Word Order Violations Research Articles

Text Messaging as a Precursor of Linguistic Decadence for Students in Some Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

Electronic text messaging in Nigeria is an entrenched linguistic behavior which has caught the attention of an enormous youth population and it is adversely affecting the acquisition of linguistic competence. This paper investigated the use of text messages by students in some tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria in order to examine the various deviant linguistic features and degree of departure from standard variety of English usage. The study utilized extracts from two hundred text messages collected for analysis from male and female undergraduate students between July 2021 and June 2022. Our findings reveal that texting negatively impacts writing skill of students and the noticeable linguistic anomalies are: non-standard spellings, word order violations, disjunctive orthography, anomalous punctuations, vowel deletion, use of slang and colloquialisms, surface diagraphia and others. The paper concludes that since anything goes in texting and it is not regulated, it may wreck the language because it has a pernicious effect on the linguistic competence of students and on the general standard of education. It then recommends that educators should rise to the challenge and instill in students the formal writing skill they need to succeed.

Interactions between lexical and syntactic L1-L2 overlap: Effects of gender congruency on L2 sentence processing in L1 Spanish-L2 German speakers

AbstractBringing together lines of research from sentence processing and lexical access, this empirical study investigates the interplay between lexical (grammatical gender) and syntactic (word order) cross-linguistic overlap in L2 German. Eighty-six L1 Spanish-L2 German and thirty-six monolingual German adults completed a German self-paced reading task with noun phrases (NPs) manipulated by L1-L2 gender congruency (congruent, incongruent, neuter) and L1-L2 adjective-noun word order (pre- vs. postnominal adjectives). The study examines the effects of gender congruency, the type of L1-L2 gender mapping (i.e., presence vs. absence of each class in L1 and L2), and L2 proficiency level. Results show that the detection of ungrammatical word order in L2 German interacts with gender congruency, in that L2 speakers are only sensitive to word order violations for sentences with gender-congruent nouns. The detection of ungrammaticality for sentences containing gender-incongruent nouns only emerges at higher L2 proficiency levels. These findings underscore the role of cross-linguistic lexical overlap in syntactic processing.

Composition is the Core Driver of the Language-selective Network.

The frontotemporal language network responds robustly and selectively to sentences. But the features of linguistic input that drive this response and the computations that these language areas support remain debated. Two key features of sentences are typically confounded in natural linguistic input: words in sentences (a) are semantically and syntactically combinable into phrase- and clause-level meanings, and (b) occur in an order licensed by the language's grammar. Inspired by recent psycholinguistic work establishing that language processing is robust to word order violations, we hypothesized that the core linguistic computation is composition, and, thus, can take place even when the word order violates the grammatical constraints of the language. This hypothesis predicts that a linguistic string should elicit a sentence-level response in the language network provided that the words in that string can enter into dependency relationships as in typical sentences. We tested this prediction across two fMRI experiments (total N = 47) by introducing a varying number of local word swaps into naturalistic sentences, leading to progressively less syntactically well-formed strings. Critically, local dependency relationships were preserved because combinable words remained close to each other. As predicted, word order degradation did not decrease the magnitude of the blood oxygen level-dependent response in the language network, except when combinable words were so far apart that composition among nearby words was highly unlikely. This finding demonstrates that composition is robust to word order violations, and that the language regions respond as strongly as they do to naturalistic linguistic input, providing that composition can take place.

Syntactic Relations Reflected by Word Order in "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger and "Fates and Furies" by L. Groff

The research features syntactic structure in the twentieth century "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger and the twenty first century "Fates and Furies" by L. Groff. The research objective was to study the nature of syntactic relations expressed by word order in speech of narrators and characters. The paper outlines the rules of word order in the English sentence and reviews related studies in the field of syntax. The author analyzed the syntactic structure of sentences in the speech of narrators and characters in the two novels. The analysis was based on the descriptive method and techniques of observation, interpretation, comparison, and generalization. There were numerous examples of omission of auxiliary verbs in interrogative sentences in characters' speech, as well as interrogative sentences with affirmative structure. In "The Catcher in the Rye", affirmative sentences obecame interrogative with the help of interjections eh and ah. Both novels contained sentences where adverbial modifiers, objects, or attributes preceded the main parts – in the narrators' speech. A lot of one-member and contextually incomplete sentences were used to describe events and personages in both novels. In "The Catcher in the Rye", the narrator's speech revealed few cases of violations of word order rules, mostly in sentences with direct word order. The characters' speech appeared to contain much more cases of word order violations, since the novel features colloquial speech of twentieth century American teenagers. The speech of adult personages was characterized by correct word order. In "Fates and Furies", the narrator's speech demonstrated a significant number of elliptical sentences where auxiliary verb to be was omitted in simple verbal predicate with the verb in Present Continuous, as well as in compound nominal predicate and in passive voice. A comparative study of syntactic structure contributed to a deeper understanding of the nature of syntactic relations reflected by word order in the English sentence, grammatical structure of the English language, and popular types of sentences. In addition, the study showed the way native speakers express their ideas and thoughts by linguistic means and violate linguistic norms. The results can be used in various grammar courses and compiling textbooks.

