Verbal Clauses Research Articles

Overview of the Quantitative-Structural Analysis of the Verbal Clause in the Biblical Hebrew

Overview of the Quantitative-Structural Analysis of the Verbal Clause in the Biblical Hebrew

Embedded Inversion Worldwide

AbstractThe inversion of (auxiliary) verb and subject in subordinate interrogative clauses (embedded inversion, or EI) is a feature that occurs in many non-standard varieties of English, especially in varieties that have developed in language contact situations, such as Irish English, East African English or Indian English. Various sources of origin have been proposed in previous research, among them substrate influence or transfer errors of learners in language contact situation. This paper introduces the phenomenon in question and provides an overview of previous research. Drawing on data of the International Corpus of English (ICE), it then presents the results of probabilistic statistic analyses (logistic regression) in order to identify which external and internal factors are strongest in elciting the inverted word order.

AT-TAQOBUL BAINA AL-LUGHOTAIN AL-‘ARABIYAH WAL INDONESIA

This is a plain contrastive descriptive study between two languages, Arabic and Indonesian, especially the contrast between their phonetics, lexical, phonological and syntax levels. The research concludes within that there is similarity and differentiation in its phonetics, lexical, phonological and syntax systems. In phonetics we found a contrast related to consonants and vocals sounds, and also in syllable sounds. In lexical domain, there is a meaning formulated in one word in Arabic language, but in Indonesian language we found it composed of two words, for example: ?????? ????? ????? ??????, rumah sakit, makan siang, makan malam and others. In the phonology, it is found out that Arabic language is an etymological language and the Indonesian language is an affix language, and Arabic language adopt systems of masculine, feminine, singular, dual (mutsanna) and plural which is different from Indonesian language. In syntax of Indonesian language, we found that the meaning is defined by the combination of the words and its position, it is based on subject combination (nominal clause), in other hand we found that the Arabic language is a syntax language (lughah mu’rabah), the meaning is defined by the syntax (al i’rab) and it adopts both of nominal clause and verbal clause. Those Arabic phenomena which are not adopted by Indonesian language should be taken into account in learning and teaching Arabic Language by the Indonesians.

Les grammaires de construction

This paper is a short presentation of some basic aspects of the grammatical theory known as construction grammar, which has been differently developed by Ch. Fillmore, R. Langacker, and A. Goldberg, among others. First, the notion of “construction” as a form-meaning pairing is explained, as well as the different types of constructions recognized in the theory (simple v. complex, specified or substantive v. schematic or formal). Then, some of the fundamental postulates of the theory are exposed : the conception of a native speaker’s grammatical knowledge as a network of constructions, the lexicon-grammar continuum, the operation of unification involved in the production of sentences, the non-derivational and monostratal nature of construction grammar, and the usage-based approach to language acquisition that is shared by most constructionists. Finally, it is shown that “verbo-centric” approaches to verbal clauses, including that of generative grammar based on the Projection Principle, cannot provide a satisfying treatment of cases of multiple argument realisation, while these are elegantly and economically accountedfor within the constructionist framework.

Evolution de l’ordre des mots en moyen-français et cohésion du groupe verbal

We examine the evolution of the syntax of the verb phrase in Middle French, in a topological framework. The V2 hypothesis can be maintained for this stage if we admit that V becomes a VP in Middle French, thus explaining that the non topicalised subject will be placed further after the verb, particularly after the past participle, understood as a verbal constituant ; in the same time, a final position of focus appears, leading to place a heavy subject in the last position of the clause. The other major position of the subject, just before the verb, is the most frequent in subordinate clauses. A major fact of the subsequent evolution is the restriction to the adverbials in the possibilities of insertions between verb and participles or infinitives, and also between a relative subject or a complementizer and the verb in subordinate clauses.

Contraintes d’ordre dans les groupes nominaux prédicatifs

In this paper we try to explicit the specific and non specific constraints that govern the order of the constituents in French predicative noun phrases and compare them with those that govern the constituents of associated verbal clauses.

Language-specific and universal influences in children’s syntactic packaging of Manner and Path: A comparison of English, Japanese, and Turkish

Different languages map semantic elements of spatial relations onto different lexical and syntactic units. These crosslinguistic differences raise important questions for language development in terms of how this variation is learned by children. We investigated how Turkish-, English-, and Japanese-speaking children (mean age 3;8) package the semantic elements of Manner and Path onto syntactic units when both the Manner and the Path of the moving Figure occur simultaneously and are salient in the event depicted. Both universal and language-specific patterns were evident in our data. Children used the semantic-syntactic mappings preferred by adult speakers of their own languages, and even expressed subtle syntactic differences that encode different relations between Manner and Path in the same way as their adult counterparts (i.e., Manner causing vs. incidental to Path). However, not all types of semantics-syntax mappings were easy for children to learn (e.g., expressing Manner and Path elements in two verbal clauses). In such cases, Turkish- and Japanese-speaking children frequently used syntactic patterns that were not typical in the target language but were similar to patterns used by English-speaking children, suggesting some universal influence. Thus, both language-specific and universal tendencies guide the development of complex spatial expressions.

자동 발췌문/요약 시스템 구축에 관한 연구 - 학술지 논문기사를 중심으로 -

코퍼스 기반의 제 방법. 담화구조의 수사역할, 유사문장의 통합을 이용하여 발췌문과 기초적 요약문을 자동으로 작성하는 방법론을 구축하였다. 코퍼스에 따른 기법들의 효율적 한계치를 사전에 확인하였고 발췌/요약문의 신축적 작성을 위해서 요약문을 이루는 문장들의 수사역할을 목적, 배경, 방법, 결과. 결론 등으로 정하고 각각의 발췌기를 적용하였다. 발췌 성공률은 <TEX>$90\%$</TEX>이었다. 수사역할별로 선정된 문장의 합성과 분리를 위하여 유사도 공식을 이용한 유사문장의 통합, 불필요한 의미의 수식절, 삽입절의 제거, 짧은 문장들과 연결이 가능한 문장들의 합성을 시도하였다. 높은 발췌 성공률을 바탕으로 문장의 수사역할, 절의 용언어미 표징, 단서적 어구와 소재를 가미한 문장 정리 시스템의 개발이 요망된다. Various corpus-based approaches, rhetorical roles of discourse structure, and unifications of similar sentences were applied to construct the automatic Ext/Sums(extracts and summaries). Rhetorical roles of sentences like objective, method, background, result, conclusion, etc. for making elastic Ext/Sums were established and extraction engines according to respective role were prepared. The <TEX>$90\%$</TEX> of Success rate in extracting the important sentences of sample articles was accomplished. Rearranging the selected sentences, it used unification of similar sentences using the cosine coefficient equation, deletion of unnecessary modification and insertion clauses, junction of short sentences, and connection of sentences able to link. They suggest the methods applying rhetorical roles of sentences, meaning and signature of noun and verb in clauses, and cue words and location will be researched to construct the more effective Ext/Sums.

Addenda to Non-Verbal Clauses in Old Babylonian

This paper re-examines some issues related to non-verbal clauses in the letter corpus of Mesopotamian Old Babylonian. The various types of non-verbal clauses are classified as follows: 1. unipartite non-verbal clauses: the various sub-types (i.e. natural phenomena, existential and [non]referential) and the special environments and exponents typical of each sub-type are discussed; 2. bipartite non-verbal clauses: bipartites with a personal pronoun are formally distinguished from appositive syntagms of seemingly the same structure, the particle -ma is shown to signal contrastive focus in non-verbal clauses (as in verbal clauses), a few exponents are analysed as rheme markers (e.g. lū, the negative particle and, occasionally, -ma) and the order of elements in a non-verbal clause with an adverbial rheme is shown to be pertinent; 3. locative existentials are sharply distinguished from non-verbal clauses with an adverbial rheme and their special nature is discussed.

