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With the proliferation of corpora, various syntactic analysis methodologies have been developed. However, syntactic analysis of Chinese sentences demands a theory that focuses more on word order and the interaction between content and function words, which is satisfied by pattern grammar theory. This study investigates the effectiveness of pattern grammar theory in the analysis of Chinese sentence structure and explores the linguistic characteristics of official documents by establishing a description system for structural complexity in Chinese. Statistical methods such as skewness, kurtosis, and correlation analyses were employed to evaluate the system's performance. The findings confirm the effectiveness of pattern grammar in analyzing Chinese sentence structure by showing that it can accurately reflect the unique properties of Chinese official documents, such as the preference for fixed collocations, declarative sentences, and flat structures. Based on the above findings, this study provides a semantically compatible and innovative theoretical system for analyzing Chinese sentence structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long-standing debate in cognitive science surrounding the source of commonalities among languages of the world. Indeed, there are many potential explanations for such commonalities—accidents of history, common processes of language change, memory limitations, constraints on linguistic representations, and so on. Recent research has used psycholinguistic experiments to provide empirical evidence linking common linguistic patterns to specific features of human cognition, but these experiments tend to use English speakers, who in many cases have direct experience with the common patterns of interest. Here we highlight the importance of testing populations whose languages go against cross-linguistic trends. We investigate whether adult monolingual speakers of Kîîtharaka, which has an unusual way of ordering words, mirror the word-order preferences of English speakers. We find that they do, supporting the hypothesis that universal cognitive representations play a role in shaping word order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the cross-language influence of a reader's first language (L1, German) grammar knowledge on the syntactic processing of sentences in their second language (L2, English), using a grammaticality judgement task and comparing results with monolingual L1 English-speakers. In Experiment 1, unbalanced bilinguals (N = 82) read sentences in their L1 German and L2 English that were either grammatical in German but not English, grammatical in English but not German, or ungrammatical in both languages. Sentences were presented in mixed-language blocks. Grammaticality judgements were less accurate and slower for ungrammatical L2 sentences that were grammatical in their literal L1 translation, compared with sentences that were ungrammatical in both languages. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with an independent German-English bilingual sample (N = 78), using monolingual language blocks. In Experiment 3, effects were absent in decision accuracy and weaker in decision latency for monolingual English readers (N = 54). A post hoc validation study with an independent sample of L1 English-speakers (n = 21) provided further evidence that the ungrammatical English sentences with German word order were indeed less natural and grammatically acceptable to L1 English-speakers than the grammatical English sentences. These findings suggest that, consistent with competition models of language comprehension, multiple languages are simultaneously active and can compete during syntactic processing. However, due to the complex nature of cross-language comparisons, the cross-language transfer effects are likely to be driven by multiple interacting factors, of which one is cross-language transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production research has yielded mixed findings regarding whether grammatical encoding specifies grammatical functions and linear word order simultaneously or separately, supporting either one-stage or two-stage models. Here, we focused on the double object (DO) and shifted double object (SDO) constructions in Zhuang, an ethnic minority language in China because they differ only in linear ordering of the two nouns whose grammatical functions are direct object and indirect object, assuming the roles of Theme and Recipient, respectively. Using two structural priming experiments, we found that both DO and SDO constructions induced within-structure priming effects, but they did not prime each other. Such structural priming effects persisted, regardless of whether semantic features (i.e., animacy of the Theme) were repeated across primes and targets. Taken together, these priming patterns support the one-stage model of grammatical encoding, where a conceptual representation is converted into a structure specifying both grammatical functions and linear word order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this encounter, I move in the middle of things, more specifically of other texts not my own for I did not bring them into being or strung them in their word order as you do. They are borrowed and yet they get and feel me. I attend to the doings of hope and not so much its what-ness or aboutness. I propose a hope inquiry that begins in the middle. Its inquiry does not ask what it really means