In the Japanese language, there are various modal elements, which mark speakers' subjective attitudes toward propositions. One of the most common modals is the noda predicate, which possesses the dual function of either asserting the truth of the position or relaying the speaker's desire for information sharing. Japanese Native Speakers (JNSs) use noda frequently in conversation; however, Japanese Language Learners (JLLs) often face difficulty in learning noda because of its wide variety in function and use. To determine the nature of noda use, this study examines conversational data from role-plays and a case study of two JLLs. The main aims of this thesis are 1) to review research on noda and to provide a cohesive and concise explanation of its functions and 2) to examine the use and acquisition of noda by JLLs. Following Noda's (1997) categorization, noda can be divided broadly into two types: scope and mood. Noda of scope exhibits the speaker's assertion that the proposition is true, while noda of mood marks the speaker's strong desire for information to be shared by speaker and hearer. This study proposes a framework with which to understand the functions of noda, and classifies information which is speaker-oriented (+ Speaker/- Hearer knowledge), hearer-oriented (-Speaker/+ Hearer), and shared (+ Speaker/+ Hearer). JLLs first tend to use noda with speaker-oriented information, and later acquire functions related to hearer-oriented and shared information. In the study of role-plays, JLLs with higher oral proficiency levels as rated by the ACTFL-OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) used a higher frequency of noda. Both the JLLs and JNSs used noda primarily to provide and seek explanations. The intermediate-level JLLs underused noda in providing supplemental explanations. Other uses of noda in the role-plays included emphasizing information, seeking validity, and back-channeling. The two JLLs in the case study did not notice the use of noda during conversations with the JNS, but began to use noda more frequently during practice conversations upon receiving explicit instructions on the use of noda. While the post-test did not demonstrate increased use of noda due to the limited time of this study, there are clear indications for pedagogy. First, because the functions of noda are varied and numerous, Japanese language textbooks and classrooms should not be limited in providing only the 'explanation' function of noda. Second, the frequent use of noda in Japanese conversation suggests that it should be an area of focus in oral practice. Finally, JLLs need to develop skills in both comprehension and production of noda to improve their Japanese discourse.

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This thesis investigates the question of how the arguments of a given verb are linked to positions in a phrase structure. Through a study of passives, psych verbs, and ditransitive verbs in Japanese, it provides empirical support for the hypothesis that arguments having particular thematic roles are associated with particular syntactic positions systematically. / Chapter 2 deals with passives, in particular, two types of passive constructions, direct and indirect passives. Following some previous works, it is argued that the subject of a direct passive is generated in the same position as an object of the corresponding active verb, having the same thematic role, whereas the subject of an indirect passive is projected as an argument of a separate predicate. Several pieces of evidence for this hypothesis which are not given in the literature are provided here. / Chapter 3 is concerned with psych verbs, focusing on those that participate in a causative alternation. It is proposed that causative counterparts of these verbs can have two different structures that are parallel to the two types of passives discussed in Chapter 2. The subject of one type is generated in the same position as the object of the noncausative counterpart, having the same thematic role, whereas the subject of the other type is projected as an argument of a separate predicate. / Chapter 4 takes up ditransitive verbs, specifically, those that have inchoative counterparts, which do not project the subject of the ditransitive construction. There are two types of such verbs: one promotes the accusative argument of the ditransitive construction, rather than the dative one, to the subject of the inchoative counterpart, while the other chooses the dative argument over the accusative one for the subject of the inchoative counterpart. It is argued that this reflects the difference in the base-generated position of the dative argument between the two types of verbs. Moreover, the dative arguments of the two are distinguished in terms of thematic role. / This research is meant to contribute toward having a further understanding of how the participants of an event are expressed in grammatical forms.

