From Syntax To Discourse

Author : C. Hamann
Publisher : Springer
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2002-01-31
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : UCSC:32106015987578

Get Book

From Syntax to Discourse by C. Hamann Pdf

This book investigates typical phenomena of early child language from a cross-linguistic perspective. The investigation centers on the acquisition of pronominal clitics in production and comprehension, and especially on the well-known phase of infinitive production and subject omission. Other areas such as early negation and question-formation are treated in the context of the above phenomena. The book provides a unique comparative database for these areas of language acquisition from the point of view of Romance and Germanic languages in presenting results on Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, and other languages. On the basis of these broad and detailed empirical results, the author proceeds to evaluate current models and hypotheses advanced for the above phenomena from a theoretical perspective. A formal investigation of the semantics and pragmatics of pronouns and tense leads to the conclusion that discourse anchorage, which is problematic for young children, is mediated by syntax and by functional material in particular so that the development of the syntax-discourse interface is largely driven by developments in syntax. In relating unusually comprehensive cross-linguistic child data to unusually fine-grained formal analyses, the book thus succeeds in providing new insights not only into language development but also into linguistic theory.

Author : Petra B. Schumacher
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2005-09-22
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027294203

Get Book

The Syntax–Discourse Interface by Petra B. Schumacher Pdf

This book combines theoretical and experimental aspects of the establishment of dependency. It provides an account of dependency relations by focusing on the representation and interpretation of referentially dependent elements, particularly regular reflexives, logophors, and pronouns. First, the establishment of dependency is discussed within a model of syntax—discourse correspondences that predicts an economy-based dependency hierarchy contingent on the level of representation at which the dependency is formed as well as the internal structure of the dependent element and its antecedent. Secondly, the model’s predictions are substantiated by a series of experimental studies (conducted in English and Dutch) providing evidence from three sources of online sentence comprehension: reaction time studies, Broca’s aphasia patient studies, and event-related brain potential studies. The findings show that dependencies are established at distinct levels of linguistic encoding (i.e. syntax or discourse) determined by the presence or absence of coargumenthood and the representation of the dependency-forming elements.

Author : S. Avrutin
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-17
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789401712392

Get Book

Development of the Syntax-Discourse Interface by S. Avrutin Pdf

In this book, I address several issues of child linguistic development from the perspective of the syntax -discourse interface. Traditionally, language acquisition research has focused on the development of one of the linguistic modules, e.g. acquisition of syntax, morphology or phonology. While this approach can be viewed as fruitful in some cases, there is a number of linguistic phenomena whose explanation depends on the interaction of different modules and, therefore, different domains of linguistic knowledge. A typical example is pronominal anaphora: It can be shown that to correctly use pronominal elements, normal adult speakers must possess both syntactic and pragmatic knowledge, and that these kinds of knowledge must interact with each other. With regard to the language acquisition process, such phenomena suggest a somewhat different approach to the language acquisition research. Indeed, if some experimental studies show that children make errors in the construction under investigation, it will be necessary to consider these results from the point of view of the interaction of the different domains of linguistic knowledge involved in their interpretation. In other words, if this particular construction requires the integration of, for example, syntactic and discourse-based knowledge, children's errors may, in principle, be due to their lack of the former, the latter, or both kinds of knowledge, and cannot be taken as direct evidence for the "underdeveloped" status of just one of them.

Author : Josef Bayer,Roland Hinterhölzl,Andreas Trotzke
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2015-12-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027267726

Get Book

Discourse-oriented Syntax by Josef Bayer,Roland Hinterhölzl,Andreas Trotzke Pdf

Until recently, little attention has been paid within syntax to components of discourse meaning that go beyond information structure and fall into the domain of non-at-issue meaning operating at the level of illocutionary force. To approach this domain, many of the contributions of this volume deal with the syntax of discourse particles. However, the issue of how to account for discourse particles within a more explicit map of the illocutionary domain is a good starting point for considering further phenomena related to the syntax of speech acts. By focusing on speech-act related particles and/or meaning domains, this volume makes a new contribution to the field, as existing collections either do not offer a comparatively narrow focus on particles or are not limited to syntax-oriented approaches. The primary audience of this volume are researchers and graduate students interested in state-of-the-art approaches to the syntax-discourse interface within the cartographic approach to syntax.

