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ESL learners often show great variation in article use. This study proposes that article use can be improved if the semantic feature (non)boundedness is introduced into ELT. This study argues that articles carry highly relevant information that is crucial, together with a number of other elements, for the signalling of aspectual values in English. It is argued that the signalling of aspectual values is the primary role of articles and that if ESL learners receive instruction on this role, they may learn how to signal aspectual values correctly, but also improve their article use thanks to a greater awareness of articles. The paper reports on an experiment conducted to test ESL learners' response to such instruction and concludes that incorporating (non)boundedness into ESL instruction is both reasonable and necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the determiner is to convert a noun to the appropriate semantic type to serve as the argument to the function denoted by the verb. In this paper, we establish a connection between this line of analysis and lines of work in semantics that have developed outside of the domain of idioms, particularly work on incorporation and work that combines formal and distributional semantic modelling. This semantic work separates the composition of descriptive content from that of discourse referent introducing material; our proposal shows that this separation offers a particularly promising way to handle the compositional difficulties posed by idioms, including certain patterns of variation in intervening determiners and modifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ashurbanipal's Prism F inscription contains numerous variant traditions among its individual exemplars. In an article published in 1977, M. Cogan classified the more significant variants as independent recensions of the inscription. However, a reexamination of his seven recensional classes shows that there is in fact only one major recension of this inscription besides the main version of the text, with a few exemplars preserving two additional variant traditions in one episode. Furthermore, with respect to Prism F's compositional history, an examination of this major recension suggests that it may have been the first version of the Prism F inscription that was then edited to become the main version of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a preliminary semantic framework for Dependency Grammar in which lexical words are semantically defined as contextual distributions (sets of contexts) while syntactic dependencies are compositional operations on word distributions. More precisely, any syntactic dependency uses the contextual distribution of the dependent word to restrict the distribution of the head, and makes use of the contextual distribution of the head to restrict that of the dependent word. The interpretation of composite expressions and sentences, which are analyzed as a tree of binary dependencies, is performed by restricting the contexts of words dependency by dependency in a left-to-right incremental way. Consequently, the meaning of the whole composite expression or sentence is not a single representation, but a list of contextualized senses, namely the restricted distributions of its constituent (lexical) words. We report the results of two large-scale corpus-based experiments on two different natural language processing applications: paraphrasing and compositional translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, in the first part, aims at providing a positive answer to the ontological question about fictional objects starting from semantic reflections on the negative existential statements containing terms purporting to refer to such objects and the principle of compositionality. In the second part is proposed a Meinongian account of ficta, showing how it handles the problem of negative existentials without giving up neither the principle of compositionality nor our way of talking about fictional characters in the natural languages. It is also considered a particular kind of Meinongianism, namely Modal Meinongianism which seems to be the best Meinongian theory in order to explore the modal properties of ficta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses case endings, composition, analogy and borrowing for the origin of Latin suffixes in -d- and -es, -itis. From pedes, formed on the model of PIE-inherited types of compounds in simple -t-, the suffix -es, -itis spread by analogy to further nouns. Despite the Etruscan borrowing satelles, an Etruscan origin for this suffix is unlikely. Composition and instrumental case endings are the origin of the suffix in d. From the instrumental case endings this suffix spread by analogy. Some new insights into the etymologies for the discussed compound nouns in -d- (custōs, cuspis, cassis) buttress the composition origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the atomistic conception of language being explored at the book "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," by Ludwig Wittgenstein. It discusses the semantic contextualism being tackled at the book and associates it with the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. The conception of nonsense and the theory of sense are evaluated. It also analyzes the atomistic construal of the compositionality of language by identifying the atomistic view of the meanings of words as well as philosophical theories of language.

The article presents a research on phraseology in language, dictionary, and computer. Particular focus is given to the distinction of the two main families of phrasemes, lexical phrasemes and semantic-lexical phrasemes. It introduces two basic concepts related to phraseology, the compositionality of complex linguistic signs and the pivot of a meaning. The use of the proposed approach to phraseology in Automatic Language Processing is illustrated.

