The German Prepositional Phrase in Second Language Acquisition a Research Report
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Animacy and Alienability: a Reconsideration of English
Running head: ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 1 Animacy and Alienability A Reconsideration of English Possession Jaimee Jones A Senior Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation in the Honors Program Liberty University Spring 2016 ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 2 Acceptance of Senior Honors Thesis This Senior Honors Thesis is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation from the Honors Program of Liberty University. ______________________________ Jaeshil Kim, Ph.D. Thesis Chair ______________________________ Paul Müller, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Jeffrey Ritchey, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Brenda Ayres, Ph.D. Honors Director ______________________________ Date ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 3 Abstract Current scholarship on English possessive constructions, the s-genitive and the of- construction, largely ignores the possessive relationships inherent in certain English compound nouns. Scholars agree that, in general, an animate possessor predicts the s- genitive while an inanimate possessor predicts the of-construction. However, the current literature rarely discusses noun compounds, such as the table leg, which also express possessive relationships. However, pragmatically and syntactically, a compound cannot be considered as a true possessive construction. Thus, this paper will examine why some compounds still display possessive semantics epiphenomenally. The noun compounds that imply possession seem to exhibit relationships prototypical of inalienable possession such as body part, part whole, and spatial relationships. Additionally, the juxtaposition of the possessor and possessum in the compound construction is reminiscent of inalienable possession in other languages. Therefore, this paper proposes that inalienability, a phenomenon not thought to be relevant in English, actually imbues noun compounds whose components exhibit an inalienable relationship with possessive semantics. -
The Use of Demonstrative Pronoun and Demonstrative Determiner This in Upper-Level Student Writing: a Case Study
English Language Teaching; Vol. 8, No. 5; 2015 ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education The Use of Demonstrative Pronoun and Demonstrative Determiner this in Upper-Level Student Writing: A Case Study Katharina Rustipa1 1 Faculty of Language and Cultural Studies, Stikubank University (UNISBANK) Semarang, Indonesia Correspondence: Katharina Rustipa, UNISBANK Semarang, Jl. Tri Lomba Juang No.1 Semarang 50241, Indonesia. Tel: 622-4831-1668. E-mail: [email protected] Received: January 20, 2015 Accepted: February 26, 2015 Online Published: April 23, 2015 doi:10.5539/elt.v8n5p158 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n5p158 Abstract Demonstrative this is worthy to investigate because of the role of this as a common cohesive device in academic writing. This study attempted to find out the variables underlying the realization of demonstrative this in graduate-student writing of Semarang State University, Indonesia. The data of the study were collected by asking three groups of students (first semester, second semester, third semester students) to write an essay. The collected data were analyzed by identifying, classifying, calculating, and interpreting. Interviewing to several students was also done to find out the reasons underlying the use of attended and unattended this. Comparing the research results to those of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Paper (MICUSP) as proficient graduate-student writing was done in order to know the position of graduate-student writing of Semarang State University in reference to MICUSP. The conclusion of the research results is that most occurrences of demonstrative this are attended and these occurrences are stable across levels, similar to those in MICUSP. -
The Internal Syntax of the Chimakonde Determiner Phrase
THE INTERNAL SYNTAX OF THE CHIMAKONDE DETERMINER PHRASE By DOMINICK MAKANJILA Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Professor Marianna W. Visser April 2019 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: April 2019 Copyright © 2019 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved i Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT In the Government-and-Binding theory of generative syntax (cf. Chomsky, 1981), it was posited that a functional head D(eterminer) heads a noun phrase (NP). This view is referred to as a Determiner Phrase (DP) hypothesis (Abney, 1987). English articles are uncontroversially viewed as instantiations of D. Consequently, some scholars hold that a DP projects only in languages with articles (cf. Bruening, 2009). However, the universal view of the DP hypothesis, which this study also invokes, is that both languages with and without articles project a DP (cf. Veselovská, 2014). It is argued that articles (like those found in English) are not the only forms through which the functional category D can manifest. Different languages have different manifestations of the functional category D. The category D is viewed as the locus of (in)definiteness and (non-)specificity). -