Verbal extensions are well-known to play a most substantial role in the derivation and/or inflection of verbs in contemporary Zulu. Less well-known and less well investigated are a group of verbal derivatives which in former times played a significant role in derivation but which can no longer be freely attached to verbal stems: the non-productive verbal extensions (NPEs.) This thesis seeks to present and discuss all aspects of these NPEs from the perspective of their persisting roles in contemporary Zulu. This is undertaken on the basis of an extensive collection of currently-used verbs derived by means of NPEs, which is presented in the Appendix. Chapter 1 locates the study within the context of verbal extensions as a whole, and reviews the literature, which has focussed primarily on those verbal extensions which are still used productively today. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical framework for the investigation, considering issues such as productivity, derivation and inflection, and some relevant aspects of the theory of derivational morphology, currently under development. The following chapters focus in turn on the morphology of the NPEs, their current use in combination with productive extensions, the most salient aspect of their syntax, transitivity, and their meaning. NPEs have become fully integrated into Zulu vocabulary, and are used on a daily basis with no awareness of their earlier roles. Nevertheless, as this thesis demonstrates, a study of NPEs can explain both certain regularities and certain anomalies in word formation , in transitivity, and in the meaning of extended verbs in contemporary Zulu. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

"The Verb Phrase in Kihema" investigates a wide range of three different constructions, which have all been termed 'Grammatical Function Changing Processes' (GFCP), by Linguists, using data from Kihema (a Bantu language spoken in the northeastern district of Ituru). It focuses on those GFCPs, namely the causative, the applicative and the passive. On the one hand, Kihema causative constructions are the result of extending the verb by means of a derivational affix. This process has an impact on the argument structure of the verb. On the other hand, Kihema applicative constructions are the outcome of moving the preposition out of a prepositional phrase and incorporating it in the verb that governs it. Lastly, Kihema passive constructions result from the base verb losing its ability to assign accusative case and its failure to assign an external thematic role. Consequently, in passives, the former direct object moves to the syntactic subject position, where it receives nominative case. The thematic subject can only be realized inside a prepositional phrase. In these constructions, the verb bears morphemes such as -is- (for causatives), -ir- (for applicatives), and -w- (for passives). Causative and applicative morphemes have the ability to turn an intransitive verb into a transitive verb and a transitive verb into a ditransitive verb. The study provides data of different objects that appear with the verb in the Kihema verb phrase. It examines the syntactic properties exhibited by those objects. As a result, Kihema is classified as a 'symmetrical' language, since all postverbal objects in causative and applicative constructions exhibit direct object properties. However, the basic object in locative applicatives has some restrictions. In this research, I analyze causatives, applicatives and passives in Kihema within the framework of the Principles-and-Parameters theory (Chomsky, 1981; 1986a, 1986b) in particular, the following two theories have proven useful in my study: (i) Baker's (1988) analysis of causatives in terms of verb incorporation and his treatment of applicatives as preposition incorporation and (ii) Jaeggli's (1986) and Baker, Johnson and Roberts' (1989) theories of the passive. My study shows how these theories account for the three Kihema Grammatical Function Changing Processes. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

The present paper is an attempt to examine the restriction (determination) of the Process by circumstantial elements. Although the Process can be used absolutely, more often than not it is accompanied by other elements – non-circumstantial (objective complements) and circumstantial. The choice of a circumstantial element is mostly determined by the type of Process, tense and aspect. Two types of circumstantial elements are distinguished: 1) non-specific (i.e. circumstantial elements common to all Process types); 2) specific (i.e. circumstantial elements peculiar to a Process type).

Young children with expressive language delay often present with limited vocabulary and reduced length of utterance. In consideration of the relationship between vocabulary and grammar, intervention that targets vocabulary may also result in improved syntax development. This study investigated whether a hybrid approach to verb-focused vocabulary intervention would result in improvements in increased use of target words, increased expressive vocabulary and/or increased sentence length. Four participants, aged two years nine months to three years six months participated in an intervention program that targeted vocabulary, specifically verbs. Number of target verbs, number of different words (NDW) used and mean length of utterance (MLU) were measured in baseline, intervention and post-intervention phases. Results indicated that all participants had increased use of targeted words and increased NDW. The majority of participants also had increased MLU. These findings suggest that verb-focused vocabulary intervention has the potential to have broad effects on the language skills of young children with expressive language delay. Further research is warranted to determine whether similar results would be found in a larger cohort. The study also raises questions around choice of intervention targets and intervention approaches for young children with expressive language delay.