or a getting into the bottom of things. There is no bottom, just the middle bits. Its question is an invitation to ponder and fold into at least three dance moves: (a) to attend to the not-yet-ness of things, places and possibilities; (b) to rest in presence, fully stuck in the here and now; and (c) to find returns, detours, and dead-ends with deep intent. Hope is an inward movement—a reconnection to one's gut—our body-middle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The study's main objective is to investigate the effects of information structure and verb type on the acceptability of canonical and non-canonical word order patterns in baseline, heritage, and L2 Russian in a controlled experimental setting. In particular, the study examines the bilinguals' sensitivity to extralinguistic (subject focus) and intralinguistic (unaccusativity) triggers of subject–verb inversion in Russian. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a contextualized acceptability judgment task with unaccusative, unergative, and transitive predicates. In each condition, ratings for SV(O) and (O)VS structures are elicited in broad-focus and narrow-subject-focus contexts. Data and analysis: Data come from adult English-Russian bilinguals: heritage speakers at two proficiency levels (n = 27) and L2 learners (n = 15), compared to monolingual Russian speakers (n = 15). Welch's unequal variances t -tests are utilized in the statistical analysis of the results. Findings/conclusions: Bilinguals generally under-accept inverted structures. With intransitive predicates, heritage speakers in the higher proficiency group are sensitive to the effects of unaccusativity, but not focus, on the occurrence of VS orders. However, with transitive predicates, higher proficiency heritage speakers demonstrate a target-like contrast in their ratings of OVS structures under broad and narrow focus. No clear effects of unaccusativity or focus are attested in the lower proficiency heritage or L2 speakers' judgments of inverted orders. Originality: This is the first study to compare the effects of unaccusativity and focus on word order variation in baseline, heritage, and L2 Russian and to examine subject focus in both intransitive and transitive structures. Significance/Implications: The differential effects of subject focus obtained in the intransitive and transitive conditions indicate that heritage speakers do not experience a generalized difficulty with information-structure marking through word order. While intralinguistic word order cues seem more accessible to early bilinguals than extralinguistic cues, heritage speakers are able to attend to the latter when their visibility is enhanced in discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines embedded clauses with adverb/negation in heritage speakers of Norwegian in North America. We ask (a) whether the production of these structures is different from the baseline, (b) how the production is different, and (c) why it is different.50 second to fifth-generation speakers from the Corpus of American Nordic Speech (CANS) are compared with a baseline consisting of 13 first-generation speakers from the same corpus and a large corpus study on verb placement in embedded clauses in European Norwegian.The speakers behave differently from the baseline, as they use main clause word order in embedded clauses, especially when the finite verb is an auxiliary. Furthermore, there is a correlation between main clause word order in embedded clauses and V2 violations in main clauses. We propose a combination of crosslinguistic influence, language-internal drift, differential acquisition, and activation of the heritage language as possible factors affecting the speaker’s production.Whereas several studies have looked at main clause word order in the same and similar populations, not as much work has been done on embedded clauses. We also combine data from the same informants from a previous study to look at correlations between the behaviour in main and embedded clauses.This study illustrates how heritage languages are affected by different factors across speakers; where some speakers seem to simplify the language, others have held on to fine-grained distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The connection between language contact and the bilingual speaker goes back to foundational authors in the field of contact linguistics. Yet there is very little work that combines these two levels in a single study. In this paper, we propose a unified approach to language contact by testing the role of cross-language priming (CLP) on contact-induced change at the level of complex noun phrases (NPs). Design/methodology/approach: We conducted three studies with different types of data. In Study 1, we analyse the Romani Morpho-Syntax database to identify word order preferences in Romani dialects from different countries. In Study 2, we examine a corpus of interviews in Romani from Romania. In Study 3, we conduct an experiment to test short-term priming in adjective (ADJ)/noun (N) order from Romanian to Romani and within Romani. Data and analysis: In Study 1, we examine the word order in approximately 3000 NPs from 119 Romani speakers. In Study 2, we analyse a speech corpus of 9400 words from four elderly Romani–Romanian bilinguals. In Study 3, 90 Romani–Romanian bilinguals participated in a priming experiment. We used multinomial mixed-effects logistic regression, Bayesian models and Random Forests to analyse the experimental