RELATIONAL NOUNS, PRONOUNS, and Resumptionw Relational Nouns, Such As Neighbour, Mother, and Rumour, Present a Challenge to Synt
Linguistics and Philosophy (2005) 28:375–446 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s10988-005-2656-7 ASH ASUDEH RELATIONAL NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND RESUMPTIONw ABSTRACT. This paper presents a variable-free analysis of relational nouns in Glue Semantics, within a Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) architecture. Rela- tional nouns and resumptive pronouns are bound using the usual binding mecha- nisms of LFG. Special attention is paid to the bound readings of relational nouns, how these interact with genitives and obliques, and their behaviour with respect to scope, crossover and reconstruction. I consider a puzzle that arises regarding rela- tional nouns and resumptive pronouns, given that relational nouns can have bound readings and resumptive pronouns are just a specific instance of bound pronouns. The puzzle is: why is it impossible for bound implicit arguments of relational nouns to be resumptive? The puzzle is highlighted by a well-known variety of variable-free semantics, where pronouns and relational noun phrases are identical both in category and (base) type. I show that the puzzle also arises for an established variable-based theory. I present an analysis of resumptive pronouns that crucially treats resumptives in terms of the resource logic linear logic that underlies Glue Semantics: a resumptive pronoun is a perfectly ordinary pronoun that constitutes a surplus resource; this surplus resource requires the presence of a resumptive-licensing resource consumer, a manager resource. Manager resources properly distinguish between resumptive pronouns and bound relational nouns based on differences between them at the level of semantic structure. The resumptive puzzle is thus solved. The paper closes by considering the solution in light of the hypothesis of direct compositionality. -
Determiners in Various Resources: Grammar Books, Coursebooks And
Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature Determiners in various resources: Grammar books, coursebooks and online sources compared Bachelor thesis Brno 2016 Supervisor: Author: doc. PhDr. Renata Povolná, Ph.D. Pavla Fryštáková Declaration: „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 SB., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o měně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ V Brně dne 16. 3. 2016 ………………………………. Pavla Fryštáková Acknowledgement: I would like to thank doc. PhDr. Renata Povolná, Ph.D., for help and advice provided during the supervision of my bachelor thesis. Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 5 2 Reference to determiners in grammar books ....................................................... 7 2.1 Grammar books referring to determiners as one topic ....................................... 7 2.1.1 Swan (1996) ................................................................................................ 7 2.1.2 Leech and Svartvik (1975) .......................................................................... 9 2.1.3 Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) ................................................................... 16 2.1.4 -
The Definite Determiner in Early Middle English
43 The defi nite determiner in Early Middle English: What happened with þe? Cynthia L. Allen Australian National University Abstract This paper offers new data bearing on the question of when English developed a defi nite article, distinct from the distal demonstrative. It focuses primarily on one criterion that has been used in dating this development, namely the inability of þe (Modern English the, the refl ex of the demonstrative se) to be used as a pronoun. I argue that this criterion is not a satisfactory one and propose a treatment of þe as a form which could occupy either the head D of DP or the specifi er of DP. This is an approach consistent with Crisma’s (2011) position that a defi nite article emerged within the Old English (OE) period. I offer a new piece of evidence supporting Crisma’s demonstration of a difference between OE poetry and the prose of the ninth century and later. 1. Introduction: dating the defi nite article A long-standing problem in historical English syntax is dating the emergence of the defi nite article. A major diffi culty here, noted by Johanna Wood (2003) and others, is defi ning exactly what we mean by an ‘article.’ Millar (2000:304, note 11) comments that we might say that Modern English does not have a ‘true’ article, but only a ‘weakly demonstrative defi nite determiner’ on Himmelmann’s (1997) proposed path of development for defi nite articles. However, no one can doubt that English has moved along this path from a demonstrative determiner to something that has become more purely grammatical, with loss of deictic properties. -
