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Baskaran, Lohanayahi. "Aspects of Malaysian English syntax." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1987. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317756/.
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The thesis is a description of some of the basic elements in the syntax of meso-lectal Malaysian English (M.E.), that are different from that of Standard British English (S.B.E. or B.E.). What used to be considered as errors or learner's strategies are not necessarily so and a detailed examination of such elements shows that there is a systematic and rigid patterning in the syntax as such. After a description of the general sociolinguistic setting and the emergence of the concept of institutionalized varieties of English, vis-a-vis the non-native varieties, the first chapter briefly sumarises sane phonological as well as lexical features of M.E. The second chapter then discusses sane of the Noun Phrase elements such as the pluralisation of mass nouns (Individuation), article ellipsis and pronominal concord. The third chapter goes into the Verb Phrase features such as temporal distance (Remoteness Distinctions in Tense), the simplified modal system and the use of stative verbs in the progressive (Stativity and Progressivity). Clause structure elements are discussed in Chapter four, where it will be seen that the interrogative clauses (the wh-interrogative, yes-no interrogative and the alternative interrogative) have their differences in terms of word-order (no subject-operator inversion) and different tag elements. Similar to interrogative clausal features is one type of declarative clausal element where for the initially negated and the adverbially fronted declaratives, there is no subject-operator inversion in ME. The last element described in this chapter is copula ellipsis, followed by a summary of someof the other syntactic features in M.E. that need to be further researched on (such as adverbial positioning, ellipsis of the expletives it/there, substitution of such expletives with got and grammatical particles such as lah, man, what and one). The concluding fifth chapter summarises the main points of the core chapters (2,3,4) and also addresses sane of the relevant applied linguistic and socio-linguistic concerns.
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Manga, Louise. "The syntax of adverbs in English." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/7948.
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In this thesis I use the Principles and Parameters model of generative grammar to explain the surface distribution of adverbs in English. Using the current parameters and principals assumed for UG plus the rule of move $\alpha,$ I explain the distribution of both sentential and VP-adverbs. I propose that adverbs are predicates subcategorizing for their arguments at D-S. Like other predicates in English, adverbs are generated on the right of their subjects. Certain adverbs subcategorize for two arguments while other adverbs subcategorize for one argument. The selectional restrictions of the adverb are satisfied at S-S. Like other predicates, it is the maximal projection (AdvP) that governs its subject(s). Government is an m-command relationship. The AdvP can move to the left, either through substitution to an empty X$\sp\prime$ adjunction site or through adjunction to an XP. The maximal projection of the subject forms a barrier out of which the AdvP can not move. Maximal projections, except AgrP, are barriers. In English, the AdvP can not move if the adverb is subcategorized for by the verb. This thesis also compares the explanatory powers of my approach to recent syntactic approaches by Iatridou, Travis and Zagona. I also relate my findings to the semantic approaches by Jackendoff, Bellert and Rochette.
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Barbe, Pauline. "Exploring variation in Guernsey English syntax." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365841.
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Rosta, Andrew. "English syntax and word grammar theory." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.288690.
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Elenbaas, Marion. "The synchronic and diachronic syntax of the English verb-particle combination /." Utrecht : LOT, 2007. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=015659575&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Eppler, Eva Maria. "The syntax of German-English code-switching." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2005. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1383656/.
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This thesis is about how words and (word-)forms from German and English interact with each other and with same-language elements. That is, it is a comparison of the syntax of bilingual speakers' monolingual and intra-sententially code-switched utterances. It is based on the assumption that each word in a syntactic dependency relation must satisfy the constraints imposed on it by its own language. This hypothesis is presumed to hold for monolingual and mixed dependencies alike.
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Rupp, Laura Marie. "Aspects of the syntax of English imperatives." Thesis, University of Essex, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.284607.
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Jensen, Britta. "Imperatives in English and Scandinavian." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.273234.
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Al-Qudhai'een, Muhammad A. I. "The syntax of Saudi Arabic-English intrasentential codeswitching." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289965.
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The syntax of intrasentential codeswitching has been the main focus of research on codeswitching in the last two decades, and several constraints on its occurrence have been proposed. Belazi et al.'s (1994) Functional Head Constraint is one of the most recent among these constraints. It states that codeswitching is not allowed between functional heads and their complements. This study tests the predictions of this constraint, as well as Poplack's (1980) Equivalence Constraint, using Saudi Arabic-English codeswitching data from ten graduate students studying at U.S. universities. A total of ten hours of naturalistic telephone conversational data was tape-recorded, and transcribed for analysis. Selected portions of the conversations containing fairly frequent codeswitching are included in an appendix, which may be a source for further research. Codeswitches were classified according to the category of syntactic unit in which they occurred, and their frequency was tabulated. Illustrative examples of each category are given, and the applicability of major proposed constraints to the examples is discussed, with particular attention to the Functional Head Constraint. Analysis shows that Saudi Arabic-English codeswitching poses an apparent challenge to the Functional Head Constraint, as the database contains frequent counterexamples, consisting primarily of a switch between the bound Arabic definite article el- and an English Noun or modifier + Noun. Analyzed in terms of Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist Program, this switch is seen as occurring between the head of the DP and its complement, with the /l/ of the Arabic head assimilating to the first [+ Coronal] consonant of the English word, following regular phonological rules. It is proposed that the definite article has weak features, and does not have to check its language feature, so that it does not block codeswitching. The Functional Head Constraint can thus be maintained if it is restricted to apply to heads with strong features, such as demonstratives, which block codeswitching. However, the phenomenon remains a clear violation of the Free Morpheme Constraint (Poplack 1980).
