Journal articles: 'Topicalization (Linguistics)'

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Lipták, Anikó. "Correlative topicalization." Acta Linguistica Hungarica 59, no. 3 (September 2012): 245–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/aling.59.2012.3.1.

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MAKI, HIDEKI, and DÓNALL P. Ó BAOILL. "EMBEDDED TOPICALIZATION IN IRISH." ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 31, no. 1 (2014): 130–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.9793/elsj.31.1_130.

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MAKI, HIDEKI, and LIZANNE KAISER. "IMPLICATIONS OF EMBEDDED TOPICALIZATION." ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 15 (1998): 290–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.9793/elsj1984.15.290.

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Haig, John H. "Subjacency and Japanese Grammar." Studies in Language 20, no. 1 (January 1, 1996): 53–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.20.1.04hai.

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It has been claimed by Hasegawa, Yoshimura, Nishigauchi, Kikuchi, Saito and Watanabe, among others, that Japanese observes subjacency in relative clause formation, question formation, topicalization, comparative deletion (all non-overt operator movements), PP-topicalization, and scrambling (overt movements). In this paper I present counterexamples to each of these claims and argue that an aboutness condition on topic-comment and focus-comment constructions not only better explains the data but also explains the fact that subjects are usually easier to relativize than non-subjects, the fact that NP-topicalization is more free than PP-topicalization and the fact that there is pressure for a "list" interpretation in multiple wh-questions.

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Lipták, Anikó, and Luis Vicente. "Pronominal doubling under predicate topicalization." Lingua 119, no. 4 (April 2009): 650–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2007.11.007.

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Dugarova, Esuna. "Syntactic effects of feature-driven movement in Russian speakers’ L2 Chinese grammars." Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3, no. 4 (October 11, 2013): 389–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lab.3.4.01dug.

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Availability of wh-topicalization in Chinese raises a question as to whether a whtopic in L2 Chinese is derived by feature-driven movement and, if it is, whether such movement is subject to syntactic constraints. The current study tests the sensitivity of very advanced Russian speakers’ L2 Chinese wh-topicalization to a complex NP island and reconstruction, which are taken as a diagnostic of movement. The results of an acceptability judgement test and a multiple choice interpretation test show that L2 Chinese grammars are constrained by a complex NP island and reconstruction, which provides empirical evidence that L2 Chinese wh-topicalization involves movement driven by an uninterpretable [+Top] feature.

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Maki, Hideki, Lizanne Kaiser, and Masao Ochi. "Embedded topicalization in English and Japanese." Lingua 109, no. 1 (August 1999): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0024-3841(98)00055-2.

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Bošković, Željko. "Topicalization, Focalization, Lexical Insertion, and Scrambling." Linguistic Inquiry 35, no. 4 (October 2004): 613–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/0024389042350514.

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In this reply, I show that Russian examples that Bailyn (2001) uses to argue against Bošković and Takahashi's (1998) analysis of scrambling are irrelevant to the analysis because they in fact do not involve scrambling. I also establish a crosslinguistic correlation between lack of articles and availability of scrambling and provide an account of the correlation under Bošković and Takahashi's approach to scrambling.

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Hietaranta, Pertti. "A FUNCTIONAL CONSTRAINT ON TOPICALIZATION." Studia Linguistica 40, no. 1 (June 1986): 40–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9582.1986.tb00761.x.

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Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan, and Mansour Shabani. "Split noun phrase topicalization in Eshkevarat Gilaki." Linguistic Review 35, no. 4 (November 27, 2018): 625–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2018-2003.

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AbstractSplit noun phrase topicalizationhas been the subject of intense studies across languages in the syntactic literature of the last few decades. One of the key questions raised for these constructions is whether they involve syntactic movement or base-generation. This paper explores this phenomenon in two understudied Iranian languages, Gilaki (Northwestern Iranian, Caspien) and Persian. In particular, we explore splits in two contexts, possessive constructions and numeral constructions. We develop diagnostics for distinguishing the two derivational possibilities, movement or base-generation, for the cases under investigation. We show that while Gilaki uses both derivational possibilities, movement in possessor split and base-generation in numeral split, Persian only allows for the latter with very similar behavior. We argue that possessor split occurs when the whole possessum DP/DemP moves out of its base position in a small clause. Numeral split occurs when the NP is replaced by a null nominal element, which is associated with an overt or pragmatic antecedent. We end the paper with a discussion of why an operation, movement or base-generation, is available for one construction but not the other.

