Verb Argument Research Articles

Verb argument constructions in argumentative essays by college-level Asian learners of English: Exploring the effects of English proficiency, acquisition context, and topic

This study examined the effects of second language (L2) proficiency, acquisition context, and topic on the use of verb argument constructions (VACs) in Asian college-level L2 writers’ argumentative essays. A total of 776 essays written on two topics by 388 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) writers of two L2 proficiency levels were used as data. Six indices informed by large-scale corpora of L1 English speakers were used to gauge the frequency and association strength of the VACs. Results of a series of linear mixed-effects models showed the frequencies of verbs and verb-construction combinations were affected by the interaction between L2 proficiency and acquisition context. L2 proficiency also had a main effect on construction frequency, with more proficient writers using constructions of lower frequency than less proficient writers. No effect of L2 proficiency was found on the association strength of VACs. Additionally, acquisition context affected the directional association strength of VACs, with ESL writers using verbs that associated less strongly with constructions than EFL writers. Finally, topic effects were found on five of the six indices. These findings offered empirical evidence for the developmental trajectories of VACs, and carried practical implications for L2 writing pedagogy.

Not so peculiar after all: On the normal position of arguments of German experiencer-object verbs

The present paper argues that seemingly erratic linearisation patterns of experiencer-object verbs in German can be accounted for by considering well-known linearisation constraints. The analysis is based on two Two-Alternative Forced-Choice experiments: The first study tests experiencer-object verbs with inanimate subjects, the second one tests experiencer-object verbs with animate subjects. If the subject is inanimate, experiencer-object verbs selecting a dative object (e.g., behagen ‘to please’) prefer an object-before-subject linearisation while the ones selecting an accusative object (e.g., bezaubern ‘to charm’) lean towards subject before object. With animate subjects, accusative-object experiencer-object verbs prefer subject before object, while there is no clear preference for dative-object experiencer-object verbs. An explorative investigation reveals verb-specific differences that call into question the case-based classes. We argue that linearisation preferences of experiencer-object verbs in German should be analysed by coupling free base generation with violable linearisation constraints. We provide an analysis along these lines, which is based on a semantic distinction and does not require case-based constraints.

Analysis of verb argument constructions (VACs) in L2 learners across proficiency levels: A corpus-based study in L1 Indonesian

This study investigated the constructional knowledge development of L1 Indonesian by examining nineteen Verb-Argument Constructions (VACs). The VACs examined in the present study are a verb pattern, followed by a preposition and a noun phrase, for example, “V about N” as in “He talkedaboutthe progress”. This study used the Indonesian subset of the Education First Cambridge Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT) corpus from beginner to advanced levels (CEFR A1 to C1; Council of Europe, 2001). This dataset comprises 2943 writing texts (224,763 words) from 623 learners. Frequency analysis of types and tokens was conducted to examine the distribution of the 19 VACs in learner writings across levels. Growth analyses were conducted to investigate the verbs that learners most frequently associated with the most productive VACs. Correlational analyses were conducted to explore how closely related the verb-VAC associations between proficiency levels and the verb occupants in the associations. The results indicate that learners’ constructional knowledge development was implied by: (1) the frequency increase in types and tokens of VACs from lower to higher proficiency levels, (2) the variety of verbs associated with VACs, and (3) the construction schematicity increase indicated by the use of general to more specific verb productions distinct to proficiency levels. The results suggest that English language learners need more exposure to lexicogrammatical features to facilitate VACs acquisition and usage.

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.

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality.

Many institutions claim that bride price - where the groom's family transfers wealth to the bride's family at marriage - harms women. Owing to its long-term engagement with communities that practise bride price, ethnography is well placed to identify causal mechanisms at play in this issue, and there is a substantial literature on its effects in a variety of world regions, including Melanesia. Here, we condense this literature, drawing out key causal arguments made about bride price in various Melanesian societies. This reveals a complex, multi-causal picture: rather than being singularly harmful, bride price may involve a mixture of drawbacks and benefits, making it a double-edged sword with contested implications. Bride price may constrain women's options before and during the marriage but also serves as a safety net that enhances their status. Its effects are probably influenced by many other variables, including age, kinship networks and residence structures. These dynamics have been transformed by conversion to Christianity, the (post-)colonial state, market integration, urbanisation and formal education, often yielding ambiguous outcomes. Rather than reducing ethnography to a collection of datapoints, we show that it can serve as a source of verbal arguments that can be used to challenge reductive narratives about sensitive issues and to formulate hypotheses for testing with quantitative data.