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Trips, Carola. "The OV-VO word order change in early middle English evidence for Scandinavian influence on the English language /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2001. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB9556634.
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Backman, Mayumi. "Teaching Methods in Japan with relation to English Syntax." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för lärarutbildning (LUT), 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-17854.
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Pacheco, Silvana Zardo. "Syntax-pragmatics interface : brazilian-portuguese L2 acquisition of english." Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10923/4197.
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Previous issue date: 2007This dissertation has proposed that certain syntactic errors in an L2 learner’s grammar may be more accurately explained in terms of a lack of knowledge about pragmatics and the syntax-pragmatic interface rather than as syntactic deficits per se. In order to contribute to this discussion, an investigation of the L2 acquisition of the grammatical properties of English subjects and objects by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of L2 English was conducted. It was tested whether the L1 discoursepragmatic factors associated with the syntax of these grammatical positions, particularly where deletion of a subject or an object is pragmatically controlled in the L1 (BP) and not in the L2 (English), can lead learners to accept ungrammatical L2 sentences. Subjects were classified as being at one of three levels of linguistic proficiency: Basic (n = 11); Intermediate (n = 15); Advanced (n = 14). L2 Learners were administered grammaticality judgment, and interpretation tasks, presented in two conditions: + and – pragmatic context. Learners´ linguistic development in the L2 and their syntactic and pragmatic knowledge are investigated through regression analysis and the employment of dummies as explanatory variables. The results confirm the hypothesis that the L2 acquisition of the interpretive interface between syntax and pragmatics has a developmental trajectory that extends beyond the acquisition of either of these two individual components. Evidence indicates that (1) learners know certain structural-rule-governed subtleties of the L2 grammar, suggesting that UG is available for them, (2) and that their performance is hindered at points where the pragmatic properties of the subjects and objects in the L1 do not match the L2 pragmatic properties, most likely because interpretive aspects have to be learned, i. e., there is no UG guidance. It is argued that the Strong Continuity model provides an appropriate theoretical framework to account for the mismatches between L2 learners´ syntactic and pragmatic knowledge.
Essa dissertação propõe que certos erros sintáticos na gramática de um aprendiz de L2 podem ser decorrentes da falta de conhecimento sobre a pragmática e a interface sintaxe-pragmática. Para contribuir com essa discussão, conduziu-se uma investigação sobre a aquisição das propriedades gramaticais dos sujeitos e dos objetos em inglês por aprendizes falantes do português brasileiro (PB). A principal hipótese testada foi se os fatores associados com a pragmática dessas posições gramaticais em PB (a L1) podem levar os aprendizes a aceitar frases agramaticais em Inglês (a L2). Os sujeitos foram classificados em três níveis de proficiência lingüística: básico (n=11), intermediário (n=15) e avançado (n=14). Testes de julgamento gramatical e de interpretação foram empregados em duas condições: com e sem contexto pragmático. O desenvolvimento dos aprendizes na L2 e os seus conhecimentos sintático e pragmático foram analisados através do emprego de dummies como variáveis explicativas e de análise de regressão. Os resultados confirmaram a hipótese de que a aquisição da interface interpretativa entre sintaxe e pragmática percorre uma trajetória de desenvolvimento que se estende além da aquisição individual desses dois componentes. As evidências indicam que (1) os aprendizes têm conhecimento sobre certas sutilezas estruturais da gramática da L2, o que sugere que a Gramática Universal (GU) está disponível para eles, (2) e que o desempenho deles é prejudicado em pontos onde as propriedades pragmáticas dos sujeitos e objetos na L1 diferem das propriedades pragmáticas da L2, provavelmente, porque aspectos interpretativos aí envolvidos devem ser aprendidos, i. e., não há orientação da GU. Argumenta-se que o Strong Continuity Model fornece uma fundamentação teórica adequada para explicar os descompassos entre o conhecimento sintático e pragmático dos aprendizes de L2.
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Ackles, Nancy M. "Historical syntax of the English articles in relation to the count/non-count distinction /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8405.
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Shen, Xingjia. "Late assignment of syntax theory : evidence from Chinese and English." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/30017.
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The attraction of the well-structured arguments of the mental syntactic processing device (parser) in Chomsky’s theory has led to an overemphasis on syntactic processing to the exclusion of semantic and other processing in the initial sentence processing stage (Frazier & Clifton, 1996; Gibson & Hickok, 1993; Pickering & van Gompel, 2006). The current thesis joins some others (Green & Mitchell, 2006; MacDonald et al., 1994; Townsend & Bever, 2001, etc.), investigating the timecourse of the information processing of sentences. The first interest centres on ambiguous sentence resolution. Crosslinguistic studies have shown different resolutions in processing the relative clause (RC) attachment as in “the servant of the actress who was on the balcony” (Cuetos & Mitchell, 1988). Three studies confirmed that there is an NP-low preference in Chinese; however, this effect was delayed in comparison to its English counterparts. The NP-low preference can be explained by syntax-first, syntax parallel, and syntax later theories. However, the delay effect questions the traditional syntax-first theories. This leads to the second investigation of direct comparison of the timecourse of syntactic and semantic processing using anomalous materials in English and Chinese. Two experiments have confirmed that the syntactic anomaly is recognised later than semantic anomaly in both languages. The empirical investigation in the current thesis used various methodologies, including self-paced reading, a questionnaire, and eye-tracking studies, where the design of materials strictly followed linguistic principles. All the results support the late assignment of syntax theory (LAST) (Townsend & Bever, 2001). In fact, LAST can explain most of the evidence for syntax-first and syntax-parallel theories, and it is in line with the latest development of the linguistic UG theories (the Minimalist Programme).
