Syntactic Realization Research Articles

A Split Analysis of the Templatic Diminutive in Standard Arabic: Diminutivization and Paucal Quantification

This paper investigates the functions of the diminutive template in Standard Arabic (SA) and offers a morphosyntactic account of these functions within Borer's (2005) Exo-Skeletal model. It argues that it resides in two positions within DP. It merges in Size0 over a singular nP. In this unmarked position, it is productively a diminutivizer that reduces the size of a referent. On the other hand, it merges in Q0, acts as a paucal quantifier and yields paucity in number; however, it is marked in this position as it is not productively generated. It resides in Q0 only if it operates over plural nominals, i.e., it selects a Number Phrase as its complement to reduce the number of entities. In so doing, this split analysis adds credence to the proposal that the diminutive category, like plural, is morphosyntactically distributed (see Wiltschko 2006; De Belder, Faust, and Lampitelli 2014). Furthermore, the finding that the diminutive in SA is invariably a syntactic head emphasizes the cross-linguistic implication that languages may vary in terms of the syntactic realization and distribution of the diminutive and classifies SA with languages like Hebrew and Italian (De Belder, Faust, and Lampitelli 2014) where the diminutive is a syntactic head.

Between syntax and morphology: German noun+verb units

We show that graphemic variation—at least in some writing systems—can be analysed in terms of grammatical variation given a usage- based probabilistic view of the grammar-graphemics interface. Concretely, we examine a type of noun+verb unit in German, which can be written as one word or two. We argue that the variation in writing is rooted in the units’ ambiguous status in between morphology (one word) and syntax (two words). The major influencing factors are shown to be the semantic relation between the noun and the verb (argument or oblique relation) and the morphosyntactic context. In prototypically nominal contexts, a reinterpretation of the unit as a noun+noun compound is facilitated, which favours spelling as one word, while in prototypically verbal contexts, a syntactic realisation and consequently spelling as two words is preferred. We report the results of two large-scale corpus studies and a controlled production experiment to corroborate our analysis.

On Emotional States and their Syntactic Representation

The study focuses on the analyses of syntactic structure of some predicates and state predicatives denoting positive emotion: veselya (to make someone happy, in a good moon), veselya se (to frolic, to party), vessel sam (to be happy), veselo (mi) e (to be in a good mood), veselba e (it is fun). Our aim is to provide a syntactic model representing argument structure of predicates and predicatives from this thematic group. The syntactic realization of arguments, semantic role hierarchy, and specifics concerning the referentiality of the nominal phrases in argument position are examined. The analyses show differences both in the semantic structure of predicates and predicatives and in the syntactic realization of their arguments. In contrast to other emotional predicates, veselya and veselya se have only nominal phrases as complements. While the analyzed verbs represent causative and dynamic predicates, respectively, the predicatives vessel, vesselo denote emotional states. Nominal phrases, as well as complement clauses can be used in complement positions. In this respect, the syntactic realization of predicatives is similar to the one of other emotional state predicatives, such as radosten sam (to be happy), radostno (mi) e (it is rejoicing).

Neural Generative Models and the Parallel Architecture of Language: A Critical Review and Outlook.

According to the parallel architecture, syntactic and semantic information processing are two separate streams that interact selectively during language comprehension. While considerable effort is put into psycho- and neurolinguistics to understand the interchange of processing mechanisms in human comprehension, the nature of this interaction in recent neural Large Language Models remains elusive. In this article, we revisit influential linguistic and behavioral experiments and evaluate the ability of a large language model, GPT-3, to perform these tasks. The model can solve semantic tasks autonomously from syntactic realization in a manner that resembles human behavior. However, the outcomes present a complex and variegated picture, leaving open the question of how Language Models could learn structured conceptual representations.

Instrument syntactic realization in Italian and LIS A cross-modal comparative study and implications for interpreting practice

This study compares how instruments are syntactically realized in Italian and LIS, using a cross-modal comparative approach. In Italian, Instruments are syntactically realized only when they are not recoverable from the verb. Three Instrument types are identified: shadow, default, and open. Only shadow Instruments are incorporated into the verbal root. As for LIS, our analysis reveals that shadow Instruments are preferred and finer-grained compared to Italian, probably due to visual modality. This has implications for Italian-to-LIS interpretation, as interpreters might make a wrong choice when Italian does not specify, but LIS requires a shadow Instrument.