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MAEDA, MASAKO. "ELLIPSIS AS TOPICALIZATION IN DERIVATIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES." ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 34, no. 2 (2018): 331–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.9793/elsj.34.2_331.

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Aelbrecht, Lobke, and Liliane Haegeman. "VP-Ellipsis Is Not Licensed by VP-Topicalization." Linguistic Inquiry 43, no. 4 (October 2012): 591–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00107.

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Starting from the observation that the constraints on VP-ellipsis (VPE) closely match those on VP-topicalization (VPT), Johnson (2001) proposes a movement account for VPE: in order for a VP to be deleted, it must first undergo topicalization. We show that although this proposal is attractive, making VPE dependent on VPT is problematic because VPE and VPT are not distributionally equivalent. While VPT targets the left periphery and consequently is subject to constraints on movement, VPE is not so restricted. We outline some alternatives for capturing the observed parallelism in the licensing of VPT and VPE.

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Pérez-Leroux, Ana T., Mihaela Pirvulescu, and Yves Roberge. "Topicalization and object omission in child language." First Language 31, no. 3 (February 18, 2011): 280–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0142723710394384.

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Shimojo, Mitsuaki. "Functional theories of island phenomena." Studies in Language 26, no. 1 (June 21, 2002): 67–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.26.1.04shi.

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This paper examines island effects in Japanese in four extraction types — relativization, topicalization, postposing, and wh-question formation — in terms of the “aboutness” condition claimed by Haig (1996). The condition is supported for relativization and topicalization; however, further specification is necessary for postposing and wh-question formation. It is also demonstrated that the proposed construction-specific conditions are all related to the same cognitive theory of island phenomena (Deane 1991), which reflects the mechanism of attention and short-term memory. The cognitive description thus provides insights as to why there are island effects in a putative “island-free” language.

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Takahara, Kumiko, John Hinds, Senko K. Maynard, and Shoichi Iwasaki. "Perspectives on Topicalization: The Case of Japanese wa." Language 65, no. 4 (December 1989): 890. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/414968.

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Trotzke, Andreas, and Stefano Quaglia. "Particle topicalization and German clause structure." Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 19, no. 2 (July 2016): 109–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10828-016-9080-y.

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de Andrade, Aroldo. "Aboutness Topics in Old and Middle French: A corpus-based study on the fate of V2." Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 63, no. 2 (November 21, 2017): 194–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cnj.2017.45.

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AbstractThis article investigates the loss of aboutness topics in preverbal position in the history of French, using a corpus-based research on preverbal accusative objects. A comparison of Old and Middle French with Modern French reveals that new-information focalization had disappeared by the 14thcentury, whereas aboutness topicalization had in turn vanished by the end of the 16thcentury, along with other marked constructions. Combined with the generative premise that independent pragmatic factors should not trigger syntactic change, the results of this study suggest the reanalysis of the grammar as V-to-I in Renaissance French is responsible for blocking the derivation of aboutness topicalization. An alternative proposal based on phase extension and on Relativized Minimality, in a version affecting some types of A′-movement, relates those two diachronic shifts. The article concludes with the idea that the study of marked constructions may be recast as offering diagnostics on broader syntactic changes.

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Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. "A Case of V2 in Chinese." Studies in Chinese Linguistics 36, no. 2 (December 1, 2015): 81–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/scl-2015-0006.

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Abstract As far as the left periphery is concerned, there is a conspiracy between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics to ensure the success of sentence formation. We would like to put forth the claim that peripheral features play an important role in this endeavor, which can be checked by either Merge or Move according to the parameter-settings of individual languages. Along this line, topic prominence can be regarded as the result of peripheral feature checking, and the null topic hypothesis à la Huang (1984) is reinvented as a null operator merger to fulfill interface economy in the left periphery. In this regard, Chinese provides substantial evidence from obligatory topicalization in outer affectives, evaluatives, and refutory wh-constructions, which applies only when the licensing from a D(efiniteness)-operator is blocked. The idea also extends naturally to the issues concerning pro-drop and bare nominals in general. In this light, we may well compare Chinese obligatory topicalization to those residual cases of verb-second (V2) in English, all being manifestation of the strong uniformity.

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Kush, Dave, Terje Lohndal, and Jon Sprouse. "On the island sensitivity of topicalization in Norwegian: An experimental investigation." Language 95, no. 3 (2019): 393–420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2019.0051.

