is part of the larger Bengkulu community. This study aims to describe the function, category, and syntactic role of active and passive sentences in Lembak dialect speech in Bengkulu City. The method used is a qualitative descriptive Data collection techniques in this study were carried out by listening, listening freely in conversation, interviews and recording techniques, namely by recording conversations in Tanjung Agung and Tanjung Jaya Villages, Sungai Serut District, Bengkulu City and interviewing the sources. The analysis steps were carried out in stages: 1) data transcription, 2) data identification, and 3) data classification. The results of the study showed that in active sentences, sentence structures were found with the patterns SPO, SPOKet, KetSPO, SPOPel, SketPO, SPOKetPel, and SPKetO. The syntactic functions found were subjects, predicates, objects, descriptions, and complements. Categories in the Lembak dialect found noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, adjective phrases, and numeral phrases. The syntactic roles found include actors, actions, sufferers, place, results, time, origin, purpose, participants, actions, recipients, number, things, conditions, and tools. Meanwhile, in passive sentences, sentence structures are found with the patterns SPO, SPOKet, KetSPO, SKetPO, KetSPO, and KetSPOPel. The syntactic functions found include subjects, predicates, objects, descriptions, and complements. The categories that appear include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, and adjective phrases. The syntactic roles found include sufferers, actions, actors, place, results, time, tools, and origin. In this study, it was found that in Central Malay Lembak dialect, the active sentence form of the verb is not prefixed or even reduced.

Образ осени в русской поэзии: лингвопоэтическая реализация национально-культурной специфики

The aim of the research is to substantiate the linguopoetic regularities of the realization of the national-cultural specificity of the image of autumn in Russian poetry. The article applies methods of corpus linguistics and theoretical principles of linguistic poetics for a comprehensive study of the image of autumn in three aspects: lexico-semantic dominants, syntactic functions of the lexeme “autumn”, and emotional-evaluative characteristics of poetic texts. The scientific novelty of the research lies in expanding R. Jakobson’s analytical approach through the application of corpus methods, which make it possible to identify stable linguistic models on extensive poetic material (452 poems). As a result, it was established that the image of autumn in Russian poetry is a holistic artistic system with a pronounced national specificity, where negative emotional connotations dominate while maintaining aesthetic ambivalence. Linguopoetic analysis reveals stable models of the transformation of autumn from a natural phenomenon into a multifaceted poetic image, reflecting the characteristics of national mentality and aesthetic perception. It is proven that natural-landscape, temporal, and existential-psychological components are synthesized in this image, forming a unique aesthetic paradigm characteristic of the Russian poetic tradition.

Die Dativalternation im Deutschen vom Standpunkt der einzelsprachlich-funktionellen Syntax: Synchronie und Diachronie

Abstract This article examines the alternation between the dative object construction (e.g. Der Kassierer gab dem Räuber das Geld aus der Kasse ‘The cashier gave the robber the money from the cash drawer’) and the prepositional object construction (e.g. Der Körper gibt Signale an den Kopf ‘The body sends signals to the head’) in German on the basis of synchronic and diachronic corpus data. The analysis adopts a language-specific functional perspective on grammatical structures along the lines of Eugenio Coserius “Funktionelle Syntax” approach, but also considers current developments in the discussion on argument structure constructions. Theoretically, the approach revolves around three key factors: i) the principled distinction between language-specific meaning (“signifié”), designation (reference) and text-meaning (“Sinn”, “sensus”); ii) a focus on language-specific grammatical functions and the different levels of grammatical structuring, including the Coserian account of “grammatical synonymy”, and iii) the distinction between the language system (“langue”) and normal (i.e. conventionalized) language use. On the empirical side, the study reports the findings of multivariate analyses of a large number of annotated sentences with four ditransitive verbs (geben ‘give’, übergeben ‘transfer, hand over, deliver’, senden ‘send’ and schicken ‘send’), which are analysed against the background of a layered model for the synchronic and diachronic account of the dative alternation in German. The model establishes the hierarchical relationship between a higher-level ‘constructeme’ (the ‘ditransitive construction’ in the narrow sense of the term), which is underspecified in terms of its language-specific expression and meaning, and two ‘allostructions’, the dative object construction and the prepositional object construction respectively, which are the constructional variants of the dative alternation. The model also accommodates the variation between the prepositions an and zu (‘to’) found with a number of ditransitive verbs in the prepositional object construction.

Theory of mind deficits in non-fluent primary progressive aphasia.

Theory of mind deficits in non-fluent primary progressive aphasia.