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Whelpton, Matthew James. "The syntax and semantics of infinitives of result in English." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:acba134d-c3b0-4acb-ab80-13de3eb2daa9.
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This thesis concerns infinitives of result in English, examples of which are given under (a-c). (a) John designed a battery to operate at high temperatures. (b) John designed a battery to win a prize. (c) John designed a battery for the competition, only to discover that he was ineligible. The infinitive in (a) is called a Purpose Clause; the infinitive in (b) is called a Rationale Clause; and the infinitive in (c) is called a Telic Clause. These infinitives are optional modifiers of the verbs with which they occur. I argue, however, that important characteristics of their form and interpretation follow naturally if the infinitives are assumed to have argument structures which must be incorporated into the argument structure of the verb they modify. In Chapter 1, I introduce the constructions and offer a general discussion of the problems posed by modifiers in a study of natural language semantics, arguing that these problems are best addressed by viewing modifiers as predicates of a standard sort. This establishes a central hypothesis of this thesis, namely that the syntax and semantics of modification should be incorporated into the theory of argument structure, or "theta theory". In Chapter 2, I offer a summary of key works in the literature in two areas: theories of argument projection by Williams and Higginbotham and studies of infinitives of result by Faraci, Bach, Chierchia, and Jones. In Chapter 3, I apply a range of syntactic tests to establish the structural relation of the infinitives to the sentences they modify. I argue that the infinitives are embedded at an increasing distance from the modified verb, from which important characteristics of their distribution follow. In Chapter 4, I turn to the internal syntax of the constructions and consider the nature and distribution of the gaps that occur within each infinitive and the manner in which those gaps are interpreted. I relate key characteristics of the infinitives to the nature of their argument grids. I also address constraints on interpretation introduced by pronominal binding in the infinitives. In Chapter 5, I discuss a variety of problems on the syntax-semantics interface involving argument structure and control. The issues raised move from the relatively syntactic (phrase structure accounts of Purpose Clause antecedence and the possibility of event control for the Rationale and Telic Clauses) to the philosophical semantic (causal efficacy and the nature of resultant states in the interpretation of the Purpose Clause). I then offer a full sample analysis of a sentence modified by all three infinitives of result. My conclusion points again to the importance of argument structure in an analysis of infinitives of result in particular and of modification in general.
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Casielles-Suarez, Eugenia. "The syntax-information structure interface : evidence from Spanish and English /." New York : Routledge, 2004. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb412264587.
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Tatjana, Milicev. "Syntax and information structure of the Old English Verb Phrase." Phd thesis, Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, 2016. https://www.cris.uns.ac.rs/record.jsf?recordId=100340&source=NDLTD&language=en.
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This thesis deals with the alternation in theAB position of the finite and the non-finite verb in Old English, specifically, with the alternation finite verb-final vs. finite verb-non-final embedded clauses, and the alternation object–verb (OV) vs. verb–object (VO) alternation in the non-finite verb phrase. The central proposal is that information-structural factors underlie most of the Old English word order patterns, including these alternations. What influences the surface position of the finite verb in embedded clauses is the discourse status of the proposition. Verb-final clauses are pragmatically presupposed, while non-final verb position signals pragmatic assertion. The OV/VO alterantion does not reflect competing structures/grammars, but rather focus marking strategies on the VP material, reflected in VO orders. We therefore propose a multi-layered model of information-structure, according to which, topic/background-focus structures are represented at three different levels, wherebythe following types of focus are distinguished: sentence focus, predicate focus and ‘new information’ focus. We also present a mechanism of their interaction and syntactic encoding in Old English. Two important insights emerge from this analysis. First, Old English is a discourse configurational language. Second, at least some discourse configurational languages do not syntactically mark each individual information-structural interpretation of sentence elements. It rather seems that the syntax reflexts IS marking of a larger constituent, leaving it to the context for specific resolutions.Ova disertacija bavi se problemom alternacije uIZ poziciji finitnog i nefinitnog glagola u staroengleskom, preciznije, razlikom između zavisnih rečenica u kojima je finitni glagol u poslednjoj poziciji u klauzi, i onih u kojima se finitni glagol nalazi u višoj poziciji, kao i alternacijom u položaju nefinitnog leksičkog glagola u odnosu na objekat (objekat-glagol, naspram glagol-objekat). Osnovna hipoteza u radu jeste da su glavni redosledi reči u staroengleskom, uključujući i navedene alternacije, rezultat uticaja informacijsko-strukturalnih faktora. Položaj finitnog glagola u zavisnim rečenicama određen je diskursnim statusom propozicije. Rečenice s glagolom na poslednjem položaju u klauzi su pragmatski presuponirane, dok su one s glagolom u višoj pozicji asertivne. Što se tiče alternacije objekat-glagol/glagol-objekat, ona ne odražava sistem dvostruke gramatike, već način obeležavanja fokusa unutar glagolske fraze. Redosled glagol-objekat je markiran, u smislu da se fokus nalazi Ova disertacija bavi se problemom alternacije u poziciji finitnog i nefinitnog glagola u staroengleskom, preciznije, razlikom između zavisnih rečenica u kojima je finitni glagol u poslednjoj poziciji u klauzi, i onih u kojima se finitni glagol nalazi u višoj poziciji, kao i alternacijom u položaju nefinitnog leksičkog glagola u odnosu na objekat (objekat-glagol, naspram glagol-objekat). Osnovna hipoteza u radu jeste da su glavni redosledi reči u staroengleskom, uključujući i navedene alternacije, rezultat uticaja informacijsko-strukturalnih faktora. Položaj finitnog glagola u zavisnim rečenicama određen je diskursnim statusom propozicije. Rečenice s glagolom na poslednjem položaju u klauzi su pragmatski presuponirane, dok su one s glagolom u višoj pozicji asertivne. Što se tiče alternacije objekat-glagol/glagol-objekat, ona ne odražava sistem dvostruke gramatike, već način obeležavanja fokusa unutar glagolske fraze. Redosled glagol-objekat je markiran, u smislu da se fokus nalazi.