Instrument syntactic realization in Italian and LIS A cross-modal comparative study and implications for interpreting practice

This study compares how instruments are syntactically realized in Italian and LIS, using a cross-modal comparative approach. In Italian, Instruments are syntactically realized only when they are not recoverable from the verb. Three Instrument types are identified: shadow, default, and open. Only shadow Instruments are incorporated into the verbal root. As for LIS, our analysis reveals that shadow Instruments are preferred and finer-grained compared to Italian, probably due to visual modality. This has implications for Italian-to-LIS interpretation, as interpreters might make a wrong choice when Italian does not specify, but LIS requires a shadow Instrument.

Developing advanced L2 German writing: A functionally oriented longitudinal study

AbstractCompetent L2 writing has been described in research in terms of an increasing incidence, variety, and length of clauses; a countervailing compactness and tightness with reduced number of clauses even as clause length expands; and various interrelationships between syntactic realizations of texts and the genres they represent. These partly contradictory features are typically related to the fact that “advancedness” is both a notoriously vague term and a developmental stage that is more expansive than are introductory and intermediate levels of L2 performance. To contribute to a more differentiated understanding of advancedness—particularly its gradual development in instructed settings—this article examines the characteristics of advanced writing through an analysis of data that are (a) longitudinal, rather than cross‐sectional, (b) embedded in an instructional environment that has implemented principled, articulated curricular, and pedagogical practices for the development of advancedness, and (c) analyzed within a systemic–functional linguistic framework in order to focus on the notions of experiential and logical meaning. By analyzing the intraclausal and interclausal resources that evolving advanced learners use and by relating them to the learners’ developmental trajectory, this article contributes to a better understanding not only of the nature of advancedness but also of its development by adult instructed learners.

Active perception predicates and their frame elements characteristics

The article aims at describing a specific variety of perception predicates, namely active perception predicates. Active are considered those predicates in which the perceiving subject voluntarily directs his attention or sense organs to the object of perception. The differences between the analyzed predicates and the other subclasses of perception verbs are investigated, their semantic scope is described. Active perception predicates are categorized into subtypes. Their frame elements are examined with their definitions, semantic restrictions and possible syntactic realizations.

Anticipating the Damn Referent: How Comprehenders Rapidly Retrieve the Speaker's Attitude When Processing Negative Expressive Adjectives

Theoretical accounts of negative expressives such as damn have ascribed two main properties to this type of adjective, namely that they are typically speaker-oriented, and that they can be flexible with regard to their syntactic attachment. However, it is not clear what this means during online sentence processing. For example, is it effortful for comprehenders to derive the speaker's negative attitude conveyed by an expressive adjective, or is it a rapid, automatic process? And do comprehenders understand the speaker's attitude regardless of the expressive's syntactic position? The current work provides the first evidence supporting theoretical claims by investigating the incremental processing of Italian negative expressive adjectives. In an eye-tracking study, we show that expressive content is rapidly integrated with information about the speaker's attitude, resulting in the anticipation of an upcoming referent, regardless of the expressive's syntactic realization. We argue that comprehenders use expressives as an ostensive cue that allows for automatic retrieval of the speaker's negativeattitude.

Russian lexical and syntactic hedges in dissertation reviews

The author analyzes Russian lexical and syntactic hedges as a rhetorical strategy for mitigating the negative evaluation of the reviewed research. The relevance of the study is due to the ongoing attempts to reconceptualize the nature of academic discourse, which is increasingly viewed both as an interactive space and an information environment. This approach determines the need to study metadiscourse as an effective strategy for constructing a harmonious dialogue between the reviewer and the author of the dissertation under review. The purpose of the study is to identify lexical and grammatical categories of hedges and their rhetorical functions in the thesis reviews. A corpus of 90 dissertation reviews published on the websites of Russian dissertation councils in 2019-2022 was used as research materials. The object of the study was the genre of a dissertation review, where for the first time the linguistic means of mitigating negative evaluation on two linguistic levels were identified. This determines the scientific novelty of this study. To analyze the lexical and syntactic realizations of the hedging strategy, the methods of quantitative and interpretive analysis were used. The quantitative analysis revealed that the hedging strategy is mainly verbalized with the help of verbs, adverbs and introductory constructions. The interpretive analysis showed that hedges perform a wide range of communicative functions: shifting the communicative focus; modal mitigation of criticism; deintensification. The research contributes to linguistics disciplines such as pragmalinguistics, text theory and discourse analysis. The prospects of the research are an analysis of lexical and grammatical categories of other metadiscursive strategies.

“Jerry was a terrific host!” “You were a brilliant guest!”