Verbal marking, intransitivity, and argument structure

Abstract This paper provides an intransitive analysis for an array of predicates which exhibit specific marking patterns in Budai Rukai. Contra previous lexical approaches, it is argued that a verbal prefix found on the predicates instantiates a functional head v, which constructs an intransitive vP. Its spell-out form is conditioned by its interaction with other higher functional categories, including tense, causative, passive, and complementizer. With respect to intransitivity, the resulting vP does not admit an accusative object, and it exhibits unergative, unaccusative, and anticausative properties. Regarding argument structure, these predicates are mostly one-place predicates. The sole argument is the grammatical subject which usually denotes an affected theme or an experiencer.

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.

Introducing agents by binding indices: Implications for subjectless presuppositions and agent entailments.

(Bale 2007) argues, on the basis of the differential availability of subjectless repetitive presuppositions with again with certain verb classes, that the agent argument of eventive transitive verbs is introduced VP-externally (Kratzer 1996), but that the agent argument of intranstive and stative transitive verbs must be taken as a true argument by the verb. We challenge Bale’s claim from two directions. First, we observe that two classes of eventive transitive verbs, resist subjectless presuppositions with again. Second, we show that the unavailability of subjectless presuppositions with these and other verb classes is not an ironclad argument against severing agents from their verbs generally, and, develop a semantic analysis, inspired by an analysis of stative transitive verbs due to Hale & Keyser (2002), on which the relevant classes of verbs inherently make reference to the agent of their event argument in the form of an anaphoric index. This index is subsequently bound by a functional head that introduces the agent argument. The facts and analysis proposed here have wider theoretical implications for the way agents qua external arguments are introduced in general, suggesting that verbs of certain classes and VP-external functional heads may both play crucial roles in the syntactic introduction of the agent argument and its interaction with sublexical modifiers like again.

Development of verb argument constructions in L2 English learners: A close replication of research question 3 in Römer and Berger (2019)

Abstract This study closely replicates the analyses of the third research question in Römer and Berger (2019), which reported that the associations between verbs and verb argument constructions (VACs) used by German and Spanish learners of English move closer to a native usage norm as the learners’ proficiency increases. This study conducted the same correlation analyses from the original study but with a substantially expanded version of the learner corpus used therein. Additionally, we conducted zero-inflated negative binomial analyses to estimate the relationship between the frequencies of verb-VAC combinations in the British National Corpus (BNC) and in the learner subcorpora representing different proficiency levels. Our findings were consistent with the original study in showing significant positive correlations between frequencies of the verb-VAC combinations in the BNC and in the learner subcorpora but further revealed the potential effect of topic on the learners’ VAC usage. Implications for future studies are discussed.

Some Afterthoughts and Examples on the Logic of Induction

The aim of Saint-Mont (2020) was to provide a rather general answer to Hume’s problem. To this end, induction was treated within a straightforward formal paradigm, i.e., several connected tiers of abstraction. This note mainly discusses the basic two-tier model and associated examples. It points out that a sound logical solution to the problem of induction boils down to proper accounting, and Bayes’ formula in particular. Generalizations are also possible if one evokes suitable assumptions such as some kind of continuity property. Moreover, the precision added by formal analysis relative to verbal arguments demon- strates that the crucial issue with induction is rather not circularity, but being able to find a suitable general tier that allows for a smooth transition between a less and a more specific situation, avoiding inconsistencies.

Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Styles of Pre-Marriage Student Couples Performing Abortions: A Case Study in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

A conflict cannot be avoided in a relationship. In the context of any relationship, there are bound to be differences in views or opinions between partners. This research examines how the conflict resolution styles of pre-marital student couples who have abortions achieve relationship sustainability. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. Data collection techniques were carried out through interviews with informants, namely the first pair JA and KS, and the second pair MS and IA. The data analysis technique in this research uses the Miles and Huberman interactive analysis model, starting with data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. Based on the research results, it was found that there are different conflict resolution styles for both partners, influenced by the source and form of conflict. The case of the first couple of informants shows that they have a big source of conflict, namely religious differences and the desire for abortion. The form of conflict is a value conflict accompanied by verbal and non-verbal violence towards the partner. This happens because of the different personalities of each party and their lack of readiness to live a married life. In resolving conflicts, the first partner uses an avoidance style. The second pair of informants indicated that they had a major source of conflict namely infidelity and desire for abortion, disrespect, and abuse towards partners, which often triggers conflict in their relationship. This is a feeling of ego at their age which is not yet mature enough, so the form of conflict that occurs is ego conflict. In resolving the conflict that occurs, the second partner uses aggressiveness and argumentativeness strategies, namely the man uses verbal violence and arguments to corner his partner. The form of conflict resolution chosen by both partners cannot be separated from the personality of each partner, namely choleric-neurotic and nervous-neurotic.