results. Findings/conclusions: Study 1 shows that Romani speakers from Romania stand out for their frequent use of postnominal ADJs. Study 2 confirms these uses in free speech. Study 3 reveals significant CLP effects, whereby speakers favour the use of determiner (DET)–N–ADJ order in Romani immediately following a noun with a suffixed determiner (NDET)–ADJ sentence read in Romanian. Originality: Our study is the first to demonstrate CLP effects in ADJ/N order. Significance/implications: We illustrate a unified approach to language contact by introducing theoretical and methodological advances from the field of bilingualism into the study of contact-induced change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines the integration of Russian verbs into 50 languages from 12 different language families predominantly spoken in the former Soviet Union with respect to insertion strategies and input forms of Russian verbs. The aim is to test if there are statistically significant distributions between particular insertion strategies and grammatical, areal and sociolinguistic properties of the recipient languages. Methodology: This study applies the typological categories developed by Wohlgemuth for the classification of verbal borrowings by distinguishing three major insertion strategies. The donor language is kept constant (Russian). For every recipient language information on all instances of inserted verbs and data on word order, morphological type, language family and relevant social parameters have been gathered. Data and analysis: The linguistic data largely come from published sources. Frequency data on the distribution of the insertion strategies are quantitatively analyzed and tested for statistically significant correlations with sociolinguistic and typological parameters and areal location. The distributions are visualized by maps. Findings: There are no correlations between insertion strategies and extralinguistic parameters such as the general contact intensity. The two typological features (word order; morphological type) showed some correlations, and areality also plays a certain role. The main factor is the existence of productive insertion strategies within particular families or subbranches. Furthermore, the strategies show different degrees of flexibility with respect to the morphological form of the input and can be ordered along a hierarchy from more flexible (direct insertion) to not flexible at all (paradigm insertion). Originality: This is the first attempt to systematically compare the impact of Russian on languages with different genealogical affiliations, typological profiles and sociolinguistic conditions. Russian is an understudied donor language with a complex verbal morphology. This study is meant to undertake the first step towards a comprehensive study of Slavicization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: This study examines the syntactic priming of adverb-first word order among 27 first language (L1) English, 33 L1 German, and 32 L1 German-second language (L2) English speakers to investigate the relationship between short-term priming and longer-term learning across different speaker groups. Design/Methodology: Participants completed a syntactic priming task in either English or German, in which they heard sentences containing fronted (i.e. adverb-first) or non-fronted adverbial phrases and described pictures containing similar adverbial phrases. Immediately before and after the priming task, participants completed picture description tasks containing similar sentence types to measure their baseline production of fronted adverbials, and whether subsequent production of fronted adverbials was modulated by the priming task. Data Analysis: We used mixed-effects logistic regression to compare participants' production of fronted sentences during the priming task according to prime type (fronted vs. non-fronted) and their production of fronted sentences before versus after the priming task, including the additional factors of adverbial phrase (temporal phrase vs. locative phrase) and speaker group (L1 English vs. L1 German vs. L2 English). Findings/Conclusion: Participants exhibited greater short-term priming during the priming task for temporal versus locative phrases, with the L2 English speakers exhibiting the greatest short-term priming. There was a significant increase in the production of fronted sentences from baseline to post-test, with the L1 English speakers exhibiting the greatest gains. Originality: This study uses systematic between- and within-language comparisons to examine: (a) whether the extent of syntactic priming depends on the frequency of a construction in a speaker's L1 or L2 (i.e. prediction error); and (b) whether prediction error and short-term priming lead to longer-term learning. Significance: Our findings show that the magnitude of prediction error influences both short-term adaptation and longer-term priming. However, the ability to harness prediction error for longer-term learning versus short-term adaptation may vary between L1 and L2 speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results from a self-paced silent-reading study and a self-paced reading-aloud study examining ambiguous forms (heteronyms) of Russian animate and inanimate nouns which are differentiated in speech through word stress, for example, uCHItelja.TEACHER.GEN/ACC.SG and uchiteLJA.TEACHERS.NOM.PL.1 During reading, the absence of the auditory cue (word stress) to word identification results in morphologically ambiguous forms since both words have the same inflectional marking, -ja. Because word inflection is a reliable cue to syntactic role assignment, the ambiguity affects the level of morphology and of syntactic structure. However, word order constraints and frequency advantage of the GEN over both the NOM and the ACC noun forms with the - a/-ja inflection should pre-empt two different syntactic parses (OVS vs. SVO) when the heteronym is sentence-initial. We inquired into whether the parser is aware of the multi-level ambiguity and whether selected conflicting cues (case, word order, animacy) can prime parallel access to several structural parses. We found that animate and inanimate nouns patterned differently. The difference was consistent across the experiments. Against the backdrop of classical sentence processing dichotomies, the emergent pattern fits with the serial interactive or the parallel modular parser hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Existing studies on sentence processing in bi-/multilinguals are typically centred on the first language (L1) influence on second language sentence processing. However, there is almost no evidence of influence in the other direction. The aim of this study is to find out whether being mono-, bi-, tri- or plurilingual has an effect on reading times (RTs) in the native language. To this end, Turkish native speakers' RTs are measured when processing Turkish canonical subject–object–verb sentences, subject–verb–object (SVO) sentences where constituents move to post-verbal positions and SVO– ki sentences where post-verbal constituents are base generated. Design/Methodology/Approach: A non-cumulative self-paced reading task is used in order to measure the RTs of a sentence. The area of interest contains (i) the critical verb, (ii) the verb of the complement clause and (iii) the argument or adjunct of the complement clause (32 sentences + 12 filler sentences). All elements are matched according to their frequency of occurrence and their syllable structure. Data and Analysis: Analyses of variance are performed on RTs of the area of interest. Findings/Conclusions: One of the main findings in this study is that all three sentence types are processed significantly slower by the monolingual group than by the bi- and multilingual groups. We infer that non-native languages have a positive effect on processing the word order in the L1, which might lead to a faster processing in the three sentence types. The findings are discussed in terms of working memory and the "gap-driven strategy". Originality and Significance/Implications: The results are interpreted from psycholinguistic and syntactic points of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a novel transposed-word effect in speeded grammaticality judgments made about five-word sequences. The critical ungrammatical test sequences were formed by transposing two adjacent words from either a grammatical base sequence (e.g., "The white cat was big" became "The white was cat big") or an ungrammatical base sequence (e.g., "The white cat was slowly" became "The white was cat slowly"). These were intermixed with an equal number of correct sentences for the purpose of the grammaticality judgment task. In a laboratory experiment (N = 57) and an online experiment (N = 94), we found that ungrammatical decisions were harder to make when the ungrammatical sequence originated from a grammatically correct base sequence. This provides the first demonstration that the encoding of word order retains a certain amount of uncertainty. We further argue that the novel transposed-word effect reflects parallel processing of words during written sentence comprehension combined with top-down constraints from sentence-level structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the word order preferences of Tagalog-speaking adults and five- and seven-year-old children. The participants were asked to complete sentences to describe pictures depicting actions between two animate entities. Adults preferred agent-initial constructions in the patient voice but not in the agent voice, while the children produced mainly agent-initial constructions regardless of voice. This agent-initial preference, despite the lack of a close link between the agent and the subject in Tagalog, shows that this word order preference is not merely syntactically-driven (subject-initial preference). Additionally, the children’s agent-initial preference in the agent voice, contrary to the adults’ lack of preference, shows that children do not respect the subject-last principle of ordering Tagalog full noun phrases. These results suggest that language-specific optional features like a subject-last principle take longer to be acquired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: This paper investigates the word order and adjectival agreement patterns in French-Dutch codeswitched Determiner Phrases (DPs). It examines the predictions made by two theoretical points of view: the approach by MacSwan (2009) within the Minimalist Program (MP) and the Matrix Language Framework (MLF) (Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2009). Methodology: The predictions of these frameworks are compared to data gathered in a grammaticality judgment task. In total, 120 codeswitched sentences were presented aurally to participants, who were asked to rate the sentences on a three-point scale. Originality: While some previous work on word order within codeswitched DP’s exists, this paper is the first study investigating the adjectival agreement patterns in codeswitching. Data and Analysis: Statistical analysis of the data showed that the MacSwan approach is a better predictor for the grammaticality judgments, as sentences predicted to be grammatical by the MP were rated higher than sentences predicted to be ungrammatical by the same model. This difference was statistically significant. There was no significant difference in rating for the predictions of the MLF. Conclusions: The results of the judgment task in combination with the results of previous research on codeswitching highlight the importance of a combination of data from both naturalistic and experimental settings. Implications: The predictions of the Minimalist approach have the upper hand over the predictions of the MLF. However, it remains is important to integrate results from other experimental methodologies, such as naturalistic data and results from psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study investigating how native and non-native speakers of English process temporarily ambiguous sentences such asWhile the gentleman was eating the burgers were still being reheated in the microwave, in which an initially plausible direct-object analysis is first ruled out by a syntactic disambiguation (were) and also later on by semantic information (being reheated). Both participant groups showed garden-path effects at the syntactic disambiguation, with native speakers showing significantly stronger effects of ambiguity than non-native speakers in later eye-movement measures but equally strong effects in first-pass reading times. Ambiguity effects at the semantic disambiguation and in participants’ end-of-trial responses revealed that for both participant groups, the incorrect direct-object analysis was frequently maintained beyond the syntactic disambiguation. The non-native group showed weaker reanalysis effects at the syntactic disambiguation and was more likely to misinterpret the experimental sentences than the native group. Our results suggest that native language (L1) and non-native language (L2) parsing are similar with regard to sensitivity to syntactic and semantic error signals, but different with regard to processes of reanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores (mis)interpretation of biclausal wh-questions by French-speaking adults and children, aiming to investigate cross-linguistic differences in sentence revision mechanisms. Following previous work in Japanese the ambiguity of wh-questions was manipulated: In ambiguous questions, the fronted wh-phrase could be associated with the first, main-clause verb or the second, embedded-clause verb, while in garden-path questions, an inserted filled-gap prepositional phrase (PP) blocked main-clause attachment. Importantly, French differs from Japanese in that the filled gap arises after the first verb—that is, after the wh-phrase has been interpreted within the main clause. Two story-based comprehension experiments were conducted to probe the effect of word order on revision performance. Adults and children frequently provided main-clause interpretations of ambiguous questions. In filled-gap questions, children displayed relatively acute sensitivity to the filled-gap in wh-argument questions (Experiment 2), but not in wh-adjunct questions (Experiment 1); adults showed surprisingly low sensitivity to it, frequently misinterpreting adjunct and argument questions. Acceptability ratings (Experiment 3) showed that adults systematically prefer in situ questions over wh-fronting questions. We conclude that timing of the error signal influences revision, and that whereas French-speaking children prioritize syntactic cues, adults prioritize distributional information about the optionality of wh-fronting in French. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This article explores the issue of second language (L2) acquisition of argument structure as it relates specifically to Spanish psych-verbs. These predicates are classified into three classes according to their distinct aspectual nature, which corresponds to different morphosyntactic properties. This study tests L2 learners’ ability to understand these subtle distinctions in spite of the impoverished input to which they are exposed and the lack of instruction and first language (L1) transfer. In particular, the research questions I explore are the following: (1) Are L2 learners aware of the fact that Class III has two possible word order configurations while Class II allows only one? (2) Do L2ers recognize that Class II allows antipassive se whereas Class III does not? Design/methodology/approach and data and analysis: A control group of 36 native Spanish speakers and an experimental group of 65 native English learners of Spanish across four proficiency levels conducted two scalar grammaticality judgment tasks. Their data, analyzed through repeated-measures ANOVA, showed that these L2ers had a good understanding of the morphosyntactic reflexes that distinguish eventive and stative psych-verbs. Findings/conclusions: Since these properties could neither have been learned through instruction nor transferred from the L1 or accessed straightforwardly from the input, learners must have resorted to universal mappings between meaning and syntax in order to achieve these target-like patterns of behavior. Originality: Although the acquisition of argument structure has been the topic of a considerable amount of early research in the field, this article looks at a completely novel instantiation of argument structure and its learnability. Significance/implications: This study contributes with new data to the long-standing debate on the poverty-of-the-stimulus (POS) argument by supporting positions that contend that L2 acquisition is characterized by a logical problem and that L2 learners can successfully overcome this POS by resorting to universal principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking is the theory that captures the mapping of the semantic roles of lexical arguments to the syntactic functions of the phrases that realize them. At the sentence level, linking allows us to understand “who did what to whom” in an event. In Spanish, linking has been shown to interact with word order, verb class, and case marking. The current study aims to provide the first piece of experimental evidence about the interplay between word order and verb type in Spanish. We achieve this by adopting role and reference grammar and the extended argument dependency model. Two different types of clauses were examined in a self-paced reading task: clauses with object–experiencer psychological verbs and activity verbs. These types of verbs differ in the way that their syntactic and semantic structures are linked, and thus they provide interesting evidence on how information that belongs to the syntax–semantics interface might influence the predictive and integrative processes of sentence comprehension with alternative word orders. Results indicate that in Spanish, comprehension and processing speed is enhanced when the order of the constituents in the sentence mirrors their ranking on a semantic hierarchy that encodes a verb's lexical semantics. Moreover, results show that during online comprehension, predictive mechanisms based on argument hierarchization are used rapidly to inform the processing system. Our findings corroborate already existing cross-linguistic evidence on the issue and are briefly discussed in the light of other sentence-processing models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports on an experiment that examined the comprehension of transitive sentences in Czech children and its relationship to case marking, word order and information structure. A total of 107 Czech children aged 2;9–4;5 were tested for comprehension of noun-verb-noun sentences in which word order and given-new status of individual nouns were manipulated. The results confirmed that noncanonical, object-initial sentences are generally more difficult to comprehend than sentences with the standard word order, but that many children can interpret noncanonical sentences before 4 years of age. Information structure did not have any clear effect on sentence comprehension. Overall, the results indicate that children have some abstract knowledge of word order and case marking when they first show evidence of transitive sentence comprehension, but initially they cannot use this knowledge when word order and case marking signal conflicting interpretations. Information structure is not a major factor in early sentence comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments are reported that studied the priming of word order in German. Experiment 1 demonstrated priming of the order of case-marked verb arguments. However, order of noun phrases and order of thematic roles were confounded. In Experiment 2, we therefore aimed at disentangling the impact of these two possible factors. By using primes that differed from targets in phrase structure but were parallel with regard to the order of thematic roles, we nevertheless found priming demonstrating the critical impact of thematic roles. Experiment 3 replicated the priming effects from Experiments 1 and 2 within participants and revealed no evidence for a modulation of priming by phrase structure. Consequently, our findings suggest that word order priming crucially depends on the structural outline of thematic roles rather than on the linearization of phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most theories of human language production assume that generating a sentence involves several stages, including an initial stage where the prelinguistic message is determined and a subsequent stage of grammatical encoding. However, it is contentious whether grammatical encoding involves separate stages of grammatical-function assignment and linearization. To address this question, we examined the mapping between the message level and grammatical encoding in two structural priming experiments in which German speakers choose between three different structures expressing ditransitive events. Although speakers showed a tendency to repeat the order of constituents (noun phrase–prepositional phrase, NP–PP, vs. NP–NP), they were additionally primed to repeat the order of thematic roles when constituent structure was constant (NPRECIPIENT–NPTHEMEvs. NPTHEME–NPRECIPIENT). Experiment 2 found that the latter effect could not be due to persistence of the order of phrases referring to animate and inanimate entities. These results suggest a direct mapping of thematic roles to word order, consistent with a model in which the message is mapped onto syntactic structure in a single stage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study focuses on word order patterns in English personal binomials and argues that conjunct order in this binomial type is partly subject to other factors than those shown in earlier research on binomials in general. On the theoretical level, mixed-gender personal binomials are discussed as linguistic instantiations of dominance and difference thinking in relation to gender. On the empirical level, the article presents an in-depth study of personal binomials in the written component of the BNC. The factor with the highest impact on conjunct order is found to be lexical gender. Moreover, the modifying influence of a range of other factors is tested. Among these are factors that have proven relevant in earlier research on word order in binomials (phonology, orthography, conjunct frequency) as well as factors that have so far not or only sporadically been tested (lexical field, morphology, sex of author, target audience sex). Finally, the findings are related to more recent theoretical discussions of the relationship between language and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Object-relative clauses are generally harder to process than subject-relative clauses. Increased processing costs for object-relatives have been attributed either to working memory demands for the establishment of long-distance dependencies or to difficulties processing unexpected, noncanonical structures. The current study uses self-paced reading to contrast the impact of both kinds of factors in Spanish object-relative clauses, manipulating the interposition of the subject of the relative clause between object and verb. In addition, object-relatives were unambiguously marked at their onset with the Spanish preposition “a”. Reading times increased at the onset and final regions of object-relative clauses, regardless of interference-based working memory costs, although interference costs may affect the processing of post-relative-clause regions. These results suggest that, beyond interference-related working memory costs, end-of-clause integration processes may be affected by a preference for canonical structures, thus increasing processing difficulties when confronted with a noncanonical form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most languages have a basic or “canonical” word order, which determines the relative positions of the subject (S), the verb (V), and the object (O) in a typical declarative sentence. The frequency of occurrence of the six possible word orders among world languages is not distributed uniformly. While SVO and SOV represent around 85% of world languages, orders like VSO (9%) or OSV (0.5%) are much less frequent or extremely rare. One possible explanation for this asymmetry is that biological and cognitive constraints for structured sequence processing make some word orders easier to be processed than others. Therefore, the high frequency of these word orders would be related to their higher learnability. The aim of the present study was to compare the learnability of different word orders between groups of adult subjects. Four artificial languages with different word orders were trained: two frequent (SVO, SOV) and two infrequent (VSO, OSV). In a test stage, subjects were asked to discriminate between new correct sentences and syntax or semantic violations. Higher performance rates and faster responses were observed for more frequent word orders. The results support the hypothesis that more frequent word orders are more easily learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western written languages unfold across both the horizontal (from left to right) and the vertical (from top to bottom) dimensions. Culturally determined horizontal reading/writing habits are so pervasive that their influence can be found not only in visual scanning but also in performance across different domains and tasks. However, little is known on the effects of vertical word order. In the present study, a lexical decision task is used to show that reading performance is less efficient when verbal material is vertically arranged following a bottom-to-top order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing body of research on writing assessment, little attention has been devoted to developing and validating measures for beginning writers. This study examined the technical adequacy of a Sentence Writing measure with 233 students in kindergarten and first grade. The reliability, validity, and sensitivity to growth were investigated for production scores (words written, correctly spelled words, and correct word sequences) and for a novel Qualitative Score. Most of the scores have promising alternate-form reliability and criterion-related validity with norm-referenced writing assessments. In addition, all scores were sensitive to bimonthly growth and differentiated between students in kindergarten and first grade. The results indicated that the Qualitative Writing Score may be a promising assessment for beginning writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's opinions on why students should learn the Latin language. She believes that in addition to helping students on the SAT tests, the organization of the Latin language helps students develop the habit of asking questions that will direct them to a correct answer. Latin's division of nouns into declensions with five major cases per word and divisions of its verbs into four conjugations with six tenses and two voices are examined. Students' understanding of which family a word belongs to will help them with the language's word order. She believes that by learning the structure of a highly organized language like Latin and its vocabulary, students can master other languages more easily.