Author : Tania Ivanova-Sullivan
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2015-01-27
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789004246171

Get Book

Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of Syntax-Discourse Interface in Heritage Grammars by Tania Ivanova-Sullivan Pdf

In Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of Syntax-Discourse Interface in Heritage Grammars, Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan investigates comprehension and production of anaphoric dependencies with null and overt subject pronouns. She discusses the divergent behaviour of the heritage speakers of Russian by providing a closer look at their proficiency level, quantity of input and order of language acquisition. She explains the results with various degrees of successful application of pragmatic principles and efficiency in allocating cognitive resources. The contribution of the monograph lies in the discussion of theoretical and experimental issues related to anaphora resolution along with an investigation of all aspects of representation and processing of anaphoric pronouns by various kinds of bilinguals: heritage speakers, L2 learners and L1 attriters.

Author : Nomi Erteschik-Shir
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2007-01-11
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199262588

Get Book

Information Structure by Nomi Erteschik-Shir Pdf

This introduction to the role of information structure in grammar discusses a wide range of phenomena on the syntax-information structure interface. It examines theories of information structure and considers their effectiveness in explaining whether and how information structure maps onto syntax in discourse. Professor Erteschik-Shir begins by discussing the basic notions and properties of information structure, such as topic and focus, and considers their properties from differenttheoretical perspectives. She covers definitions of topic and focus, architectures of grammar, information structure, word order, the interface between lexicon and information structure, and cognitive aspects of information structure.In her balanced and readable account, the author critically compares the effectiveness of different theoretical approaches and assesses the value of insights drawn from work in processing and on language acquisition, variation, and universals. This book will appeal to graduate students of syntax and semantics in departments of linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science.

Author : Hongxin ZHANG
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2023-09-28
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781000957273

Get Book

Dependency Structures from Syntax to Discourse by Hongxin ZHANG Pdf

Based on the large corpora of journalistic English, this title examines dependency relations and related properties at both syntactic and discourse levels, seeking to unravel the language patterns of real-life usage. With a focus on rank-frequency distribution, the author investigates the distribution of linguistic properties/units from the perspectives of properties, motifs and sequencings. At the syntactic level, the book analyses the following three dimensions: various combinations of a complete dependency structure, valency and dependency distance. At the discourse level, it proves that the elements can also form dependency relations by exploring (1) the rank-frequency distribution of Rhetorical Structure Theory relations, their motifs, discourse valency and discourse dependency distance; (2) whether there is top-down organisation or an inverted pyramid structure at all the three discourse levels; and (3) whether discourse dependency distances and valencies are lawfully distributed, following the same distribution patterns as those at the syntactic level. This book will be of great value for scholars and students of quantitative linguistics and computational linguistics and its practical insights will also benefit professionals of language teaching and journalistic writing.

Author : Flora Klein-Andreu
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Discourse analysis
ISBN : UCAL:B4283108

Get Book

Discourse Perspectives on Syntax by Flora Klein-Andreu Pdf

Author : Pamela Downing,Michael P. Noonan
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 606 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1995-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027229212

Get Book

Word Order in Discourse by Pamela Downing,Michael P. Noonan Pdf

This volume brings together a collection of 18 papers dealing with the problem of word order variation in discourse. Word order variation has often been treated as an essentially unpredictable phenomenon, a matter of selecting randomly one of the set of possible orders generated by the grammar. However, as the papers in this collection show, word order variation is not random, but rather governed by principles which can be subjected to scientific investigation and are common to all languages.The papers in this volume discuss word order variation in a diverse collection of languages and from a number of perspectives, including experimental and quantitative text based studies. A number of papers address the problem of deciding which order is 'basic' among the alternatives. The volume will be of interest to typologists, to other linguists interested in problems of word order variation, and to those interested in discourse syntax.