Criteria for Identifying Adjectival Participles in Lithuanian

The aim of this paper is to present criteria for identifying adjectival Lithuanian participles, which function as adjectives but have participial forms, and to explain how adjectival participles can be identified through corpus data analysis. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that adjectival participles are considered as adjectives in dictionaries. Moreover, the devised identification criteria may be of added value for part-of-speech tagging, teaching Lithuanian, and other related domains.The article examines the concept of adjectivization, proposing a potential classification of Lithuanian participles based on the extent of their adjectivization (i.e., fully adjectival and partially adjectival participles). It also suggests criteria for identifying adjectival participles. The criteria, categorized into grammatical, semantic, derivational, and quantitative, are distinguished based on prior research and a pilot study. The data for the pilot study was extracted from Mokomasis lietuvių kalbos vartosenos leksikonas (The Lexical Database of Lithuanian Language Usage), encompassing 200 most frequent verbs and 49 adjectives with participial forms analyzed across two Lithuanian corpora. In addition, the order of criteria application is demonstrated in the present paper. In total, 185 frequent verbs were analyzed in the corpora to identify adjectival participles based on the following parameters: (1) the inclination of the participle to form an adverb with the suffix -ai; (2) its propensity to generate comparative and superlative forms and be used with adverbs of measure/degree; and (3) its inclination to be used attributively without verbal arguments. Methodologically, a quantitative approach was applied to analyze the data (only frequent participle forms were examined, as it is hypothesized that particularly frequent participles are adjectival).The results show that the proposed criteria, along with quantitative information, aid in the identification of adjectival participles. Seventeen identified participles are classified as separate words rather than verbal forms by Bendrinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas (The Dictionary of the Standard Lithuanian Language); one identified participle is categorized as an adjective by Lietuvių kalbos žodynas (The Lithuanian Language Dictionary); one identified participle was found to be adjectival, and another participle was used as a pronoun, while eight identified participles are considered partly adjectival. Six identified participles should not be considered adjectival. Thus, it appears that additional criteria need to be applied, and the methodology requires refinement for a more accurate identification of adjectival participles.

Pre-verb reactivation of arguments in sentence processing

Major models of sentence comprehension assume that a verb triggers retrieval of preceding thematic arguments from memory to establish argument-verb dependencies. If so, longer argument-verb distance should lead to higher processing load at the verb (a locality effect),since the representation of the argument should suffer from decay and/or interference.However, verb-final languages have often failed to show the expected argument-verb locality effect. A possible account of the lack of the effect is that arguments and adjuncts before the verb reactivate each other, counteracting memory degradation. In a pair of self-paced reading experiments in Japanese, a verb-final language, we found evidence of such pre-verb reactivation.Specifically, there was a locality effect and a similarity-based interference effect at the head of the adverbial that follows the subject, both of which suggest the retrieval of the subject at that point. The results are difficult to accommodate with other accounts of the lack of locality effect, such as a confounding effect of expectation and the inherent locality-insensitivity of verb-final languages. It is further argued that the constructivist analysis of verbal argument structure, which has been developed in generative syntax, provides an explanation for why such pre-verb reactivation takes place. 

Firearm injury among people experiencing homelessness: Cross-sectional evidence from a national survey of United States emergency departments

ObjectivesPersons experiencing homelessness (PEH) are at high risk for violent victimization. This study leverages unique data from a national study in the United States of America to provide estimates of non-fatal firearm injury among PEH and to describe the contexts related to injury, such as substance use, intent of the injury, and precipitating interpersonal factors. Study designCross-sectional. MethodsData from the 1993–2020 National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Firearm Injury Surveillance Study (NEISS-FISS) were used to describe the context and characteristics of non-fatal firearm injury among PEH aged 16 years or older. Homeless status and substance use data were extracted from a de-identified narrative field. Estimates were weighted to account for the NEISS-FISS complex sampling design. ResultsProbable homelessness was identified in 0.10% of cases (n = 3,225). Substance use was documented in 22.73% of cases. Assault comprised 82.64% of injuries. Patients were mostly male (81.38%). Missing data were common on contextual variables: verbal argument (64.62%), physical fight (54.48%) or other criminal activity (62.33%). ConclusionsAssault is a leading cause of non-fatal firearm injury for PEH and is greater than rates of assault in non-fatal firearm injuries in the general population. Substance use was documented in nearly one quarter of patients, although this is less than expected given prior evidence. Reliance on narrative fields for key variables likely underestimates rates of PEH and substance use.

Beyond classical theories: An integrative mathematical model of mating dynamics and parental care.

