The subject of the present study is a comparison of two postmodifying constructions in noun phrases - finite relative adnominal clauses with the subject gap and nonfinite participial clauses - in spoken academic discourse: natural and social science. The comparison is based on the fact that both constructions realize the same clause element, i.e. a postmodifier in a noun phrase. The aim of the present study is thus to present major characteristics and functions of finite relative clauses and their reduced counterparts with respect to their distribution across the two subregisters of spoken academic discourse. The study is divided into three main parts: the theoretical background (Chapter 2) which defines the major characteristics and functions of the two postmodifying constructions and their mutual relationship, as are presented in the literature; the main part (Chapters 3 and 4) which provides the analysis of finite relative clauses and participial postmodifiers; and conclusion in Chapter 5.

<p>English noun phrases (NP) which include degree modified adjectives show some interesting variation of the position of the indefinite article. A particularly salient pattern is displayed in <em>This is anticipated to be <strong>more common a scenario</strong> than fleas spreading bubonic plague </em>(BoE, BU-NX022521)<em>.</em> The present paper is based on a study of utterances where this pattern was used even though a canonical word order would have been possible. Such constructs are referred to as the <em>Optional Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase </em>(OPIANP) and have been collected from the British National Corpus (BNC) and <em>Collins Word Banks Online: English Corpus</em> (BoE). The central question is whether there is semantic motivation for this postposition of the indefinite article. The results suggest that there is such motivation, namely that the OPIANP could be an extension of a more frequent construction identified as the <em>Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase</em> (PIANP). Furthermore, it is shown that the pattern’s semantics is unpredictable from the composition of its parts and that its primary function is that it positions already given arguments on an adjectival scale. That is, it foregrounds scalar qualities and backgrounds the noun. These conclusions stem from observations of patterns of unification with other constructions, illustrating how the OPIANP unifies best with the non-referential, descriptive PC-constructions and less well with referential constructions such as the subject and direct object constructions. These findings are remarkable as the idea of an adjective-scalar centred NP-construction challenges the idea of NPs being centred round their head, the noun.</p>

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese

English Language Learners (ELLs) are a growing population within the U.S. school system. In the secondary grades, this diverse group requires instruction to improve not only English language proficiency but also utilization of the academic language register, especially in writing tasks. The present study focused on ELLs in middle school. The aim was to explore the effects of enhanced Self–Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing instruction on the use of complex language, particularly elaborated noun phrases (ENPs) when SRSD was combined with linguistic instruction on increased sentence complexity. As a part of a larger study exploring critical literacy and the persuasive writing instruction of Spanish–English speaking students, this repeated measures design detailed the effects of two six–week instructional periods aimed at teaching 19 ELLs methods for organizing, planning, and constructing persuasive texts (the macr–-structure level), as well as ways of incorporating academic language forms and functions in their writing (the micro–structure level). Within the critical literacy project that involved topics and themes related to immigration, the 19 students produced three texts in English (pre–, mid–, and post–instruction essays). These texts were analyzed for ENP frequency and complexity. Three case studies were also chosen to highlight the variation in ENP outcomes and to discuss additional aspects of persuasive writing at both the macr–- and micro–structure levels. Statistical analysis of group use of ENPs revealed no significant increase in frequency or complexity across essays as simple pre–noun modifications were produced in amounts greater than all other ENP type across all essays. The three case studies revealed that frequency of ENP use generally corresponded to strength of abilities at either the macro–structure level, such as inclusion of more persuasive elements, or the micro–structure level as indicated by increased text length and variety of vocabulary. One implication of these outcomes indicates the need for more in–depth emphasis on the coordination of both the macro– and micro–structure levels in writing instruction studies with ELLs. Other implications pertain to further analysis of classification approaches for designating ENP complexity, and how enhanced understanding of ENP production signals aspects of the academic language register.

Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.

