Verb Argument Structure Research Articles

The Role of Aspect During Deverbal Word Processing in Greek

Deverbal formations in Greek, e.g. miˈrazo ‘to distribute’ < ˈmirazma ‘distributing’ are considered morphologically complex lexical items. Previous psycholinguistic studies in Greek and English already highlighted the importance of lexical category and argument structure of the base verb in the processing of deverbal pseudowords violating constraints pertaining to these properties. A similar study in Slovenian brought into light the role of aspectual properties of the base verb during deverbal word processing. The present study revisits the role of aspect in morphological processing of deverbal word formations by looking at Greek. To this end, an offline acceptability judgement task and an online lexical decision task were conducted using different types of pseudowords, violating derivational rules. Results provide evidence that aspect affects deverbal pseudoword processing in Greek. Aspectual rules have a distinct role in relation to categorial and argument structure ones for the suffix that creates formations with unambiguous, eventive readings and which has clear event implications but not for other suffixes. The current study extends the literature to include the role of this feature in the processing of deverbal formations.

Visual priming and parsing preferences: A self-paced reading study of PP-attachment ambiguity in Dutch verb-final structures

Understanding how language users navigate through syntactic ambiguities is crucial for unravelling the intricacies of sentence processing. This study explored ambiguity resolution within verb-final double prepositional phrase structures in Dutch. While previous research has largely focused on SVO structures such as those found in English, there is a scarcity of evidence regarding initial syntactic decisions in verb-final structures. The study pursued two aims: firstly, to investigate whether visual cues can direct the parser towards an intended interpretation; and secondly, to examine the potential of visual cues in priming verb subcategorization information within ambiguous sentences in the absence of linguistic input. A reading task was administered to address these objectives by assessing per-word reading times. Furthermore, ambiguity within the structures was resolved by presenting an animation clip that displayed the intended interpretation of each sentence before reading it. The results indicated that the animations provided before the reading task modulated the processing of NP- and VP-attachment interpretations of the ambiguous structures under study. However, these contextual cues did not prime subcategorized information of verbs earlier than their appearance within the sentence, as evidenced by unchanged reading profiles for the regions preceding the verb. This study demonstrates that visual contexts modulate the word-by-word processing of Dutch verb-final structures, and that verb argument structure appears to influence this process. The results are examined through various sentence processing theories, lending support to constraint-based models.

The Argument Structure of Intransitive Verbs in Toba Batak Language Aek Kanopan Dialect: A Grammatical Typology Analysis

The aim of the research is to describe the argument structure of intransitive verbs in Toba Batak language (TBL) Aek Kanopan dialect based on grammatical typology analysis. Data collections are gathered by applying conversational and listening method. Meanwhile, the main technique in collecting the data is elicitation technique, which is continued by several techniques, i.e. recording technique and taking note. The data is analyzed by distributional method as suggested by Sudaryanto (2015) and Mahsun (2011). With the use of the oral and written data, as well as the observation method, the analyzing data is done by using substitutional method, translational method, and referential method. The results of the analysis are provided by formal and informal methods. The result of this research shows that the argument structure of intransitive verbs in Toba Batak Language, Aek Kanopan dialect is that intransitive verbs can be divided into two types, namely verbs involving experiencer verbs and action verbs. Both types of verbs require only one argument, the subject, which grammatically functions as the only argument in the sentence. Semantically, the subject can act as an agent who performs an action or as an experiencer who experiences a state or feeling. Then, typologically of grammatical, the argument structure of intransitive verb in TBL Aek Kanopan dialect involved as an accusative-type language.

The subject of a stative object experiencer verb is an intensional Cause

In the domain of experiencer verbs, little attention has been paid to the potential intensionality of object experiencer (OE) verbs (but see Cheung &amp; Larson 2015). Relying on diagnostics identified in the literature (Dowty 1979; Schwarz 2020), I argue that the intentionality of OE verbs is correlated with their aspectual properties: they are intensional in their subject when stative but not when eventive. I then consider whether this finding can help us choose between competing theories of the argument structure of OE verbs (Arad 2000; Landau 2010). I will argue that the answer is negative.