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Callies, Marcus. "Information highlighting in advanced learner English : the syntax-pragmatics interface in second language acquisition /." Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2009. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9789027254313.
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Chu, Ho-tat Matthew, and 朱可達. "Grammar and world-view: a comparative investigation of the syntax of English and Chinese." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1997. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31951235.
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Pocock, Simon James. "Prepositions, syntax and the acquisition of English as a foreign language." Thesis, University of London, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.243437.
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Dewa, Roberta Jean. "The Old English elegies : coherence, genre, and the semantics of syntax." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.364448.
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Herat, Sandra Manel Florence. "The expression of syntax in Sri Lankan English : speech and writing." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.399929.
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Hong, Sun-ho. "Aspects of the syntax of wh-questions in English and Korean." Thesis, University of Essex, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.411217.
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Tucker, Daniel. "Scope Licensing in English Sentences Containing Universal Quantifiers and Negation by L1-Mandarin Chinese L2-English Adult Learners." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1188.
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Recent research in both native (L1) and non-native (L2) knowledge of quantifier scope has led to a number of competing beliefs about the nature of learner knowledge. With regard to native knowledge, it has been noted in the literature that there is a discrepancy between L1 child and adult performance in quantifier interpretation. This observed mismatch has led to the formulation of two conflicting analyses of the L1 data. Philip (1991, 1992, and 1995) and others (Philip and Takahashi, 1991; Roeper, Strauss and Pearson, 2004, 2005; DelliCarpini, 2003) propose that quantification is a natural acquisition process constrained by Universal Grammar (UG) in which children progressively mature in their competence until they converge upon an adult grammar. Conversely, Crain (1995, 1996, and 1998) and others (Musolino, Crain and Thornton, 2000; Musolino and Lidz, 2006) maintain that children as young as five years old have a mature competence and that the failure to apply semantic principles is the result of the infelicitous nature of experimental task items. Essentially, the former account posits imperfect child L1 competence, while the latter asserts perfect competence. Similar research in the non-native (L2) knowledge of quantifier scope has been motivated by two essential questions: 1) Is adult L2 acquisition constrained by the same innate linguistic mechanisms as L1 acquisition; and 2) what is the role of L1 knowledge in adult L2 acquisition? (Marsden, 2004b: 9). In consideration of these questions, two main approaches have been devised as predictive models (following Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono, 1996; Grüter, Lieberman and Gualmini, 2008, 2010). Under the Full Transfer hypothesis, the learner is predicted to approach an L2 with the same values, settings and preferences of the L1, whereas under the Full Access account, the L2 learner is informed by the Language Faculty directly without the intervening effects of the L1 (Grüter et al., 2008: 47). A third approach, Schwartz and Sprouse's (1996) model, unites both Full Access and Full Transfer to explain L2 acquisition. The present study explores L1 Mandarin knowledge of L2 English quantifier scope in order to address the issue of perfect vs. imperfect competence (as applied to SLA), as well as the matter of access to UG vs. L1 transfer. Incorporating insights from DelliCarpini (2003), I first assess the presence of symmetric and exhaustive responses, which are indicative of an immature grammar. Crucially, I use one group (n=11) of L2 English speakers (low intermediate and advanced) in order to test for a maturational discrepancy that would putatively differ according to proficiency. Secondly, I identify a potential poverty of the stimulus situation: L1 transfer cannot account for the L2 acquisition of English non-isomorphic scope licensing by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese due to the Isomorphic Principle (Aoun and Li, 1993). If demonstrated, the ability of L2 learners to converge upon this semantic principle (non-isomorphism) will serve as potential evidence for access to Universal Grammar in adult non-native learners.
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Amer, Walid Mohammad Abdelghaffar. "On double object and dative constructions in English and Arabic." Thesis, University of Essex, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336940.
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Blöhdorn, Lars M. "Postmodifying attributive adjectives in English an integrated corpus-based approach." Frankfurt, M. Berlin Bern Bruxelles New York, NY Oxford Wien Lang, 2008. http://d-nb.info/99131008X/04.
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Ono, Hajime. "An investigation of exclamatives in English and Japanese syntax and sentence processing /." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/3868.
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Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.Thesis research directed by: Linguistics. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
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Lock, Elizabeth Ann. "Critical period effects on the acquisition of English syntax by deaf individuals." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ29745.pdf.
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Lock, Elizabeth A. (Elizabeth Ann). "Critical period effects on the acquisition of English syntax by deaf individuals." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=37519.
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This study investigated the hypothesis that delayed first language acquisition impedes syntactic learning in a second language. English syntactic skills of two deaf groups and one control group were investigated. One group of deaf subjects acquired a first language on schedule in early childhood, American Sign Language (ASL), and commenced learning English at school age. The other deaf group had significantly delayed first language acquisition, and began learning both ASL and English at school. Two English tasks were administered, grammatical judgement and syntactic comprehension. The stimuli were grammatical and ungrammatical exemplars of six types of syntactic structure ranging from simple to complex. The results supported the hypothesis and were consistent across all tasks. The delayed, first language learners were significantly less accurate in grammatical judgement and comprehension and significantly slower in response latency. These findings indicate that early first language acquisition is critical for successful second language syntactic learning.