Notre travail est consacré à l’élément LA (< fr. là) en guyanais, langue créole française pour laquelle il n’existe que peu de données linguistiques accessibles. Nous fournissons un nouveau corpus du guyanais qui inclut une vaste gamme de textes anciens de 1799 à 1893 et des données du guyanais parlé. En nous basant sur notre corpus, nous proposons une analyse diachronique et synchronique de LA, élément extrêmement polyfonctionnel en guyanais. Nous commençons notre étude par distinguer ses différentes fonctions : adverbe/marqueur de discours, élément du pronom déictique-démonstratif, LA en fin de proposition subordonnée ou interrogative, ainsi que LA marqueur postnominal. Pour l’analyse du dernier, nous proposons une approche théorique de la référence nominale qui tient compte de l’usage de l’élément en question en discours, et donc aussi des fonctions interactionnelles et sociales du langage. Notre analyse de corpus nous permet de classer LA comme marqueur dont l’emploi est non seulement incomplètement généralisé dans les contextes définis, mais dont l’usage dépend d’une interaction complexe de différents facteurs d’ordre sémantico-pragmatique, ontologico-cognitif et informationnel-syntaxique. LA dénote en outre une certaine variation graduelle en fonction de la tradition discursive, ou bien des conditions/intentions communicatives respectives. LA est enfin un élément qui laisse toujours entrevoir à un certain degré son enracinement initial dans la deixis et l’oralité. De ce lien témoigne également le rôle joué par là/LA non seulement dans les autres créoles français, mais également dans les variétés orales du français en Afrique ou au Canada. / Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Element LA (< fr. là) im Guayanakreol, einer französischen Kreolsprache für die bisher kaum Untersuchungen vorliegen. Unsere Arbeit legt ein neues Korpus vor, das sich aus Texten von 1799-1893 sowie aus eigenen Sprachaufnahmen zusammensetzt. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung liegt auf einer detaillierten synchronen und diachronen Beschreibung der Verwendungskontexte des im Guayanakreol stark polyfunktionalen LAs. Hierfür nehmen wir zunächst eine Abgrenzung zwischen LA als Adverb/Diskursmarker, LA als Teil des Demonstrativpronomens, LA am Ende von Neben- oder Fragesätzen sowie dem postnominalen Marker LA vor. Für die Analyse des postnominalen LAs entwickeln wir anschließend einen umfangreichen theoretischen Unterbau zur Nominalreferenz, wobei ein semantisch-pragmatischer und kognitiver Ansatz verfolgt wird. Die Korpusanalyse zeigt schließlich, dass das postnominale LA allenfalls als definiter Marker auf einer niedrigen Grammatikalisierungsstufe eingeordnet werden kann, dessen Auftreten durch ein komplexes Zusammenspiel semantisch-pragmatischer, ontologisch-kognitiver sowie informationell-syntaktischer Faktoren bestimmt wird. Unsere diachrone Analyse zeigt zudem, dass in unserem Korpus der Gebrauch von LA weitgehend stabil bleibt, dass aber eine gewisse graduelle Variation je nach Diskurstradition und Kommunikationsintentionen vorliegt. Die Funktionalität von LA zeugt außerdem bis heute von einer gewissen Verankerung in der Deixis und in der Nähesprache, die auch in anderen Frankokreols sowie in gesprochenen Varietäten des Französischen, wie etwa in Afrika oder Kanada, zutage tritt.