Semantic Cues Facilitate Structural Generalizations in Artificial Language Learning

ABSTRACT Natural languages contain systematic relationships between verb meaning and verb argument structure. Artificial language learning studies typically remove those relationships and instead pair verb meanings randomly with structures. Adult participants in such studies can detect statistical regularities associated with words in these languages and their use of novel words will adhere to those statistical regularities. However, word use in natural languages is associated with more than distributional statistics. Using an artificial language learning paradigm, we asked how a relationship between verb meaning and sentence structure affected learning and structure generalization. Twenty-four English-speaking adults watched videos described in an artificial language with two possible sentence structures. Half of the participants (statistics-only condition) learned a language with no relationship between verb meaning and sentence structure. The other half (semantics condition) learned a language in which verb meaning predicted which structures a verb occurred in. Although all learners were able to comprehend the learned structures with novel verbs, participants in the semantics conditions made grammaticality judgments and productions with novel verbs that were more consistent with the target language than participants in the statistics-only condition. The availability of semantic cues to verb subcategory supports artificial language learning.

Object Incorporation in Latin: Towards Macro- and Micro-Typology of Incorporation

In this paper, the Latin language is analyzed in the context of typology of object incorporation. The authors draw on the research of Mithun, who considers incorporation on the basis of two obligatory conditions: first, the noun must be embedded in the verb, and second, the language must have parallel syntactic paraphrases with non-incorporated noun. The second criterion is so important that the phenomenon of incorporation is acknowledged to exist even in those languages where there is no complete integration of the noun into the verb, but only a certain syntactic compactness, provided there are parallel constructions. The latter type has been coined “noun stripping” and has launched the division of incorporation into two types, viz. “strong” and “weak” incorporation. Another important point of divergence between the incorporating languages is the change of the argument structure of the source verb, namely, the preservation or loss of transitivity of the incorporated complex. Taking all these parameters into account, the authors propose a new typology of object incorporation, including languages that have not previously been considered in the context of this phenomenon. This typology is not based on a strict opposition of incorporating and non-incorporating languages, but represents a kind of continuum in which the place of a language depends on whether it demonstrates: 1) full incorporation or only a close syntactic Noun–Verb compactness; 2) the presence of parallel syntactic paraphrases; 3) the detransitivisation of the resulting compound verb. The authors examine each criterion in detail as applied to Latin and show the place of Latin in this typology.

Argument structure of cut and break verb in Ezza dialec

Verbs are separated into two classes, namely cut verbs and break verbs. The two classes are distinguished based on the semantic properties of the verbs, which supposedly influences their syntactic behavior. This study examined the argument structure of cut and break verbs in Ezza dialects of Igbo language. A data elicitation session was conducted from the Bohnemeyer video clips. These videos consisted of various scenes, depicting different types of cutting and breaking events. The reading of the verb ‘cut’ in this study describes separation, damage of an object or entity and generally involves the use of a bladed instrument (for example a knife, machete, and scissors) which is used by an agent to carry out the action, finally leading to a separation or a change in the ‘material integrity’ of the object. The cut verbs can participate in different constructions, while the Break verbs have the ability to occur spontaneously without the involvement of an agent. The instruments are indicated by the verbs which refute the claim of linguistic literatures that one distinguishing feature of break verbs is that the type of instrument used for the activity is not denoted.

Conflation Patterns Of Vietnamese Verbs A Cognitive Perspective

In order to represent complex events or conflation patterns, Vietnamese verbs that conflate are examined in this study for their semantic components. The lexicalization patterns presented by Talmy, L (2000), the semantic structure clarified by Jackendoff, R (1990), and the frame semantics postulated by Fillmore, C (1970) serve as the theoretical underpinnings of this study. This study sheds light on the blending of conceptual categories in Vietnamese verbs through empirical data. It focuses on the analysis of these conceptual categories, which include Action, Cause, Manner, Motion, Path, Perception, Position, and Location, within Vietnamese conflation patterns. The research investigates the combinability of these conceptual categories and provides a thorough comprehension of verb argument structures. It is anticipated that the analysis of Vietnamese conflation pattern typologies would add to the field's linguistic background. Examining conflation patterns also makes it easier to understand the underlying conceptualizations and cultural influences that influence language usage.

Rethinking the Description and Typology of Cantonese Causative–Resultative Constructions: A Dynamic Constructionist Lens

This article proposes a new description of Cantonese causative–resultative constructions (CRCs), constructions with two verbal elements relevant to the cause and the effect of an event respectively. We present a constructional schema for the CRC with three argument types and without using traditional categories—such as subject, object and pseudo-passivation, present various syntactic and semantic properties, and subsume constructions such as the comparative construction and numerous particle constructions under this banner. We then argue against traditional approaches to CRCs with two lexical verbs that treat the argument structure of the CRC as composed from argument structures of individual verbs (the decompositional approach); instead, CRC arguments belong to the entire construction and have only semantic orientation-based relationships with individual verbs (the holistic approach). We show how our account can shed light on Sinitic typology and the grammaticalisation mechanism of verbal particles within CRCs, particularly the extension of result verbs into a broader range of contexts to become particles. We also argue that Cantonese CRCs challenge many assumptions of serial verb typology, which typically ignore the existence of multiple layers of constructional abstraction and assume decompositional descriptions, and urge for methodological advancements in this field.