Author : Talmy Givon
Publisher : Syntax and Semantics
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1980
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9004367969

Get Book

Discourse and Syntax by Talmy Givon Pdf

Author : Miriam Urgelles-Coll
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2010-07-22
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781441195500

Get Book

The Syntax and Semantics of Discourse Markers by Miriam Urgelles-Coll Pdf

A thorough overview of work on discourse markers covering a variety of approaches, from discourse analysis to computational linguistics

Author : Katalin É Kiss
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Generative grammar
ISBN : 9780195088342

Get Book

Discourse Configurational Languages by Katalin É Kiss Pdf

Comprising eleven studies on languages with designated structural topic and focus positions, this volume includes an introduction surveying the empirical and theoretical problems involved in the description of this language type. Focusing on languages outside the traditional Indo-European group, the essays look at Chadic, Somali, Basque, Catalan, Old Romance, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish, Korean, and Quechua. The papers provide interesting new empirical data, as well as a variety of means and alternatives of representing them structurally. At the same time, they address important theoretical questions in the framework of generative theory. This is the first study to apply methods of comparative syntax to the study of topic and focus.

Author : Josef Bayer,Volker Struckmeier
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016-12-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110497151

Get Book

Discourse Particles by Josef Bayer,Volker Struckmeier Pdf

Particles have for the longest time been ignored by linguistic research. School-type grammars ignored them since they did not fit into pre-conceived notions of categories, and since they did not seem to enter into grammatical relations commonly discussed in the genre. Only in the last century did some publications discuss particles – and even then only from the perspective of their discourse and pragmatic functions, i.e. their dependance on certain previous contexts, and concluded that the function of particles for the grammar of sentences and their interpretation remains obscure. The current volume presents 11 new articles that take a fresh look at particles: As it turns out, particles inform many aspects of syntax and semantics, too – both diachronically and synchronically: Particles are shown to have fascinating syntactic properties with respect to projection, locality, movement and scope. Their interpretative contributions can be studied with the rigorous methods of formal semantics. Cross-linguistic and diachronic investigations shed new light on the genesis and development of these intriguing – and under-estimated – kinds of lexical elements.

Author : J. E. Miller,Regina Weinert
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780198236566

Get Book

Spontaneous Spoken Language by J. E. Miller,Regina Weinert Pdf

Jim Miller and Regina Weinert investigate syntactic structure and the organization of discourse in spontaneous spoken language. Using data from English, German, and Russian, they develop a systematic analysis of spoken English and highlight properties that hold across languages.

Author : Daniel Altshuler,Associate Professor of Semantics Daniel Altshuler,Robert Truswell,Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language Robert Truswell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2022-07-09
Category : Discourse analysis
ISBN : 9780198804239

Get Book

Coordination and the Syntax DS Discourse Interface by Daniel Altshuler,Associate Professor of Semantics Daniel Altshuler,Robert Truswell,Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language Robert Truswell Pdf

This survey explores interactions between syntax and discourse, through a case study of patterns of extraction from coordinate structures. The theoretical breadth of the volume makes it the most complete account of extraction from coordinate structures to date: at first glance, it appears to be a syntactic matter, but the survey raises theoretical and empirical questions not just for syntax, but also across semantics, pragmatics, and discourse structure. Rather than promoting a single analysis, Daniel Altshuler and Robert Truswell outline reasonable hypotheses that allow theoretical conclusions to be deducted from empirical facts. The theoretical conclusions show that coordinate structures have the potential to discriminate between current syntactic theories, and to inform work on the interfaces between syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse. In many cases, however, the necessary empirical work has not yet been carried out, and too much of the literature revolves around the same handful of primarily English examples. The volume offers a starting point for further research on extraction from coordinate structures, particularly in understudied languages, and provides a guide to how to tease out the theoretical implications of empirical findings.