Abstract Expanding the research investigating compliments in CMC genres, this study explores reciprocal compliments from consumers and service-providers on Airbnb, a major tourism platform. Specifically, the study examines distribution of compliments in both guest reviews of Online Experiences (a virtual tourism service) and hosts’ responses to those reviews, focusing on compliment topics, their syntactic realizations, and their associated intensification strategies. Despite some similarities with prior research on CMC compliments with respect to the overall frequency and general expression of compliments, we also identified several differences related to compliment reciprocity as well as a greater tendency toward more formal language use in this professional digital context. These differences are likely related to the different relationships among participants, as well as different user goals when communicating on commercially-oriented sites versus social networking sites, demonstrating the need to expand the scope of CMC compliment research to include a broader range of platforms.

СЕМАНТИЧНА КЛАСИФИКАЦИЯ НА ПРЕДИКАТИТЕ ЗА СЪСТОЯНИЕ В БЪЛГАРСКИ

The object of study are state predicates and their classification based on semantic features. Different classifications of state predicates are briefly presented; in general, two types of classifications can be distinguished: classifications that group predicates based on a common property, such as emotional states, perceptions, cognitive process-es, etc., and classifications that group predicates based on the presence or absence of some semantic feature, such as stativity, duration, etc. In the former case, the classifications (if detailed) are contradictory, because they are not based on clear-cut criteria, and in the latter the classifications are very general, as the distinct groups include predicates that are diverse in type and compatibility. In this study we will present the main classes of state predicates in a unified system and will illustrate them with appropriate examples (focusing only on lexical states). The following semantic features of the topical argument (the semantic subject of the predicate, regardless of its syntactic realization) are distinguished: mental experience, physical experience, conscious participation, animacy and inanimacy. Based on them, state predicates are classified, and the grouping makes it possible to draw conclusions about the distribution of permanent and temporary state predicates, as well as about the syntactic realization of the topical argument. Keywords: state predicates, individual-level and stage-level predicates, semantic characteristics of state predicates

АРГУМЕНТНА СТРУКТУРА НА НЯКОИ ДВОЙКИ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИ ПРЕДИКАТИ И ПРЕДИКАТИВИ / ARGUMENT STRUCTURE OF SOME PAIRS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PREDICATES AND PREDICATIVES

The main topic of this study is the syntactic realization of the arguments of the predicates радвам (to rejoice; make someone glad) and радвам се (to be glad) and the predicative constructions expressing positive emotion (joy) in Bulgarian. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs denoting emotions, also known as physiological verbs or psych predicates, obligatorily assign the semantic role of experiencer to one of their arguments. The comparison between verbal predicates and predicative constructions demonstrates the differences concerning the type of argument expression (as a direct or an indirect object), the prepositions that introduce indirect object phrases, explicit and null subject realizations and the syntactic marking of semantic roles. Keywords: emotional predicates, psychological verbs, complements, experiencer

The French intensifierauto,and the roles ofvand Voice in introducing agents

AbstractThe paper focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French verbal prefixauto. It is proposed thatautois an intensifier stating that no agent other than the one specified in the clause (agent-focusing), or, in anticausative clauses, no agent (agent-denying), is responsible for the event. Syntactically,automerges with a verbal projection, and the nature of the constituent to which it attaches determines and constrains the interpretation of the clause. The proposed analysis ofautoprovides support for generative approaches in which avhead introduces the external argument role, while a grammatical Voice head determines its syntactic realization.

Наблюдения върху синтактичната реализация на предикати за емоционални състояния

The object of the analysis in the following paper are sentences with verbs for emotions (psychological verbs, Experiencer verbs) in the modern Bulgarian language. The main goal is to present the syntactic realization of arguments to the verb obicham (to love) as representative of the syntactic features of the verbs for positive emotions. The selective restrictions for the realization of the arguments are determined by lexical semantics and thematic structure of the predicates. For psychological verbs, the subject is marked with the thematic role Experiencer, and the complements are either Theme (Object of emotion) or Stimulus. The external complement of the transitive verb obicham (to love) is marked as Theme and represents object – specific, generic, as well as propositional one, to which the emotional relationship is directed. Observations show that in the subject position, in addition to nouns denoting animate objects, names of specific inanimate or abstract objects can also be used. Da-clauses are the main means for the realization of object complements to the verb obicham. In certain contexts, subordinate clauses with free relatives can also be used.