Assessment of verb and sentence processing deficits in stroke-induced aphasia: the Italian version of the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS-I)

ABSTRACT Background The Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS) assesses verb and sentence production and comprehension in aphasia. Results from the original English version and from its adaptation to German have shown that the NAVS is able to capture effects of verb-argument structure (VAS) complexity (i.e., lower accuracy for two- and three-argument vs. one-argument verbs) and syntactic complexity (i.e., lower accuracy for non-canonical vs. canonical sentences) in both agrammatic participants and individuals with fluent forms of aphasia. The NAVS has been recently adapted to Italian (NAVS-I) and tested on a group of healthy participants, with results showing longer reaction times to complex vs. simple verbs and sentences. Aims The present study aimed to test the ability of NAVS-I to i) capture verb/sentence production and comprehension deficits in Italian-speaking individuals with agrammatism or with fluent aphasia, and ii) differentiate individuals with aphasia from healthy age-matched participants, with the overall goal to validate its use in clinical practice. Methods & Procedures Forty-four healthy participants and 28 individuals with aphasia (10 with agrammatic speech production) were administered the NAVS-I, which includes tasks assessing production and comprehension of verbs requiring one, two or three arguments, as well as production and comprehension of canonical and non-canonical sentences. Outcomes & Results On the Verb Naming Task (VNT), better production of one- (vs. two- and three-) argument verbs was found in the agrammatic group, whereas, verb production in the fluent group was solely predicted by word length and imageability. No effects of argument optionality (i.e., greater difficulty for optionally transitive verbs than for 1-argument verbs) were found. Sentence-level tasks found no differences between the agrammatic and the fluent group in production or comprehension of both canonical and non-canonical sentences; rather, sentence comprehension accuracy was predicted by demographic variables and by aphasia severity. At the individual level, performance on the NAVS-I was significantly different from that of healthy speakers in 26/28 patients. Conclusions Data show that the NAVS-I is able to capture effects of argument structure complexity in verb production, and effects of syntactic complexity in sentence production and comprehension. In addition, our results point to verb production as the task with greater capability to differentiate agrammatism from other (fluent) forms of aphasia. The study provides support for the use of the NAVS-I in the diagnosis of aphasia, as it is able to detect language deficits at the individual level, even in participants with mild (residual) forms of aphasia.

Comparisons of Online Assessment Platforms for Action Naming Tests in Healthy Young and Middle-aged Adults

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of action naming tests when using a chatbot-based online platform. The performance of healthy young adults and healthy middle-aged adults on action naming tests was compared between online assessment platforms.Methods: A total of 81 participants were included in this study (40 young adults, 41 middle-aged adults). Participants were divided into two groups according to the online assessment platforms, 40 individuals (20 young adults, 20 middle-aged adults) receiving the action naming tests via Zoom and 41 individuals (20 young adults, 21 middle-aged adults) via chatbot.Results: The results indicated that there was no significant difference in action naming performance across online assessment platforms. In addition, young adults showed statistically higher performance compared to the middle-aged adults. There was a significant main effect of verb argument structure on action naming performance, with one- and two-place verbs having a higher correct response rate than three-place verbs.Conclusion: Although the younger group performed better than the middle-aged group, there were no significant differences in action naming performance between chatbot and Zoom groups, suggesting that chatbot-based action naming tests can be used interchangeably with the established online platforms. Accordingly, it is expected that we will be able to provide appropriate online language assessment services for each client in a future clinical setting.

Implicit causality biases of Romanian interpersonal verbs: elicitation and initial results

Implicit causality is the property of interpersonal verbs to relate two human or animate entities in such a way that one of the referents is assumed to have caused the action or attitude described by the verb. This assumption, which has been termed bias and which is seemingly rooted in the argument structure of verbs, affects remention and subsequent pronominalization. This paper surveys theoretical and psycholinguistic approaches to causality in language with a focus on implicit causal relations expressed inter-clausally by verbs. It also presents the preliminary results of an off-line sentence-continuation study in which we tested the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural consistency of the implicit causality bias patterns of interpersonal verbs in Romanian.

