published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Verbal government of Russian and Czech verbs. Determination of basic conception of rection, bilinguism, interference, transfer, homonymy. The acquirement of foreign language difficulties. Preventing interference. The influence of transfer. Left-valency and right-valency actant. Competition of binding. Russian - Czech dictionary. Error analysis. Contrastive analysis.

O presente trabalho discute a concordância nas construções passivas do PB e sua relação com a ordem. No primeiro capítulo, evidenciamos que há três padrões possíveis de concordância nessas construções: concordância plena, em que particípio e auxiliar concordam plenamente com o DP; concordância parcial, em que particípio e DP concordam apenas em gênero e a concordância de número no auxiliar é opcional; e concordância default, em que particípio e auxiliar manifestam traços masculinos singulares independente da especificação do argumento. Além disso, mostramos que, à exceção do padrão de concordância default, os demais padrões são possíveis tanto com DPs pré-verbais quanto pós-verbais. Fechamos o capítulo propondo que as diferenças observadas quanto à concordância são devidas a uma reanálise do particípio devido ao enfraquecimento da concordância de número no PB, e passou a contar apenas com traço de gênero. No segundo capítulo, desenvolvemos uma detalhada discussão quanto aos modelos formais de estabelecimento da concordância sentencial e sua adequação aos dados em discussão, levando em conta a hipótese delineada no capítulo 1 quanto à especificação de traços do particípio. Concluímos que tanto as abordagens de Agree propostas por Bokovi (2007) e Nunes (2007) quanto a abordagem de movimento proposta por Hornstein (2009) dão conta dos dados, mediante alguma adaptação. Também nesse capítulo, levantamos a hipótese de que a ordem pré- ou pós-verbal dos DPs nos padrões de concordância plena e parcial são definidos em PF, mediante apagamento de cópias. O capítulo 3 é dedicado a demonstrar que a ordem V DP no PB, apesar de restrita, é possível justamente com predicados passivos e inacusativos e corresponde, nesses casos, a uma diferença na estrutura informacional em relação à ordem DP V. Além disso, discutimos alguns aspectos formais do tratamento da focalização e como seriam derivadas as ordens DP V e V DP nos dados sob análise. No quarto capítulo, discutimos o efeito de definitude no PB, as diferentes interpretações dos sintagmas nominais (fracos e fortes) e que posições podem ocupar na estrutura, relacionando-as à expressão dos juízos tético e categórico no PB (BRITTO, 1998). Também nesse capítulo, defendemos que a concordância default está relacionada à atribuição de um Caso fraco, seguindo De Hoop (1996). Mostramos ainda que um singular nu nunca dispara concordância de gênero nos particípios. Por fim, o quinto capítulo é dedicado a um exame detalhado da sintaxe e semântica dos singulares nus, a fim de explicar os efeitos encontrados ao final do capítulo 4. Nesse capítulo, defendemos que o singular nu do PB não é um DP; nossa hipótese é que esse elemento é incorporado ao verbo quando aparece em posição de objeto, e é um tópico quando em posição de sujeito, seguindo Müller (2004). / The present work discusses agreement in passive constructions in BP and its relation to the ordering of constituents. In chapter 1, we show that there are three possible patterns of agreement in these constructions: full agreement, in which both participle and auxiliary fully agree with the DP; partial agreement, in which gender agreement between participle and DP is mandatory, but number agreement with the auxiliary is optional; and default agreement, in which both participle and auxiliary surface with default values for number and gender. We also show that except for the default pattern, the other ones are possible both with pre- and postverbal DPs. Our proposal is that participle heads have been reanalized due to the loss of number agreement in BP and now host only a gender feature. Chapter 2 is devoted to a detailed discussion of Agree-based and Move-based approaches to agreement. We discuss whether each agreement system can account for the data presented in chapter 1 in light of the proposal made. We conclude that both Nunes (2007) and Bokovi (2007) approaches to Agree can deal satisfactory with the data at hand. We also raise the hypothesis that the constituent order in passive constructions is derived postsyntactically, through copy deletion at PF. In chapter 3, we show that V DP order in BP, though very restricted, is possible with passive and unaccusative predicates. In these cases, we show that such order corresponds to a difference in information structure, hence motivating copy deletion at PF. Chapter 4 is devoted to a discussion of definiteness effects in BP and the different interpretations for nominals, as well as the positions that can be occupied by weak and strong nominals in BP, and relating such matters to the expression of thetic and categoric judgements (BRITTO, 1998). We also support the conclusion that default agreement is generated by a weak Case (DE HOOP, 1996), and show that bare singulars systematically fail to trigger gender agreement on participles. Finally, chapter 5 bears on the issue of bare nominals, their use and intepretation. We claim that bare singulars are not DPs in BP and cannot freely occupy argument positions. We claim instead that bare singulars in object position are incorporated, and that bare singular generic subjects are topics (MÜLLER, 2004).