Les modèles de la perception du langage écrit et du langage oral mettent au premier plan l’importance du lexique mental. En effet, parmi les nombreux indices hiérarchisés et guidant la segmentation du flux continu de parole chez l’adulte et l’enfant, les indices lexicaux ont une place prépondérante. Tout au long de ce travail, nous nous intéressons aux spécificités du stockage des séquences multimots dans le lexique mental et à l’hypothèse d’une mémorisation de ces séquences en une seule unité.Ce travail se divise en deux parties, chacune composée d’une série d’expériences. La première partie interroge en premier lieu les indices impliqués dans les effets facilitateurs de la reconnaissance des noms au sein du groupe nominal. Pour cela, sont mis en perspective l’effet du genre grammatical porté par les déterminants et l’effet de fréquence de co-occurrence des séquences déterminant-nom sur le traitement du nom. C’est ensuite l’effet de la cohésion des séquences multimots sur leur reconnaissance qui est examiné.La seconde partie aborde l’influence de la variabilité interne des combinaisons déterminant-nom dans l’acquisition de la structure du groupe nominal chez l’enfant de deux ans à deux ans et demi. Au travers d’une étude longitudinale, nous opposons deux grandes conceptions de l’acquisition du langage chez le jeune enfant: la Grammaire Universelle et les approches Basées sur l’Usage. / The mental lexicon is usually assumed as the main foundation of written and spoken-language perception. Numerous and hierarchically-organized cues drive speech segmentation in adults and infants but lexical cues appear as overriding. Throughout this work, we question multiword-sequence storage idiosyncrasy and multiword-sequence memorizing as one unit in the mental lexicon.This work splits into two parts, each composed of a set of experiments. The first one assesses the cues involved in recognition facilitation of nouns in noun phrases. For that purpose, we disentangled grammatical-gender effects and co-occurrence frequency effects on the processing of determiner-noun sequences. Then, we tested the cohesiveness effect on three-word sequences’ recognition.The second set of experiments is about the influence of determiner-noun sequences’ internal variability in noun-phrase’s structure aquisition in 2 to 2,5 year-old children. In a three-month longitudinal study, we contrast two main conceptions of first-language acquisition: Universal Grammar and Usage-Based approaches.

This corpus-based study describes some grammatical and lexical features of Français Tirailleur (FT), a pidgin spoken in the French colonial army from the mid-1800’s to the 1950’s. By examining the largest corpus available of the language, this study aims to (1) discern hitherto undescribed or strengthen previous claims about grammatical and lexical features of FT, (2) compare these features with its lexifier language and (3) identify changes over time. The corpus has been manually part-of-speech tagged and all noun phrases have been marked up. The results include a description of the form and function of the FT noun phrase, covering (pro)nouns and their modifiers as well as noun phrases with an embedded prepositional phrase. Furthermore, the apparent diachronic development of the expression même chose is analyzed, along with examples of circumlocution. FT is shown to differ from French in several respects, e.g. in substituting the demonstrative determiners ce(t)/cette with ça, but no signs of substrate influence are found. Contrary to intution about the simplex nature of pidgins, FT appears to follow French in placing certain adjectives before the noun, while postposing others. There remain several interesting aspects to explore in the grammar of FT, among them the elusive, multi-functional items ya and yena. Our further understanding of pidgins would benefit from more data and cross-linguistic comparison. / Denna korpus-baserade studie beskriver några lexikala och grammatiska drag hos Français Tirailleur (FT), ett pidginspråk som talades i franska kolonialarmen från mitten på 1800- till 1950-talet. Genom att undersöka den största tillgängliga korpusen över språket söker denna studie (1) urskilja hittills obeskrivna drag eller styrka existerande hypoteser om språkets natur, (2) jämföra språket med dess lexifierare samt (3) identifiera eventuell diakron variation. Korpusen har ordklasstaggats manuellt och alla nominalfraser har märkts upp. Resultaten innefattar en beskrivning av nominalfrasens form och funktion, en analys av uttrycket même chose och dess historiska utveckling samt ett antal exempel på cirkumlokution. FT skiljer sig från franska i flera avseenden, men inga tecken på substratinfluenser hittades. Trots att pidginspråk brukar kännetecknas av avsevärd förenkling, tycks FT ha bevarat franskans relativt komplexa system med både för- och efterställda adjektiv. Det råder brist på data och tvärlingvistiska jämförelser mellan pidginspråk, men det återstår ännu flertalet intressanta frågor att undersöka i FT-korpusen.