Alleged Non-Past Uses of Qatal in Classical Hebrew (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 302 Reviews serious attempt to apply discourse-linguistic methods more systematically to well defined groups of Biblical Hebrew prose texts. However, it focuses too much on statistics and ignores the major problem of word order of each clause type as well as the correlation of word order to the choice of verbal forms in verbal clauses. The preference for a certain clause pattern in each narrative or discourse type and the choice of a certain word order are intertwined in Biblical Hebrew. In addition, the plentiful nuances of aspect, tense, and modality, expressed by all combinations of prefix and suffix conjugation verbs with or without waw are more complex than admitted in this study. New theories regarding the semantic complexity of verb forms continue to appear. One theory involves the concept of relative time, which is presented by T. Goldfajn, in Word Order and Time in Biblical Hebrew Narrative (Oxford 1998), and by G. Hatav, in The Semantics of Aspect and Modality, Evidence from English and Biblical Hebrew (Amsterdam & Philadelphia 1997, pp. 3–5). Neither the concept of relative time nor these two works are mentioned by the author. It seems that a perfect solution to the question of verbal usage in Biblical Hebrew is not yet available. Tamar Zewi University of Haifa Haifa, Israel tzewi@univ.haifa.ac.il ALLEGED NON-PAST USES OF QATAL IN CLASSICAL HEBREW. By Max Rogland. SSN 44. Pp. vii + 164. Assen: Van Gorcum, 2003. Cloth, $57.72. € 49,00. This study deals with the form qatal in Biblical Hebrew within a synchronic analysis. In the introductory chapter, the author provides a brief overview concerning the notions of tense and aspect in language. For aspect, he adopts the (im)perfective distinction. For tense, he adopts the absolute/relative distinction of Comrie. Rogland reanalyzes it within the framework of Reichenbach’s analysis, which defines tenses in terms of speech-, event-, and reference-time (cf., H. Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic [New York: Macmillan, 1947]; B. Comrie, Tense [Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1985]). The author then briefly summarizes the well-known dispute concerning the verbal forms in Biblical Hebrew. As he mentions, one main approach sees the forms as marking tenses or both tenses and aspects. The competing approach regards Biblical Hebrew as a tenseless language whose verb forms mark only aspects (and maybe moods). Rogland adopts the approach that the Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 303 Reviews forms may mark both tense and aspect. His main aim is to analyze the fientive qatal, which he understands to be semantically marked as absolute or relative past, but aspectually unmarked. Accordingly, qatal clauses refer to events lying in the past either with respect to speech-time or another reference-time in the past or the future. For the other forms, Rogland stipulates that qotel and yiqtol are imperfective, and in opposition to qatal they are non-past. He treats the waw-prefixed forms wayyiqtol and weqataltí as syntactic variations for qatal and yiqtol, respectively. Rogland does not accept the thesis that the verb forms function differently in prose and poetry. Neither does he limit his conclusions to standard Biblical Hebrew. He therefore aims to show that in both poetry and prose throughout the Hebrew Bible, qatal clauses can be interpreted as referring to past events. The challenge he faced with his endeavor was to show that qatal refers to the past and also in those cases that appear as non-past situations, namely, the so-called “gnomic,” “performative,” and “prophetic” perfects. In chapter 2, Rogland discusses the use of qatal in gnomic statements as they appear in proverbs, claiming that this use is better to be considered as “general-truth.” He then discusses the notion of “general-truth” statements in language and shows that speakers may address a “general past” just as they may speak of a “general present.” His main point is that the appearance of qatal in proverbs does not necessarily indicate that it is a present tense because such proverbs may be interpreted as referring to past situations. In chapter 3, Rogland discusses the so-called “Prophetic Perfect,” concluding that this title is a misnomer. He shows that this is a blanket...