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Rizzi, Luigi. "Notes on cartography and further explanation." Probus 25, no. 1 (May 2, 2013): 197–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/probus-2013-0010.

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Abstract This article addresses one particular aspect of the cartographic enterprise, the cartographic study of the left periphery of the clause, the system of criteria, and the “syntacticisation” of scope-discourse semantics that rich and detailed syntactic maps make possible. I will compare this theoretical option with the conceivable alternative, the “pragmaticization” of a radically impoverished syntax, and will discuss some simple kinds of empirical evidence bearing on the choice between these alternative perspectives. I will then turn to the issue of whether the properties of the functional sequence (ordering, cooccurrence restrictions) are amenable to “further explanations” in terms of more basic principles constraining linguistic computations. I will argue that the search for deeper explanations is an integral part of the cartographic endeavour: it presupposes the establishment of reliable maps, and nourishes the pursuit of further cartographic questions. I will conclude by illustrating the issue of further explanation by comparing certain properties of topicalization in English and Italian, in particular the fact that DP topics are fundamentally unique in English, while they can be freely reiterated in Italian. This pattern can be plausibly traced back to intervention locality, once certain independent properties distinguishing Italian and English topicalization are taken into account.

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Schnell, Stefan. "Whence subject-verb agreement? Investigating the role of topicality, accessibility, and frequency in Vera’a texts." Linguistics 56, no. 4 (June 26, 2018): 735–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ling-2018-0010.

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Abstract While the grammaticalization of subject agreement appears to be a diachronic near-universal, there has been little agreement on usage-based motivations for this crosslinguistic tendency. Three usage-based approaches – Givón’s NP detachment under topicalization, Ariel’s accessibility theory, and a set of accounts in terms of frequency-driven morphologization – are examined here in the light of corpus data from the Oceanic language Vera’a. The high frequency of overt pronouns in 1st and 2nd person subjects, as well as formal reduction in some 1st-person pronouns, observed in the corpus seem suggestive of grammaticalization of subject agreement in speech-act participants (SAPs). Yet, the remaining variation between pronominal and zero forms and the distribution of reduced forms do not appear to reflect functional factors in the way of topicalization or accessibility. Overall, frequency-driven accounts appear to fare better in explaining the Vera’a facts, in particular the distribution of 1st person zero subjects and the formal reduction of 1st person subject pronouns. The overall high levels of subject pronouns, however, are not fully accounted for by any of the three approaches; I suggest that, in addition to genre effects, the deictic and shifting nature of reference to speech-act participants may be a relevant factor.

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Ai, Ruixi Ressy. "Topic-Comment Structure, Focus Movement, and Gapping Formation." Linguistic Inquiry 45, no. 1 (January 2014): 125–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00150.

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While canonical gapping in English can be analyzed as either VPellipsis (e.g., Sag 1976 , Pesetsky 1982 , Jayaseelan 1990 , Lasnik 1999a , Johnson 2000 , Coppock 2001 , Lin 2002 , Baltin 2003 , Takahashi 2004 ) or across-the-board V/VP-movement ( Johnson 1994 , 2004 , 2006 , 2009 ), certain English-like gapping constructions in Modern Mandarin are argued to be multiple sentence fragments, formed by a series of syntactic operations that involve topicalization, focus movement, and IP-deletion.

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Levy, Hagar, and Naama Friedmann. "Treatment of syntactic movement in syntactic SLI: A case study." First Language 29, no. 1 (February 2009): 15–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0142723708097815.

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We describe a study of syntactic intervention administered to a 12;2-year-old individual with syntactic SLI, who had difficulties in the comprehension and production of structures containing syntactic movement such as relative clauses, object questions, topicalization sentences, and sentences with verb movement. The intervention, comprised of 16 sessions, was based on syntactic theory and included explicit teaching of syntactic movement, relying on a type of syntactic knowledge that was intact — the argument structure of the verb. The participant's performance was assessed before and after treatment, and for some of the tests also during the treatment and 10 months later. The performance was assessed using various tasks that targeted comprehension, repetition and elicitation of semantically reversible sentences. Following treatment, the participant's performance on all structures with syntactic movement showed substantial improvement compared with baseline, in many of the tasks reaching the performance of the age-matched control group. Treatment of phrasal movement resulted not only in improvement in treated structures, but also in generalization to untrained structures: although phrasal movement was only treated directly for relative clauses and topicalization structures, the comprehension of object Wh-questions, which also include phrasal movement, improved as well. The high performance level was maintained 10 months after the treatment.