Submitted by Haroudo Xavier Filho (haroudo.xavierfo@ufpe.br) on 2016-05-19T18:03:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação. Dos Sintagmas Nominais aos Descritores Documentais Estudo de Caso na Indexação de Te.pdf: 3525255 bytes, checksum: 7cb6e4bda3f02eb17e2009285414748d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-19T18:03:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação. Dos Sintagmas Nominais aos Descritores Documentais Estudo de Caso na Indexação de Te.pdf: 3525255 bytes, checksum: 7cb6e4bda3f02eb17e2009285414748d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-20 / O uso dos Sintagmas Nominais como instrumentos de organização e recuperação da informação digital vem se mostrando uma alternativa promissora para sistemas de informação. Nesse contexto, a indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais se mostra como uma alternativa que minimiza alguns problemas encontrados na indexação baseada em palavras isoladas, uma vez que os Sintagmas Nominais se constituem em unidades sintáticas que possuem semântica/sentido específico. No entanto, é notório que nem todos os Sintagmas Nominais que se encontram em um documento digital são representativos do mesmo, o que demonstra por sua vez a necessidade de uma seleção dos Sintagmas Nominais que realmente possam funcionar como descritores documentais. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo geral investigar a seleção de sintagmas nominais com valor de descritor no contexto do processo de indexação automática por meio de sintagmas nominais de resumos de teses e dissertações em português da área jurídica. Pretende-se: 1. Investigar o processo de indexação automática por meio de sintagmas nominais; 2. Verificar quais são as características de um Sintagma Nominal como valor de descritor documental; 3. Identificar na literatura científica nacional metodologias para seleção de sintagmas nominais em textos em português, bem como os critérios de seleção de cada metodologia; 4. Planejar experimento, onde os Sintagmas Nominais extraídos são categorizados quanto ao atendimento ou não a critérios de seleção propostos na literatura e quanto ao valor como Descritores, quando semelhantes aos descritores documentais resultantes da indexação manual; 5. Avaliar os critérios de seleção na indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais para teses e dissertações da área jurídica. Para o alcance dos objetivos propostos, fez-se uso de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e de um experimento. A pesquisa bibliográfica permitiu a identificação de pesquisas voltadas para a indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais, principalmente no que se refere à seleção de Sintagmas que funcionem como descritores documentais. Com base nas leituras dessas pesquisas, puderam-se identificar vários critérios utilizados para a seleção de Sintagmas. O experimento constituiu-se na aplicação dos critérios identificados na literatura aos sintagmas nominais extraídos de um conjunto de resumos de teses e dissertações da área jurídica, com o intuito de mensurar a utilidade ou não desses critérios no que diz respeito à seleção de sintagmas nominais descritores. Assim, realizou-se a indexação manual dos documentos, a extração automática dos Sintagmas Nominais constituintes dos mesmos, a categorização dos sintagmas nominais como descritores com base na semelhança aos descritores documentais advindos da indexação manual e a aplicação dos critérios de seleção aos sintagmas nominais extraídos. Por meio do experimento, foram percebidos comportamentos distintos entre cada critério, onde a maioria foi considerada útil para a seleção de sintagmas nominais. / The use of noun phrases as tools for information organization and retrieval has proven to be a promising alternative in information systems. In this context, automatic indexing through the noun phrases shows a new alternative that minimizes some problems encountered in indexing based on single words, given that noun phrases are syntactic units with specific semantic/meaning. However, it is evident that not all the noun phrases in a digital document are representative of the content, which in turn demonstrates the need for a selection of noun phrases that may serve as documentary descriptors. In this context, this work aims to investigate the selection of noun phrases with descriptor value in the context of the automatic indexing process by noun phrases from abstracts of theses and dissertations in the area of law in Portuguese. The specific objectives are: 1. Investigate the automatic indexing process by noun phrases; 2. Identify what are the characteristics of a noun phrase with descriptor value; 3. Identify the methodologies in national scientific literature for selection of noun phrases in texts in Portuguese, as well as the selection criteria of each methodology; 4. Organization of an experiment where each extracted noun phrase is categorized as descriptor and if it meets or not the proposed selection criteria in the literature; 5. Evaluate the selection criteria in the automatic indexing by noun phrases for theses and dissertations in the legal field. To achieve the objectives, it was made use of a bibliographic research and experiment. The literature review allowed the identification of research on automatic indexing by noun phrases, especially criteria used to choose noun phrases that act as documentary descriptors. Based on the readings of this research, it was possible to identify several criteria used for the selection of noun phrases. The experiment consisted in applying the criteria identified in the literature to noun phrases extracted from a set of abstracts of theses and dissertations in the legal field, in order to measure the usefulness or not of these criteria for the selection of noun phrases descriptors. Thus it was made manual indexing of documents, automatic extraction of noun phrases thereof, the categorization of noun phrases as descriptors based on their resemblance to the descriptors of manual indexing and the application of criteria in the extracted noun phrases. Through the experiment, we notice a different behavior for each criterion, where most of the criteria was considered useful for noun phrase selection.