A Second Look at Double Preverbal Constituents

A SECOND LOOK AT DOUBLE PREVERBAL CONSTITUENTS* Nicholas A. Bailey SIL International nicholas_bailey@sil.org A review of Doppelt besetztes Vorfeld: Syntaktische, pragmatische und übersetzungstechnische Studien zum althebräischen Verbalsatz. By Walter Gross. BZAW 305. Pp. xiv + 347. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2001. Cloth, € 98.00. $118.17. Walter Gross, known for other works on Biblical Hebrew constituent order,1 has bravely set out to explore some rough terrain: clauses with two (or more) preverbal nominal constituents, especially in poetry, and how translators have handled such clauses. This insightful and richly illustrated work has important implications for the fields of Biblical Hebrew grammar, discourse, and rhetorical structure. To be sure, to appreciate such a work, a significant investment is required on the part of the reader. “Pragmatics” and specifically the subfield of “information structure” are still relatively immature and many notions such as “topic” and “focus,” which Gross employs, are hotly debated among linguists. Still, these fields potentially have much to offer the Hebrew grammarian, exegete, and translator. In fact, an exegete’s job is not truly complete until such meaning has been accounted for. Along these lines, I offer here a critical assessment of Gross’s contribution, pointing to several areas—particularly his definitions and method—where alternative perspectives would help. In assessing Gross, I refer to several current linguistic theories, especially Lambrecht’s (1994), which has, to different degrees, been the basis for Heimerdinger (1999), Shimasaki (2002), and van der Merwe.2 * I wish to thank Nick Lunn and Stephen Levinsohn for their helpful comments on drafts of this article. 1 See especially W. Gross, Die Satzteilfolge im Verbalsatz alttestamentlicher Prosa: Untersucht an den Büchern Dtn, Ri und 2Kön (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1996). 2 K. Lambrecht, Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representations of Discourse Referents (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1994). See C. H. J. van der Merwe, “Explaining Fronting in Biblical Hebrew,” JNSL 25 (1999): 173–186, and his review of Gross (Die Satzteilfolge) in C. H. J. van der Merwe, “Towards a Better Understanding of Biblical Hebrew Word Order,” JNSL 25 (1999): 277–300. See J.-M. Heimerdinger, Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), and a critical review of the same in S. H. Levinsohn, “Review of Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives,” JOTT 14 (2002): 126–147. See K. Shimasaki, Focus Structure in Biblical Hebrew (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2002) and a critical review of the same in R. D. Holmstedt, “Adjusting Our Focus,” HS (2003): 129–138. Neither Heimerdinger nor Shimasaki have exhausted the usefulness of applying Lambrecht’s theory to Hebrew. Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 254 Review Essay With the exception of some of his technical terms, I have usually translated quotations from Gross into English in order to make his claims more accessible . German spellings, for example, Topik, Fokus, etc., indicate his notions, since they often diverge with other definitions of topic and focus that I mention. 1.¬BOOK SUMMARY Gross’s study concerns finite verbal clauses with multiple preverbal nominal constituents—which I will simply call “preverbals.” Gross describes these nominal constituents as in the Vorfeld “pre-field,” that is, before a finite verb, as opposed to ones in the Hauptfeld “main field,” that is, following a finite verb. Gross presents the following clause schema, which I have slightly modified for the present reader (pp. 5–6). The first preverbal, P1, precedes the second preverbal, P2, (and P3). other sentence conjunctions, particles, and adverbs, e.g., hto, Nkl, hnh P1 P2 (P3) “preverbal constituents 1, 2, and 3” … w Vorfeld “pre-field” (preverbal area) Verb area Hauptfeld “main field” (postverbal area) By preverbal nominal constituents, Gross means any nominal, with or without a preposition. This designation excludes vocatives and constituents in casus pendens (i.e., left-dislocation), as well as conjunctions, particles, and some deictics and adverbials, which can additionally occur preverbally (i.e., before P1). The “verb” area holds the finite verb itself plus any particles (e.g., al or la) or any infinitive absolute of the same root that might accompany it. There are ten chapters in the book. The supplements include...

Factitif français: approche syntaxique, sémantique et contrastive (français-bulgare)

This article proposes a comparison between the French construction faire + Vinf and the structures encoding a causative meaning in Bulgarian. The data are classified according to the scale of compactness of the Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon. If the French uses the construction with faire (Complex Predicate), the Bulgarian uses three other mechanisms: lexical (explode), morphological (affixation: raz-plakvam, faire pleurer), periphrastic constructions with two verbs (a causative verb and a lexical verb) in separate clauses (inciter quelqu’un à faire quelque chose). This typological classification shows the correlation between syntactical and semantic parameters in the analyse of causatives. Some verbs, basically intransitive in French, can be used in a transitive clause and then take on a causative meaning (bouger la banlieue). In this case, there is a concurrence between faire + inf and the intransitive verb in transitive construction. The article attempts to clarify this usage, in comparison with other languages (English, Russian, Bulgarian), and some other specificity of the functioning of the French construction faire + Vinf.

