This study examines the interaction between language experience and Spanish morphosyntactic development using longitudinal data of Spanish-English bilingual children with typical language development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). Specifically, this study explores how language exposure and usage influence the production accuracy of articles, direct object clitics and subjunctives across 4 years. Analyses of growth trajectories show that the trajectories differ by both language ability groups and morphosyntactic structures. Among the three grammatical markers, the TD group demonstrates different patterns of growth while the DLD group demonstrates consistent ascending trajectories. The accuracy of articles is the highest in all three markers across 4 years for both TD and DLD groups. The accuracy of direct object clitics in the DLD group increases over time while it decreases slightly in the TD group. The accuracy of subjunctives increases in both TD and DLD groups, but the increase was higher in the DLD group than in the TD group. Results of the generalized linear model (GLM) of the accuracy of three grammatical markers indicate that the contributing factors differ by the marker: language exposure, language usage, language ability group and grade level have significant effects on accuracy of articles; language ability group is the only contributing factor to the production accuracy of direct object clitics; and language exposure, language ability group and grade level significantly influence the production accuracy of subjunctives. Results of the GLM of accuracy at the fourth assessment time also reveal that contributing factors to accuracy of fourth-year performance differ by grammatical markers: a significant effect of accuracy at first observation time for articles and direct object clitics, a significant effect of baseline accuracy for articles and subjunctives, and a significant effect of language ability for subjunctives. These results confirm that articles, direct object clitics and subjunctives are reliable markers of language impairment for Spanish-English bilingual children. This study also describes the specific influence of language experience within the language ability group and grade level. The influence of language experience on production accuracy differs by language ability group and morphosyntactic structures. / Communication Sciences

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La présente thèse a pour but d'étudier l'apprentissage morphosyntaxique du français comme langue seconde (L2). Elle cherche à examiner l'hypothèse proposée par certains modèles linguistiques et neurocognitifs selon laquelle les difficultés observées chez des bilingues tardifs à maitriser les connaissances morphosyntaxiques en L2 peuvent s'expliquer par un échec lors de la représentation mentale et le traitement de l'information morphosyntaxique, en comparaison avec les locuteurs natifs. Ainsi, les travaux présentés dans cette thèse utilisent des mesures électrophysiologiques afin de déterminer si ces difficultés sont associées (a) à la réalisation phonologique des inflexions morphologiques de la langue cible et (b) à l'interférence de la langue maternelle (L1). Les résultats démontrent que les apprenants tardifs sont capables d'acquérir des représentations morphosyntaxiques similaires à celle des locuteurs natifs. Nous avons également montré que l'information phonologique comprise dans les inflexions morphologiques joue un rôle important dans l'apprentissage morphosyntaxique en L2. Ces résultats nous ont permis de conclure que la capacité des apprenants bilingues à traiter l'information morphosyntaxique en L2 est moins influencée par la L1 à un niveau avancé d'apprentissage, tout en restant affectée par les propriétés morphosyntaxiques de la langue cible. De plus, ces résultats plaident en faveur des modèles linguistiques et neurocognitifs qui postulent que le traitement morphosyntaxique chez les bilingues avancés implique les même processus cognitifs que ceux des locuteurs natifs. / This thesis investigates morphosyntactic learning in adult second language (L2) learners of French. It examines the assumption posited by linguistic and neurocognitive models according to which L2 learners' difficulty in fully mastering morphosyntactic knowledge is due to a failure to mentally represent and process morphosyntactic information in a native-like manner. The series of experiments presented in this thesis use ERPs to investigate whether the difficulties that late L2 learners encounter in processing morphosyntactic agreement can be explained by (a) the phonological realization of inflectional morphology in the target language and (b) interference from the learners' native language (L1). The findings demonstrate that late L2 learners can achieve native-like processing of morphosyntactic knowledge at high levels of proficiency, regardless of the status of the morphosyntactic system in their L1. In addition, we provide evidence that phonological information contained in inflectional morphology plays an important role in the acquisition and processing of morphosyntactic agreement in L2. It is thus argued that L2 learners' processing of morphosyntactic agreement is less influenced by the L1 at high levels of proficiency, while still being potentially affected by the specific morphosyntactic properties of the target language. These findings give further support to linguistic and neurocognitive models positing that morphosyntactic processing in adult L2 learners involves mental representations and cognitive mechanisms similar to those used by native speakers.