Ditransitive and Dative Constructions in English and Thai Languages

This article presents predominant views of the English and Thai ditransitive and dative sentence structures that take verbs to have two major meanings based on schemata: a caused possession and a caused motion. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the associations between verbs and their event schemata, the syntactic and semantic realizations available to the ditransitive and dative sentence structures, and the associations between the parallel structures of the sentences across the languages. The participants of the study were pre-service teachers majoring in English at a university in Thailand. The study was conducted in the 2020 academic year. The analyses demonstrated inference patterns and verb arguments in the double object construction across English and Thai. The results of the study also identified the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences with an account of variant choices that provided insightful explanations of the data in the crosslinguistic realm. Implications for educators revolve around individual differences and other related variables that might yield various results. The findings also suggest the multidimensionality of research into the crosslinguistic analyses of double object construction and linguistic devices. Keywords: ditransitive; dative; sentence structure; English; Thai

Metalanguage Attitude and Syntax of Secondary Text (Poetic Parodies by A. A. Ivanov)

The problem of the metalanguage attitude (in the development of the concept of D. N. Uznadze) and the specifics of the implementation of the metalanguage attitude in parody as a secondary text at the syntactic level are considered. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that the development of the metalanguage aspect of speech activity in modern linguistics requires the concept of a metalanguage attitude. In addition, now it is necessary to understand how the metalanguage attitude is realized in the syntactic organization of secondary texts of a particular genre (in this case, parody). The novelty of the research lies in the creation of the general theory of the metalanguage attitude foundations, in substantiating the inclusion of the metalanguage attitude in the speech structure of parody, in the reconstruction of the elements of the parodist’s creative work on the syntax of both the original (primary) and his own (secondary) text. The poetic parodies of A. A. Ivanov were taken as material for the study, in which the metalanguage attitude, realized in the syntax, is placed at the service of the genre-stylistic conventions of parody, on the one hand, and the parodist’s aesthetic goal-setting, on the other. When analyzing poetic parodies of A. A. Ivanov, it was found that the syntactic realization of the metalanguage attitude is carried out on the basis of principles, operations and means. Four poetic parodies of A. A. Ivanov were subjected to detailed analysis.

Конверсивные структуры в системе французских адъективных предикатов отношения

The paper analyses the ability of certain French adjectives to transfer multidirectional relations in the adjective-nominal construction with an adjective as the core component. The research objectives are as follows: to describe possible conversive diatheses of the French adjective predicates of relation, to develop a typology of these conversives relying on a lexico-semantic and actant analysis. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the French governing adjective is considered as a predicate with a certain set of semantic actants that determine the number of syntactic positions and their syntactic realizations in surface syntactic structures. As a result, two fundamentally different types of intentional conversion of the French adjective predicates of relation are identified.

The pronoun sto and its semantic and syntactic derivatives in the vernacular of the Sirinic county

This paper analyzes the pronoun sto and its semantic and syntactic derivatives in the Prizren - South Morava dialect in the Sirinic county (Sirinicka Zupa), in the northern part of the Sar Mountains. The paper focuses primarily on the syntactic use of sto, while its semantic derivatives are outlined mainly in terms of references to the previous research on the subject. The dialect corpus shows that this lexeme has a wide range of syntactic realizations - it can be used as a relativizer in defining and non-defining relative clauses, as a conjunction in the clauses of reason and declarative clauses, and it can also be used as a pronoun and adverb. Moreover, the research includes the cases in which sto was found to be a part of multi-word conjunctions in hypotactic or paratactic structures. This paper primarily aims to determine and examine the syntactic positions in which sto is realized and the environment in which it is used. In the majority of the observed cases, there were also other corresponding syntactic devices, so that the focus was also placed on determining the frequency of the lexeme sto in these positions in relation to its synonymous syntactic counterparts. The fact that the form sto is widely used in the Sirinic vernacular as a conjunction in relative clauses points to its provenance in a wider Serbian-Macedonian area as well as to its not being included in the standard Serbian language, in lieu of which the form koji is predominantly used. In the vernacular of Sirinic county, the lexeme sto is used as a conjunction in declarative object clauses, and it is also the principal conjunction in the clauses of reason.

An investigation into “Affect”, “Judgement” and
 “Appreciation” in english speeches by nobel peace prize laureates

Appraisal Theory, which has been developed by linguists Martin & White since the 1990s, is the development of functional grammar in terms of interpersonal meaning. Based on the Appraisal Theory, this article aims to investigate the three sub-categories namely “Affect”, “Judgement” and “Appreciation” in English Speeches by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (ESNPLs) with focus placed on identifying and describing syntactic realizations and semantic features of the three above-mentioned sub-categories in 25 ESNPLs collected from the official website of the Nobel Prize in the period 2000-2019. With regard to the syntactic aspect, the sub-categories can be realized by means of various groups in which Nominal Groups, Verbal Groups and Adjectival Groups are more noticeable. In terms of the semantic aspect, the research results show that both positive and negative values were demonstrated in the above speeches; however, positive values proved to be dominant.