by Tan Lee Yong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-157). / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- The Aspectual Properties of Motion Verbs / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- The classification of verbs in English with regard to aspectual properties --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- The classification of verbs in Chinese with regard to aspectual properties / Chapter 2.3 --- The aspectual properties of motion verbs --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4 --- Conclusion --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter Three --- The Ergativity of Motion Verbs / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.38 / Chapter 3.1 --- What is ergativity? --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2 --- The semantic approach to ergativity --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3 --- The syntactic approach to ergativity --- p.46 / Chapter 3.4 --- The syntactic-semantic approach to ergativity --- p.49 / Chapter 3.5 --- The ergativity of motion verbs --- p.60 / Chapter 3.6 --- The interrelationship of ergativity and aspectuality of motion verbs --- p.66 / Chapter 3.7 --- Ergativity in Chinese --- p.78 / Chapter 3.8 --- Conclusion --- p.91 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Lexicalization Patterns of Motion Verbs / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.94 / Chapter 4.1 --- What are lexicalization patterns? --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2 --- More on the properties of motion verbs --- p.97 / Chapter 4.3 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs: a crosslinguistic review --- p.100 / Chapter 4.4 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in English --- p.112 / Chapter 4.5 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in Chinese --- p.121 / Chapter 4.6 --- Conclusion --- p.135 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Summary and Conclusion --- p.136 / Notes --- p.145 / References --- p.148 / Appendix 1 A comprehensive list of motion verbs in English --- p.158 / Appendix 2 A comprehensive list of motion verbs (roots only) in Chinese --- p.160

Verb valency plays an important role in the description of behaviour of verbs and connects surface realisation of language with its semantics. Verb itself usually encodes several readings. Complementations of a verb help to identify correct reading of the verb. So far valency verb complementations are mostly studied from morphological and syntactical point of view. The purpose of this thesis is to examine possibilities of automatic identification of semantic preferences for valency complementations of verbs. The thesis discusses performance of system with different levels of available verb valency information in connection with cluster analysis. The thesis contains an evaluation section that compares available methods and their comparision.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2001 / This study explores the lexical semantic representation of break verbs in Xitsonga. Chapter One is the introduction of this study. It describes the statement of the problem. The main aim of this study is described which m bnef is to investigate the form, struc e and interpretation of break verbs in Xitsonga. The significance of this study, which is to highlight the semantic value of break verbs in Xitsonga is discussed. The methodology, lite rature review as well as the theta - theory and its properties have been examined. Chapter Two explores the predicate argument structure. The difference between two lexical representations, which are lexical-syntactic and lexical­ semantic representations was investigated. A brief definition of break verbs as well as the six categories of the verbs of change of state have also been discussed. This chapter also analyses the lexical features of break verbs. Various sub - classes of external arguments and of internal argument are observed. Chapter Three presents the lexical - semantic representation of break verbs where focus is on argument structure, event structure, qualia structure and lexical inheritance structure. Chapter Four deals with the syntactic alternation and selection restriction of break verbs. The difference between transitive and intransitive alterna tions was also highlighted. This chapter also explores some of the different types of verbal alternations, such as ' instrument subject alternation', ' locative alternation' and the ' with/ against alternation' . Chapter Five gives the main conclusion of this study.

Cette thèse présente une réflexion sur les verbes à particule et les verbes prépositionnels en anglais. La relation qui existe entre la syntaxe et la sémantique est une des pierres angulaires de cette étude. Nous étudierons le rôle de la configuration syntaxique, de la structure argumentale et des connaissances extralinguistiques dans la construction du sens. Nous analyserons également le nombre d’arguments, tels qu’ils apparaissent dans une combinaison, ainsi que leur type sémantique en contexte et la manière dont ces deux paramètres peuvent influencer l’interprétation sémantique finale. Les aspects théoriques abordés sont la catégorisation des particules et des prépositions, l’interaction du sémantisme des particules - prépositions et le sémantisme verbal, la structure interne des verbes à particule, et les raisons pour lesquelles les particules peuvent apparaître soit avant, soit après le complément régi par le verbe. Nous aborderons également certaines questions plus générales telles que la conceptualisation du mouvement, la résultativité, la transitivité et la polysémie. Le travail a été effectué à partir d’un corpus de 286 combinaisons formées d’un élément verbal et over. Chaque combinaison est analysée en contexte afin d’identifier les facteurs qui influencent l’interprétation sémantique finale de la combinaison. Au cours de cette étude, nous identifierons toute une gamme de facteurs qui influencent l’interprétation sémantique finale des verbes à particule et des verbes prépositionnels anglais ainsi que leur interaction. / This thesis explores the construction of sense in English particle and prepositional verbs. It departs from the premise that meaning is something constructed during the process of situated usage. A corpus of 286 combinations formed through the association of a verbal element with over are analysed in context in order to identify the various factors which influence final semantic interpretation. A particular focus of the study is the relationship between form and meaning. The relationship between syntactic configuration and semantic interpretation is investigated and the various ways in which the number and nature of the verbal and/or prepositional arguments can impact semantic interpretation is explored. The role of the extralinguistic in the construction of sense is examined. The major theoretical questions dealt with concern the categorisation of particles and prepositions, the interaction between particle/prepositional semantics and verbal semantics, the internal structure of particle verbs, and the reasons why the particle in a particle verb can either precede or follow the verbal object. The study also explores several more general areas of linguistic investigation including the conceptualisation of movement, resultativity, transitivity and polysemy. During the course of the study a wide range of factors which influence the final semantic interpretation of particle and prepositional verbs in English are identified.

Seit etwa zwei Jahrzehnten stellt die kognitive und neuronale Verarbeitung von Nomen und Verben einen bedeutsamen Forschungsschwerpunkt im Bereich der Neurolinguistik und Neuropsychologie dar. Intensive Forschungsbemühungen der letzten Jahre erbrachten eine Reihe von Ergebnissen, die jedoch überwiegend inkonsistent und widersprüchlich sind. Eine häufig vertretene Annahme im Bezug auf die neuronale Basis der Nomen und Verb Verarbeitung ist die so genannte anterior-posterior Dissoziation. Demnach werden Nomen in temporalen und Verben in frontalen Regionen der sprachdominanten, linken Hemisphäre verarbeitet. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht mit Hilfe der funktionellen Magnetresonanztomographie, welche kortikalen Regionen in den Abruf von Nomen und Verben beim stillen Bildbennen involviert sind. Ferner wird der Einfluss des Faktors age-of-acquisition (Erwerbsalter) auf die Hirnaktivierung beim Bildbenennen überprüft. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass der Abruf von Nomen und Verben ähnliche kortikale Aktivierungen in bilateral okzipitalen sowie links frontalen, temporalen und inferior parietalen Regionen hervorruft, wobei für Verben stärkere Aktivierungen in links frontalen und bilateral temporalen Arealen beobachtet wurden. Dieses Ergebnis widerspricht der Annahme einer anterior-posterior Dissoziation. Die beobachteten Aktivierungsmuster unterstützen dagegen die Auffassung, dass ein gemeinsames Netzwerk bestehend aus anterioren und posterioren Komponenten für die Verarbeitung von Nomen und Verben beim Bildbenennen verantwortlich ist. Die Studie ergab ferner, dass kortikale Aktivierungen beim Bildbenennen durch das Erwerbsalter moduliert werden. Dabei zeigten sich Aktivierungen für später erworbene Wörter im linken inferioren Frontallappen und im basal temporalen Sprachareal. Die Ergebnisse werden diskutiert und interpretiert vor dem Hintergrund aktueller kognitiver und neuroanatomischer Modelle der Sprachverarbeitung. / The cognitive and neuronal mechanisms underlying the retrieval of nouns and verbs are a complex issue, which has attracted the interest of neurolinguists and cognitive neuroscientists during the last two decades. Unfortunately, the results emerged from previous studies are often contradictory. A frequent claim in neurolinguistic literature is the anterior-posterior dichotomy of the noun and verb retrieval. Within this framework nouns are associated with left temporal brain areas whereas verbs rely on structures in the left frontal lobe. This thesis investigates the brain areas which are involved in silent naming of German noun and verb pictures by means of event related fMRI. In addition the influence of age-of-acquisition on brain activity during picture naming was examined. Noun and verb retrieval revealed a similar pattern of bilateral occipital, left frontal, temporal and inferior parietal cortical activation, albeit verb naming resulted in stronger activation in left frontal and bilateral temporal areas. The results do not confirm the anterior-posterior hypothesis. They support rather a similar cortical network for the processing of nouns and verbs in picture naming. Furthermore the results indicated that age-of-acquisition modulates brain activation during silent picture naming. Cortical activation for late learned words was detected in the left inferior frontal cortex and in the left basal temporal language area. The data were discussed and interpreted on the basis of current cognitive and neuroanatomical models of language processing.

The aim of this dissertation is to give a detailed analysis of the Dutch verb komen ‘come’ and the Swedish verb komma ‘come’ based on a systematic comparison. Focus has been placed on grammatical polysemy and the study is written within the framework of cognitive linguistics. Both verbs can be defined as corresponding to a complex category consisting of a prototypical meaning and other meanings which can be central or peripheral in relation to the prototype. Two monolingual corpora consisting of newspaper texts were used as sources of data: INL 27 Miljoen Woorden Krantencorpus 1995 and Press 95, 96, 97 Concordances in Göteborg University’s Bank of Swedish. A sample of 1,490 tokens of komen and 1,518 tokens of komma was taken from the two corpora. When analyzing the two verbs and their context the following ten variables were taken into consideration: 1) physical movement, 2) animate or inanimate subject, 3) adverbial, 4) future reference 5) bounded or unbounded aktionsart, 6) ingressive meaning, 7) accidentality, 8) infinitive marker, 9) predictive and/or intentional meaning, and 10) causativity. The results indicate that komen and komma have the same prototypical meaning. However, the semantic extensions from the prototype differ between the two verbs. If we consider the two verbs in a network, the meanings of komen and komma occupy different positions relative to the prototype. On the one hand, when Dutch komen is a copulative verb and/or occurs in lexicalized verb phrases, the resultative meaning is more central, while the aspectual meaning is peripheral. On the other hand, the temporal meaning of Swedish komma, as a future auxiliary verb, holds a more central position than the resultative meaning which is more peripheral. Nevertheless, Dutch komen, which is not considered a future auxiliary verb, but is rather an aspectual auxiliary verb shows similarities in the present tense (komen te + V2) with the Swedish kommer att construction (a true future auxiliary verb). That is, Dutch komen can have clear future reference, but in a limited context. Whereas Dutch komen is categorized as a copulative verb, the Swedish komma is not considered a copulative verb. Nevertheless, it is clear from the corpus that Swedish komma has a copula-like function, but in a limited context. Finally, it has become clear that komen and komma have undergone somewhat different grammaticalization processes even though both verbs contain similar meanings.

Resultative verb constructions RVCs (hereafter) are a special type of serial verb construction in Mandarin Chinese, in which the verbs hold an action-result relation. On the one hand, they behave like compounds, e.g., the verbs can be questioned as a single verb but cannot be separately modified, and no NP can possibly intervene. On the other hand, they also behave like phrases, i.e, for some types, the verbs can be split by an NP and can be separately modified. There has been controversy about the best way to analyze RVCs. There are two general positions: the pre-lexical syntactic approach and the pre-syntactic lexical approach. The former holds that resultative verb constructions are a syntactic phenomenon which can be derived by transformational rules. The latter, claims that RVCs are best considered a lexical phenomenon, i.e., verb compounds.This dissertation argues that neither approach sufficiently accounts for this phenomenon, in that both only shift the problem from one level of linguistic description to another. I propose a linguistic prototype analysis in which RVCs are seen as conventionalized serial verb constructions. I argue that the properties of the prototype and the conventionalized serial verb construction are subject to constraints in three areas: the semantic and syntactic dependency of the verbs, iconicity, and clause linkage. Through the analysis of the syntactic, semantic, and phonological behavior of various types of serial verb constructions, it is shown that serial verb constructions are on a structural continuum, i.e., from syntax to lexicon. RVCs are seen as close to the lexicalization end on the continuum.This dissertation shows the interplay of syntax, semantics, and phonology in the processes of syntactization and morphologization in Mandarin. It not only helps account for serial verb constructions but also has implications for other serial type phenomena on the word level, such as compounding and incorporation in Mandarin. / Department of English