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Egbe, Daniel Isimhenmhen. "An approach to the syntax and semantics of the imperative in English." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/740.
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This study provides a categorial analysis of the syntax and the semantics of the imperative in English, using two related grammatical models of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar and Montague Semantics. With regard to syntax, aspects of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar are extended to the construction. The analysis shows that possible imperative subject noun phrases, except where they are pronouns, contain post-modifiers. A noun phrase which lacks this characteristic does not therefore occur as a subject in it. The examination of the verb phrases reveals that they constitute a unique category, as demonstrated by the nature of the constituents themselves, and the syntactic behaviour the elements that occur in them. The various imperative sentence structures and their major components are captured by a set of Phrase Structure rules. The analysis sheds light on many aspects of the syntactic nature of the construction. The semantic analysis of the construction, through an extension of Montague Semantics, identifies the kinds of semantic types that its major constituent categories are. It is observed that although the imperative subject noun phrases and the verb phrases are susceptible to a surface compositional analysis, the S-structures are not. The analysis shows that this is due to the nature of its subject-predicate relationship, and so identifies a significant aspect of the grammar of the imperative that has not been given adequate attention. For example, it is this aspect that excludes certain elements from occurring in the sentence, and also separates it from other sentences in certain respects. A special model-theoretic analysis provided for sections of the construction gives new insights into the semantic pragmatic conditions surrounding it, especially with regard to the specification of the intended agent-of-action. Apart from identifying aspects of the "fulfilment conditions" of the imperative, the semantic analysis examines the issue of its "propositional content" and specifies the problems that need to be resolved in this regard. The present approach provides new ideas on the semantic organization of the imperative, and so makes it easier to understand.
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Wheeler, Dan Lowe. "Machine translation through clausal syntax : a statistical approach for Chinese to English." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46535.
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Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-82).
Language pairs such as Chinese and English with largely differing word order have proved to be one of the greatest challenges in statistical machine translation. One reason is that such techniques usually work with sentences as flat strings of words, rather than explicitly attempting to parse any sort of hierarchical structural representation. Because even simple syntactic differences between languages can quickly lead to a universe of idiosyncratic surface level word reordering rules, many believe the near future of machine translation will lie heavily in syntactic modeling. The time to start may be now: advances in statistical parsing over the last decade have already started opening the door. Following the work of Cowan et al., I present a statistical tree-to-tree translation system for Chinese to English that formulates the translation step as a prediction of English clause structure from Chinese clause structure. Chinese sentences are segmented and parsed, split into clauses, and independently translated into English clauses using a discriminative feature based model. Clausal arguments, such as subject and object, are translated separately using an off-the-shelf phrase-based translator. By explicitly modeling syntax at a clausal level, but using a phrase-based (flat-sentence) method on local, reduced expressions, such as clausal arguments, I aim to address the current weakness in long-distance word reordering while still leveraging the excellent local translations that today's state of the art has to offer.
by Dan Lowe Wheeler.
M.Eng.
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Matheson, Colin Angus. "Syntax and semantics of English partitive noun phrases : a phrase structure account." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19994.
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This thesis presents a phrase structure account of a particular class of English noun phrases; partitives. Constructions which are directly related, notably pseudopartitives, are also analysed, and the proposals have implications for the representation of simple noun phrases. The main aim is to provide a concise and explicit account of the data and to this end the syntactic rules are presented in a computer-usable form. The background to the analysis is provided by reviewing a number of seminal accounts of noun phrase structure, and there is also a review of some research on the semantics of noun phrases which directly bears on the work presnted here. In the absence of a semantic theory which captures all the relevant facts, some requirements are stated and some directions indicated. This thesis makes a number of specific claims, among which are the following: * Partitive noun phrases are minimally distinct from simple and pseudopartitive noun phrases syntactically and semantically. * Genitive partitive noun phrases in Old English and in languages such as modern German and Polish are closely related to the modern English partitive form. * The partitive definiteness constraint must be reformulated. * The phenomena of definiteness should be treated in a theory which allows interaction with the domain of discourse. The main contribution of the thesis is in the provision of a precise, practical, and theoretically motivated grammar of English noun phrases which aims to generate, as nearly as possible, 'all and only' the required strings of the language.
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Adhikari, Bidhya. "A syntactic contrastive study of Sherpa and English with occasional reference to Nepali and Hindi and a brief Sherpa-English dictionary data interpretation based on a linguistic fieldwork research project." Berlin Viademica-Verl, 2008. http://d-nb.info/988160994/04.
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Mani, Nivedita. "Prosody, syntax and the lexicon in parsing ambiguous sentences." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:eb0da21f-d381-4a5c-95c2-7ddae2cd1c30.
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This thesis tests the early incorporation of prosodic information during on-line processing of ambiguous word pairs such as Packing cases. The word pair is syntactically ambiguous between a noun or verb phrase interpretation. However, the two interpretations are prosodically distinct. An on-line, cross-modal, response-time task found that subjects disambiguated the word pairs using prosodic information. Experiment 2 swapped the timing,fo and amplitude of the noun phrase versions with the verb phrase versions. If prosodic information were guiding parsing, swapping the prosody of the alternatives should change subjects' parses of the word-pairs. Subjects interpreted the cross-synthesised noun phrases as verb phrases and the crosssynthesised verb phrases as noun phrases. This provides additional evidence in favour of early prosodic processing. Experiment 3 tested whether subjects' ability to differentiate the two forms would be affected by flattening the fo of the word pairs. Subjects' ability to disambiguate the word pairs was reduced by flattening the fo of the stimuli. Again, this provides evidence in favour of fo guiding parsing. Experiment 4 investigated the perceptual salience of prosodic information in the absence of lexical information, by testing parsing of delexicalised versions of the same wordpairs. Subjects continued to disambiguate the stimuli. This indicates that prosody can guide parsing even without lexical information. The results of the four experiments provide strong evidence in favour of the early incorporation of prosodic information in parsing: prosodic information can influence on-line parsing even in the presence of contradictory syntactic and spectral preferences; and in the absence of lexical information. This thesis concludes that the results of the experiments support strong interaction models of processing.