Структурные и семантические особенности хиазма в игровой поэтике рассказа В. В. Набокова «Сказка»

The article examines chiasmus in V. V. Nabokov's short story "A Nursery Tale," which serves as a logically verified framework for the author's thought, the symmetry of which has an aesthetic impact on the reader. The aim of the research is to present the structure and linguistic features of chiasmus in the playful poetics of V. V. Nabokov's short story "A Nursery Tale." The scientific novelty of the research is related to the fact that it is the first to examine chiasmus in V. V. Nabokov's short story "A Nursery Tale," in which the element of play is presented not in the vein of entertainment and punning, but as an intellectual linguistic game that leads to serious philosophical themes, defining the reader as a co-creator. Structural transformations of chiasmus, which determine the composition of the literary text, and linguistic representatives-transforms provide an insight into the writer's cognitive style. The results obtained showed that the chiastic construction in the short story "A Nursery Tale" is represented by a transformational syntactic figure, complicated by paraphrase, denotatum repetition, and exchange of syntactic functions. Decoding the semantic metamorphosis with the involvement of the "internal text" between the parts of the chiasmus showed that the transformation according to the mirror principle is reflected at the level of lexical repetitions and color gradation.

FUNGSI DAN KATEGORI SINTAKSIS DALAM KALIMAT TEKS CERITA ANAK PADA BUKU NONTEKS KEMDIKBUD “TIDAK BISA TIDAK”

Children's story text is a form of literary work that has strategic value in character building and developing children's literacy. Children's story texts hold linguistic richness that is interesting to study, especially in the aspect of syntax, which is the study of the structure and function of sentence building elements. This study aims to describe the syntactic structure by analyzing the use of functions and categories in sentences contained in children's story texts. The problem of this research is how syntactic functions and categories are represented in sentences in children's story texts. The data used are sentences that contain syntactic functions and categories. The data source comes from the text of a children's story titled “Tidak Bisa Tidak” in the Kemdikbud nontext book level B3. This research uses the listening method with note-taking technique in collecting the data. The analysis method used is agih method. The results obtained from this study show the existence of syntactic functions which include subject, predicate, object, description, and complement. In addition, there are categories found including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, noun phrases, verb phrases, and pronomines.

The functions of grammaticalized complement-taking-predicate clauses in interrogatives: a typology

Abstract Grammaticalized complement-taking-predicate (CTP) clauses like I think have been much studied in declaratives but not in interrogatives. We propose a typology of the grammatical functions that these CTP-clauses can convey, i.e., polarity bias, polarity reversal, modal orientation and opinion marker, and we relate these to the different dialogic functions that interrogatives can serve, i.e., Question, Query and Challenge. We apply the proposed analysis to samples of are you sure, do you think and is there a chance from the British Spoken sub-corpus of WordbanksOnline and discuss how their source semantics influences the grammatical and dialogic functions they specialize for: are you sure reverses polarity, typically in Queries; do you think is used mainly as opinion marker in Questions; and is there a chance marks modal orientation in Questions.

Классификация дефисных лексических единиц с компонентами-причастиями в аналитических статьях англоязычных СМИ

The aim of the research is to classify the hyphenated lexical units with participial components found in the analytical articles in British and American mass media. Scientific novelty of the research lies in dividing them into three groups and describing their lexical meaning, morphological properties and syntactic functions. The obtained results showed that hyphenated lexical units with participial components are not homogeneous and fall into three groups. Lexical units from the first group may be called compound words. They are composed of two stems, are closed or hyphenated, have unified grammatical design, perform attributive and predicative functions. Lexical units of the second group are placed between the compound words and derivatives. They are composed of a stem and a semi affix which has a generalized meaning; as a rule perform attributive function. The third group includes composites in which each component has its own lexical meaning. They don’t have unified grammatical design and perform attributive function. They are an intermediate link between the compound words and word combinations.

Nominalisation and semantic shift in selected isiXhosa nouns

This study addresses the process of nominalisation in isiXhosa to establish its historical development and implications on the writing and sense of words. Nominalisation, an important feature of scientific writing, enables information concentration as well as grammatical functions such as subject, complement and prepositional completive. Integration of systemic functional linguistics provides a powerful platform for the explanations of linguistic phenomena using grammatical metaphor and nominalisation. The theoretical framework of the study is rooted in systemic functional linguistics. The study employed systemic functional linguistics tools for unpacking language into its ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. A set of words from three dictionaries was picked for further analysis. The selection criteria were words that have undergone nominalisation and have therefore significantly changed in form or meaning. The selected words were subjected to changes in spellings, meanings and use and were compared to similar words in the three dictionaries selected for the study. Both the historical and social contexts in which such changes have come about are documented, providing insights into factors that play a role in language evolution. Findings of this study revealed that some words have changed in writing, while others have changed in meaning, but the original nominalisation process has not changed. Semantic changes can be linguistic or non-linguistic, and they can represent social, cultural, historical or economic developments. It is recommended that future studies on nominalisation should investigate the implications of understanding the nominalisation processes in isiXhosa for application to natural language processing and computational linguistics.

