The present study examines certain syntactic properties of the Brazilian variety of Portuguese (BP): 1) BP is a pro-drop language with instances of both null subjects and covert objects, and 2) BP exhibits several possible word orders. To determine the frequency of pro-drop and word-order variations, the CDP (The Portuguese Corpus) was used to provide samples of transitive, main clauses, which were then categorized based on whether or not they had null subjects and covert objects. The clauses were also categorized according to word order. In addition to providing samples, the corpus allowed for the comparison of four different registers of BP: academic, newspaper, fiction, and oral. The results of the present study demonstrated that null subjects are much more common than covert objects (29.4% and 2.3% respectively) and that register did significantly affect the frequency of pro-drop, with oral having the highest rate of pro-drop and newspaper the lowest. For word order, SVO was most common at 95.1% with the occurrences of other variations being too rare to reliably determine statistical significance. Different from pro-drop, register did not affect the frequency of different word orders. Word-order variations were not random, however, but were determined by topic and focus with old information (topic) generally occurring preverbally, and new information (focus) generally occurring in the most embedded position. The fact that this study effectively examined these syntactic features is significant, as most of the Portuguese syntactic research previous to the present study was specific to European Portuguese. The present study demonstrated a new methodology being successfully applied to a different dialect, but more than that, it demonstrated that a more empirical, data-driven approach to syntactic research is both possible and valuable, justifying the creation and use of large corpora for this type of research.

By analyzing the information structure in Turkish sentences, this study seeks to investigate the strategies for marking the pragmatic functions of topic and focus in Turkish. The material, from which the included sentences are taken, mainly consists of literary works and other prose, but several examples from other linguistic and grammatical studies are also cited. A few sentences have been constructed by the author. Functioning as the point of departure for the analysis, a background section gives an overview of the word order typology in general and in Turkish specifically. In Turkish, the primary role of the basic word order (SOV) and its variations is to signal information structure; the pragmatic functions being associated to specific syntactic positions. Topics are sentence initial in Turkish. Subjects are natural topics, while non-subjects placed in the initial position are marked topics. Verbs can be topicalized by duplication. Focus is indicated by sentence stress, which under normal intonation falls on the element preceding the verb. Hence, the typical focus position is the immediately preverbal.  Objects are neutral focus elements, while other constituents receive contrastive focus. When the intonation is marked, a constituent in another position than the immediately preverbal is focused. Both topic and focus constituents can be marked syntactically. Clitics, conjunctions, adverbials etc. functioning as topic or focus markers form the dominant subject of the analysis. The clitic dA has been giving a special treatment since it can be used for both functions. It seems that in written text, the use of dA as a topic marker to the sentence initial constituent tends to be indicated with a subsequent comma.

