published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study examines the emergence and development of the Cantonese serial verb construction (SVC) in children from 1;03 to 4;06 by investigating the naturalistic data from two longitudinal corpora. This study presents a descriptive account of the emergence and development of SVCs in early child Cantonese, seeks to explain the developmental facts from a constructionist usage-based perspective, and compares the development of SVCs in Cantonese-English bilinguals with that in Cantonese monolinguals. It is found that children start to produce SVCs spontaneously at an early age of 1;10 and that the overall frequency of occurrence is low during the developmental period studied. The early emergence of SVCs is attributed to children’s preference for iconic structures. Four surface forms are identified and shown to emerge with a consistent order: two-verb contiguous (1;10-11) < two-verb non-contiguous (2;00-01) < multi-verb contiguous (2;02) < multi-verb non-contiguous (2;03-06). Structural and conceptual complexities are suggested to be the possible factors that influence the order. The earlier emergence of contiguous forms than non-contiguous forms is explained by the hypothesis that cross-linguistically unmarked structures tend to be acquired earlier than the marked ones (O’Grady 2000). Such a generalization is compatible with constructionist approaches in suggesting cross-linguistic cognitive functional preferences for language processing. Children tend to use certain component verbs that express eight main semantic notions. The study interprets children’s SVCs as concrete instantiations of eight sub-constructions, which are subsumed by a more abstract high level SVC schema. It is observed that sub-constructions develop asynchronously, as the developmental paths of the four more frequently used SVCs (directional, dative, purpose and resultative SVCs) are more advanced than the four less often produced SVCs (instrumental, benefactive, comitative and locative SVCs). Developmental paths of the former are shown to be consistent with Tomasello’s (2003) usage-based account of language development: from concrete expressions, to pivot schemas, then to item-based constructions. However, this study does not have enough data to suggest the emergence of an abstract schema for the high level SVC. It is found that children imitate adults’ previous SVCs and repeat their own spontaneous productions frequently. These highlight the roles of the ambient language and linguistic use to children’s language development. The overall error rates of SVCs are found to be low. The reasons proposed for error production, that are, adult input, generalization from item-based constructions and complexity of target constructions, are considered as evidence to support the constructionist usage-based approach. This study shows that Cantonese-dominant bilinguals resemble Cantonese monolinguals in developing SVCs. Language dominance is invoked to account for the developmental similarities observed. Only a few code-mixed instances are recorded, suggesting limited English influence on Cantonese SVCs. It is argued that SVCs are not a vulnerable domain as they emerge early, and are produced with low error rates, and are not susceptible to English influence. By delineating the patterns of emergence and development of SVCs in child Cantonese and explaining the findings with the constructionist usage-based framework, it is hoped that this study would contribute to our understanding of child language development. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

No description available.

This thesis investigates Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) where two or more finite verbs along with their complements occur in a single clause without any form of coordination or subordination. Two basic questions are addressed: (a) what types of SVCs are there, and how are they to be distinguished from other similar constructions? (b) what is the parameter that allows a language like Edo to have SVCs, and not English or French? / It is argued that true SVCs are those in which the verbs share internal as well as external arguments. Based on a battery of syntactic tests, it is proposed that there are two kinds of SVCs with distinct syntactic structures: resultative and consequential. This is contrary to the unified approach in previous works such as Baker (1989) and Collins (1997). It is argued that resultative SVCs are constrained to two verbs, the second of which is typically unaccusative, and they assign their internal theta roles to a single object---true internal argument sharing. Consequential SVCs are less constrained, and involve sequences of transitive verbs, with internal argument sharing realized via an empty category, pro, as the object of the second verb. Both kinds of SVCs contain two functional heads: an E(vent) head that binds the events denoted by the verbs which it dominates, and a Voice head that licenses the Agent of the events expressed by those verbs. / Some other constructions that have been classified as SVCs turn out to involve two separate clauses, each with their own E(vent) and Voice heads: covert coordinations, modal-aspectual verb constructions, and instrumental constructions. A syntactic structure for each of these non-SVCs is proposed. / Based on Pollock's (1989) approach to verb raising and the checking theory of Chomsky (1993, 1995), it is argued that SVCs can occur in languages where Tense (or other Infl categories) does not need to be checked. The parameter is as follows: non-SVC languages are those in which Infl must check features with the verb {English, French, Igbo, Chinese etc.}, versus SVC languages where it doesn't {Edo, Yoruba, Ewe, Akan etc.}