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Hein, Johannes. "Verb movement and the lack of verb-doubling VP-topicalization in Germanic." Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 24, no. 1 (April 2021): 89–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10828-021-09125-5.

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AbstractIn the absence of a stranded auxiliary or modal, VP-topicalization in most Germanic languages gives rise to the presence of a dummy verb meaning ‘do’. Cross-linguistically, this is a rather uncommon strategy as comparable VP-fronting constructions in other languages, e.g. Hebrew, Polish, and Portuguese, among many others, exhibit verb doubling. A comparison of several recent approaches to verb doubling in VP-fronting reveals that it is the consequence of VP-evacuating head movement of the verb to some higher functional head, which saves the (low copy of the) verb from undergoing copy deletion as part of the low VP copy in the VP-topicalization dependency. Given that almost all Germanic languages have such V-salvaging head movement, namely V-to-C movement, but do not show verb doubling, this paper suggests that V-raising is exceptionally impossible in VP-topicalization clauses and addresses the question of why it is blocked. After discussing and rejecting some conceivable explanations for the lack of verb doubling, I propose that the blocking effect arises from a bleeding interaction between V-to-C movement and VP-to-SpecCP movement. As both operations are triggered by the same head, i.e. C, the VP is always encountered first by a downward search algorithm. Movement of VP then freezes it and its lower copies for subextraction precluding subsequent V-raising. Crucially, this implies that there is no V-to-T raising in most Germanic languages. V2 languages with V-to-T raising, e.g. Yiddish, are correctly predicted to not exhibit the blocking effect.

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OKAZAKI, MASAO. "Topicalization and Stress Clash Avoidance in the History of English." ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 30, no. 1 (2013): 439–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.9793/elsj.30.1_439.

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Zewi, Tamar. "Incomplete Topicalization in biblical and modern Hebrew and several Arabic bible translations." Australian Journal of Linguistics 19, no. 2 (October 1999): 241–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07268609908599583.

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Barðdal, Jóhanna. "The Perplexity of Dat-Nom Verbs in Icelandic." Nordic Journal of Linguistics 24, no. 1 (June 2001): 47–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03325860117730.

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This paper presents data from Modern Icelandic of a small group of Dat-Nom verbs which select for two arguments: a Dative human argument and a Nominative stimulus. When applying independently established subjecthood tests on these arguments it turns out that both pass the tests, i.e. both arguments can behave like subjects and like objects, but not at the same time. An examination of the lexical meanings of these predicates reveals that they can be divided into the following main groups: Emotive verbs, Perception Verbs, Cognition Verbs, Verbs of Attitude and Benefactive verbs. A Construction Grammar analysis is proposed, assuming two different syntactic constructions to exist in Icelandic, i.e. a Dat-Nom construction versus a Nom-Dat construction. It is argued that the occurrence of these predicates in the two constructions follows directly from their conceptual causal structure. Furthermore, the choice of subject seems to be contextually determined, i.e. the more topical argument takes on the subject function. The relation between the two constructions, i.e. the Dat-Nom and the Nom-Dat, seems to be like the relation between an ordinary transitive construction and its topicalization construction, in that when the lower argument is “topicalized” to first position the other construction is activated, hence the ordinary topicalization construction in Icelandic is not as readily available to these verbs as the other construction is.

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Eyþórsson, Þórhallur, Janne Bondi Johannessen, Signe Laake, and Tor A. Åfarli. "Dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese: Preservation and non-preservation." Nordic Journal of Linguistics 35, no. 3 (December 2012): 219–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0332586513000036.

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This article investigates the morphosyntactic status of dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. We hypothesize that these three languages represent three diachronic stages signalled synchronically by the degree of preservation or non-preservation of dative under movement. Thus, we explore the synchronic status of dative under passive movement and topicalization in the three languages, while simultaneously paying attention to the larger questions of diachronic preservation and non-preservation of dative. We suggest that our findings have interesting ramifications for the categorization of case as structural and non-structural in generative grammar.

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Hu, Shenai, Maria Teresa Guasti, and Anna Gavarró. "Chinese Children’s Knowledge of Topicalization: Experimental Evidence from a Comprehension Study." Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 47, no. 6 (March 30, 2018): 1279–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9575-6.

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Graber, Philip L. "Thematic Participants in a Kriol Story." Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 2, no. 2 (January 1, 1987): 209–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.2.2.05gra.

