This thesis sets out to test the Full Transfer Full Access hypothesis (FTFA), which claims (i) that second language (L2) learners start out with the parameter settings instantiated in their first language (L1) grammars ('full transfer') and (ii) that they can subsequently reset parameters to the target L2 settings where these differ from the L1 settings, provided the required (triggering) positive evidence is available in the L2 input ('full access'). / Three studies on the L2 acquisition of two verb movement parameters, the V2 parameter and the Split-IP parameter (SIP), are reported. The first study investigates 'full access', testing whether English-speaking learners of Afrikaans, who started acquiring the L2 in early childhood and are thus child L2 learners, can reset the two parameters. The second study investigates 'full transfer' and 'full access' by testing whether English-speaking and German-speaking learners start out with different settings of the two parameters and whether the English-speaking learners can reset the parameters. All participants in this study are adult L2 learners, which facilitates a comparison of child L2 acquisition (first study) with adult L2 acquisition. The third study investigates whether Afrikaans-speaking learners of French can acquire knowledge of the ungrammaticality of certain construction types that are allowed in their L1 but not in the L2 (although the languages share the same parameter setting), despite the fact that there seems to be no positive evidence to this effect in the L2 input. It is argued that, taken together, the studies provide evidence in support of the FTFA. / The original contribution of this thesis lies in (i) investigating both verb movement parameters (instead of only one), (ii) providing a thorough discussion of the relevant syntactic properties of Afrikaans, (iii) investigating the L2 acquisition of Afrikaans, and (iv) addressing the question of how learners go about acquiring a parameter setting ([+SIP]) in cases where both the L1 and the L2 share the parameter setting but the L1 exhibits a superset of the properties exhibited by the L2.

This thesis provides and discusses a comprehensive collection of empirical data that show that many languages of the world manifest long A-movement of the subjects of embedded finite clauses to the subject position (Hyperraising) or object position (Hyper-ECM) of the main clause. The main theoretical claim of the thesis is that all these instances of long A-movement leave behind resumptive pronouns and should therefore be analysed on a par with related Copy Raising and Copy ECM constructions. My thesis therefore demonstrates that resumption is not restricted to Abar movement contexts, but is also attested in A-movement constructions. Instead of the various language-particular analyses previously proposed in the literature, the thesis focuses on those aspects of long A-movement that all respective constructions in the different languages have in common and therefore provides a unified crosslinguisic analysis of long A-movement constructions. An important empirical generalisation, first noted by Ura (1994), which is empirically supported by the data discussed in this thesis, is that if a language has Hyperraising or Hyper-ECM, it is also a pro-drop language. On the basis of this generalisation, it is argued that Hyperraising and Hyper-ECM constructions involve the use of resumptive pro in the embedded subject position, while languages with Copy Raising and Copy ECM use overt pronouns. Apart from this difference, it is argued that these Amovement constructions are identical in all crucial respects. Furthermore, it is claimed that agreement inside the embedded finite clauses from which long A-movement takes place is indicative of the ability of embedded T to license nominative case on the embedded subject. Hence, no deviation from standard Minimalist assumptions is required. It is suggested that the role of the resumptive subject pronoun is to receive the case assigned by the probing T-head inside the embedded clause. It is also argued that it is the existence of a resumptive pronoun which causes the coreferential subject DP to be without case, which in turn creates a context in which long A-movement of this DP becomes both necessary and possible. This analysis is based on the idea that at first merge, the raised subject is merged with the null/overt resumptive pronoun in the embedded subject position to form one vii complex constituent (which is known in the literature as a „big? DP). While the pronoun remains in the embedded subject position to absorb the case in the embedded finite clause, the raised subject is attracted into the matrix subject position to absorb the case in the matrix clause. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011

