Abstract
In this paper I claim that Italian
location
and
locatum
verbs constitute two syntactically distinct classes of verbs.
Location
verbs are derived from a noun corresponding to a location, and ...behave similarly to
standard
verbs of caused motion.
Locatum
verbs are derived from a noun corresponding to the located entity, and behave similarly to
croisés
verbs. Despite these similarities, the derivational structure of
locatum
and
location
verbs has an impact on their syntactic structure. For this reason
locatum
and
location
verbs cannot be included in the classes of
croisés
and
standard
verbs, respectively. They deserve a separate classification.
When comparing certain properties between two entities, the evaluation is generally comparatively high or comparatively low. However, a certain type of comparative sentence (hereinafter, a degree ...equative construction) does not contain the entity to be compared. This study addresses such English degree equative constructions, seeking to identify their grammatical characteristics and describe the circumstances in which they are used by carefully examining their syntactic and semantic properties based on corpora data. To this end, to different analysis types are adopted: raw frequency and collostructional. The study investigates the distributional properties of the parameters to identify which properties degree equative constructions are used to compare. The total number of parameters is only 33, an unexpectedly small number. In addition, the study identifies four different types of degree equative constructions in terms of the relationship between the target of comparison and three other elements: premodificational, postmodificational, predicative, and adverbial. To understand degree equative constructions through collostructional analysis, the study calculates the association strength between the parameters and degree equative constructions. Thirteen parameters are the most strongly associated with the construction, and their value is infinite. Thus, this parameter group can be viewed as providing prototypical meanings.
Researchers have always been concerned with innovative approaches to facilitate the learning process for language learners. One of the facilitating strategies is guided discovery learning, which can ...help learners to develop their critical and analytical thinking skills. Hence, the present study is an attempt to discover the effects of guided discovery learning on the development of teenage and adult learners’ syntactic structures. The participants of this study were 34 male EFL Iranian learners in Iranmehr Language Institute, Aleshtar, Lorestan province, Iran. The participants were divided into two experimental groups based on their age (12 to 18 as teenagers, and 18 to 30 as adults). First, the Longman proficiency test was given to the participants to measure their language ability. After that, a pre-test was given to the students regarding syntactic structures before the treatment. Then, every two weeks a post-test was given to the students to assess their gradual development. One immediate and two delayed post-tests were given to the students. In this study, paired and independent samples t-tests were used to compare the development of syntactic structures in the studied groups. The results of this study showed that both groups (teenagers and adults) made an improvement but adults improved more significantly than teenagers. The findings of the study contributed to the practical employment of guided discovery learning as an effective teaching methodology, especially for adults in the process of language learning
There have been increasing calls for research attention to the linguistic realizations of rhetorical functions in academic writing. Research in this area has so far focused primarily on lexical and ...phraseological features. While numerous studies have investigated the relationship of syntactic complexity to language proficiency, development, and writing quality, research examining the rhetorical functions of complex syntactic structures is scant. This study analyzes the rhetorical functions of syntactically complex sentences in the Corpus of Social Science Research Article Introductions, which contains the introduction sections of 600 published research articles in six social science disciplines. All samples were annotated for rhetorical moves and steps using an adapted version of Swales’ (2004) revised Create a Research Space model, and all sentences were assessed for syntactic complexity using multiple measures of global complexity, finite subordination, clausal elaboration, and phrasal complexity. Results revealed significant variation in syntactic complexity among sentences realizing different rhetorical functions and expert writers’ employment of complex structures to realize different rhetorical goals. The implications of our findings for academic writing research, pedagogy and assessment are discussed.
•Native speakers differ considerably in their mastery of basic grammatical constructions.•Individual differences in grammar are comparable in size to those in lexical knowledge.•Individual ...differences are related to both quality of the input and learner’s cognitive abilities.•Grammatical and lexical knowledge are correlated even in adult speakers.
Several recent studies have demonstrated that some native speakers do not fully master some fairly basic grammatical constructions of their language, thus challenging the widely-held assumption that all native speakers converge on the same grammar. This study investigates the extent of individual differences in adult native speakers' knowledge of a range of constructions as well as vocabulary size and collocational knowledge, and explores the relationship between these three aspects of linguistic knowledge and four nonlinguistic predictors: nonverbal IQ, language aptitude, print exposure and education. Individual differences in grammatical attainment were comparable to those observed for vocabulary and collocations; furthermore, performance on tests assessing speakers' knowledge of these three aspects of language was correlated (rs from 0.38 to 0.57). Two of the nonlinguistic measures, print exposure and education, were found to contribute to variance in all three language tests, albeit to different extents. In addition, nonverbal IQ was found to be relevant for grammar and vocabulary, and language aptitude for grammar. These findings are broadly compatible with usage-based models of language and problematic for modular theories.