Based on Peircean semiotics, this article connects a certain concept of advertising composition with instinct to demonstrate how a specific type of print advertisement prompts a creative kind of comprehension in its reception. Thus, the article proposes that creativity as a phenomenon in advertising and comprehension may be understood semiotically on the basis of composition and the Peircean guessing instinct. The overarching purpose of the article is to show exactly how a Peircean semiotic approach can contribute to research into compositional and cognitive mechanisms in creative advertising, within the framework of ongoing cognitive research in the advertising tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the polarity and the fixedness of multi-word expression and its complex complementation. It is stated that Can (-ed) not help2 is a verbal word combination that shows semantic opacity up to some extent. It is mentioned that compositionality is a semantic measure that refers to the extent of predictability of the meaning of a whole sentence from the meaning of its component parts.

In this article the authors discuss the importance of coercion in many important theoretical discussions. According to the authors, coerced meaning effects are not expressed by the syntax, due to which coercion has been of crucial importance in maintaining the principle of compositionality. The authors say that coercion phenomena has been a major topic in formal syntax and semantics, and recently, it has been widely discussed in Construction Grammar.

In this article, I address the general mechanisms of argument selection in language, and specifically the role played by type coercion operations in linguistic theory. The view presented here is that compositional mechanisms must be open to more information than just the base type of an expression. Such 'compositional flexibility' in the type that accommodates to the one selected by the verb has been the topic of considerable research recently. In this article, I position how such coercion mechanisms operate in the larger context of general selectional strategies in the grammar. I first outline my assumptions regarding the general theory of type selection, adopting a model of Generative Lexicon Theory (GL). I distinguish between two strategies at work in language, type matching and type coercion, both treated as strong compositional mechanisms. A library of possible coercion operations is defined, as well as apparent constraints on their application in language. I conclude with a discussion of corpus-based experiments based on the formal models of coercion and selection presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the discussion of 'noun + noun compounds' in Semiotica (Bundgaard et al., Semiotica 161: 363-393, 2006, Semiotica 172: 363-393, 2008; Søgaard, Semiotica 168: 189-195, 2008). The approach is through analyzing phrases with several noun or noun-like premodifiers, and through a brief historical outline. It argues (first) that phrases with several nominal premodifiers constitute constructions, with a set order and well-defined semantic relations; and (second) that phrases with a single nominal premodifier grade off from those that invoke a fully conventionalized construction to ad hoc phrases with no conventionalization. It concludes that these constructions have been misunderstood because of a semiotic error: the meaning has been sought only in individual words as signs, whereas there is also meaning in a word's position in the construction, as a sign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the cognitive paradigm have traditionally been discussed against the background of generative grammar, its immediate predecessor. A significantly less researched yet no less interesting relationship is the one between the cognitive and structuralist paradigm. This article focuses on the in part converging, in part diverging semiotic assumptions underlying European structural linguistics and Cognitive Grammar. A comparison of important concepts of both theories (isomorphism, the sign concept, compositionality, and case marking) shows that, although Cognitive Grammar arrives at a more realistic understanding of how language works in discourse, the theory fails to offer a coherent theory of the linguistic sign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct compositionality is a property of empirical data (and of grammatical frameworks) where the meaning of an expression can be reliably computed from the meanings of its parts (Jacobson, Linguistics and Philosophy 25: 601-626, 2002). Using empirical data from Kam and Northern Zhuang, two Kam-Tai languages spoken in the P. R. of China, I define the notions of compositional and constructional reduplication rules. A rule is compositional if the host construction does not manifest selectional restrictions on the embedded output of the rule. By contrast, a reduplication rule is constructional if there are selectional restrictions. Based on the descriptive insights of this study and on Jacobson's two types of (direct) compositionality, I define four different degrees of compositionality that a morphosyntactic operation may exhibit: strong compositionality, weak compositionality, weak constructionality (non-compositionality) and strong constructionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article investigates the structural assembly and semantics of innovative quotatives such as be like, be all and go in English. While the sociolinguistic origins and spread of these forms have received ample attention, a question that is rarely addressed is how precisely this construction is syntagmatically composed, and how it relates to more canonical forms of speech representation. We argue that the basic component structures are the be like or go clause as a whole ( I'm like, he went, etc.) and the reported complement. It is the entire reporting clause, rather than the reporting verb as is traditionally assumed, which