Classical theories, such as Bateman's principle and Trivers' parental investment theory, attempted to explain the coevolution of sexual selection and parental care through simple verbal arguments. Since then, quantitative models have demonstrated that it is rarely that simple because many non-intuitive structures and non-linear relationships are actually at play. In this study, we propose a new standard for models of mating dynamics and parental care, emphasizing the clarity and use of mathematical and probabilistic arguments, the meaning of consistency conditions, and the key role of spatial densities and the law of mass action. We used adaptive dynamics to calculate the evolutionary trajectory of the total care duration. Our results clearly show how the outcomes of parental care evolution can be diverse, depending on the quantitative balance between a set of dynamical forces arising from relevant differences and conditions in the male and female populations. The intensity of sexual selection, synergy of care, care quality, and relative mortality rates during mating interactions and caring activities act as forces driving evolutionary transitions between uniparental and biparental care. Sexual selection reduces the care duration of the selected sex, uniparental care evolves in the sex that offers the higher care quality, higher mortality during mating interactions of one sex leads to more care by that sex, and higher mortality during caring activities of one sex favours the evolution of uniparental care in the other sex. Both synergy and higher overall mortality during mating interactions can stabilize biparental care when sexual selection reduces the care duration of the selected sex. We discuss how the interaction between these forces influences the evolution of care patterns, and how sex ratios can vary and be interpreted in these contexts. We also propose new directions for future developments of our integrative model, creating new comparable analyses that share the same underlying assumptions and dynamical frameworks.

Semantic roles arguments verb in the kurdish language accordind to the model of van valin (2005 ad)

The semantics roles are considered one of the important linguistic topics. This research aims at shedding light on the semantic roles that Van Valin (2005 AD) has included, since his model is distinguished from other models of semantic roles, whether in terms of the number of semantic roles or in terms of naming each semantic role. This study has applied this model to the local dialect of Bahdin Kurdish, as it has showed verb arguments according to Van Valin model, because this semantic role is assigned to the argument. The most important questions that have been raised by this study: How many semantic roles are there according to (Van) Valin‌s model (2005 AD) In what case is the word an argument and in what case is it complementary? At the end, the relevant findings have been discussed in terms of Van Valin‌s (2005 AD) models. Moreover, the semantic roles have been divided into three levels, each level contains as aspect of the semantic roles, and it has been able to display 40 thematic relationships. The current study has succeeded to distinguish between arguments and compliments.

Self supervised learning and the poverty of the stimulus

Diathesis alternations are the possible expressions of the arguments of verbs in different, systematically related subcategorization frames. Semantically similar verbs such as spill and spray can behave differently with respect to the alternations they can participate in. For example one can “spill/spray water on the plant”, but while one can “spray the plant with water”, it is odd to say “spill the plant with water”. “Spray” is a verb which can alternate between syntactic frames while “spill” is not alternating. How human speakers learn the difference between such verbs is not clearly understood, because the primary linguistic data (PLD) they receive does not appear sufficient to infer the knowledge required for adult competence. More generally the poverty of the stimulus (POS) hypothesis states that the PLD is not sufficient for a learner to infer full adult competence of language. That is, learning relies on prior constraints introduced by the language faculty. We tested state-of-the-art machine learning models trained by self supervision, and found some evidence that they could in fact learn the correct pattern of acceptability judgement in the locative alternation. However, we argued that this was partially a result of fine-tuning which introduced negative evidence into the learning data, which facilitated shortcut learning. Large language models (LLMs) cannot learn some linguistic facts from normal language data, but they can compensate to some extent by learning spurious correlated features when negative feedback is introduced during the training cycle.

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.

The opposition of the dative case and the preposition dlja with arguments of Russian verbs and predicatives: semantics and syntax

The opposition of the dative case and the preposition dlja with arguments of Russian verbs and predicatives: semantics and syntax

The influence of language on the evolution of cooperation

Humans' sophisticated language system and advanced ability to cooperate with non-relatives are unique amongst animals. Verbal arguments have asserted that language, in particular, facilitated the evolution of large-scale cooperation—but the specific mechanisms by which language influences cooperation have not been tested in formal models. Here we develop a mathematical model that explicitly considers three possible influences of language on the evolution of cooperation: 1) increasing the payoff of cooperative interactions, 2) allowing cooperation to succeed with fewer cooperators in the group, and 3) promoting the positive assortment of cooperators. Our results show that the role of language in the evolution of cooperation is not as straightforward as often believed, with each model variant showing a different effect of language. Notably, when language decreases the number of cooperators needed to successfully reach a positive group payoff, the equilibrium frequency of cooperators can actually decrease with increasing language proficiency. Language does consistently favor the evolution of cooperation when it leads to higher payoffs of cooperation or facilitates the positive assortment of cooperators. However, language cannot lead to the evolution of cooperation in a population of only defectors, except when it leads to positive assortment in both cooperators and defectors. Overall, our results demonstrate that the way that language alters cooperative interactions determines its effect on social evolution.