Neuromodulation of verb-transitivity judgments

This study aimed to further clarify the roles of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain in the processing of verb argument structure. Left inferior frontal brain areas have long been considered important for sentence processing, but recent research links left posterior temporal cortex to knowledge of verb argument structure. We applied cathodal High-Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to 45 participants in a between-subjects design, with 15 participants each for inferior-frontal-cortex stimulation, posterior-temporal-cortex stimulation, and sham stimulation. Set up as a training task during stimulation, participants made overt judgments on the number of participant roles associated with individual verbs. Stimulation of posterior temporal cortex did not yield results that were different from sham stimulation, speeding up task responses overall. By contrast, stimulation of inferior frontal cortex yielded differential results for intransitive versus transitive verbs, speeding up responses to intransitive verbs and increasing accuracy to transitive verbs, relative to other conditions. The transitivity effect, specific to inferior frontal stimulation, suggests a role for inferior frontal cortex in access to verb-argument-structure information, possibly specific to situations of high cognitive load and in which participant roles have to be established for production, as opposed to comprehension.

Acquiring verb-argument structure in Tagalog: a multivariate corpus analysis of caregiver and child speech

Abstract Western Austronesian languages have typologically rare but theoretically important voice systems that raise many questions about their learnability. While these languages have been featured prominently in the descriptive and typological literature, data on acquisition is sparse. In the current paper, we report on a variationist analysis of Tagalog child-directed speech using a newly collected corpus of caregiver-child interaction. We determined the constraints that condition voice use, voice selection, argument position, and thematic role assignment, thus providing the first quantitative analysis of verb argument structure variation in the language. We also examined whether children are sensitive to the constraints on variability. Our analyses showed that, despite the diversity of structures that children have to learn under Tagalog’s voice system, there are unique factors that strongly predict the speakers’ choice between the voice and word order alternations, with children’s choices related to structure alternations being similar to what is available in their input. The results thus suggest that input distributions provide many cues to the acquisition of the Tagalog voice system, making it eminently learnable despite its apparent complexity.

АРГУМЕНТИ ЗА ДОБРО ИЛИ ЛОШО: УСЕТ КЪМ АРГУМЕНТНАТА СТРУКТУРА И ПРОЦЕСЪТ НА РАЗБИРАНЕ НА ИДИОМАТИЧНИ ИЗРАЗИ ПРИ РАЗЛИЧНИ ПОПУЛАЦИИ / ARGUMENTS FOR GOOD OR BAD: SENSITIVITY TO ARGUMENT STRUCTURE AND IDIOM PROCESSING ACROSS POPULATIONS

This paper addresses approaches to verb argument structure from the point of view of the information which can be assumed to be lexically encoded in the verb. It explores ways in which speakers’ sensitivity to verbs can be investigated experimentally across types of expressions, including idioms/non-literal language, and reports findings from recent empirical research in that domain. Keywords: lexically encoded information, verbs, argument structure, sensitivity, idiom processing

A Usage-Based Proposal for Argument Structure of Directional Verbs in American Sign Language.

Verb agreement in signed languages has received substantial attention for a long time. Despite the numerous analyses about the linguistic status of verb agreement, there is little discussion about the argument structure associated with “directional verbs,” also known as agreeing/agreement or indicating verbs. This paper proposes a usage-based approach for analyzing argument structure constructions of directional verbs in American Sign Language (ASL). The proposal offers low-level constructions for reported speech, non-dedicated passive and reflexive, and stance verb constructions, which capture the patterns, abstracted from recurring usage events, that are part of users’ linguistic knowledge. The approach has potential to push the field of sign linguistics in new directions of understanding the interplay of language use and structure.

Argument structure of transition and transfer verbs

This study entitled Argument Structure of Transition and Transfer Verbs. It focused on the argument structure which maps the grammatical relation and the semantic roles. This study aimed to recognize the grammatical relations of transition and transfer verbs of slides verbs arguments and to explain the semantic roles of transition and transfer verbs of slides verbs arguments. This study is library research. The data of this study were collected from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) which was related to transition and transfer verbs. The documentation method and note-taking technique were applied in collecting the data. In analyzing the data, the descriptive-qualitative method was applied. The data were described and explained based on the theory of argument structure and the theory of transition and transfer verbs. Based on the analysis, the grammatical relation operated within transition and transfer verbs with the class of slide verb involve subject, object and oblique. Verb bounce, float, move, roll and slide can be constructed with SV, SVO, SV OBL, SVO OBL and SVO OBL OBL. Furthermore, the structure SVO OBL OBL only appears in the verb of move.