Effects of input modality and second-language vocabulary proficiency on processing of Japanese compound verbs

This paper investigates how input modality and second-language (L2) vocabulary proficiency affect the processing of different types of Japanese compound verbs. In this study, 50 graduate students from Japanese language programs at a Chinese university were placed in the visual group (N = 25) or auditory group (N = 25), and were asked to judge whether the presented Japanese compound verbs and pseudo-words were actual Japanese words or not. The compound verbs and pseudo-words were randomly presented visually or auditorily. Our findings highlighted several key points. First, the headedness effect in the processing of Japanese compound verbs emphasised the importance of the second verb in the compound, and this effect was modulated by both input modality and L2 vocabulary proficiency. Second, when compound verbs were presented in isolation, input modality and vocabulary level independently affected the processing of different types of compound verbs. Third, upon visual presentation, the processing of different types of compound verbs tended to shift from decomposed to holistic processing depending on the absence of grammatical and semantic functions in the first or second verbs; conversely, upon auditory presentation, a tendency toward decomposed processing prevailed across all types of compound verbs. Fourth, lower L2 vocabulary proficiency resulted in more pronounced differences between decomposed and holistic processing across various compound verb types; in contrast, higher L2 vocabulary proficiency favoured holistic processing. These observations contribute to a deeper understanding of the cognitive processing involved in L2 acquisition and have implications for both teaching and further research in this area.

Infinitival Constructions in the German Dialects of Austria: On Variation, Constraints, and Change of a Prominent Syntactic Feature

AbstractInfinitival constructions (ICs) have received considerable attention from syntacticians and typologists, but less so from variationist linguistics. Based on new data from a comprehensive dialect survey, this study investigates the variation and change of ICs in Austrian dialects. The results reveal clear geographical patterns for different IC variants in Austria. Regarding linguistic factors, several constraints are identified, most importantly with respect to the IC’s syntactical function and governing element (e.g., phase verbs). Moreover, an apparent-time analysis shows that one variant (zum + infinitive) has been grammaticalized and spread at the expense of all other variants, presumably due to both dialect leveling and dialect-standard advergence.

Nunation in Arabic

Traditionally, Nunation is a phenomenon in Arabic that signals the Case of a noun or adjective. It is marked by the inflection of the final letter in a word with a diacritical mark called "tanwin" represented by the letter /n/ in transliteration. The nunation is reminiscent of Semitic constructions, and it is constrained to be strictly attached to the head noun, just like the case in construct state constructions (CSCs) where the embedded genitive NP must be strictly adjacent to the head noun. The fact that they both (nunation-structures and CSCs) are in complementary distribution suggests that they should be treated similarly. Based on observations, Jarrah & Zibin (2016) argue that the nunation suffix, -n, is used to fill the head position in a determiner phrase when the definite article or a personal pronoun does not occupy the latter. This argument raises several questions in both syntax and morphology. In this paper, I suggest a new analysis of the Arabic nunation as a complement attaching to the head and absorbing Case marking. Viewed this way, the nunation affix in Arabic illustrates the complement in the head-complement pattern of grammatical relations.

The Influence of English Morphological Awareness on Vocabulary Acquisition of Arab EFL Students in Israel

This research investigates the impact of English morphological awareness on vocabulary development among Arab junior high school students. Given the distinct morphological differences between Arabic and English, the study examines how an understanding of morphemes—defined as the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function—facilitates vocabulary development in the context of learning English as a second language (ESL). Drawing on survey data from 20 English language teachers, the study explores educators’ perceptions of morphological instruction and its influence on students’ vocabulary proficiency. The findings underscore the critical role of incorporating structured morphological training into ESL curricula to enhance vocabulary acquisition and overall language competence. These findings are consistent with the results of Abdul majeed et al. (2023), they found that morphological analysis can play in important role in learning and teaching English especially in the foundation level. The findings strongly advocate for the integration of morphological awareness into EFL teaching practices, supported by targeted professional development for teachers, moreover the study concludes by recommending the strategic utilization of morphological parallels between Arabic and English to promote more effective language learning outcomes.