Contact between languages usually leads to linguistic changes. Both social and structural factors are claimed to influence this process. This study analyzes word order in Turkish as spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish). Turkish is an OV language but also allows other word order patterns (including VO) in certain pragmatic contexts. Dutch, on the other hand, is VO in main clauses. Due to contact, Turkish may be expected to increase its use of VO. From a comparison with Turkish as spoken in Turkey (TR-Turkish), it appeared that there is no increase of VO in NL-Turkish. However, we did find some deviations in the information structure characteristics of VO structures and sometimes these seem to be due to Dutch influence. On the other hand, TR-Turkish data also contained certain types of VO structures that further caution against hasty contact conclusions. We conclude that contact situations need to be intense for sweeping syntactic change to occur, and that such change starts with changes in individual semilexical constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been proposed that children acquiring case-marking languages might be quicker to acquire certain constructions than children acquiring word order languages, because the cues involved in grammatical morphology are more 'local', whereas word order is an inherently distributed cue (Slobin, 1982). In the current studies using nonce nouns and verbs, we establish that German-speaking children are not productive with passive and active transitive sentence-level constructions at an earlier age than English-speaking children; the majority of children learning both languages are not productive until after their third birthdays. In contrast, in the second and third studies reported here, the majority of German-speaking children were productive with nominative and accusative case marking inside NPs before their third birthdays — and these are of course the very same case markers centrally involved in passive and active transitive constructions. We conclude from these results that, whereas for some functions mastering local cues is all that is required, and this is fairly simple, in other cases, such as the case marking involved in sentence-level syntactic constructions, the mastery of local cues is only one part of the process of forming complex analogical relationships among utterances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the use of cues by listeners in determining new information in a sentence. Distinction between theme and rheme; Importance of surface-structure word order and word stress; Provision of written active and passive sentences.

Presents information about the study on the Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWF-D) as a diagnostic instrument to identify children who potentially have word finding disorders. Method used in the study; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

This study investigated the ability of profoundly deaf children, CA 6-0 through 13–11, to use grammatical cues in the oral reproduction of speechread material. Shifting patterns of significant results on the indicator variables of number of omissions, additions, substitutions, and word order reversals; correct reproduction; and length of production proved in part the hypothesis that grammatical structure influences the ability to reproduce speechread material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors offer a commentary on research which found that word-order constraints activate lexical and phonological representations even in the production of isolated words reported by N. Janssen, F. -X. Alario and A. Caramazza in 2008. Experiments were conducted wherein French or U.S. English speakers named the color or the object depicted in colored-picture displays and the color name started with the same sound as the object name. Data for English showed that the order of the words in a language affects how single-word utterances are produced.

The article presents a question and answer advisory on diagramming sentences. The author offers information about the opinion of grammarians on the value of representing the analysis of sentences by the use of diagrams. They are also inclined to the belief that a simple method of denoting the analysis by a diagram may be useful in aiding the teacher to satisfy himself.

The article presents steps in sentence construction as followed by the classical schools in the U.S.

The article comments on issues related to the ability of William McAndrew in writing in the U.S. McAndrew has faithfully read and intelligently read everything on education and remembered what he has read. In addition, he knows situations better than any one else, and runs his knowledge through his mind.

The article inquires into the proper use of an adverb or adjective in a sentence.