Orientador: Maria Filomena Spatti Sândalo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T18:43:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pioli_AlexandreTunis_M.pdf: 14647464 bytes, checksum: d11052859655c3adc334ae80c8920985 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como objetivos (i) contribuir para o maior conhecimento de aspectos da fonologia da língua Rikbaktsa e (ii) oferecer duas análises para a formação de sintagmas fonológicos nesta língua. O primeiro objetivo é atingido através de uma análise inicial da fonologia entoacional do Rikbaktsa, em que sentenças de diferentes configurações (variando em termos de posições de constituintes) são analisadas conforme o modelo da fonologia entoacional autossegmental-métrica (Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988, entre outros). Desta análise partem as observações de nível segmental e suprassegmental que contribuem ao alcance do segundo objetivo. As evidências entoacionais sugerem que níveis prosódicos como palavra fonológica, sintagma fonológico e sintagma entoacional são razoavelmente delimitados entoacionalmente, embora seus limites não emerjam de imediato se modelos tradicionais como Nespor & Vogel (1986) e Selkirk (1995) são levados em consideração. Este trabalho oferece, então, percursos de análise no quadro teórico da Teoria da Otimalidade e de uma faceta da fonologia baseada em regras, partindo do pressuposto de que o processo analítico de um e outro modelo podem trazer insights interessantes sobre os fenômenos abordados. Tal discussão foi amplamente estimulada pela literatura recente, notadamente por Nevins & Vaux (2008). A discussão, que inevitavelmente passa por uma comparação entre os pontos-de-vista derivacional e representacional para o fenômeno em análise, encontra seu termo no argumento de que o modelo de Frampton (2008), em que aspectos de ambos se influenciam, oferece uma visão satisfatória para a formação de sintagmas fonológicos na língua, tanto com respeito a um critério conceptual, quanto empírico. / Abstract: This work aims to (i) contribute to the better knowledge of some aspects of the Rikbaktsa phonology and to (ii) offer two approaches to the phonological phrasing in this language. The first goal is fulfilled through an initial analysis of the intonational phonology of Rikbaktsa. Different syntactic configurations (varying in complexity and word order) are analyzed using the autosegmental-metric approach to intonational phonology (Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988, inter alia). This intonational analysis results in segmental and suprasegmental observations that support the analyses of the following chapters (the second goal of this work). Intonational evidence suggest that prosodic domains such as the phonological word, the phonological phrase and the intonational phrase are delimited by intonation markers. These domains won't emerge automatically if traditional models such as Nespor & Vogel (1986) and Selkirk (1995) are used. This work offers two approaches to the phonological phrasing in this language - in both Optimality Theory and Derivational Phonology-based frameworks -, assuming that good insights can emerge in the analytic process. The discussion, mainly triggered by recent works in the phonological literature such as Nevins & Vaux (2008), also presents an informal comparison between the derivational and representational analyses. This results in the choice of the deffect-driven model by Frampton (2008) as an eligible approach to the phonological phrasing in Rikbaktsa, in which both conceptual and empirical criteria are satisfied in a good measure. / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística