A cross-sectional study of the performance of groups of Vietnamese learners is reported with focus on how they deal with the expression of number in English (singular/plural; definite/indefinite) through a cloze exercise and a translation excercise. This research investigates the hypothesis that some NP environments facilitate the distinction between singular and plural, count and mass, and that the context in which a noun is used can provide positive clues to the choice of number in nouns. It has been found that transfer of Vietnamese NP structures into English occurred where the NP environment was not obviously countable or uncountable, i.e., it has no conspicuous structural signals for number determination. Transfer was also found where an NP was taken from its context. The analysis of learners' errors gives some insight into ways in which the teaching of the number expression can be made more effective and beneficial for Vietnamese learners. A number of activities were suggested, which enable the teacher to exploit the advantages of NP environments to convey the syntactic-semantic properties of number to learners. Communicative practice of NP structures (e.g., in a conversation or a role play activity) can make learners aware of different aspects of the number expression in English. It is argued that the pragmatic aspect of the number expression is most important as in use, the syntactic and semantic properties of the category of number are unified to achieve communicative purposes.

When translating from English into Swedish long sentences may be a problem. In this paper an academic text with long sentences and an abstract content is translated and adapted for a larger target reader group. The strategies used in this process of translation and adaptation to make the text more readable are analysed regarding changes in sentence structure, noun phrases and connectors. The terminology of Vinay and Darbelnet’s theoretical model for translation strategies is used to describe some of the changes found. Transposition, such as changes from nouns to verbs and modulation, such as changing from abstract to concrete are frequently used strategies in the process of making the translation adapted for new readers. Furthermore, long sentences have been broken into two or more shorter ones and in this process the importance of connectors has increased to keep the information together. To see the effects of the changes LIX and the ratio between number of nouns and verbs have been used. The LIX value decreased from 64 till 56 for the whole text and the noun verb ratio decreased in all the sentences analysed.

This dissertation studies leftward dislocation of object Noun Phrases in Mandarin Chinese within the framework of Government and Binding theory. Although the canonical word order in Chinese is S(ubject)-V(erb)-O(bject), it also exhibits OSV and SOV word orders. After an introduction in Ch. 1, I discuss OSV constructions in Ch.2. I argue that the S-initial object NP is moved there, since its association with a gap in the canonical object position obeys the subjacency condition. Based on several diagnostic tests, I propose that Chinese has two kinds of short-distance NP fronting: one is A’-movement and the other is A-movement. Adopting the Split Infl Hypothesis, I postulate a fully articulated clause structure for Chinese. In particular, I propose that the fronted NP in A-movement lands in [Spec AgrOP] as a kind of overt raising, while the one in A’-movement further leaves that spec position and is CP-adjoined. I also examine long-distance NP fronting, showing that it is invariably A’-movement. In Ch. 3, I investigate object shift, which yields SOV constructions. I argue that this syntactic process represents a type of A-movement, not A’-movement as concluded in previous studies. Specifically, I propose that the subject NP and the object NP in this construction overtly raise to [Spec AgrSP] and [Spec AgrOP] respectively. In Ch.4, I examine the interactions between an object wh-NP and dou, the adverb of universal quantification. I propose that wh-phrases, like indefinites, can be either presuppositional or existential. If they are within VP (i.e. remain postverbal), they are subject to existential closure and get an existential/interrogative reading. If, however, they are outside VP (i.e. shifted to the left of dou), they define the range of the quantifier dou and obtain the presuppositional/universal reading. The conclusion is that there is a strict correlation between the S-structure positions of the wh-phrase and its interpretations. The exhaustive list reading of the in-situ wh-object associated with the interrogative reading is derived from the fact that it is in the scope of dou at S-structure. In Ch. 5, I summarize the major findings of this dissertation and raise several issues for future research.

Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Adger 2003;) provide a functional and concrete framework for an analysis of noun phrases in the Indonesian language, a Western-Malayo Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. An analysis of Indonesian noun phrase structure within this framework demonstrates that the head noun occurs in a base-generated position, at the bottom of a DP, while pre- and post-nominal modifiers are contained within a number of additional projections that merge above the head noun. In this thesis, the proposal is made for a relatively unrestricted adjunction analysis, whereby head adjunction via Merge allows for the direct expansion of the head N at various levels of the Indonesian DP. Evidence is presented to show that the adjoined status of attributive nouns and adjectives, a plural feature [PL], and the feature [DEF] generates a complex hierarchical structure in which there is no predefined order between a specifier or complement and the head noun. In addition, it is argued that bare nouns are neutral with respect to number and, given that number-marking, possession and (in)definiteness are optional, all projections that merge above the head N are optional and context is needed to accurately interpret an Indonesian bare noun.

Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Adger 2003;) provide a functional and concrete framework for an analysis of noun phrases in the Indonesian language, a Western-Malayo Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. An analysis of Indonesian noun phrase structure within this framework demonstrates that the head noun occurs in a base-generated position, at the bottom of a DP, while pre- and post-nominal modifiers are contained within a number of additional projections that merge above the head noun. In this thesis, the proposal is made for a relatively unrestricted adjunction analysis, whereby head adjunction via Merge allows for the direct expansion of the head N at various levels of the Indonesian DP. Evidence is presented to show that the adjoined status of attributive nouns and adjectives, a plural feature [PL], and the feature [DEF] generates a complex hierarchical structure in which there is no predefined order between a specifier or complement and the head noun. In addition, it is argued that bare nouns are neutral with respect to number and, given that number-marking, possession and (in)definiteness are optional, all projections that merge above the head N are optional and context is needed to accurately interpret an Indonesian bare noun.

<p>This essay deals with the issue of readability, the term <em>readability</em> referring to what it is that makes a reader perceive a text as difficult or easy. Some factors are related to the reader but there are also those which depend on the text as such, one such factor being style which is the one that will be focused on in this essay.</p><p>The investigation is based on the analysis and comparison of a complete version and an abridged version of Charlotte Brontë’s <em>Jane Eyre, </em>and the questions to be investigated are whether the author of the abridged version has succeeded in making it less complicated, and<em> </em>if he or she has done so by considering stylistic features said to be affecting readability.</p><p>Further, this essay is divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains the background for the analysis and is divided into 4 parts dealing with the following aspects: the definition of readability, early research on readability, later research on readability, and difficult and easy language. Chapter two describes the limitations made and the method used for the analysis which involves looking at the noun phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. Chapter three gives a detailed description of the corpus investigated. Moving on to chapter four, this is where the results of the investigation are presented. This is done by dividing it into four different subchapters, each of them dealing with issues related to the different areas described in the method. Each of the subchapters then begins with the presentation of the results for each edition which is then followed by a comparative discussion. The essay ends with a conclusion part where conclusions regarding the four areas presented in the analysis are made along with the answering of research questions.</p>

This dissertation studies leftward dislocation of object Noun Phrases in Mandarin Chinese within the framework of Government and Binding theory. Although the canonical word order in Chinese is S(ubject)-V(erb)-O(bject), it also exhibits OSV and SOV word orders. After an introduction in Ch. 1, I discuss OSV constructions in Ch.2. I argue that the S-initial object NP is moved there, since its association with a gap in the canonical object position obeys the subjacency condition. Based on several diagnostic tests, I propose that Chinese has two kinds of short-distance NP fronting: one is A’-movement and the other is A-movement. Adopting the Split Infl Hypothesis, I postulate a fully articulated clause structure for Chinese. In particular, I propose that the fronted NP in A-movement lands in [Spec AgrOP] as a kind of overt raising, while the one in A’-movement further leaves that spec position and is CP-adjoined. I also examine long-distance NP fronting, showing that it is invariably A’-movement. In Ch. 3, I investigate object shift, which yields SOV constructions. I argue that this syntactic process represents a type of A-movement, not A’-movement as concluded in previous studies. Specifically, I propose that the subject NP and the object NP in this construction overtly raise to [Spec AgrSP] and [Spec AgrOP] respectively. In Ch.4, I examine the interactions between an object wh-NP and dou, the adverb of universal quantification. I propose that wh-phrases, like indefinites, can be either presuppositional or existential. If they are within VP (i.e. remain postverbal), they are subject to existential closure and get an existential/interrogative reading. If, however, they are outside VP (i.e. shifted to the left of dou), they define the range of the quantifier dou and obtain the presuppositional/universal reading. The conclusion is that there is a strict correlation between the S-structure positions of the wh-phrase and its interpretations. The exhaustive list reading of the in-situ wh-object associated with the interrogative reading is derived from the fact that it is in the scope of dou at S-structure. In Ch. 5, I summarize the major findings of this dissertation and raise several issues for future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