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Working on the assumption that meaningful choices made by a speaker are realized by linguistic devices in a text, this paper proceeds from an interpretation of a Kriol story to a partial explanation of that interpretation. The three parts of the article are divided as follows: part 1 outlines the contents of the story; part 2 examines the introduction of the main characters with the use of the near form of the demonstrative; part 3 looks at how the major participants are staged. The focus is on topicalization and on how the use of this and other devices contributes to the overall structure of the story.

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Suárez-Gómez, Cristina. "Book Review: Topicalization in Asian Englishes: Forms, functions, and frequencies of a fronting construction." Journal of English Linguistics 48, no. 1 (January 8, 2020): 100–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0075424219896402.

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Leuckert, Sven, and Sofia Rüdiger. "Non-canonical syntax in an Expanding Circle variety." English World-Wide 41, no. 1 (February 24, 2020): 33–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/eww.00039.leu.

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Abstract This paper analyzes fronting constructions in spoken Korean(ized) English. Non-canonical syntax is an important means of structuring discourse, but its use by speakers of Expanding Circle Englishes has so far received only insufficient attention in studies of World Englishes. Taking a corpus-linguistic approach, this study determines to which extent topicalization and left-dislocation are used by South Korean speakers of English in informal conversations. In our explanation of the results, which show that fronting constructions are clearly part of the Korean English repertoire albeit used with varying frequencies, we mainly draw on notions of language contact (i.e. Korean as the substrate being a topic-prominent language) and language acquisition processes.

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Morel, Mary-Annick. "L'opposition thème/rhème dans la structuration des dialogues oraux." Journal of French Language Studies 2, no. 1 (March 1992): 61–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959269500001150.

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AbstractProceeding from the dichotomy theme/rheme, we aim to produce a typology of certain syntactical structures of French, recorded from a corpus of oral dialogues gathered in authentic situations. The first group affects statements which present the topicalization of a component: these statements are divided into four types, depending on whether the topicalized component is or is not associated with a lexical marker and with a re–occurrence through a substitute pronoun. The second group includes structures built on the rhematic marker ‘c’est': they are likewise divided into four main types, themselves subdivided into eight variants which appear to play distinct parts in the structuration of dialogues.

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Aoun, Joseph, and Elabbas Benmamoun. "Minimality, Reconstruction, and PF Movement." Linguistic Inquiry 29, no. 4 (October 1998): 569–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002438998553888.

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We investigate the interaction of clitic left-dislocation (CLLD), wh-interrogatives, and topicalization in Lebanese Arabic. A wh-phrase or a topicalized phrase can be fronted across a CLLDed element derived by movement but not across a base-generated one. A CLLDed element cannot be fronted across another CLLDed element, a wh-phrase, or a topicalized phrase. These interception effects are accounted for only if Minimality is construed as a constraint on derivations rather than representations and if fronting of the CLLDed elements is seen to apply in the PF component. It is thus suggested that the mapping between overt Syntax and the Articulatory-Perceptual level is not trivial.

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Postal, Paul M. "Contrasting extraction types." Journal of Linguistics 30, no. 1 (March 1994): 159–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700016212.

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This paper grounds a novel typology yielding three major types of English (L(eft)-extraction, defined by their relation to resumptive pronouns (RPs): (1) B-extractions, which require RPs in their extraction sites, (2) A1-extractions, which allow RPs in their extraction sites, and (3) A2-extractions, which forbid RPs in their extraction sites. Type B is represented by topicalization; type A1 by most instances of question extraction. The A/B distinction is supported by correlations with restrictions on definite pronouns. A2-extractions, e.g. free relative extraction, are insensitive to such and unlike A1/B-extractions are incompatible with what I call selective islands, which is explained.

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Jordens, Peter, and Dagmar Bittner. "Developing interlanguage: Driving forces in children learning Dutch and German." International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 55, no. 4 (November 27, 2017): 365–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral-2017-0147.