Title: Valency of verbs in the Prague Dependency Treebank Author: PhDr. Zdeňka Urešová Department: Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics MFF UK Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Eva Hajičová, DrSc. Abstract: This dissertation describes PDT-Vallex, a valency lexicon of Czech verbs, and its relation to the annotation of the Prague Dependency Treebank (PDT). The PDT-Vallex lexicon was created during the an- notation of the PDT and it is a valuable source of verbal valency information available both for linguistic research and for computer- ized natural language processing. In this thesis, we describe not only the structure and design of the lexicon (which is closely related to the notion of valency as developed in the Functional Generative De- scription of language) but also the relation between the PDT-Vallex and the PDT. The explicit and full-coverage linking of the lexicon to the treebank prompted us to pay special attention to diatheses; we propose formal transformation rules for diatheses to handle their surface realization even when the canonical forms of verb arguments as captured in the lexicon do not correspond to the forms of these arguments actually appearing in the corpus.

En este trabajo analizamos distintas estrategias morfosintácticas de codificación de evidencialidad y modalidad epistémica en toba del este y del oeste de Formosa, Argentina, desde la perspectiva tipológico-funcional (Chafe 1986; Bybee et al. 1994; Givón 2001; De Haan 2001, 2005; Aikhenvald 2004; etc.). En toba del este, se describe un evidencial de tipo reportativo a partir de una forma fosilizada del verbo ‘decir’, y el uso de dos adverbios de modalidad epistémica: ʔegoʔ~ʔekoʔ ‘parece que’ e yataqta ‘es cierto’. En toba del oeste, se analiza el uso de las raíces demostrativas más el prefijo ho-, pospuestas al elemento modificado (nombre, verbo, adverbio, o cláusula), como una estrategia de codificación de modalidad epistémica, específicamente de baja certeza subjetiva. / This paper analyzes morphosyntactic strategies that encode evidentiality and epistemic modality in eastern and western Toba (Formosa, Argentina), from the functional typological perspective (Chafe 1986; Bybee et al. 1994; Givón 2001; De Haan 2001, 2005; Aikhenvald 2004; etc.). In eastern Toba, a reportative derived from a grammaticalyzed ‘say’-verb, and the use of two epistemic adverbs –ʔegoʔ~ʔekoʔ ‘apparently’ and yataqta ‘certainly’– are described. In western Toba, demonstrative roots plus the prefix ho-, after the modified element (noun, verb, adverb, or clause), are analyzed as a strategy of encoding epistemic modality, specifically low subjective certainty.

The aim of this study was to identify the strategies used to render the literary dialect in A State of Independence into the Swedish translation. In order to systematically study the translation solutions, a number of ‘coupled pairs’ consisting of source text ‘problems’ and target text ‘solutions’ were extracted from the original text and the translation. The ‘coupled pairs’ were then analysed in order to detect regularities in the translation solutions. The study showed that the major strategy used by the translator was the use of ‘eye-dialect’, i.e. non-standard spellings that simulate non-standard speech. Moreover, some passages in the translation had been standardised, whereas eye-dialectal spellings were found in other passages where the original did not contain any non-standard features. Finally, a comparative count of dialectally marked utterances in both texts was made. The count showed that the dialectal markers were in the majority in the translation, which might indicate that the translator has tried to compensate for the lack of equivalent target language features.

nÃo hà / Esta tese à a compilaÃÃo, anotaÃÃo morfossintÃtica e anÃlise linguÃstico-computacional de um corpus de textos literÃrios dos sÃc. XIX e XX: o Corpus Coelho Netto (CCN), contendo textos dos romances A Conquista e TurbilhÃo e contos do livro SertÃo. O trabalho està na interface da LinguÃstica de Corpus e da LinguÃstica Computacional (BERBER SARDINHA, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009; BERBER SARDINHA; ALMEIDA, 2008; OLIVEIRA, 2009; BIDERMAN, 1998, 2001; ALUÃSIO; ALMEIDA, 2006; SHEPHERD, 2012; MACENERY E WILSON, 2001; LEECH, 2004; ALVES; TAGNIN, 2012; ALENCAR, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011a, 2011b, 2013a, 2013b). O CCN contÃm 53.080 (cinquenta e trÃs mil e oitenta) tokens (pontuaÃÃo e palavras). A compilaÃÃo consiste nas etapas de seleÃÃo, coleta de textos e manipulaÃÃo; nesta sÃo realizadas a limpeza, ediÃÃo e atualizaÃÃo dos textos (ALUÃSIO; ALMEIDA, 2006), para depois ser submetido à anotaÃÃo morfossintÃtica e anÃlise linguÃstico-computacional, com o objetivo de obter dados que comprovem ou nÃo o uso âexcessivoâ de adjetivos, de verbos e de advÃrbios em âmente, demonstrando a diversidade lexical nos textos de Coelho Netto, constatando se o que a crÃtica modernista dizia a respeito do escritor era procedente. A anotaÃÃo morfossintÃtica foi realizada pelo etiquetador automÃtico Aelius, modelo AeliusHunPos, um software livre em Python que utiliza a biblioteca Natural Language Toolkit â NLTK (BIRD; KLEIN; LOPER, 2009), no prÃ-processamento de textos, na construÃÃo de etiquetador morfossintÃtico e na anotaÃÃo de corpora com auxÃlio de revisÃo humana (ALENCAR, 2010a, 2013a, 2013b), e que foi treinado no Corpus HistÃrico do PortuguÃs Tycho Brahe (CHPTB). A compilaÃÃo e anotaÃÃo do CCN envolve outras aÃÃes como a reavaliaÃÃo da acurÃcia desse etiquetador em textos literÃrios. Os resultados da pesquisa revelaram que: o AeliusHunpos ao anotar os textos do CCN demonstrou maior acurÃcia que em outros textos jà anotados, de 97,9%; que o modelo AeliusHunPos mostrou um desempenho muito alÃm ao anotar os corpora que com o modelo AeliusMaxEnt; e que, apÃs a seleÃÃo e correÃÃo manual dos 10% dos corpora anotados e gerados arquivos padrÃo gold, sugerimos um melhoramento dos aproximados 3% de erros cometidos pelo etiquetador, visando o aumento de sua acurÃcia. Quanto Ãs analises realizadas com os dados obtidos no CCN constatamos que: a diversidade lexical, especificamente quanto a verbos, adjetivos e advÃrbios em âmente, declarada como exagerada pela crÃtica à Coelho Netto nÃo procede, pois seus textos sÃo ricos, mas quando comparados aos textos de AluÃsio Azevedo e Camilo Castelo Branco, o Corpus de ComparaÃÃo, apresentam riqueza vocabular similar ao CCN, como expostos nos resultados. / This thesis is the compilation, morphosyntactic annotation and linguistic and computational analysis of a corpus of literary texts of 19th and 20th centuries: Corpus Coelho Netto (CCN), containing texts of the novels A Conquista and TurbilhÃo and short stories of the book SertÃo. The work is in the Corpus Linguistics and Computational Linguistics interface (BERBER SARDINHA, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009; BERBER SARDINHA; ALMEIDA, 2008; OLIVEIRA, 2009; BIDERMAN, 1998, 2001; ALUÃSIO; ALMEIDA, 2006; SHEPHERD, 2012; MACENERY AND WILSON, 2001; LEECH, 2004; ALVES; TAGNIN, 2012; ALENCAR, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011a, 2011b, 2013a, 2013b). The CCN contains 53.080 (fifty-three thousand and eighty) tokens. The compilation consists of the steps selection, collection off texts and handling; in which cleaning, editing and updating of texts (ALUÃSIO; ALMEIDA, 2006), and then be submitted to the morphosyntactic annotation and linguistic-computational analysis, with the goal of obtaining data to show whether or not the "excessive" use of adjectives, verbs and adverbs in ââmenteâ, demonstrating the lexical diversity in Coelho NettoÂs texts, noting if what the modernist critics said about the writer was correct. The annotation was performed by automatic tagger Aelius, AeliusHunPos model, free software in Python that uses the Natural Language Toolkit â NLTK library (BIRD; KLEIN; LOPER, 2009), in the pre-processing of texts, in the construction of morphosyntactic tagger and the automatic annotation of corpora with the help of human review (ALENCAR, 2010a, 2013a, 2013b), and it was trained in the Historical Corpus of Tycho Brahe Portuguese (CHPTB). The compilation and annotation CCN involves other actions such as revaluation the accuracy of this tagger in literary texts. The search results indicated that: AeliusHunpos demonstrated better performance than other texts already noted (97.9 %); AeliusHunPos model showed a far beyond performance by annotating corpora with AeliusMaxEnt model; and that, after selection and manual correction of 10% annotated corpora and generated gold standard files, it is suggested an improvement of the approximate 3% of errors by the tagger, in order to increase its accuracy. Regarding the analyzes performed with the CCN, it was found that: lexical diversity - about verbs, adjectives and adverbs in ââmenteâ considered exaggerated by critics to Coelho Netto unfounded, because his texts are rich, but when compared to the texts by AluÃsio Azevedo and Camilo Castelo Branco, comparison of corpus, present vocabulary richness similar to CCN, as exposed in the results.