Thesis (Ph.D. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The aims of the study were to compare connector use and verb phrase use between two achievement groups. The achievement groups comprised the Highs, students whose essays were highly rated (124 essays; word length 59702), and the Lows, students whose essays were rated poorly (126 essays; word length 60524). The analytical frameworks for the analysis of appropriate use were taken from Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan (1999).The analytical frameworks for inappropriate use were designed by the researcher. Connectors comprised circumstance adverbials, linking adverbials, co-ordinators and relativisers. Verb phrase uses comprised all the categories described in Biber, et al. (1999). The analysis entailed counting number of occurrences per use for each achievement group and determining whether difference in use was significant or not by undertaking Log Likelihood calculations using Paul Rayson’s Log Likelihood calculator available online. These also indicate the relative frequency of each use. The results for appropriate connector use revealed that although no significant differences occurred with respect to connector categories, highly/significant differences did occur with regard to specific forms. Regarding inappropriate connector use, results showed that differences between the two achievement groups were overall highly significant, with a substantially higher occurrence of inappropriate uses in the Lows compared to the Highs. The results for appropriate verb phrase use revealed highly/significant differences between the Highs and Lows for several verb phrase categories, such as modal auxiliary use and Perfect Aspect. The results for inappropriate verb phrase use, as was the case for inappropriate connector use, showed highly significant differences between the two achievement groups, with the Lows having a much higher incidence of inappropriate uses than the Highs. The study finally considers the pedagogical implications arising from the results and makes suggestions for course design relating to writing instruction.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Chin Kin-Chung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-201). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abbreviations and Symbols --- p.vi / Abstract (English) --- p.vii / Abstract (Chinese) --- p.viii / Chapter Chapter One --- Characteristics of Compounds: An Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.0 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- General Properties of Compounds --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Lexical Properties --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Phrasal Properties --- p.12 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- Complexity of the Status of Compounds --- p.16 / Chapter 1.2 --- Relation between Morphology and Syntax --- p.16 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Lexicalist Approach --- p.18 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Syntactic Approach --- p.19 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Parallel Approach --- p.20 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- A Note on the Lexicon --- p.21 / Chapter 1.3 --- Research Objectives --- p.24 / Chapter 1.4 --- Summary and Organization of the Thesis --- p.29 / Chapter Chapter Two --- "Notions of Word, Compound and Phrase" --- p.31 / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1 --- Criteria of Wordhood --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2 --- Distinction between Compounds and Phrases --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Introduction --- p.39 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Syntactic Aspect --- p.43 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Semantic Aspect --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Morphological and Phonological Aspects --- p.48 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Summary --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (LIH) --- p.52 / Chapter 2.4 --- Further Consideration on the Nature of Compound --- p.60 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Compounding and Other Combinatory Processes --- p.60 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Status of the Constituents --- p.62 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Degree of Separability --- p.64 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Definitions of Compounds --- p.66 / Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.69 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Issues on Cantonese Verb-Object Compounds (VOCs) --- p.70 / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.70 / Chapter 3.1 --- General Properties of Cantonese VOCs --- p.74 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Meaning --- p.75 / Chapter 3.1.1.1 --- Compositionality of Meaning --- p.75 / Chapter 3.1.1.2 --- Anaphoric Reference --- p.79 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Movement --- p.80 / Chapter 3.1.2.1 --- Topicalization --- p.80 / Chapter 3.1.2.2 --- Passivization --- p.83 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Separability --- p.84 / Chapter 3.1.3.1 --- Semantic Object --- p.85 / Chapter 3.1.3.2 --- Aspect Markers --- p.88 / Chapter 3.1.3.3 --- Duration and Frequency Adverbials --- p.91 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Status of the Cantonese VOCs --- p.94 / Chapter 3.2 --- Analyses of VOCs --- p.96 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- S.-F. Huang (1984) --- p.96 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- C.-T. Huang (1984) --- p.99 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Paul (1988) --- p.103 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Wang (1994) --- p.105 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Her (1997) --- p.110 / Chapter 3.3 --- Existence of Two Types of VOCs in Cantonese --- p.113 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Distinction between Lexical and Phrasal VOCs --- p.113 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Diagnostic Tests for the Lexical-Phrasal VOC Distinction --- p.117 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.120 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Nature and Formation of Cantonese VOCs --- p.121 / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.121 / Chapter 4.1 --- Theoretical Assumptions --- p.123 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Parallel Morphology --- p.123 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Lexical-Semantic and Lexical-Syntactic Representations --- p.134 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Lexical Syntax --- p.139 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- VP Shell --- p.141 / Chapter 4.2 --- Levels of Formation of Cantonese VOCs --- p.143 / Chapter 4.3 --- Mechanism of the Formation Processes --- p.147 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Issue of Transitivity --- p.147 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Formation of Lexical VOCs --- p.154 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Formation of Phrasal VOCs --- p.158 / Chapter 4.4 --- Phenomena in Relation to Cantonese VOCs --- p.161 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Separation of Constituents of Phrasal VOCs --- p.161 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Positions of Aspect Markers --- p.168 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary and Theoretical Consequences --- p.172 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Concluding Remarks --- p.176 / Endnotes --- p.181 / References --- p.191

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis explores the phrasal verb construction ("get off," "takeover") from a previously unexplored vantage point--that of its frequency and variation in terms of contextual or register constraints. Ten separate discourses were used as the corpus for this study, two in each of fiveterms of percentage per pragmatic context, frequency of particular particles and verbs on each level, and other significant pragmatic criteria.