The present contribution examines object complement clauses from the perspective of constituent-order typology. In particular, it provides the first principled empirical investigation of the position of object clauses relative to the matrix verb. Based on a stratified sample of 100 languages, we establish that there is an overall cross-linguistic preference for postverbal complements, due largely to the heterogeneous ordering patterns in OV-languages. Importantly, however, we also show that the position of complement clauses correlates with aspects of their structural organization: Preverbal complement clauses are significantly more likely to be coded by morphosyntactically “downgraded” structures than postverbal complements. Given that previous research has found a parallel correlation between structural downgrading and the semantics of the complement-taking predicate (Givón 1980. The binding hierarchy and the typology of complements. Studies in Language 4. 333–377, Cristofaro 2003. Subordination. Oxford: Oxford University Press), one needs to analyze how positional, structural and semantic factors interact with one another. Our data suggest that the correlation between clause order and morphosyntactic structure holds independently of semantic considerations: All predicate classes distinguished in the present study increase their likelihood of taking downgraded complements if they are preceded by the complement clause. We thus propose that, in addition to the well-known “binding hierarchy”, a second correlation needs to be recognized in the typology of complementation: the co-variation of linear order and morphosyntactic structure.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The present work consists of an investigation into the form and function(s) of the so-called 'Left Dislocation' construction in Biblical Hebrew. As such, this inquiry is part of a larger domain of research that explores the nature and function of word order variation in Biblical Hebrew. As a result of a pilot study conducted by the present author in 2010, as well as recent advances within the feilds of cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, and discoursepragmatics— particularly with its sub-discipline known as information structure—a fresh examination of Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew is called for. Drawing on research from the aforementioned feilds of study, we propose a cognitive-functional theoretical model that provides a framework for a more comprehensive explanation of Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew. Furthermore, this work situates Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew against a broader profile of Left Dislocation across langauges. This is accomplished by examining the findings of a range of cross-linguistic studies—with respect to a variety of related and unrelated languages—that are concerned with both the syntactico-semantic and discourse-functional attributes of Left Dislocation. Typological generalizations drawn from these studies are then applied to the identification, classification, and explanation of a data set comprised of over 650 tokens taken from Genesis to 2 Kings. The result of this analysis is twofold. First, a thorough description is provided in terms of the external (i.e. global) and internal syntactico-semantic attributes of tokens comprising the data set. Consistent with typological findings, the data set reflects a taxonomic network of constructional schemas that are classified according to an exemplar model of conceptual categorization. Second, utilizing a cognitive-theoretical model, as well as insights garnered from crosslinguistic studies, the aforementioned syntactico-semantic description is explained in terms of the cognitive-pragmatic motivation for the use of Left Dislocation in BH narrative discourse, as well as the prototypical and non-prototypical discourse function(s) accomplished by the construction therein. Lastly, a developmental framework is proposed that accounts for the form-function variation exhibited by the tokens in our data set. This framework consists of broader developmental processes involving usage-based patterns of language change, as well as a 'panchronic' view of grammar, where synchrony and diachrony are viewed as an integrated whole, and where grammars are always emergent and never completely established. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werk verteenwoordig 'n ondersoek na die vorm en funksie(s) van die sogenaamde linksverskuiwingkonstruksie in Bybelse Hebreeus. Dit vorm deel van 'n groter navorsingsinisiatief wat gemoeid is met die ondersoek na die aard en funksie van woordorde-variasies in Bybelse Hebreeus. In die lig van 'n loodsstudie wat in 2010 deur die outeur gedoen is, asook die vooruitgang wat gemaak is op die gebiede van kognitiewe taalkunde, psigolinguistiek en tekspragmatiek—veral in die subdissipline, informasiestruktuur—is ‘n herbesinnig oor linksverskuiwingkonstruksies Bybelse Hebreeus nodig. Gebaseer op die voorafgenoemde studievelde word 'n kognitief-funksionele teoretiese model voorgestel wat as raamwerk sal dien vir 'n meer omvattende verduideliking van linksverskuiwingkonstruksies in Bybelse Hebreeus. Hierdie ondersoek oor linksverskuiwing in Bybelse Hebreeus word gedoen teen die agtergrond van die profiel van linksverskuiwing oor tale heen. Dit word vermag deur die bevindings van 'n wye reeks taalkundige studies—op verskeie verwante en onverwante tale— wat gemoeid is met beide die sintakties-semanties en diskoersfunksionele eienskappe van linksverskuiwing, te ondersoek. Uit die ondersoek word tipologiese veralgemenings verkry wat dan gebruik word vir die identifisering, klassifikasie en verduideliking van 'n stel data wat bestaan uit 650 voorbeelde wat verkry is uit Genesis tot 2 Konings. Die resultate van hierdie analise is tweeledig. Eerstens word 'n uitvoerige beskrywing, in terme van die eksterne (of globale) en interne sintakties-semantiese eienskappe van die voorbeelde binne die datastel, verskaf. Die datastel reflekteer, aan die hand van taaltipologiese bevindinge, 'n taksonomiese netwerk van konstruksieskemas wat geklassifiseer is volgens 'n eksemplaarmodel van konsepsionele kategorisering. Tweedens, deur gebruik te maak van 'n kognitief-teoretiese model, tesame met insigte verkry deur studies oor tale heen, word die voorafgenoemde sintakties-semantiese beskrywing verduidelik in terme van die kognitief-pragmatiese motivering vir die gebruik van linksverskuiwing in Bybels-Hebreeuse narratiewe diskoers. Ook die prototipiese en nieprototipiese diskoersfunksie(s) van die konstruksie kom aan die bod. Laastens word 'n raamwerk voorgestel om die vorm-funksies variasies van die voorbeelde in die datastel as ontwikkelingsstadia te verklaar. Die raamwerk berus op ontwikkelingsprosesse wat tipies in gebruiksgebaseerde modelle van taalvariasie-tendense onderskei word. Verder gaan dit ook uit van 'n pankroniese siening van grammatika waarin diakronie en sinkronie as 'n geïntegreerde geheel gesien word en die grammatika van taal as 'n dinamiese entiteit beskou word. Dit stabliseer nooit volledig nie.