Examination of monolingual (English) and bilingual (English/Spanish; English/Urdu) children's syntactic awareness.

In this study, monolingual (English) and bilingual (English/Spanish, English/Urdu) five- and six-year-old children completed a grammaticality judgment test in order to assess their awareness of the grammaticality of two types of syntactic constructions in English: word order and gender representation. All children were better at detecting grammatically correct and incorrect word order constructions than gender constructions, regardless of language group. In fact, bilingualism per se did not impact the results as much as receptive vocabulary range. For example, children with the highest receptive vocabulary scores were more accurate in detecting incorrect word order constructions (i.e., word order violations, semantic anomalies) and incorrect gender agreement than children in the lower receptive vocabulary ranges. However, no differences were found between the ranges for ambiguous gender constructions. These results highlight the importance of receptive vocabulary ability on syntactic awareness performance, regardless of language group.

Language background affects online word order processing in a second language but not offline

This study examines possible crosslinguistic influence on basic word order processing in a second language (L2). Targeting Swedish V2 word order we investigate adult German learners (+V2 in the L1) and English learners (-V2 in the L1) of Swedish who are matched for proficiency. We report results from two offline behavioural tasks (written production, metalinguistic judgements), and online processing as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). All groups showed sensitivity to word order violations behaviourally and neurocognitively. Behaviourally, the learners differed from the native speakers only on judgements. Crucially, they did not differ from each other. Neurocognitively, all groups showed a similar increased centro-parietal P600 ERP-effect, but German learners (+V2) displayed more nativelike anterior ERP-effects than English learners (-V2). The results suggest crosslinguistic influence in that the presence of a similar word order in the L1 can facilitate online processing in an L2 – even if no offline behavioural effects are discerned.

Late Bilinguals Are Sensitive to Unique Aspects of Second Language Processing: Evidence from Clitic Pronouns Word-Order.

In two self-paced reading experiments we asked whether late, highly proficient, English–Spanish bilinguals are able to process language-specific morpho-syntactic information in their second language (L2). The processing of Spanish clitic pronouns’ word order was tested in two sentential constructions. Experiment 1 showed that English–Spanish bilinguals performed similarly to Spanish–English bilinguals and revealed sensitivity to word order violations for a grammatical structure unique to the L2. Experiment 2 replicated the pattern observed for native speakers in Experiment 1 with a group of monolingual Spanish speakers, demonstrating the stability of processing clitic pronouns in the native language. Taken together, the results show that late bilinguals can process aspects of grammar that are encoded in L2-specific linguistic constructions even when the structure is relatively subtle and not affected for native speakers by the presence of a second language.

Pronoun processing in anglophone late L2 learners of French: Behavioral and ERP evidence

Abstract This study investigated offline, behavioral, and online cortical responses to French clitic and strong pronouns by two groups of anglophone learners (L2) and native French controls. English in situ object pronouns behave morphosyntactically like full lexical noun phrases (I saw Bill/I saw him), whereas in French they are cliticized to the verb (J'ai vu Guillaume/Je l'ai vu/*J'ai vu le/lui). We used ERPs, known to be sensitive to word order and morphological violations in natives, to investigate neural responses to word order violations of in situ pronouns. Results indicate native sensitivity to ungrammatical in situ pronoun placement in offline (grammaticality judgment (GJ)), as well as online end-of-sentence and ERP responses, notably a robust P600. L2 groups demonstrated distinct capacities according to level. Both high- and low-intermediates showed online cortical sensitivity to ungrammatical in situ prounouns, producing a P600 in response to such violations (though with distributions that sometimes differed from native controls). However, on behavioral measures the L2 groups differed, both from natives and from each other. Native controls correctly rejected more in situ clitic and strong pronouns than both the L2 groups, and the high-intermediate group correctly rejected more than the low-intermediate group. For natives, the similarity of online/offline responses confirmed a grammaticalized representation and processing of pronouns. Both groups of learners showed a stronger ERP response to in situ pronoun placement than behavioral data would suggest. This is especially true for low-intermediate learners who, despite high rates of acceptance of strong pronouns/clitics in situ, showed a cortical response in the P600 window though without the canonical topography of the native response. While both learner groups are apparently using (at least some) L1 English settings for pronoun placement, their cortical response clearly demonstrates unconscious increasing sensitivity to French parameters.