No description available.

The purpose of this research was to analyze the status of the English auxiliary system in the verb phrases of the writing of a selected group of sixth grade children to determine whether there would be measurable differences between the incorporation and comprehension of verb phrase expansions of children taught generative-transformational theory and those taught traditional theory.The research was designed to answer four questions relevant to the effects of the experimental treatment on the writing productivity of the subjects in the study. I collected writing samples from the subjects for pre-test and post-test evaluation. The first 100 verb forms collected from the subjects' pre-test and post-test writing were analyzed for changes in the subjects' use of expanded verb forms. The purpose of this analysis was to determine if the experimental subjects utilized fewer simple verb forms and more expanded verb forms in their post-test sampling.The sampling consisted of fifteen Caucasians and six Blacks in each group for a total of forty-two subjects. The subjects were students attending the Henry Barnard School which serves as the laboratory setting for Rhode Island College. The groups were equalized in terms of I.Q. and language achievement. While I collected the post-test data, the experimental subjects studied generative-transformational methods of verb phrase expansions and the control subjects studied traditional methods of verb phrase expansions.The data were analyzed by means of a two-way factorial analysis which computed the statistical differences for the experimental (Black-Caucasian)/control (Black-Caucasian), pre-test, post-test variables. In order to determine statistically significant differences for the groups, t-scores and f-scores were analyzed. The following conclusions were drawn from the statistical findings.Although none of the statistical summaries were significant at the .05 level, the experimental subjects showed more gains in their use of expanded verb forms in their posttest writing than the control group showed. Among the experimental subjects who made gains in their use of expanded verb forms, the Black population made the greatest gains. The most complex verb forms did not appear in the post-test sampling of either group. These complex forms seemed to be beyond the written linguistic productivity of sixth-grade children.

This is a study of pseudo-coordination in Swedish, a common phenomenon in Swedish and other Scandinavian languages, formally a regular verb (phrase) coordination [V1 CONJ V2] but with some special characteristics: the verb in V1 is a) taken from a restricted set of verbs; b) semantically weak; and c) typically contributes aspectual or modal properties to the construction as a whole. An example is Anton sitter och läser, lit. ‘A. sits and reads’, i.e. ‘Anton is reading’. Various criteria have been suggested to identify these constructions as a category distinct from other verb coordinations: single event interpretation; a single phrasal accent; different behaviour of object extraction and the scope of negation, etc. These criteria prove less useful when applied to authentic text, most importantly as they do not unambiguously tell pseudo-coordinations from other verb coordinations. In this thesis, it is suggested that it is the relation between the two verbs that is crucial. This hypothesis is tested in Study 1. In Study 1, 15310 verb coordinations in a tagged corpus (Parole) were investigated. 4281 of these had a potentially pseudo-coordinating verb in V1, and were classified for the relation between V1 and V2. Among the 3881 cases of actual pseudo-coordinations, the verb relations were BACKGROUND and GOAL DIRECTION. These relations were not found in regular coordinations with potentially pseudo-coordinating verbs in V1, which provides us with a criterion to identify pseudo-coordination in text. In Study 2, the relation criterion was applied to the verbs sitta ’sit’, ligga ’lie’, and stå ’stand’, studied in a corpus of news text (Press 97). Constructions were classified with respect to animacy of subject, type of V2 verbs, and relative frequency and position of adverbials. The V1 verbs were found to form a coherent category but also exhibited interesting differences, both from each other and from their uses outside pseudo-coordination, along all parameters investigated. / <p>För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se</p>