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Abstract Spontaneous language learning both in children learning their mother tongue and in adults learning a second language shows that language development proceeds in a stage-wise manner. Given that a developmental stage is defined as a coherent linguistic system, utterances of language learners can be accounted for in terms of what (Selinker, Larry. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10. 209–231) referred to with the term Interlanguage. This paper is a study on the early interlanguage systems of children learning Dutch and German as their mother tongue. The present child learner systems, so it is claimed, are coherent lexical systems based on types of verb-argument structure that are either agentive (as in Dutch: kannie bal pakke ‘cannot ball get’, or German: mag nich nase putzen ‘like not nose clean’) or non-agentive (as in Dutch: popje valt bijna ‘doll falls nearly’, or in German: ente fällt ‘duck falls’). At this lexical stage, functional morphology (e. g. morphological finiteness, tense), function words (e. g. auxiliary verbs, determiners) and word order variation are absent. For these typically developing children, both in Dutch and in German, it is claimed that developmental progress is driven by the acquisition of the formal properties of topicalization. It is, furthermore, argued that this feature seems to serve as the driving force in the instantiation of the functional, i. e. informational linguistic properties of the target-language system.

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Kuo, Pei-Jung. "The Components of Sideward Movement in the Verb Copying Construction in Mandarin Chinese." Studies in Chinese Linguistics 36, no. 1 (May 1, 2015): 35–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/scl-2015-0003.

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Abstract In this paper, I explore the components of the sideward movement involved in the verb copying construction proposed by Cheng (2007). I first present some facts of the resultative de-clause of the verb copying construction which seems to be puzzling under Cheng’s analysis. An extended analysis is then proposed. Under the extended analysis, I propose that the sideward movement mechanism involved in the resultative de-clause can be further analyzed as internal topicalization plus differential object marking. This analysis of sideward movement is also attested in the manner de-clause of the verb copying construction. The proposed components relate the sideward movement in the verb copying construction to the syntactic mechanisms which are also observed widely in Mandarin Chinese and other languages.

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Kefalidou, Sophia, and Angeliki Athanasiadou. "APO X, Y." Review of Cognitive Linguistics 17, no. 1 (August 20, 2019): 187–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00031.kef.

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Abstract The paper accounts for the Greek discourse topicalization construction APO X, Y and the sarcastic and humorous effects that arise in the context of Twitter exchanges. Our analysis is based on the analytical tools of the Lexical Constructional Model (henceforth LCM) as formulated in Ruiz de Mendoza and Mairal (2008), Ruiz de Mendoza (2013), and Ruiz de Mendoza and Galera (2014). For this purpose we have created a corpus of over 1300 real use tweets. The LCM enables us to treat the patricular uses of the APO X, Y construction. It is shown to be very useful in capturing emergent uses of an already established construction.

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STRIGIN, ANATOLI. "Topicalization, Scrambling, and Argument Scope in German: Integrating Semantic and Syntactic Information." Journal of Semantics 11, no. 4 (1994): 311–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jos/11.4.311.

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MOERENHOUT, MIKE, and WIM VAN DER WURFF. "Object–verb order in early sixteenth-century English prose: an exploratory study." English Language and Linguistics 9, no. 1 (May 2005): 83–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1360674305001553.

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Recent work on word-order change in the history of English has shown that late Middle English prose retains object–verb order as a productive option in contexts with an auxiliary and a quantified or negated object, and also in topicalization structures. In order to determine when these limited types of object–verb order became impossible, we have examined a collection of sixteenth-century prose texts. Our findings are that the patterns attested in late Middle English in fact continue until 1550, but then appear to dwindle away. We present the relevant object–verb data, discuss the reasons for the survival of the patterns found, provide an explanation for a difference at the level of detail between the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century data, and offer some suggestions about the reasons for the eventual loss of the structures in question.

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Bakker, Egbert J. "Boundaries, Topics, and the Structure of Discourse an Investigation of the Ancient Greek Particle Dé." Studies in Language 17, no. 2 (January 1, 1993): 275–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.17.2.02bak.

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In this article, a discussion is offered of the Ancient Greek particle dé in terms of boundary-marking. "Boundary" is treated as the manifestation in discourse of the interaction between topicalization and discourse structure. The marking of boundaries, therefore, subsurnes such functions as topic marking and intersentantial (interparagraph) connection. Dé is described as a boundary-marker and is shown to have a function in various types and at various levels of discourse. While in the oldest Greek (Homeric epic) dé is used to mark the segmentation that results from the online "continuative" production of spoken discourse, in later, written discourse the particle is used for a variety of functions: from local, intrasentential subject topic switch ("switch-reference") to the setting of 'frames' in discourse, and from the marking of boundaries that are "content-oriented" to rhetorically highly marked segmentation.