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Toyota, Junichi. "Diachronic change in the English passive /." Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9780230553453.
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Brenchley, Mark David Tristan. "The developing relationship between spoken and written syntax in an English secondary school." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/19913.
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The present study undertook to address two questions: (1) are there any age-relatable relationships between the spoken and written syntax of adolescent students within a mainstream secondary school? (2) are there any relationships associated with the educational attainment of these students? To this end, the study analysed 180 pairs of spoken and written non-narrative texts, eliciting each such pair from students attending a mainstream English secondary school. This bespoke corpus was further designed so as to be balanced across three year groups (Year Seven, Year Eight, Year Nine) and two National Curriculum attainment levels (Level 4, Level 5). Syntactic packaging was chosen as the study’s analytical focus; defined here as comprising how clauses are combined via coordination and subordination. To help ensure a more in-depth analysis, an extended set of measures was employed, ranging from the general (e.g. the number of clauses per t-unit) to the more specific (e.g. the number of non-finite adverbial clauses per t-unit and per clause). So analysed, the study found that adolescent students at the present age and attainment levels can and do differentiate their spoken and written syntax, at least for these texts and these measures. It also found this differentiation to be something that varied according to the particular kind of packaging. Thus, for example, the spoken texts exhibited greater numbers of t-units per t-unit complex, together with a greater prominence of finite adverbial and post-verbal complement clauses. Thus, also, the written texts exhibited a greater overall prominence of non-finite clauses. And, thus, both modalities exhibited similar proportions of relative clauses. Finally, this differentiation was found to be developmentally static, with participants handling their spoken and written syntax for these measures in much the same way, regardless of their age or attainment level. Overall, these findings are interpreted in terms of the participants tapping into the differential production conditions of the two modalities but without necessarily fully exploiting these conditions. Furthermore, when placed in the context of the wider evidence base, the findings point to two general conclusions. Firstly, they indicate students at the present age and attainment levels to be at a stage where their syntactic output is in line with that of more mature discourse. Secondly, they indicate modality to be an aspect of student syntax that is characterised by a potentially high degree of sensitivity to the wider discourse context.
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Jaworska, Ewa. "Aspects of the syntax of prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Polish." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1987. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f5aaca25-2abc-412c-aa1e-a97f743d885b.
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The present thesis focusses on the structure of PP's in English and Polish, and the occurrence of PP's in subject and object positions. The main theoretical references are the X-bar Theory of syntactic categories and the Government Binding framework (GB). A consideration of English data corroborates Jackendoff's and Emonds' claim that apart from an NP, prepositions can take a PP and an S′ complement or no complement at all, though details of Jackendoff's analysis are revised. Polish prepositions allow the same range of complements, including no complement, although,with a greater variety of complex prepositions and with intransitive prepositions modified by relative and appositive clauses, the P-PP and the P-S′ structures are less common in Polish than in English. Subject and object PP's have so far received little attention. Like PP objects of prepositions, they are used if the intended meaning cannot be expressed by a suitable NP. The appearance of subject PP's in raising and passive sentences poses a problem for classical Transformational Grammar, though not for a slightly revised version of GB – another category-based framework. The analysis proposed here involves a particular view of the representation of Case, and a revised Case Filter. The Case Filter rules out not merely any lexical NP with no Case but any lexical XP which requires Case but has not been assigned Case. Thus, the properties of being an NP and requiring Case are independent of each other. It emerges from the investigation (i) that prepositions in English and Polish are more alike than one might expect, given the obvious differences between the two languages; (ii) that prepositions and PP's are like verbs and VP's – as Jackendoff emphasizes – but in some respects they show greater resemblance to other categories; and (iii) that syntactic categories are less important for the distribution of phrases than is commonly assumed, and that the meaning of phrases is of central importance for their distribution.
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Pereira, Noeme Cunha. "A tentative analysis of the initial development of english syntax in UFSC students." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2013. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/106225.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 1984.Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-05T19:45:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 321888.pdf: 4375682 bytes, checksum: b2c0727725a5ba06ed0b96a5151177c5 (MD5)
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Leuckert, Sven. "Copula Deletion in English as a Lingua Franca in Asia." Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 2016. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A34476.
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Non-standard features such as copula deletion have long been dismissed as learner errors or were interpreted as results of simplification processes in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and only recent publications tend to acknowledge the influence of language contact in ELF settings (cf. Schneider 2012). The present paper analyses tokens of copula deletion in the Asian Corpus of English (ACE 2014) with respect to speaker L1s, situational context and syntactic environment, with our results suggesting a correlation between copula usage patterns in the speakers’ L1s and constructions involving copula deletion found in ACE. Thus, opening up the field to ELF settings, our data confirm findings of previous studies such as Sharma (2009) that point to contact-induced copula usage in non-standard English(es).
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Kuribara, Chieko. "Resettability of UG parameters in SLA : acquisition of functional categories by adult Japanese learners of English." Thesis, University of Reading, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.314310.