•Multilayer network approaches are capable of simultaneously considering levels of the language hierarchy.•They hold great promise for capturing cross-linguistic similarity between languages.•They ...can also inform questions of learning and access in the bilingual lexicon.
Cross-linguistic similarity is a term so broad and multi-faceted that it is not easily defined. The degree of overlap between languages is known to affect lexical competition during online processing and production, and its relevance for second language acquisition has also been established. Nevertheless, determining what makes two languages similar (or not) increases in complexity when multiple levels of the language hierarchy (e.g., phonology, syntax) are considered. How can we feasibly account for the patterns of convergence and divergence at each level of representation, as well as the interactions between them? The growing field of network science brings new methodologies to bear on this longstanding question. Below, we summarize current network science approaches to modeling language structure and discuss implications for understanding various linguistic processes. Critically, we stress the particular value of multilayer techniques, unique and powerful in their ability to simultaneously accommodate an array of node-to-node (or word-to-word) relationships.
Notre contribution vise à mettre en évidence quelques convergences épistémologiques majeures entre les travaux de Claire Blanche-Benveniste (CBB) et ceux de Peter Auer (PA), liées à la prise en ...compte résolue de la linéarité du déploiement de l'oral dans la description syntaxique du parlé. L'approche de CBB, grammairienne, vise à montrer comment les choix du locuteur sont animés par une cohérence structurelle profonde, tandis que celle de PA, marquée par la psychologie cognitive et l'interactionnisme, cherche à expliciter les modalités de la planification langagière en cours d'instanciation. Les apports de ces deux auteurs sont à l'origine des méthodes d'analyse de l'oral récentes, soucieuses de rendre compte de ses modalités d'organisation propres. Dans cette optique, la grille apparaÎt comme outil majeur de l'approche des configurations qui émergent on line.
The dynamics of stance constructions Kaltenböck, Gunther; López-Couso, María José; Méndez-Naya, Belén
Language sciences (Oxford),
November 2020, 2020-11-00, 20201101, Letnik:
82
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Stance is commonly understood to refer to the way in which speakers express points of view, attitudes, feelings and evaluations (e.g. Lyons, 1982; Ochs and Schieffelin, 1989; Finegan, 1995; Du Bois, ...2007, among many others), and position themselves in relation to some proposition (i.e. subjectivity) and to other speech participants (i.e. intersubjectivity) and their particular stances. This idea has developed traction particularly in recent decades, with stancetaking being studied from various angles, among others text and discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, sociocultural linguistics, and under various other guises. The concept of stance is not restricted to a particular linguistic persuasion, nor is it restricted to linguistics.
Variability in children's language acquisition is likely due to a number of cognitive and social variables. The current study investigated whether individual differences in statistical learning (SL), ...which has been implicated in language acquisition, independently predicted 6- to 8-year-old's comprehension of syntax. Sixty-eight (N = 68) English-speaking children completed a test of comprehension of four syntactic structures, a test of SL utilizing nonlinguistic visual stimuli, and several additional control measures. The results revealed that SL independently predicted comprehension of two syntactic structures that show considerable variability in this age range: passives and object relative clauses. These data suggest that individual differences in children's capacity for SL are associated with the acquisition of the syntax of natural languages.
Constructionist approaches to language have often viewed metaphors and metonymies either as motivating factors or constraints on lexical‐constructional integration (Goldberg 1995, 2006; the ...Lexical‐Constructional Model: Butler & Gonzálvez 2014, Gonzálvez 2020, Ruiz de Mendoza & Mairal 2008, Ruiz de Mendoza & Galera 2014). In a similar spirit, the present article provides a detailed study of the role of metaphor in the analysis of the Spanish resultative change‐of‐state construction “ponerse (‘put CL’) + adjective” by examining a list of metaphorical motion constructions of this kind, which are frequent in everyday language when describing temporary arousal states. By paying special attention to constraints in its lexical and constructional structure, we aim to examine whether the metaphor a change of temporary state is a change of temporary location is attested in this type of construction in the Spanish language (i.e., whether it plays a role and, if so, of what kind). It is presumed that the metaphors under analysis in connection to “ponerse + adjective” constructions systematically motivate the meaning of this change‐of‐state verb in Spanish when coappearing with an evaluative adjective, as long as the fact that the latter profiles a normally temporary (short duration) arousal state.
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