Negation in C: The Syntax of Negated Verbs in Old Norse

The syntax of finite verbs with the negation suffix -a/-at in early Old Norse reveals an asymmetry regarding the position of the verb relative to the subject in main clauses. The subject is regularly preceded by the negated verb, but followed by the verb in affirmative clauses. The asymmetry suggests that the subject is canonically in SpecIP. In affirmative subject-initial main clauses the finite verb moves to I, but the negated verbs obligatorily move to C. The movement of negated verbs to C is triggered by a [+neg] feature in this position. This assumption is independently motivated by the existence of the overt and non-overt negative complementizers in a variety of languages. The analysis advanced here supports the hypothesis that cross-linguistically sentential negation can be structurally represented in C.

When is schematic participant information encoded? Evidence from eye-monitoring

Two eye-monitoring studies examined when unexpressed schematic participant information specified by verbs is used during sentence processing. Experiment 1 compared the processing of sentences with passive and intransitive verbs hypothesized to introduce or not introduce, respectively, an agent when their main clauses were preceded by either agent-dependent rationale clauses or adverbial clause controls. While there were no differences in the processing of passive clauses following rationale and control clauses, intransitive verb clauses elicited anomaly effects following agent-dependent rationale clauses. To determine whether the source of this immediately available schematic participant information is lexically specified or instead derived solely from conceptual sources associated with verbs, Experiment 2 compared the processing of clauses with passive and middle verbs following rationale clauses (e.g., To raise money for the charity, the vase was/had sold quickly…). Although both passive and middle verb forms denote situations that logically require an agent, middle verbs, which by hypothesis do not lexically specify an agent, elicited longer processing times than passive verbs in measures of early processing. These results demonstrate that participants access and interpret lexically encoded schematic participant information in the process of recognizing a verb.

Biblical Hebrew Word Order and Saadya Gaon's Translation of the Pentateuch

This paper examines translation patterns for Biblical Hebrew nominal and verbal clauses in the Arabic translation of Saadya Gaon. The examination is based on three major versions (Derenbourg edition, Hasid edition, and Ms. St. Petersburg), but considers other versions as well (Ms. Add. 1008 held in Cambridge, Constantinople, London and Paris Polyglots, and Geniza fragments). Although the data reveals differences among the various versions, it is possible to trace consistent syntactical patterns of nominal and verbal clauses typical of Saadya's translation. These patterns shed light on the syntactical characteristics of Saadya's Arabic, and they reflect well the original Biblical Hebrew word order.

Ambiguity and transfer in bilingual first language acquisition?

Natascha Müller presents a very interesting analysis of the structure of the German subordinate clause in bilingual first language acquisition. The main issue in this paper is to explain the fact that some bilingual children – but not all of them – display non-target language structures in German subordinate clauses. That is, the finite verb does not appear in the final position of the subordinate clause. These non-target structures can in part be explained by transfer, but this cannot be the whole story, because some monolingual children produce these structures as well. Bilingual children, though, appear to have problems with the German subordinate clause more frequently than monolingual children. Interestingly, acquiring the target structures is a slow process for children who produce non-target structures. Ivar, the French-German child Müller discusses in most detail, for example, needs two years to acquire the correct position of the finite verb in German subordinate clauses. Müller argues that the problems arise because the input children receive is ambiguous: the finite verb does not always appear in the finite position in German subordinate clauses in adult speech. The ambiguity of this situation opens the way to transfer. In their uncertainty, the children turn to their other language as a relief strategy.

From subordination to coordination? verb-second position in German causal and concessive constructions

German, which has verb-second as its basic word order in independent sentences, requires final position of the finite verb in clauses. Thus, adverbial clauses introduced by subordinate conjunctions, such as WEIL (because) and OBWOHL (although) according to German grammar display verb-final ordering (e.g. geh jetzt nach Hause, weil ich mude bin; esse kein Fleisch, obwohl ich's eigentlich gern mag). German thus provides a clear signal for the grammatical incorporation of one clause into another.[3] However, during the last ten to fifteen years, in spoken colloquial German as well as in certain written genres that reproduce colloquial language (e.g., interviews, dialogues in advertisement), speakers are tending more and more to use main clause order (and thus verb-second-position)[4] in final adverbial clauses introduced by WEIL and OBWOHL.[5]