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Lai, Yee-king Regine, and 黎爾敬. "Language mixing in an English-Cantonese bilingual child with uneven development." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3579379X.
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Kwok, Wai Hung, of Western Sydney Macarthur University, and Faculty of Education and Languages. "Some linguistic devices in legal English that cause problems to the translation of legislative texts from English to Chinese." THESIS_FEL_XXX_Kwok_W.xml, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/400.
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Legal draftsmen achieve the dual characteristics of thel egislative genre, viz. precision and all-inclusiveness, by the use of various linguistic devices, among which are (i) common words with uncommon meanings; (ii) binomial and multinominal expressions; (iii) nominalization; and (iv) qualifications. Whilst these four devices are very effective for their intended purpose, they often cause lexical, semantic or syntactic problem in the comprehension and translation of texts. This thesis explores, by analysis of the corpus, the different nature and extent of such problems caused by the above four devices in the translation of legislative texts from English to Chinese. Analyses in the thesis reveal that translation problems caused by the first two of the four devices mentioned above are mainly lexical in nature, though binomials contained in qualifications may sometimes also lead to semantic ambiguity. Translation problems arising from the use of nominalization or the use of qualifications are primarily semantic in nature, and are basically a problem of handling the various semantic units in the clauses. They can occur in both the comprehension stage and the actual rendering stage of the translation process. In the former, the problem lies in the difficulty in unpacking the various semantic units in the clauses, especially in the syntactically interrupted clauses where syntactic discontinuities are caused by the use of qualifications. in the latter, the difficulty lies in the syntactic re-arrangement of those units in the target language text in a manner syntactically acceptable to the target language while strictly in accordance with each semantic relationship intended by the source language text. Both the use of nominalization and the use of qualifications also give rise to some lexical problems. The analyses in the thesis also highlights some of the linguistic and extra-linguistic pre-requisites for a translator of legislative texts, for whom a good common sense and sufficient basic legal knowledge are as important as an extremely high level of proficiency in both the source language and the target language.Master of Arts (Translation and Linguistics)
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Ursini, Francesco-Alessio. "The Language Of Space : The Acquisition And Interpretation of Spatial Adpositions In English." Doctoral thesis, Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-85019.
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This thesis by publication presents a study on English adpositions (e.g. to, in, at, from, in frontof, through). It attempts to offer a solution to the following three outstanding problems, whichare presented in each of the three parts making up the thesis, preceded by a general introduction(chapter 1) and followed by the general conclusions (chapter 7). The first part includes chapter2, and discusses the problem of What is the relation between adpositions and the non-linguistic,visual content they represent. The second part includes chapters 3 and 4, and discusses theproblem ofwhat is a proper compositional theory of the Syntax and Semantics of adpositions.The third part includes chapters 5 and 6, and discusses the problem of what is the psychologicalreality of this theory, regarding adults and children’s data.The following three solutions are suggested. First, the relation between adpositions and theircorresponding visual information is an isomorphism: adpositions capture how we “see” possiblespatio-temporal relations between objects, at a flexible level of fine-grainedness. Second, aproper compositional treatment of adpositions treats each syntactic unit (in front, of ) as offeringa distinct semantic contribution, hence spelling out a restricted instance of a spatio-temporalpart-of relation. Third, this compositional treatment of adpositions can also stand as a theory ofon-line interpretation in adults and a theory of their acquisition in children.These three answers are couched within a single theoretical approach, that of Discourse Representation Theory, and offer a unified solution to three apparently distinct problems regardingspatial adpositions and their linguistic properties.
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Bohnacker, Ute. "Icelandic plus English : language differentiation and functional categories in a successively bilingual child." Thesis, Durham University, 1998. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5043/.
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This thesis investigates the formal and functional properties of the linguistic knowledge of a young bilingual child 'Katla' who successively acquires Icelandic (L1, from birth) and English (L2, from age 1:3). I present new longitudinal natural speech data which I collected in both Icelandic and English from Katla at regular intervals. Audio-recordings were made roughly three times per month at age 1 ;0-4;7 and transcribed in adapted CHILDES/CHAT format. Using a generative framework, I analyse Katla's data qualitatively and quantitatively, focusing on her morphology and syntax during the period 1;6-3;6: determiners and word order in nominals, copula constructions, progressive constructions, imperatives, negation, verb placement, verb inflections, auxiliaries, and periphrastic do. Katla's development is compared with monolingual English-speaking and Icelandic-speaking children, and, where applicable, with other bilinguals. Particular attention is paid to early grammar differentiation and cross- language influence, and to the relationship between child language and input (construction types and frequencies). The empirical results are evaluated in the light of current theories of language acquisition and generative approaches to syntax. Katla's first multi-word combinations (1;6) show productive use of functional morphology (determiners, copulas). Early on, there is evidence of movement into the DP, IP and CP domains, indicating continuity of these functional categories. Moreover, translational equivalents, language-specific functional morphemes and language-specific word orders in Katla's Icelandic and English bear evidence of early language differentiation in successive child bilingualism. The longitudinal development of morpho-syntax largely progresses along separate lines for Katla's two languages; there is no cross- language influence as regards head parameter and movement parameter settings. Some construction transfer occurs where L1 and L2 linear orders are similar. Ensuing implications for transfer and (de)learnability are addressed.
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Hu, Yuxiu Lucille, and 胡玉秀. "The acquisition of English articles by Mandarin-speaking learners: an optimality-theoretic syntax account." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2011. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B46482738.
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Chu, Ho-tat Matthew. "Grammar and world-view : a comparative investigation of the syntax of English and Chinese /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1997. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B18685353.
