A Morphosyntactic Investigation Of Functional Categories In English And Izon

Author : Odingowei Kwokwo
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-04
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9783668140202

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A Morphosyntactic Investigation of Functional Categories in English and Izon by Odingowei Kwokwo Pdf

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Ibadan, language: English, abstract: Existing studies on Izon language have concentrated on unilingual application of traditional grammar in constructing well-formed sentences, thereby neglecting critical descriptions of the ways morphosyntactic features ensure the derivation of convergent structures. A contrastive examination of English, (a standard for universal grammar analysis) and Izonn languages can properly characterise these syntactically significant features. This work, therefore, investigates the morphosyntactic features in English and Izon languages with a view to identifying and describing the morphosyntactic features that make the structures of the two languages converge. The study adopts Chomsky’s Minimalist Program, which emphasises checking of morphological features. The research is based on Standard English and the Kolokuma dialect of Izon, used in education and the media, and is mutually intelligible with other dialects. Data on English were collected from various books on English grammar and those on Izon were collected from native speakers in Kolokuma and Opokuma clans in Bayelsa State where the dialect is spoken, and complemented with the researcher’s native-speaker’s introspective data. Since the study is competence-based, completely grammatical structures from each language were used for the analysis. Clausal and phrasal syntactic structures of English and Izon languages were comparatively analysed based on the feature-checking processes of the Minimalist Program to identify shared and idiosyncratic features. Universal features common to both languages include phrases, clauses, syntactic heads and wh-fronting. However, English and Izon opt for different head parameters. Heads in English precede their complements while heads in Izon follow their complements. Although Nominative Case licensing occurs in Spec-head structures in both languages, Accusative Case is licensed in head–complement relationship in English and complement-head structure in Izon. Both English and Izon permit wh-fronting at Spec-CP, but Izon wh-expressions obligatorily co-occur with focus particles ki or ko, which are functional elements that licence wh-elements. Whereas English constructs relative clauses with overt and interpretable complementizers such as ‘who’, which precede their complement clauses, Izon constructs relative clauses without overt interpretable wh-expressions except an overt amee (that) which follows its complement clause.

Author : Elly van Gelderen
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 1993-10-28
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027282422

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The Rise of Functional Categories by Elly van Gelderen Pdf

In recent years, word order has come to be seen, within a Government Binding/Minimalist framework, as determined by functional as well as lexical categories. Within this framework, functional categories are often seen as present in every language without evidence being available in that language. This book contains arguments that even though Universal Grammar makes functional categories available, the language learner must decide whether or not to incorporate them in his or her grammar. For instance, it is shown that English has one (not two as often assumed) functional category between the complementizer and the Negation, but that languages such as Dutch, Swedish, German and Old and Middle English have none. The title of the book can be seen in terms of the direction current research is taking; it can also be seen in terms of the changes that have taken place in English.

Author : Joseph Galasso
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Children
ISBN : STANFORD:36105114653251

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The Acquisition of Functional Categories by Joseph Galasso Pdf

Author : Marcel den Dikken,Christina Tortora
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2005-08-25
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027294333

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The Function of Function Words and Functional Categories by Marcel den Dikken,Christina Tortora Pdf

This volume brings together papers which address a range of issues regarding the syntax of function words and functional categories in the Germanic languages. The works offered in this volume derive specifically from comparative studies of Germanic; at the same time they all bear directly on long-standing problems in syntactic theory and universal grammar. The contributions include novel theoretical and empirical approaches to infinitives, the syntax and acquisition of Verb Second, the structure and interpretation of present tense, the syntax and semantics of reflexives, the relationship between expletive syntax and the EPP, the syntax of possession, and the DP-internal syntax of pronouns. Some contributions present the results of experimental research which provide an entirely fresh perspective on previously unchallenged claims.