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This thesis evaluates the translation quality of phrase-based machine translation system. It explains the translation error annotation scheme to manually annotate errors related to English to Urdu translation system. The primary goal of the thesis is to experiment with different heuristic in order to improve the translation quality based on through manual analysis of 200 test sentences. Different hueristics such as (1) pre-processing of input English, such as word reordering, (2) preprocessing the training corpus in order to improve word alignment, (3) using additional factors (in Moses factored translation) to better model target-side morphological coherence are applied and their impact on the translation quality is evaluated.

The subject matter of the diploma thesis is the bare noun phrase and its referential properties with focus to (in)definiteness. The aim is to present an empirical evaluation of factors that influence the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases in Czech. The first part of the thesis recounts on existing theories of reference and definiteness, both in general and with focus to Czech as a language without obligatory determination. Our basic assumption is that the interpretation of definiteness of bare noun phrases is based on their position within a syntactic and semantic sentence structure, topic-focus articulation and word- or situational context. We focus on the relation between definiteness and an absolute position within a sentence, a verb-relative position and modification of the NP. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The aim of this dissertation is to study differences and correspondences in the syntactic structures in two Danish translations of the Bible which were made in two fundamentally different times; this means in the first complete translation of the Bible into Danish, the so-called Christian III Bible from the year 1550, and in the contemporary translation of the Bible from the year 1992. The studied corpus is represented by the Gospel of John. The main areas of research are word order in main clauses and subordinate clauses, and use of conujunctions in chosen types of subordinate clauses. The work points out the possible influence of its translation template, the Luther Bible from the the year 1545, on the syntax of the Christian III Bible. Key terms: Christian III Bible, 1992 Bible, conjunctions, word order, syntax, diachrony

The subject of the presented paper is the analysis of the position of scene-setting adverbials based on parallel texts. The aim of the study is to find out the most typical position for placing of such adverbials realized by verbless construction and to determine the factors influencing the position in both languages with respect to differences between the Czech and English word order. The theory is based on the functional approach described in Brno linguistic school and is applied to 200 examples from the corpus Intercorp. Out of the given number of examples, exactly one hundred tokens belong to the translation direction from En to Cz and the second half to the opposite direction of translation. With respect to the English word order, which takes over some of the grammatical functions resulting in relative rigidity, scene-setting adverbials are usually placed in the final position. However, it is assumed that most languages have a tendency to place the most important information to the end of the sentence. It follows that one of the goals of this work is to describe the factors allowing these adverbials to be placed in this position with no effect on the communicative dynamism of the adverbials themselves as well as on other sentence elements. The term 'scene-setting' suggests that these adverbials...

This thesis focuses on the description of the three basic aspects of the word order in the Czech Sign Language in the contrast with the spoken Czech Language. On the basis of the empiric research the prototypical word order is described for the declarative sentences, topicalization and the order of the signs in the nominal phrase in the Czech Sign Language. The research consists of the video material recording 15 native speakers of the Czech Sign Language of various age. The results are compared with the situation in the three other sign languages - the American, British and Australian Sign Language. The part of this piece of work is a DVD containing particular excerpted examples of utterances, which the deaf signers have used in the research.