This dissertation explores, within the general framework of Distributed Morphology, the licensing conditions of empty nouns in Persian, a Western Iranian language, and the issues that arise within this context for the distribution of plural marking and the insertion of the Ezafe vowel. With respect to the licensing of the empty noun, the proposal made in this thesis is along the lines of those that link ellipsis to information structure (e.g. Rooth 1992a, 1992b; Gengel 2007, among others). It is suggested that the Empty Noun Construction (ENC) is derived through the interaction between the following two information-structural features: (i) the E(llipsis)-feature, which ensures that the head noun is identical with its counterpart in the antecedent and specifies the head noun for non-pronunciation; (ii) the F(ocus)-feature, which specifies the remnant modifier as an element which is in some kind of contrastive relationship with its corresponding element in the antecedent. The interaction between these two features is implemented in the syntax in a phase-based derivation. Plural marking and Ezafe insertion in the ENC are accounted for within an articulated derivational model of PF (Embick & Noyer 2001; Embick 2003 et seq.; Pak 2008). It is proposed that the displacement of the plural marker in the ENC is motivated by the non-pronunciation of the head noun and is handled early in the PF derivation by Local Dislocation operation. Adopting Pak's (2008) model of syntax-phonology interface, the rule responsible for the insertion of the Ezafe linker -e is argued to be a phonological rule that applies at the Late-Linearization stage to connect [+N] heads to their following modifiers/complements.

This thesis examines the variety of English spoken in East Dorm at Harvey Mudd College. It describes aspects of the syntax and phonology of Eastspeak, focusing in particular on how Eastspeak has been influenced by the language of the internet. This includes tendencies toward brevity and language play, as well as the use of specific constructions used on the internet, and playful pronunciations that are influenced by creative misspellings used online. Specific Eastspeak phenomena discussed include conversion, deletion, and unusual determiner and quantifier use.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with the connection between syntax and semantics regarding the construction of special meaning in English. To investigate this construction I have taken a selection of English idioms, modified them in structured ways and then presented them to a group of English mother tongue speakers to test whether, although modified, these idioms retain their idiomaticity. These modifications took the form of two specific operations, those of mobility and transferability (the latter operation was created for the purpose of this thesis). An idiom’s parts are considered mobile if its parts can undergo movement and retain an idiomatic reading. In this thesis, the movement operation that I was concerned with was passivisation. An idiom’s parts are considered transferable if one of its parts can be replaced (e.g. the verb with another verb or the object determiner phrase with another determiner phrase) and idiomaticity is retained. I hypothesise that whether an idiom’s parts are transferable and mobile is dependent on whether the idiom is compositional or not. I will discuss the above hypothesis against previous work of both Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist Program and Jackendoff’s (1997) representational modularity. The results gained in this study show that idioms cannot be categorised neatly as compositional or non-compositional, but rather exist on a continuum of idiomaticity. On the one end of the continuum exist idioms that are completely inflexible and the rate of flexibility increases the further the continuum extends. Therefore on the one side of the scale is an idiom such as “trip the light fantastic” which is inflexible and on the other side is an idiom such as “I lift my hat to you” which is flexible but in restrained ways. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This thesis has analyzed 50 English compositions written by Japanese college students in order to determine some of the reasons for semantic errors which occur in the student themes. Five major categories of semantic errors were identified: (A) Semantically Wrong Choice of Lexical Items, (B) Omission of Words or Phrases Semantically Necessary, (C) Errors with the Structure of Phrases and Clauses, (D) Words Used in the Wrong Form Class, (E) Errors in Idiomatic Usage. From this analysis, it has been determined that the major cause of error was semantically wrong choice of lexical items, the choice of verbs, determiners, and P-words being particularly troublesome.This analysis also revealed that some of the causes for semantic errors were native language interference, differences in meaning distinctions and scopes of meaning in one language or the other, incomplete knowledge of grammatical and lexical restrictions of words, interference within English itself, and cultural interference. It was also evident that semantic errors related to the teaching methods used in most Japanese secondary schools. Reliance on the grammar-translation method in the junior high and senior high schools did not provide students with enough competence for them to write free compositions at the university level.Finally, this thesis offers brief suggestions on ways a teacher of EFL to Japanese students might teach some of these problem areas and improve the English writing ability of Japanese college level students.