In this thesis, I investigate the distribution and function(s) of gender in Tunisian Arabic. Based on the observation that gender can ll multiple functions and hence receive different interpretations in TA, I consider gender in this language to be subject to contextual allosemy. Allosemy is the equivalent of conditioned allomorphy at the level of LF (Wood, 2012; Marantz, 2013; Wood and Marantz, 2017) and is de ned as a phenomenon in which a single morpheme can have multiple semantic realizations. My proposal is based on the observation that the interpretation of gender is conditioned by its syntactic environment, more speci fically, by the class of the base noun and the function and interpretation of any node or abstract morpheme (e.g., number) that is parasitic of the n head hosting the class feature. The current predominant view of gender in syntactic theory is that it has a nominalizing function (Lecarme, 2002; Kihm, 2005; Lowenstamm, 2008; Acquaviva, 2009; Kramer, 2009, 2014, 2015; Hammerly, 2018). According to this view, gender is hosted on the n head, which selects the root, and assigns it a nominal category (assuming DM). However, Arabic has other uses for the feminine gender, most of them associated with number. This, I argue, originates from the diachronic trajectory of the feminine a x -a in Proto-Semitic, where it started out as a nominalizer, then a singulative a x, then a group marker, before finally marking feminine gender (Hasselbach, 2014a,b; Dali and Mathieu, 2019a). These subsequent layers of meanings associated with what is now known as gender are all present in the synchronic picture of Arabic. Through an exhaustive inventory of data and diagnostics, I show that the role of gender is pervasive within the Tunisian Arabic DP, and is not limited to nominalization. To account for these facts, I propose that gender is distributed among the different functional heads of the DP: Num, Q, D (see also Farkas 1990; Ritter 1993; Giurgea 2008; Croitor and Giurgea 2009; Steriopolo and Wiltschko 2010; Fassi Fehri 2012, 2018b,a; Dali and Mathieu 2019a). The present thesis also focuses on plurals. I show that plural markers can also be distributed along the nominal spine (Acquaviva, 2008; Harbour, 2008; Wiltschko, 2008, 2012; Butler, 2012; Mathieu, 2012, 2013, 2014; Kramer, 2016), accounting for their di erent functions (e.g., classifying, grouping, counting). These different functions associated with Arabic plurals are, I argue, due to the existence of a singulative operator that is not limited to the collective system, but is pervasive in Tunisian Arabic, as I show. Finally, these observations all suggest that one and the same abstract morpheme (e.g., the feminine and the plural) can receive different interpretations depending on the base they attach to and on their syntactic level, which motivates the allosemic analysis put forward in this thesis.

Specifications of digital hardware systems are typically written in a natural language. The objective of this research is automatic information extraction from specifications to aid model generation for system level design automation. This is done by automatic extraction of the noun phrases and the verbs from the natural language specification statements. First, the natural language sentences are parsed using a chart parser. Then, a noun phrase and verb extractor scans these charts to obtain the noun phrases with their frequencies of occurrence. The noun phrases are then classified by semantic types. Also the verbs are automatically assigned their respective roots and classified. Finally, each sentence is summarized as a sequence of &quot;chunks&quot;: noun phrases, verbs and prepositions. Vectors are generated from these chunks and imported into MS Excel for plotting occurrence graphs of noun phrases and verbs with respect to the sentences in which they occur. Finally, inter-term dependencies between noun phrases, and between noun phrases and verbs were studied. The frequencies of occurrence, the classification of chunks, the occurrence graphs and the inter-term dependencies together give useful information about the subject, the hardware components and the behavior of a system described by a natural language specification document. / Master of Science

The objective of this research was to extract simple noun phrases from natural language texts using two different grammars: stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) and non-statistical context free grammar (CFG). Precision and recall were calculated to determine how many precise and correct noun phrases were extracted using these two grammars. Several text files containing sentences from English natural language specifications were analyzed manually to obtain the test-set of simple noun-phrases. To obtain precision and recall, this test-set of manually extracted noun phrases was compared with the extracted-sets of noun phrases obtained using the both grammars SCFG and CFG. A probabilistic chart parser was developed by modifying a deterministic parallel chart parser. Extraction of simple noun-phrases with the SCFG was accomplished using this probabilistic chart parser, a dictionary containing word probabilities along with the meaning, context-free grammar rules associated with rule probabilities and finally an algorithm to extract most likely parses of a sentence. The probabilistic parsing algorithm and the algorithm to determine figures of merit were implemented using C++ programming language. / Master of Science