is complemented by the quoted material. The proposed interclausal dependence analysis, which applies to English direct speech constructions generally, can accommodate grammatically intransitive as well as semantically nonreportative verbs such as be and go. As well, it helps motivate the emergence of be like and go quotatives by a fundamental semantic correspondence between these, broadly speaking, ‘imitation’ clauses and reporting clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of constructional inheritance is discussed by means of a detailed qualitative analysis of the conditional imperative construction in Dutch and in Russian. It is argued that the two distinctive features of this construction, as compared with other conditional constructions such as explicit ‘if ’ conditionals, can be motivated in a compositional approach: (i) from the directive imperative construction, the conditional use inherits intersubjective meaning; (ii) from the conditional paratactic construction, it inherits the pragmatic (context-dependent) feature that the situation in the protasis immediately leads to the situation in the apodosis. As such, we show that a compositional analysis, defined as constructional inheritance, is fruitful in motivating both the semantics and the pragmatics of complex constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a by now established fact that idiomaticity cannot be equated with non-compositionality alone, but is a complex concept that is also associated with various aspects of formal flexibility. This raises the question to what extent speakers call up these different factors when judging the overall idiomaticity of a phrase. In the present paper, experimental and corpus-linguistic methodology are combined to address this question. For a total of 39 V NP-idioms of the kind make a point or take the plunge, comprising more than 13,000 tokens obtained from the British National Corpus, their compositionality, syntactic, lexico-syntactic, and morphological flexibility were assessed corpus-linguistically. The corpus-based results thereby obtained were then correlated with native speakers' overall idiomaticity judgments in a multiple regression analysis to determine each factor's impact on the overall judgments. The results indicate that speakers indeed rely on multiple factors simultaneously, with lexico-syntactic and morphological factors being even more important than compositionality, and verb-related being more important than NP-related information. Overall, the results back up the theoretical concept of a collocation-idiom continuum, and demonstrate how various, and sometimes competing, motivations determine a phrase's position on this continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jackendoff and other linguists have acknowledged that there is gradience in language but have tended to treat gradient phenomena as separate from the core of language, which is viewed as fully productive and compositional. This perspective suffuses Jackendoff's (2007) response to our position paper (Bybee and McClelland 2005). We argue that gradience is an inherent feature of language representation, processing, and learning, and that natural language exhibits all degrees of gradience. Contrary to Jackendoff's assertions, we do not reject the possibility of innate constraints on language, feeling only that the jury is out on the nature and specificity of such constraints. We address a number of questions Jackendoff raises about the process of grammaticalization, drawing on extant literature of which he appears to be unaware. We also address Jackendoff's views on the prospect that connectionist models can address core aspects of language processing and representation. Here again extant literature of which Jackendoff seems unaware addresses all four of his general objections to connectionist approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kecskes: Linguistic underspecification of utterance content is widely accepted across different frameworks, including the neo-Gricean approaches (cf. Horn 2005; Levinson 2000) and relevance theory (Carston 2002, 2005; Sperber & Wilson 1986, 1995). There is also an agreement that if linguistic underdeterminacy is given, pragmatic inference is required if a hearer is to recover a speaker's meaning successfully. In your Default Semantics, you reject the idea of underdetermined semantic representation, and offer an alternative approach in which semantic representation is established with the help of intentions in communication. This means that intentions “intrude” into the semantic representation, and the semantic and pragmatic components are interwoven. What are the advantages of this one-level semantics as opposed to the modular view? It can be argued that, in a way, Default Semantics is also a modular approach because intentions can be considered preverbal thoughts generated in the “conceptualizer” and linguistically shaped in the “formulator” using Levelt's terminology (Levelt 1989, 1999). Do you agree with this line of thinking? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mundari, an Austroasiatic language of India (Munda family), has often been cited as an example of a language without word classes, where a single word can function as noun, verb, adjective, etc. according to the context. These claims, originating in a 1903 grammar by the missionary John Hoffmann, have recently been repeated uncritically by a number of typologists. In this article we review the evidence for word class fluidity, on the basis of a careful analysis of Hoffmann’s corpus as well as substantial new data, including a large lexical sample at two levels of detail. We argue that in fact Mundari does have clearly definable word classes, with distinct open classes of verb and noun, in addition to a closed adjective class, though there are productive possibilities for using all as predicates. Along the way, we elaborate a series of criteria that would need to be met before