Linguistics 21N - Linguistic Diversity and Universals: the Principles of Language Structure
Linguistics 21N - Linguistic Diversity and Universals: The Principles of Language Structure Ben Newman March 1, 2018 1 What are we studying in this course? This course is about syntax, which is the subfield of linguistics that deals with how words and phrases can be combined to form correct larger forms (usually referred to as sentences). We’re not particularly interested in the structure of words (morphemes), sounds (phonetics), or writing systems, but instead on the rules underlying how words and phrases can be combined across different languages. These rules are what make up the formal grammar of a language. Formal grammar is similar to what you learn in middle and high school English classes, but is a lot more, well, formal. Instead of classifying words based on meaning or what they “do" in a sentence, formal grammars depend a lot more on where words are in the sentence. For example, in English class you might say an adjective is “a word that modifies a noun”, such as red in the phrase the red ball. A more formal definition of an adjective might be “a word that precedes a noun" or “the first word in an adjective phrase" where the adjective phrase is red ball. Describing a formal grammar involves writing down a lot of rules for a language. 2 I-Language and E-Language Before we get into the nitty-gritty grammar stuff, I want to take a look at two ways language has traditionally been described by linguists. One of these descriptions centers around the rules that a person has in his/her mind for constructing sentences. -
6 the Major Parts of Speech
6 The Major Parts of Speech KEY CONCEPTS Parts of Speech Major Parts of Speech Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Appendix: prototypes INTRODUCTION In every language we find groups of words that share grammatical charac- teristics. These groups are called “parts of speech,” and we examine them in this chapter and the next. Though many writers onlanguage refer to “the eight parts of speech” (e.g., Weaver 1996: 254), the actual number of parts of speech we need to recognize in a language is determined by how fine- grained our analysis of the language is—the more fine-grained, the greater the number of parts of speech that will be distinguished. In this book we distinguish nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (the major parts of speech), and pronouns, wh-words, articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, intensifiers, conjunctions, and particles (the minor parts of speech). Every literate person needs at least a minimal understanding of parts of speech in order to be able to use such commonplace items as diction- aries and thesauruses, which classify words according to their parts (and sub-parts) of speech. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary (4th edition, p. xxxi) distinguishes adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, definite ar- ticles, indefinite articles, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs. It also distinguishes transitive, intransitive, and auxiliary verbs. Writ- ers and writing teachers need to know about parts of speech in order to be able to use and teach about style manuals and school grammars. Regardless of their discipline, teachers need this information to be able to help students expand the contexts in which they can effectively communicate. -
Coding Practices Used in the Project Optimal Typology of Determiner Phrases
Coding practices used in the project Optimal Typology of Determiner Phrases Gregory Garretson This document is one section of the coding manual used by the project Optimal Typology of Determiner Phrases, based at Boston University. It is being made available due to popular demand. If you have questions about the rest of the manual, or the contents of this section, please contact Gregory Garretson at [email protected] or [email protected]. Please cite this document as follows: Garretson, Gregory. 2004. Coding practices used in the project Optimal Typology of Determiner Phrases. Unpublished manuscript, Boston University, Boston, MA. http://npcorpus.bu.edu/html/documentation/index.html. Contents 5.1 General practices 5.2 Construction type 5.3 Which examples to count? 5.4 Expression type 5.5 Definiteness 5.6 Animacy 5.7 Weight 5.0 Applying tags to the examples This section of the coding manual details the policies we have adopted in adding tags to the examples, once they have been bracketed. Because of the wondrous variety of language, coding a corpus is not nearly as straightforward as we might like. This section will help you to make the often difficult decisions about which tags to apply when. Section 5.1 gives general guidance for coding; Sections 5.2 and on discuss various classes of tags in detail. Starting in Section 5.2, each section will begin with a list of the tags discussed in that section, so you can easily find the discussion of a given tag by looking at these lines. They look like this: [Tags discussed in this section: INCL, EXCL, PND, PWD, CMPD, IDIOM, NAME, PART, PART2, DINS, SORT] Please remember that in addition to the discussion in this section, there is a brief description of each tag given in Section 2. -