A Componential Analysis of the English Preposition “In” and the Chinese Preposition “Zai”

Prepositions are essential linguistic elements that convey both grammatical and semantic functions, particularly in representing spatial and temporal configurations. However, they present significant challenges in second language acquisition, especially for Chinese learners of English. This study employs a componential analysis to investigate the semantic properties of the English preposition “in” and the Chinese preposition “zai” from a cognitive semantic perspective. Definitions of the two prepositions were systematically collected from authoritative English and Chinese dictionaries and analyzed based on semantic components, including force dynamics, ground and figure geometry, and containment configuration. The results reveal three shared semantic components between “in” and “zai,” corresponding to spatial, temporal, and manner-based relations. However, distinct componential combinations emerged in the other definitions, with “in” showing 18 more uses than “zai.” These differences highlight variations in construal and metaphorical extensions across the two languages. The findings indicate that the broader semantic range and increased metaphorical uses of “in” complicate English preposition acquisition for Chinese learners. The study concludes that effective teaching strategies should go beyond collocation-focused approaches and address the cognitive semantic differences between L1 and L2 prepositions. Enhancing learners’ metaphor awareness and understanding of cross-linguistic conceptual frameworks can help bridge these gaps. The results offer theoretical insights into prepositional semantics and practical recommendations for improving EFL pedagogy.

한국어의 양태 어미와 다단어 표현의 관계: 체계기능언어학의 양태 은유의 관점에서

Objectives The purpose of this article is to explain the relationship between endings(or adverbs) and multiword expressions that realize modality in Korean by using grammatical metaphors(modality metaphors) from systemic functional linguistics. Methods To achieve this goal, we selected 46 multiword expressions that realize the discourse meaning of the four modality types(probability, usuality, inclination, obligation) according to SFL's definition of modality, and examined whether they are metaphorical expressions of modality or congruent expressions of modality according to the criteria for examining modality metaphors. Results As a result, it was confirmed that modal multiword expressions are classified into metaphorical expressions of modality (Type I) and congruent expressions of modality (Type II). And it was also found that the metaphorical expression showed the feedback effect mentioned by Ravelli (1988, 1999) that the meaning of the modality was more detailed. First, the metaphorical expression of modality (Type I) included multiword expression of probability modality (23), multiword expression of usuality modality (3), and multiword expression of inclination modality (12). They showed a reflective effect in which a specific meaning was added to the shared meaning discourse with congruent expression, or the shared meaning discourse with congruent expression was adjusted, and a specific meaning was added. Second, the congruent expression of modality (Type II) included multiword expressions of obligatory modality (8). This is because there is no congruent expression that shares the meaning of the discourse. Conclusions The results of the above study show that words in the Korean language can be formed not only by morphological word formation, but also by grammatical metaphors. By using grammatical metaphors, it is expected that multiword expressions that realize other grammatical functions other than modality can be explained within the scope of ideational, interpersonal, and textual metaphors.

Syntactic Function Exploration of Tibetan Interrogative Pronouns

This study focuses on Tibetan interrogative pronouns. Firstly, it traces their records in Tibetan grammar, revealing their dual functions and compound forms. Then, according to the focus of inquiry, Tibetan interrogative pronouns are subdivided into ten semantic categories, including asking about people, things and places, time, etc. Subsequently, it deeply discusses the syntactic functions of interrogative pronouns in various semantic categories when they act as subjects, objects, attributives, adverbials, etc., demonstrating their richness and complexity in expressing interrogative semantics in Tibetan. This is of crucial significance for in-depth exploration of Tibetan grammatical structure and language usage. It also provides solid theoretical support for Tibetan language teaching, translation practice and cross-cultural communication.

Morphologically-analyzed and syntactically-annotated Quran dataset.

Morphologically-analyzed and syntactically-annotated Quran dataset.

INGLIZ TILIDAGI GIDRONIM KOMPONЕNTLI MAQOLLARNING SINTAKTIK TAHLILI

This articlе providеs a syntactic analysis of provеrbs with a hydronymic componеnt in Еnglish, which studiеs thе usе of tеrms rеlatеd to watеr (е.g., rivеr, lakе, wavе) in provеrbs, thеir syntactic functions, and also studiеs thе syntactic structurе of provеrbs. It has bееn еstablishеd that hydronyms work in subjеct, objеctivе or mеtaphorical еxprеssions. Thе rеlationship bеtwееn syntactic structurе and sеmantic mеaning is also considеrеd, and thе structurе and mеaning formation in Еnglish provеrbs arе еxplainеd basеd on еxamplеs.