any language could seriously be claimed to lack a noun-verb distinction: most importantly strict compositionality, bidirectional flexibility, and exhaustiveness through the lexicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Introduction This paper argues that a sideward/parallel movement analysis of so-called “Left- Peripheral Ellipsis” (LPE; Sag 1976) and Gapping constructions improves on the traditional deletion analysis in at least two important ways. First, it avoids the need to appeal to the notion of non-constituent deletion. Second, we attempt to show that directionality effects (Ross 1970 and others) can be derived without recourse to the head parameter or directionality stipulated in the application of transformational rules (which would require linear order in the narrow syntax and, further, would need to be parametrized); rather, we show that apparent directionality in LPE and Gapping constructions is a natural consequence of the interaction of Copy, Merge, PF-deletion of copies, and Cyclic Spell-Out— an effect that is derived only under a movement-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structuralism sought to introduce various kinds of autonomy into the study of language, including the autonomy of that study itself. The basis for this was the insistence on categorial autonomy, whereby categories are identified language-internally (whether in a particular language or in language). In relation to phonology, categorial autonomy is tempered by grounding: the categories correlate (at least prototypically) with substance, phonetic properties. This is manifested in the idea of ‘natural classes’ in generative phonology. Usually, however, in more modern grammars, despite some dissent, no such grounding (in meaning) has been attributed to syntax. This attitude culminates in the thesis of the ‘autonomy of syntax’ which was put forward in transformational-generative grammar. In what follows here it is argued that the consequences of this are very unfortunate. Distribution alone is insufficient to determine the identity of categories; what is relevant is the distribution of the prototypical members of the category, where prototypicality is notionally defined. Prototypical nouns, for instance, denote concrete, discrete, stable entities. Syntax, as well as phonology, is grounded. Groundedness ensures that only the prototypical behaviour of semantically prototypical members of a category determines its basic syntax; and this syntax reflects the semantic properties. Groundedness filters out potential syntactic analyses that are incompatible with this. For instance, given the diverse semantic characters of prototypical nouns and verbs, groundedness predicts that the X-bar theory of syntactic structure, which attributes parallel projections to lexical categories, is false. Consideration of the syntax of nouns and verbs confirms that this is indeed the case. The attribution to syntax of categorial autonomy without grounding should be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides their common lexical reading, the Spanish verbs amenazar ‘threaten’ and prometer ‘promise’ can also yield a modal reading. The shift from the former reading to the latter implies a change from a control structure to a raising structure and involves grammaticalization, more specifically auxiliation, which ends up in a layered co-existence of the two (or more) constructions. This paper is mainly concerned with the syntactic and semantic categorization of the grammaticalized quasi-modals amenazar and prometer. Generative accounts have focused on the difference between raising and control, but have not addressed the differences between the two verbs. This paper highlights that modal amenazar faces less constraints than modal prometer . Furthermore, the account presented below will show that epistemic and evidential auxiliaries have scope over the qualification expressed by modal amenazar and prometer, and are therefore not to be called “epistemic”. The paper also deals with the tense restrictions that these verbs undergo. Tenses such as the present perfect are not available in modal constructions with amenazar and prometer because of the activation of agentive patterns inherent to the lexical semantics of the verbs in question. The tense criterion is valid for verbs for which the grammaticalized form is not the most frequent one, but it does not account for true modals in Spanish and other Romance languages. The infinitive criterion turns out to be a good alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a unit of syntax beyond the constituent called the chain . A number of mechanisms are shown to be sensitive to chains, e.g. the formation of predicates and idioms, the ellipses of gapping, pseudogapping and VP-ellipsis, and the elided material of stripping and answer fragments. The presentation is couched in a surface syntax, dependency-based framework, as opposed to a constituency-based one. While the chain can be defined in a manner consistent with constituency, doing so requires that one adopt some controversial assumptions about the nature of constituency structure. The potential of the chain concept is great; it is the tool necessary to address the manner in which semantic compositionality occurs in the syntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is held by many grammarians that the relation of syntax and semantics is characterized by the Fregean principle of compositionality. The principle can be stated in various ways. In this article, the following formulation is adopted: the literal meaning of an expression is uniquely determined by the literal meanings of its subexpressions and their mode of composition. And the author believes that the validity of the formulation is beyond doubt and thus any grammar, whether organized to reflect it directly or not, may ultimately be required to satisfy it. And one of the systems that are precisely designed to reflect the principle is Montague Grammar.