Classifiers Determiners Yicheng Wu Adams Bodomo
REMARKS AND REPLIES 487 Classifiers ϶ Determiners Yicheng Wu Adams Bodomo Cheng and Sybesma (1999, 2005) argue that classifiers in Chinese are equivalent to a definite article. We argue against this position on empirical grounds, drawing attention to the fact that semantically, syntactically, and functionally, Chinese classifiers are not on the same footing as definite determiners. We also show that compared with Cheng and Sybesma’s ClP analysis of Chinese NPs (in particular, Cantonese NPs, on which their proposal crucially relies), a consistent DP analysis is not only fully justified but strongly supported. Keywords: classifiers, open class, definite determiners, closed class, Mandarin, Cantonese 1 Introduction While it is often proposed that the category DP exists not only in languages with determiners such as English but also in languages without determiners such as Chinese (see, e.g., Pan 1990, Tang 1990a,b, Li 1998, 1999, Cheng and Sybesma 1999, 2005, Simpson 2001, 2005, Simpson and Wu 2002, Wu 2004), there seems to be no consensus about which element (if any) in Chinese is the possible counterpart of a definite determiner like the in English. In their influential 1999 article with special reference to Mandarin and Cantonese, Cheng and Sybesma (hereafter C&S) declare that ‘‘both languages have the equivalent of a definite article, namely, classifiers’’ (p. 522).1 Their treatment of Chinese classifiers as the counterpart of definite determiners is based on the following arguments: (a) both can serve the individualizing/singularizing function; (b) both can serve the deictic function. These arguments and the conclusion drawn from them have been incorporated into C&S 2005, C&S’s latest work on the classifier system in Chinese. -
Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics by Dimitrios Ntelitheos 2004 1 The thesis of Dimitrios Ntelitheos is approved. _________________________________ Anoop Mahajan _________________________________ Timothy A. Stowell _________________________________ Hilda Koopman, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2004 2 στον Αλέξανδρο … για κείνον που ήρθε ανάµεσά µας να σφίξει τα δαχτυλά µας στην παλάµη … Μ. Αναγνωστάκης 3 CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Nominal Ellipsis and Discontinuity as Sister Operations 6 2.1 Nominal Ellipsis as NP-Topicalization 6 2.1.1 Ellipsis and Movement 6 2.1.2 On a Nominal Left Periphery 10 2.1.3 On the Existence of a Nominal FocusP 12 2.1.4 On the existence of a Nominal TopicP 18 2.2 Focus as a Licensing Mechanism for Nominal Ellipsis 25 2.2.1 Against a pro Analysis of Nominal Ellipsis 25 2.2.2 Focus Condition on Ellipsis 30 2.3 Topicalization and Focalization in Discontinuous DPs 33 2.4 Ellipsis and rich morphology 38 2.5 Fanselow & Ćavar (2002) 51 3 Common Properties Between Nominal Ellipsis and Discontinuous DPs 54 3.1 Same Type of Modifiers 54 3.2 Morphological Evidence 58 4 Some Problems 60 4.1 Restrictions on Discontinuity 60 4.2 Discontinuity without Nominal Ellipsis 64 5 Conclusion 69 References 70 4 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals by Dimitrios Ntelitheos Master of Arts in Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, 2003 Professor Hilda Koopman, Chair This thesis proposes a new analysis of two superficially different phenomena – nominal ellipsis and discontinuous DPs. -
Chapter 3 Noun Phrases Pronouns
Chapter 3 Noun Phrases Now that we have established something about the structure of verb phrases, let's move on to noun phrases (NPs). A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun head and all of its modifiers (or the coordination of more than one NP--to be discussed in Chapter 6). Some nouns require the presence of a determiner as a modifier. Most pronouns are typically not modified at all and no pronoun requires the presence of a determiner. We'll start with pronouns because they are a relatively simple closed class. Pronouns English has several categories of pronouns. Pronouns differ in the contexts they appear in and in the grammatical information they contain. Pronouns in English can contrast in person, number, gender, and case. We've already discussed person and number, but to review: 1. English has three persons o first person, which is the speaker or the group that includes the speaker; o second person, which is the addressee or the group of addressees; o third person, which is anybody or anything else 2. English has two numbers o singular, which refers to a singular individual or undifferentiated group or mass; o plural, which refers to more than one individual. The difference between we and they is a difference in person: we is first person and they is third person. The difference between I and we is a difference in number: I is singular and we is plural. The other two categories which pronouns mark are gender and case. Gender is the system of marking nominal categories.