Author : Olga Fischer
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : UOM:39015067645252

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Morphosyntactic Change by Olga Fischer Pdf

This book presents a critical comparison of the two leading theories of linguistic change. After introducing the aims and methods of historical linguistics, Olga Fischer provides an exposition of the main theories used to describe morphosyntactic change and a full account of the causes and mechanisms by which their leading exponents seek to explain it. She measures the effectiveness of rival theories and methods in different contexts and in the process throws fresh light on the balance of factors influencing linguistic change. Professor Fischer emphazises the unity of form and meaning in the linguistic sign and examines the role played by analogy. She looks at how changes in discourse, lexicon, semantics, pragmatics, and sound interact with changes in morphosyntax, and explores the relationship between external and internal causes of change. She considers whether morphosyntactic change is gradual or abrupt and discusses how far rates of change reflect the degree to which grammar is innate or learned. She uses detailed case studies to illustrate different types of morphosyntactic change, and to show how each theory fares when put into practice. The author's clear style and her balanced approach to this fascinating and complex subject combine to make this a book that will be of central interest and value to scholars and students of linguistic change, at graduate level and above.

Author : Michael Hegarty
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 365 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2011-12-22
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110895407

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A Feature-Based Syntax of Functional Categories by Michael Hegarty Pdf

This book develops ideas of Minimalist syntax to derive functional categories from the partially-ordered features expressed by functional elements, thereby dispensing with functional categories as primitives of the theory. It generalizes attempts to do this in the literature, while drawing significant empirical consequences from general constraints formulated to block overgeneration. The resulting theory of the construction of functional categories is applied to various problems in syntactic analysis and comparative and historical syntax, including variation across Germanic languages in patterns of verb-second and in the occurrence of expletive subjects in existential constructions, verb positions in Old and Middle English, problems regarding the placement of clitic pronouns in Romance languages and Modern Greek, and some previously unexamined structures of reduced clause coordination in colloquial English. Facts from early stages of the acquisition of syntax are shown to follow from the mechanisms for the projection of functional features as functional categories, exercised before all of the features for a language, along with their ordering and feature co-occurrence restrictions, have been acquired. It is observed that child acquisition of functional elements exhibits successive developmental stages, each characterized by the number of clausal functional elements which can be represented together within a clause. This, and facts regarding the lag in development of functional categories by children with specific language impairment, are shown to be not entirely reducible to limitations in working memory or processing capacity, but to depend in part on the growth of representational resources for the projection of functional categories.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
ISBN : 051139781X

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Functional Categories by Anonim Pdf

Author : William D. Davies,Stanley Dubinsky
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2001-10-31
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1402000650

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Objects and Other Subjects by William D. Davies,Stanley Dubinsky Pdf

The papers in this volume examine the current role of grammatical functions in transformational syntax in two ways: (i) through largely theoretical considerations of their status, and (ii) through detailed analyses for a wide variety of languages. Taken together the chapters in this volume present a comprehensive view of how transformational syntax characterizes the elusive but often useful notions of subject and object, examining how subject and object properties are distributed among various functional projections, converging sometimes in particular languages.

Author : Laure Gardelle
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2024-07-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031445613

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Nouns and the Morphosyntax / Semantics Interface by Laure Gardelle Pdf

Author : J Meisel
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1992-08-31
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9401128049

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The Acquisition of Verb Placement by J Meisel Pdf

The twelve original contributions in this volume all focus on the question of whether developing grammars contain, at each stage of language acquisition, the full range of functional categories such as INFL, AGR, or COMP. The crucal evidence examined is the placement of verbs, especially in verb-second constructions. Since the position of verbal elements depends in the finiteness distinction, viz. on the presence of agreement and tense markings, the development of these phenomena is studied as well. Although there is consensus among the authors of the volume that grammars in the course of language acquisition conform at each stage to the principles of universal grammar, they disagree on whether the full repertoire of functional categories is available from early on or whether some are implemented only later. The studies presented here investigate monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition and, in one case, adult second language acquisition. The languages studied are Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Sesotho, and Swedish.