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Lempert, Henrietta. "Preschool children's sentence comprehension: strategies with respect to animacy." Journal of Child Language 12, no. 1 (February 1985): 79–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305000900006243.

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ABSTRACTIn a between-subjects design, 105 children aged 2; 5–5; 5 enacted their interpretation of passive and inverted cleft (IC) sentences in which animacy was systematically varied. Two agent strategies were found at 3;0: dynamic agent and word order. For ICs, the word order strategy persisted at 4;0, but the dynamic agent approach was replaced by an animate agent strategy. For passives, 4-year-olds mostly used structural relations, either regardless of agent and patient animacy (50 % of children), or only for animate patients (30% of children). The latter finding is discussed in terms of topicalization priorities.

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Leal, Tania. "Look before you move." Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 29, no. 2 (December 31, 2016): 396–428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/resla.29.2.02lea.

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The present study examines whether, as proposed by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), the syntax-discourse interface is especially vulnerable to non-native optionality even at very advanced levels. I focus on the acquisition of Clitic Left Dislocation in Spanish (CLLD), a structure that involves both syntax and discourse, when it combines with other structures at the left periphery (iterative topics, Fronted Focus, and wh-constructions). CLLD is a realization of topicalization requiring the integration of syntactic and discourse knowledge. This study provides data from an audio-visual rating task completed by 120 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels and 27 monolingual native speakers. Results showed evidence that the most advanced learners had acquired the restrictions of these structures in a native-like way and supports López’s (2009) syntactic analysis of CLLD, whereby CLLD is generated through movement so that the pragmatic features [+anaphor]/[+contrast] can be assigned to the dislocated element.

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SLABAKOVA, ROUMYANA, and MARÍA DEL PILAR GARCÍA MAYO. "The L3 syntax–discourse interface." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18, no. 2 (July 24, 2013): 208–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728913000369.

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This article considers the acquisition of three English syntax–discourse interface constructions: Topicalization, Focus Fronting and Left Dislocation. We use data from Basque–Spanish bilinguals learning English as a third language (L3) as a test case for the Interface Hypothesis (IH, Sorace, 2011). The IH has made specific predictions about second language (L2) acquisition and such predictions can be extrapolated to L3 on the basis of interface delay explanations. Thirty contexts and embedded test sentences with and without pronouns were used; participants had to rate the acceptability of each audio stimulus sentence in the context on a seven-point scale. We tested Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Basque (n = 23), Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Spanish (n = 24), Spanish L2 English learners (n = 39) as well as native English speakers (n = 24). Findings provide evidence against current L3 acquisition models and potential arguments for both cumulative enhancement as well as cumulative inhibition as possible processes in L3 acquisition.

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Bostoen, Koen, and Léon Mundeke. "Passiveness and inversion in Mbuun (Bantu B87, DRC)." Studies in Language 35, no. 1 (July 21, 2011): 72–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.35.1.03bos.

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In this article, we examine two word order inversion constructions in Mbuun, a Bantu language which lacks a true morphological or periphrastic passive. Mbuun uses both an ‘OSV construction’ and an ‘impersonal 3PL construction’ as functional passives. We demonstrate that the pre-posed object in both constructions is more than a mere topic in a syntactically adjoined position. It can be considered a syntactic argument and even displays certain properties which are generally associated with grammatical subjects. Hence, both constructions involve more than the pragmatic topicalization of the object. They are more than just functional passives. They have to some extent also evolved grammatically towards passiveness. Comparing the two Mbuun functional passives from a pragmatic point of view, the impersonal 3PL construction comes closest to passive prototype, because it obligatorily deletes the AGENT. In the related OSV construction, the AGENT is maintained in pre-verbal position, thus retains substantial topicality, and can even receive new information focus.

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Epps, Patience. "Escape from the noun phrase." Diachronica 26, no. 3 (November 9, 2009): 287–318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.26.3.01epp.

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This paper deals with the evolution of certain subordinating constructions in Hup, a Nadahup (Makú) language of the northwest Amazon. Internal reconstruction, informed by close resemblances among synchronically attested clause types, suggests that Hup’s headless relative clause has given rise to a converb construction, a subtype of adverbial in which a dedicated verb form modifies a main clause. This development provides new insight into the origins of converbs and sheds light on the crosslinguistically common resemblance between relative and adverbial constructions more generally. Additionally, the Hup converbal clause has itself developed a main clause function, and the subordinating morphology employed by the relative and converb constructions is associated with topicalization. The transitions undergone by these structures in Hup contribute to our understanding of the diachronic pathways that may be taken by clauses once they have attained syntactic complexity.