The Particles הנה and והנה in Biblical Hebrew

The paper contributes to the understanding of the meaning of the biblical Hebrew particles הנה and והנה, the contextual restrictions in which they serve, and their syntactical status. The particles הנה and והנה share one meaning, that of a presentative, as indicated in the majority of biblical Hebrew dictionaries and other relevant works. However, these particles do not share the contexts in which they appear. The particle הנה is found to appear with the verb אמר only, introducing direct speech. The particle והנה is found to occur with verbs of sight and related contexts only, introducing content clauses which include a circumstantial nuance. It is also suggested that there is a resemblance between the dichotomy in the usage of biblical Hebrew הנה and והנה and that of Arabic إڼ and ٱڧ The syntactical status of both particles is mostly that of an introductory particle. Both can introduce nominal clauses, verbal clauses, clauses including a participle, or one-member clauses, but they do not play any syntactical role within the clause which follows. Only הנה may occasionally serve as a predicate within a clause. This occurs whenever the other sentence part is definite, which may indicate that it is the subject of a one-member clause, leaving the predicate role for הנה.

English Grammar: A Function-Based Introduction

Part 1 Introduction: grammar and communication whose grammar? grammar for communication theme and variation in syntactic description parsing - tree diagrams deep structure, surface structure and meaning. Part 2 Vocabulary - words and morphemes: preliminaries lexical vs. grammatical vocabulary the morphemic status of English vocabulary lexical word-classes minor word classes. Part 3 Simple verbal clauses: preliminaries parsing and tree diagrams - recapitulation classification of verbs and simple clauses multiple membership in verb classes verbs that incorporate prepositions summary of the structure of simple clauses. Part 4 Verbal inflections - tense, aspect, modality and negation: tense aspect modality communicative and cognitive aspects of tense-aspect-modality the syntax of tense-aspect-modality negation. Part 5 Reference and definiteness: reference definiteness generic subjects, definiteness and reference definiteness, reference and text processing - a cognitive overview. Part 6 Noun phrases: nouns and modifiers ordering of elements within the noun phrase restrictive vs. non-restrictive modifiers modifiers used as anaphoric pronouns scattered noun phrases complex noun phrases. Part 7 Verbal complements: the semantics of event integration the syntax of clause integration modality verbs for-to complements if complements WH-complements post-posed P-C-U verbs non-verbal predicates with verbal complements. Part 8 Voice and de-transitivization: functional dimensions of voice the frequency-distribution of voice in text the syntax of de-transitive clauses other de-transitive constructions the antipassive voice reciprocal constructions reflective clauses. Part 9 Relative clauses: functional aspects of relativization the syntax or relativization the syntax of non-restrictive REL-clauses headless relative clauses subject REL-clauses with the main verb be extraposed relative clauses relativization and syntactic complexity non-finite relative clauses. Part 10 Contrastive focus constructions: functional aspects of contrastive focus contrastive grammatical devices the discourse-pragmatics of contrast focus attraction, assertion scope and contrastive focus other focus-attracting grammatical devices strong contrastive focus and relativization restrictions on clefting some cognitive considerations. Part 11 Topicalizing constructions: functional aspects of topicality the variety of topicalizing constructions.

Constituent order in main/simple verb clauses of pwyll pendeuic dyuet

The paper focuses on the following questions: (i) Do adverbs originate in spec positions rather than in adjoined positions? (ii) How does the pre- vs. postverbal position of adverbs correlate with OV and VO? (iii) Why is the sentence-medial position highly restricted in VO languages? (iv) What is the adequate structural position for a postverbal adverbial? (v) Why is the order of postverbal adverbials a mirror image of the order of preverbal occurrences of these adverbials? The main body of empirical evidence is comparative evidence from German and English adverbial syntax. First, it is argued that for a wide range of data, an adverb-in-spec analysis does not provide descriptively or explanatorily adequate accounts. Second, the head-initial or head-final property of VPs and NPs in a given language is shown to be crucial for understanding the different patterns of adverbials in OV and VO. Adverbials that follow the head of the phrase they relate to are claimed to be embedded, adverbials that precede the head are claimed to be adjoined.