Author : Peter Jordens
Publisher : ISSN
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Finiteness (Linguistics)
ISBN : 3110216205

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Language Acquisition and the Functional Category System by Peter Jordens Pdf

Finiteness, as a concept of information structure, determines the perspective from which the present investigation has been carried out. The linguistic status of finiteness in learner languages changes as a function of language development. This accounts for the fact that at consecutive stages of acquisition finiteness is expressed differently. Finiteness, as it plays a role at different stages of development, serves thus as the anchoring point from which the dynamics of the process of language development both in L1 and L2 learners can be explained. The present study shows that in this process the auxiliary verb (heb/heeft) serves a crucial role due to its function as a topicalization device.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 740 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Language and languages
ISBN : STANFORD:36105024573938

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Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts by Anonim Pdf

Author : Carsten Krumdiek
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 17 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2007-04-04
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9783638628518

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The morpheme - An approach to its meaning and function by Carsten Krumdiek Pdf

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar), course: English Morphology, language: English, abstract: When studying linguistics, students are confronted with a high degree of terminology right on from the beginning of their studies. One might assume that understanding it should not really be a problem if one considers a standard dictionary or inquires other scholars in order to find an answer to one’s lack of knowledge. However, in some cases it is simply not that easy. In the following we will take a look at the notion of the morpheme. The problem is that several different definitions exist and scholars have to be 100% aware of the meaning when confronted with linguistic literature. The Oxford Concise English Dictionary (OCED) claims the morpheme to be: “A meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided” (OCED 1999:926) But is this a sufficient definition of the term? Are morphemes really always meaningful units? In order to understand the different opinions scholars have when referring to the morpheme, one has to have a good look at their different point of views of the field of morphology. Some scholars consider a morpheme-based approach to be the correct way of dealing with morphemes, in which they either emphasize meaning or grammatical function of morphemes, whereas others rather identify themselves with the word-form based approach, by which they entirely reject the significance of morphemes for the meaning of the sign, while concentrating on word-forms. In the following we will take a closer look at several definitions of themorpheme,established by scholars of different diachronical environments in order to find a solution to this problem and a more or less concrete definition. In the second part, the importance of the morpheme with reference to the concept of allomorphy will be examined to understand how they function and how they are realized.

Author : Stefan Hinterholzer
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 30 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2007-11
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783638779678

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Grammatical and Semantic Functions of Verbs in the English Language by Stefan Hinterholzer Pdf

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, University of Innsbruck (Department of English), course: Language Awareness III, 3 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The focus of this paper is on the different types and forms of verbs and especially on their semantic and grammatical function. Verbs can convey lexical meaning or solely be used for grammatical constructions without conveying meaning. First of all, their will be given a possible classification of verbs depending on their function either as conveyers of meaning or elements in grammatical constructions. Then, the functions of different verb forms will be looked at. Finally, the verb's role in a sentence and the distinction between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs will be analyzed. In a more practical part the theory will be applied to texts and proved by that. The analysis of the texts is intended to provide a concrete understanding of the abstract theory that is depicted in the chapters at the beginning.

Author : Edna Andrews
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1990-05-09
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780822382881

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Markedness Theory by Edna Andrews Pdf

Edna Andrews clarifies and extends the work of Roman Jakobson to develop a theory of invariants in language by distinguishing between general and contextual meaning in morphology and semantics. Markedness theory, as Jakobson conceived it, is a qualitative theory of oppositional binary relations. Andrews shows how markedness theory enables a linguist to precisely define the systemically given oppositions and hierarchies represented by linguistic categories. In addition, she redefines the relationship between Jakobsonian markedness theory and Peircean interpretants. Though primarily theoretical, the argument is illustrated with discussions about learning a second language, the relationship of linguistics to mathematics (particularly set theory, algebra, topology, and statistics) in their mutual pursuit of invariance, and issues involving grammatical gender and their implications in several languages.