Esta Tese, intitulada Análise morfossintática das construções-Q no português falado em Cabo Verde (PCV), consiste na primeira descrição e análise morfossintática do grupo de construções denominada na literatura como construções-Wh e seus respectivos subgrupos construções relativas, interrogativas-Wh e construções clivadas no português falado em Cabo Verde (doravante PCV). A descrição e análise apresentadas são: (i) feitas a partir de um conjunto de corpora inéditos, coletados durante três trabalhos de campo, realizados de acordo com as técnicas da linguística de campo; e (ii) embasadas na Teoria da Gramática, sob a perspectiva minimalista de derivação por fases phases (CHOMSKY, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008). Os resultados obtidos corroboram a proposta inicial de que: (i) os falantes caboverdianos possuem diferentes graus de competência linguística em PCV. Esta variedade linguística ainda que não língua primeira dos caboverdianos, entra para vida destes, ainda que apenas nas competências auditiva e perceptiva, desde a primeira infância; (ii) o processo de educação formal desenvolve, posteriormente, as competências leitura e escrita, buscando aproximar a gramática do PCV da do Português Europeu, em um processo que gera resultados diferentes, a nível individual, dependendo do grau de uso do PCV pelo falante caboverdiano; (iii) a análise das construções-Wh corroboram o PCV como uma variedade autóctone da língua portuguesa em formação, em estreita relação de contato linguístico e cuja origem pode ser traçada como sendo concomitante ao crioulo caboverdiano (doravante CCV); (iv) nos aspectos gramaticais em que o PCV se diverge do PE, ainda que convergentes com o CCV, não podem ser tomadas, categoricamente, como casos de transferências do CCV para o PCV, pois tais fenômenos são observados também em outras variedades da língua portuguesa no mundo. Na parte de análise são apresentadas propostas derivacionais para as relativas, interrogativas-Wh e construções clivadas. No que diz respeito às clivadas, é feita uma proposta derivacional monoclausal, que consiste na reformulação da proposta apresentada por um grupo de pesquisadores que divergem da proposta tradicional que se vê na literatura para esse tipo de sentenças. / This Thesis, entitled \"Morphosyntactic analysis of the Wh-constructions in the Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde (PCV)\", consists of the first morphosyntactic description and analysis of a group of construction called Wh-construction in the literature and their subgroups relative constructions, Wh-interrogatives and cleft constructions in the Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde Islands (hereinafter PCV). The analysis and description presented are: (i) done from a set of an original group of corpora collected during three field works, carried out in accordance with the techniques of field linguistics; and (ii) based on Grammar Theory, under the minimalist perspective of derivation by phases - (Chomsky, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008). The results obtained corroborate the initial proposal that: (i) the Cape Verdean speakers present different degrees of linguistic competence in PCV. This linguistic variety, although not the first language of the Cape Verdeans, enters their lives, although only in the auditory and perceptive skills, from early childhood; (ii) the formal education process later develops the reading and writing skills, aiming to bring the grammar of the PCV closer to European Portuguese, in a process that generates different results at the individual level, depending on the degree of use of the PCV by the Cape Verdean speaker; (iii) The analysis of the Wh-constructions corroborate the PCV as an autochthonous variety of the Portuguese language in formation, in close relation of linguistic contact and whose origin can be traced as concomitant with that of the CCV; (iv) with regards to the grammatical aspects in which the PCV diverges from the Europiam Portuguese, although convergent with the CVC, cannot be taken categorically as cases of \'transfer\' from the CCV to the PCV, since such phenomena are also observed in other varieties of the Portuguese language in the world. In the part of analysis are presented derivational proposals for the relative, interrogatives-Wh and cleft constructions. With regard to the clefts, a derivational monoclausal proposal is made, which consists of the reformulation of the proposal presented by a group of researchers that diverge from the traditional proposal that is seen in the literature for this type of sentences.