Prices are rising, wages are falling: Argument structure of verbs denoting ‘increase’ and ‘decrease’ in the Russian language

Syntactic properties of verbs in their metaphorical meanings are often explained as inherited from direct meanings. Using Russian verbs denoting increase and decrease (grow, fall, lower, etc.) as an example, we demonstrate that cognitive factors also influence syntactic properties of metaphorical meanings. The study is based on the data from the Russian National Corpus and RuSkell. We use collocation analysis to compare the semantic and syntactic properties of these verbs in their direct and figurative meanings. We show that in direct meanings their syntactic properties differ, while in figurative meanings they are considerably closer, which excludes inheritance as the primary defining factor. All the verbs have four semantic arguments with the same morphosyntactic realization: parameter (A1), initial value of parameter (A2), final value of parameter (A3) and difference (A4): Oil prices (A1) fell by fifty percent (A4), from one hundred dollars a barrel (A2) to fifty (A3). Frequency analysis reveals a disproportion in the implementation of syntactic arguments, namely, the expression of difference ( increase by fifty percent, decrease by ten times ) prevails over the expression of the initial and final values of the parameter ( increase from forty to one hundred points ). This predominance of the difference argument is due to its cognitive advantages. Expressing difference is lexically more economical, while also more illustrative of the scale of the change: The Federal Tax Service has reported that tax collections have doubled . Theoretically, our research shows that semantic proximity alone does not guarantee syntactic homogeneity (for example, Russian synonyms slozhitʹ and pribavit to add inherit different syntactic properties from their respective direct meanings): similarity of syntactic properties may have a cognitive foundation. Our practical outcome is a lexicographic template for increase and decrease verbs.

Disembodying language: Actionality does not account for verb processing deficits in Parkinson's disease

Motor structures involvement has been traditionally assumed to account for selective deficits of verb (V) vs. noun (N) processing in Parkinon's disease (PD) patients via action semantic impairment (Embodied Cognition Theory, ECT). Nonetheless, post-semantic accounts, as well as extra-linguistic explanations (task difficulty effects), have not been evenly endorsed. This study aimed at investigating neurocognitive underpinnings of N –V discrepanies in PD patients. PD patients with (PD+) and without (PD-) cognitive impairments were compared to healthy participants (HPs) on tasks evaluating N and V semantic as well as post-semantic processing. Effects of motor content (actionality) of Ns and Vs and of verb argument structure (VAS) complexity were assessed . All groups performed worse in V than in N lexical retrieval. PD patients performed worse than HPs on both lexical and semantic tasks. By contrast, only N/V naming tasks discriminated PD-from PD + patients. PD + patients showed selective difficulties in retrieving low-actionality as well as transitive and unaccusative Vs. No associations were detected between the action semantic measure and V-naming performances. ECT-framed explanations cannot account for N –V discrepancies in PD patients. Indeed, these patients showed semantic deficits not limited to the action domain and retrieved most easily high-actionality Vs. N –V discrepancies in PD patients would thus reflect a magnification of a differential processing demand for Vs vs . Ns - which is intrinsic to the neurocognitive system. Nonetheless, PD patients being sensitive to VAS complexity might imply fronto-striatal involvement in V post-semantic processing, possibly at the lemma level. • Both healthy participants (HPs) and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show noun-verb ( N –V) discrepancies. • action semantic impairment does not account for V deficits in PD patients. • N –V discrepancies are likely to reflect task-difficulty effects in both HPs and PD patients: • PD patients show argument structure complexity effects in V processing.

Testing a computational model of causative overgeneralizations: Child judgment and production data from English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and K'iche'.

How do language learners avoid the production of verb argument structure overgeneralization errors ( *The clown laughed the man c.f. The clown made the man laugh), while retaining the ability to apply such generalizations productively when appropriate? This question has long been seen as one that is both particularly central to acquisition research and particularly challenging. Focussing on causative overgeneralization errors of this type, a previous study reported a computational model that learns, on the basis of corpus data and human-derived verb-semantic-feature ratings, to predict adults' by-verb preferences for less- versus more-transparent causative forms (e.g., * The clown laughed the man vs The clown made the man laugh) across English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and K'iche Mayan. Here, we tested the ability of this model (and an expanded version with multiple hidden layers) to explain binary grammaticality judgment data from children aged 4;0-5;0, and elicited-production data from children aged 4;0-5;0 and 5;6-6;6 ( N=48 per language). In general, the model successfully simulated both children's judgment and production data, with correlations of r=0.5-0.6 and r=0.75-0.85, respectively, and also generalized to unseen verbs. Importantly, learners of all five languages showed some evidence of making the types of overgeneralization errors - in both judgments and production - previously observed in naturalistic studies of English (e.g., *I'm dancing it). Together with previous findings, the present study demonstrates that a simple learning model can explain (a) adults' continuous judgment data, (b) children's binary judgment data and (c) children's production data (with no training of these datasets), and therefore constitutes a plausible mechanistic account of the acquisition of verbs' argument structure restrictions.