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BRANDT, SILKE, HOLGER DIESSEL, and MICHAEL TOMASELLO. "The acquisition of German relative clauses: A case study*." Journal of Child Language 35, no. 2 (April 16, 2008): 325–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305000907008379.

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ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the development of relative clauses in the speech of one German-speaking child aged 2 ; 0 to 5 ; 0. The earliest relative clauses we found in the data occur in topicalization constructions that are only a little different from simple sentences: they contain a single proposition, express the actor prior to other participants, assert new information and often occur with main-clause word order. In the course of the development, more complex relative constructions emerge, in which the relative clause is embedded in a fully-fledged main clause. We argue that German relative clauses develop in an incremental fashion from simple non-embedded sentences that gradually evolve into complex sentence constructions.

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van Trijp, Remi. "Chopping down the syntax tree." Computational Construction Grammar and Constructional Change 30 (December 19, 2016): 15–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/bjl.30.02van.

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Word order, argument structure and unbounded dependencies are among the most important topics in linguistics because they touch upon the core of the syntax-semantics interface. One question is whether “marked” word order patterns, such as The man I talked to vs. I talked to the man, require special treatment by the grammar or not. Mainstream linguistics answers this question affirmatively: in the marked order, some mechanism is necessary for “extracting” the man from its original argument position, and a special placement rule (e.g. topicalization) is needed for putting the constituent in clause-preceding position. This paper takes an opposing view and argues that such formal complexity is only required for analyses that are based on syntactic trees. A tree is a rigid data structure that only allows information to be shared between local nodes, hence it is inadequate for non-local dependencies and can only allow restricted word order variations. A construction, on the other hand, offers a more powerful representation device that allows word order variations – even unbounded dependencies – to be analyzed as the side-effect of how language users combine the same rules in different ways in order to satisfy their communicative needs. This claim is substantiated through a computational implementation of English argument structure constructions in Fluid Construction Grammar that can handle both comprehension and formulation.

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THRANE, TORBEN. "Breakstructures." Journal of Linguistics 39, no. 2 (July 2003): 327–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226702001998.

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Addressing current generative concerns over the Left Periphery of clause structure, this paper proposes a categorial distinction, based on the choice of value for the feature [±FINITE], between two functional heads, C° and Top°, which project into CP and TopP, respectively. The choice is responsible for a principled distinction between structural (TopP) and rhetorical (CP) topicalization. Primary data are Det-clefts, Hv-clefts and so-called sikke-expressions in Danish. The latter are peripheral to the core of Danish grammar, but are nevertheless – or perhaps therefore – a mine of evidence for the distinction argued for. Criterial evidence is a conjunction of three diagnostics: lack of V2 word order, so-called ‘pleonastic’ complementizers and the syntactic behaviour of expletive der. It is argued that normal (left) movement principles cannot account for the sharing of information between the Specifier and the Complement of Top°. Instead, two possibilities for interpretation are tentatively explored, involving various kinds of Right Periphery phenomena. Since the Specifier and the Complement of Top° each provides the structural basis for independent, clause-like utterances, TopPs are seen as clear cases of BREAKSTRUCTURES.

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Pericchi, Natalia, Bert Cornillie, Freek Van de Velde, and Kristin Davidse. "La duplicación de clíticos en español como estrategia de marcación inversa." Revue Romane / Langue et littérature. International Journal of Romance Languages and Literatures 52, no. 2 (December 8, 2017): 190–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/rro.52.2.04per.

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Abstract Clitic doubling is the phenomenon in which, in a clause, a NP or a stressed pronoun and a clitic pronoun refer to the same entity and have the same syntactic function. Previous studies on this phenomenon in Spanish observe that it takes place when the elements involved have features such as +preposition and +definiteness that make them prone to topicalization, such as with stressed pronouns (Silva-Corvalán, 1984; Melis and Flores, 2009; Vázquez Rozas and García Salido, 2012). However, we have found that in 19th and 20th Century Spanish, doubling often occurs with elements that are not typically topical, such as indefinite NPs. On the basis of a sample of the Argentinian variety from the CORDE and CREA corpora we found that doubling in ditransitive clauses has two functions: it can mark topical indirect objects, but it can also flag inverse distributions which have unexpected promotion of the direct object and demotion of the indirect object in the accessibility scale.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Topicalization (Linguistics)'

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