The aim of this study was to investigate the morphosyntactic development of Grundvux learners (adult learners who study school subjects at elementary school levels in Sweden) of English with the aid of Processability theory, or PT, and to investigate the potential influence of exposure to English outside school and the participants' highest completed formal education on the participants' morphosyntactic levels. The participants of this study were Grundvux learners who studied English either on National Course 2, 3, or 4. This study also investigated how similar or different Course 2, 3 and 4 participants were when it comes to their highest attained PT-levels. The participants described a picture series and answered questions about their highest completed education from their home countries and how much they tend to be exposed to English on a weekly basis outside school. The results show that Course 2, 3 and 4 participants have both similarities and differences regarding their highest attained PT-levels. The results also show that there could be a possible connection between educational background and morphosyntactic development, i.e. that educational background can have a solid influence on morphosyntactic development. Furthermore, this study shows that a connection between exposure to English outisde school and morphosyntactic development is not likely. Yet, more research with more participants and tasks with different instructions are needed to draw definitie conclusions about the effects of exposure to English outside school and highest completed education on learners' morphosyntactic development. Lastly, this study provides some information to in-service teachers about what morphosyntactic structures to teach and when based on the learners' highest attained PT-levels.

Esta Tese, intitulada Análise morfossintática das construções-Q no português falado em Cabo Verde (PCV), consiste na primeira descrição e análise morfossintática do grupo de construções denominada na literatura como construções-Wh e seus respectivos subgrupos construções relativas, interrogativas-Wh e construções clivadas no português falado em Cabo Verde (doravante PCV). A descrição e análise apresentadas são: (i) feitas a partir de um conjunto de corpora inéditos, coletados durante três trabalhos de campo, realizados de acordo com as técnicas da linguística de campo; e (ii) embasadas na Teoria da Gramática, sob a perspectiva minimalista de derivação por fases phases (CHOMSKY, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008). Os resultados obtidos corroboram a proposta inicial de que: (i) os falantes caboverdianos possuem diferentes graus de competência linguística em PCV. Esta variedade linguística ainda que não língua primeira dos caboverdianos, entra para vida destes, ainda que apenas nas competências auditiva e perceptiva, desde a primeira infância; (ii) o processo de educação formal desenvolve, posteriormente, as competências leitura e escrita, buscando aproximar a gramática do PCV da do Português Europeu, em um processo que gera resultados diferentes, a nível individual, dependendo do grau de uso do PCV pelo falante caboverdiano; (iii) a análise das construções-Wh corroboram o PCV como uma variedade autóctone da língua portuguesa em formação, em estreita relação de contato linguístico e cuja origem pode ser traçada como sendo concomitante ao crioulo caboverdiano (doravante CCV); (iv) nos aspectos gramaticais em que o PCV se diverge do PE, ainda que convergentes com o CCV, não podem ser tomadas, categoricamente, como casos de transferências do CCV para o PCV, pois tais fenômenos são observados também em outras variedades da língua portuguesa no mundo. Na parte de análise são apresentadas propostas derivacionais para as relativas, interrogativas-Wh e construções clivadas. No que diz respeito às clivadas, é feita uma proposta derivacional monoclausal, que consiste na reformulação da proposta apresentada por um grupo de pesquisadores que divergem da proposta tradicional que se vê na literatura para esse tipo de sentenças. / This Thesis, entitled \"Morphosyntactic analysis of the Wh-constructions in the Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde (PCV)\", consists of the first morphosyntactic description and analysis of a group of construction called Wh-construction in the literature and their subgroups relative constructions, Wh-interrogatives and cleft constructions in the Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde Islands (hereinafter PCV). The analysis and description presented are: (i) done from a set of an original group of corpora collected during three field works, carried out in accordance with the techniques of field linguistics; and (ii) based on Grammar Theory, under the minimalist perspective of derivation by phases - (Chomsky, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008). The results obtained corroborate the initial proposal that: (i) the Cape Verdean speakers present different degrees of linguistic competence in PCV. This linguistic variety, although not the first language of the Cape Verdeans, enters their lives, although only in the auditory and perceptive skills, from early childhood; (ii) the formal education process later develops the reading and writing skills, aiming to bring the grammar of the PCV closer to European Portuguese, in a process that generates different results at the individual level, depending on the degree of use of the PCV by the Cape Verdean speaker; (iii) The analysis of the Wh-constructions corroborate the PCV as an autochthonous variety of the Portuguese language in formation, in close relation of linguistic contact and whose origin can be traced as concomitant with that of the CCV; (iv) with regards to the grammatical aspects in which the PCV diverges from the Europiam Portuguese, although convergent with the CVC, cannot be taken categorically as cases of \'transfer\' from the CCV to the PCV, since such phenomena are also observed in other varieties of the Portuguese language in the world. In the part of analysis are presented derivational proposals for the relative, interrogatives-Wh and cleft constructions. With regard to the clefts, a derivational monoclausal proposal is made, which consists of the reformulation of the proposal presented by a group of researchers that diverge from the traditional proposal that is seen in the literature for this type of sentences.