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

Avhandlingens syfte är att ge en grammatisk beskrivning av det indoariska språket palula, ett språk med ca 10000 talare i Chitraldistriktet i Pakistans nordvästprovins. Ingen tidigare studie har presenterat detta hittills mycket litet kända språk i detalj och med den omfattning som detta arbete gör. Det är också en av ett fåtal ingående studier som finns tillgängliga vad gäller språk i hela den omgivande Hindukushregionen. Analysen är baserad på språkdata som företrädesvis insamlats av författaren själv under perioden 1998-2006, huvudsakligen i form av inspelade texter som kompletterats med enkäter, dokumenterad observation av språkanvändning samt elicitering av ordlistor och paradigm. Fältarbetet har utförts i nära samverkan med talare av språket. Beskrivningen omfattar delområdena fonologi, morfologi, syntax och ett antal centrala ämnen inom vart och ett av dessa större områden. Arbetet ska dock inte betraktas som en helt uttömmande referensgrammatik. Somliga ämnen har getts större utrymme, då de ses som speciellt centrala i språket, medan andra behandlas mer summariskt. Förslag till fördjupade studier ges genomgående i verkets olika kapitel och sektioner. Inriktningen som valts är teorimedveten utan att vara teoribunden. Terminologin och det bakomliggande resonemanget anknyter däremot i stora delar till lingvistisk typologi och icke-formell lingvistik. Den diakrona utvecklingen diskuteras i viss utsträckning, i synnerhet inom morfologin. Även jämförelser med andra språk samt referenser till areala företeelser förekommer i den mån de har varit tillgängliga och bedömts som välmotiverade. / This dissertation is intended to provide a grammatical description of the Indo-Aryan language Palula, spoken by approximately 10,000 people in Chitral District in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. No study with the scope and detail of the current work has been presented in the past for this little-known language, and it is one of only a few in-depth studies available for languages in the immediate surrounding of the Hindu Kush region. The analysis is based on original data primarily collected during the period 1998-2006, mainly in the form of recorded texts but supplemented by questionnaires, notes of observed language use and the elicitation of word lists and paradigms. The field work has been conducted in close cooperation with native speakers and their communities. The description covers phonology, morphology, syntax and a range of the most important topics within each of these sub-disciplines, but it is not meant to be an exhaustive reference grammar. Some topics have been given greater prominence in the work, as they have particular importance to the language, whereas others have been covered more summarily. Suggestions for further research that should be undertaken are given throughout the study. The approach chosen is theory-informed rather than theory-driven, but an underlying framework of linguistic typology and non-formalism is assumed. Diachronic development is taken into account, particularly in the area of morphology, and comparisons with other languages and references to areal phenomena are included insofar as they were motivated and available. / <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>

Any community that wants to be part of technological progress has to ensure that the language(s) of that community has/have the necessary human language technology resources. Part of these resources are so-called "core technologies", including part-of-speech taggers. The first part-of-speech tagger for Afrikaans is developed in this research project. It is indicated that three resources (a tag set, a twig algorithm and annotated training data) are necessary for the development of such a part-of-speech tagger. Since none of these resources exist for Afrikaans, three objectives are formulated for this project, i.e. (a) to develop a linpsticdy accurate tag set for Afrikaans; (b) to deter- mine which algorithm is the most effective one to use; and (c) to find an effective method for generating annotated Afrikaans training data. To reach the first objective, a unique and language-specific tag set was developed for Afrikaans. The resulting tag set is relatively big and consists of 139 tags. The level of specificity of the tag set can easily be adjusted to make the tag set smaller and less specific. After the development of the tag set, research is done on different approaches to, and techniques that can be used in, the development of a part-of-speech tagger. The available algorithms are evaluated by means of prerequisites that were set and in doing so, the most effective algorithm for the purposes of this project, TnT, is identified. Bootstrapping is then used to generate training data with the help of the TnT algorithm. This process results in 20,000 correctly annotated words, and thus annotated training data, the hard resource which is necessary for the development of a part-of-speech tagger, is developed. The tagger that is trained with 20,000 words reaches an accuracy of 85.87% when evaluated. The tag set is then simplified to thirteen tags in order to determine the effect that the size of the tag set has on the accuracy of the tagger. The tagger is 93.69% accurate when using the diminished tag set. The main conclusion of this study is that training data of 20,000 words is not enough for the Afrikaans TnT tagger to compete with other state-of-the-art taggers. The tagger and the data that is developed in this project can be used to generate even more training data in order to develop an optimally accurate Afrikaans TnT tagger. Different techniques might also lead to better results; therefore other algorithms should be tested. / Thesis (M.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.