Grammatical sensitivity and working memory in children with language impairment

Children with primary language impairment (LI) show a deficit in processing different grammatical structures, verb inflections, and syntactically complex sentences among other things (Clahsen-Hansen 1997; Leonard et al. 1997). Cross-linguistic research has shown that the pattern of performance is language-specific. We examined grammatical sensitivity to word order and agreement violations in 50 Hungarian-speaking children with and without LI. The findings suggest a strong association between sensitivity to grammatical violations and working memory capacity. Variations in working memory performance predicted grammatical sensitivity. Hungarian participants with LI exhibited a weakness in detecting both agreement and word order violations.

On-line grammaticality judgments in French children and adults: a crosslinguistic perspective

This study examined the on-line processing of French sentences in a grammaticality judgment experiment. Three age groups of French children (mean age: 6 ; 8, 8 ; 6 and 10 ; 10 years) and a group of adults were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors were studied: the violation type: agreement violations (number and gender) vs. word order violations; the violation position: early vs. late in the sentence; the target type of the violations: intra vs. interphrasal. An example of an early interphrasal verbal agreement violation follows: 'Chaque semaine la voisine remplissent le frigo après avoir fait les courses au marché' (Every week the neighbour fill the fridge after shopping at the market). The main developmental results were the following: not surprisingly, children were always slower than adults in the detection of grammatical violations. At each age level, morphological violations were more rapidly detected than word order violations. Each age group was faster at judging sentences with later occurring violations and the position effect was especially strong in the youngest groups. Finally, intraphrasal violations were more rapidly detected than interphrasal ones, this effect being observed only in the oldest groups (i.e. 10 ; 10 years and adults). The results were compared to previous on-line data obtained in modern Greek (Kail & Diakogiorgi, 1998) showing strong similarities, even though Greek is a very rich morphological language. These results are discussed within the framework of the Competition Model, outlining the necessity to incorporate new processing constraints into the model.

Grammatical Deviations in the Spoken and Written Language of Hebrew-Speaking Children With Hearing Impairments.

The present study reports a detailed analysis of written and spoken language samples of Hebrew-speaking children aged 11-13 years who are deaf. It focuses on the description of various grammatical deviations in the two modalities. Participants were 13 students with hearing impairments (HI) attending special classrooms integrated into two elementary schools in Tel Aviv, Israel, and 9 students with normal hearing (NH) in regular classes in these same schools. Spoken and written language samples were collected from all participants using the same five preplanned elicitation probes. Students with HI were found to display significantly more grammatical deviations than their NH peers in both their spoken and written language samples. Most importantly, between-modality differences were noted. The participants with HI exhibited significantly more grammatical deviations in their written language samples than in their spoken samples. However, the distribution of grammatical deviations across categories was similar in the two modalities. The most common grammatical deviations in order of their frequency were failure to supply obligatory morphological markers, failure to mark grammatical agreement, and the omission of a major syntactic constituent in a sentence. Word order violations were rarely recorded in the Hebrew samples. Performance differences in the two modalities encourage clinicians and teachers to facilitate target linguistic forms in diverse communication contexts. Furthermore, the identification of linguistic targets for intervention must be based on the unique grammatical structure of the target language.

A Reaction Time Study of Grammaticality Judgments in Children

Grammaticality judgments and decision times for two age groups of normally developing children were studied to determine when parsing decisions are made and how linguistic knowledge affects parsing. Children showed very good sensitivity to grammatical violations, although at somewhat lower levels than those reported for college-age students (Wulfeck, Bates, & Capasso, 1991). Sensitivity results also revealed that both groups of children were better at detecting violations created by permuting words in a sentence than at recognizing errors of morphological selection--a finding that has been observed in adults with Broca's aphasia (Wulfeck & Bates, 1991). Since college students show ceiling performance in their sensitivity to both types of violations, the present study reveals developmental changes in sensitivity to different aspects of morphology during the elementary school years. Although older children processed violations more quickly overall, both groups of children demonstrated very rapid integration of information during sentence processing. Decision time results also indicated that greater sensitivity to word order violations seemed to enhance childrens' ability to take advantage of context across a sentence, resulting in faster decision times.