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Stanelytė, Indrė. "The Realization of Non-spatial Functions in English." Bachelor's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2013. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2013~D_20130627_161413-66823.
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The most popular sentence analyses are: syntactic and semantic. Syntactically the sentence can be analyzed according to the three types: traditional, structural and transformational. Semantically the sentence can be analyzed according to the process types and inherent and non-inherent semantic functions. Such processes as Material, Mental, Verbal, Relational, and Existential can be distinguished. However the participants as Agents, Affected Patients, Effected Patients, Beneficiary, Recipients, Attributes, Sayers, and Verbiage can be attributed to the processes mentioned above. It can be also distinguished Circumstances but they are non-inherent functions which can be further subdivided into non-spatial (Instrumental, Comitative, Manner, Reason, Purpose, Result etc.) and spatial (adessive, superessive, inessive, ablative, elative, delative, sublative, illative, allative). The aim of the research is to analyze the realization of non-spatial functions in English.Populiariausios sakinio analizės yra sintaksinė ir semantinė. Sintaksiškai sakinį galima analizuoti pagal tris tipus: tradicinį, struktūrinį ir transformacinį. Semantiškai sakinys gali būti analizuojamas pagal procesų tipus arba pagrindines bei pasirenkamąsias semantines funkcijas. Prie pasirenkamųjų semantinių funkcijų yra priskirti Sirkumstantai, kurie gali būti skirstomi į dvi pagrindines grupes: neerdvinės ir erdvinės funkcijos. Darbo tikslas yra išanalizuoti neerdvinių funkcijų raišką anglų kalboje.
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Saurenbach, Holger. "Secondary-predicate constructions in English : from a critique of small clauses to a construction-grammar account /." Saarbrücken : VDM Verl. Müller, 2008. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=016701416&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Hoa, Nguyen, and n/a. "English and Vietnamese political news dicourse : a contrastive analysis in terms of stucture, lexis and syntax." University of Canberra. Education, 1990. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060725.100742.
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The present study is one of the first attempts undertaken to
study English and Vietnamese news discourse on a contrastive
basis. More specifically, it investigates the structure, the
lexical and syntactic features of English and Vietnamese
political news discourse.
It is hoped that the results of the study may help the Vietnamese
teacher and student to make better use of newspapers in the
process of English language teaching and learning. In addition, it
is hoped that the study may benefit the journalist, to some
extent, because it is generally assumed that if the knowledge of
news discourse structure, the linguistic features and the factors
involved are professionally known and shared, this will
facilitate news discourse production and comprehension.
The study reveals two different strategies used by English and
Vietnamese political news writers. English news writers
predominantly employ the IP structure pattern whereas
Vietnamese news writers employ BTN (Background-to-News).
Lexically, English newspapers use more lively, vigorous language,
metaphors, puns and hyperbole. In contrast, the occurrence of
serious, formal language is a very pronounced feature of
Vietnamese newspapers. This is the area where Vietnamese
students of English often have difficulty, as is indicated by the
survey. The greatest syntactic difference is sentence order,
namely, English news stories often use S + V + (O) + (A) while
their Vietnamese counterparts use A + S + V + (O) +. The other
difference is that English news paragraphs are mostly single
sentence paragraphs as disctinct from their multi-sentence
Vietnamese ones.
Chapter One is an introduction explaining the rationale, the
methods, and the data for analysis, of the present study.
Chapter Two is concerned with the theoretical background to the
study. It deals with such concepts as cohesion, coherence,
structure, relevance, text and discourse.
Chapter Three provides a contrastive overview of English and
Vietnamese newspapers, essentially in terms of ownership and
the approach to news.
Chapter Four examines the different structure patterns used by
English and Vietnamese reporters and journalists.
Chapter Five and Six study the different lexical and syntactic
features of English and Vietnamese political news discourse,
respectively.
In chapter Seven, a comparison of English and Vietnamese
political news discourse is given, which is based on the analyses
presented in chapters Four, Five and Six. In addition, it presents
the results of a survey of comprehension difficulty encountered
by Vietnamese students studying English now at the University
of Canberra, and looks at some discourse strategies involved in
news discourse production and comprehension.
The last chapter offers some implications for TEFL in Vietnam,
which are based on the author's own experience and results of a
survey. The author hopes that these implications may be of some
help to the practising teacher as well as the student.
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Styan, Evelyn Matheson. "Elementary sentences containing 'be' : a semantic analysis of subject-predicate relations." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=75679.
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Within a theoretical framework that combines generative X-bar syntax (Chomsky 1986), a compositional interpretive semantics and elements of Aristotelian logic, this thesis studies the nature of the syntactic and semantic constituents involved in the subject-predicate relations of elementary sentences containing 'be'. Interpretation is characterized in terms of the entities of various types that speakers intend to refer to and the various ontological types that the referents are said to belong to. 'Be' is analyzed as a single lexical item. This analysis unifies all syntactic functions (e.g., auxiliary, copula, main verb) and all "senses" of 'be' (e.g., definitional, equative, predicative, etc.). Conceptually, 'be' in English is an explicit sign of attribution. The propositional content of simple sentences of the form (NP be XP) is the attribution of a certain ontological type or types to the referent(s) of the subject NP. Although the value of postulating a single ontological category to account for all the entities that speakers can refer to and talk about (such as an Aristotelian substance) is questionable, nevertheless, such categories and types seem pertinent for linguistic analysis. With respect to linguistic inference, pronominalization, and question words, an analysis based on ontological types is shown to be more explanatory than one based on the assignment of a fixed set of thematic relations to arguments.