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A tension exists between rationalists and empiricists regarding the nature of knowledge: innate then activated/discovered (rationalists) or constructed then invented (empiricists). The assumption is that, to a certain extent, basic knowledge seems to be innate in our mind and develops through experience by thinking processes to construct meanings. This meaning construction (thinking), mainly using language, is to make sense of and interpret the world. Meanings should be the primary motivation underlying linguistic constructions at all levels. This paper investigates meaning constructions at the lexical level of affixation by focusing on semantic behaviours of verbs in a complex word formation as an attempt: 1) to find out the semantic patterns of verb-based complex word formation, 2) to reveal if there is an iconic relationship of a sign (signifier) and its meaning (signified), and 3) to suggest for its teaching. Using semantic classes of verbs, based on situation types in deriving complex words, this study attempts to find out semantic patterns of such complex word formation and the possibility of revealing its iconicity. Using Antconc software, this study scrutinized linguistic expressions involving related verbs of state, event, and action in a corpus to reveal meaning construction at that level. The findings show several semantic patterns of verb-based complex word formation and an indication of the iconicity of signs. The paper also offers suggestions for teaching affixation.

The intricate and tricky case of semantic analysis, especially of the enigmatic realm of nouns, the red thread of linguistics and literary exploration. This academic research explores the rich sphere of Russian literature in-depth to determine connections between function and the embodiment of theme through proper names. This research is aiming at studying the role of proper nouns in the literary masterpieces by focusing on the ideas of character development, thematic cohesiveness, and the narrative flow. This papers deals with profound significance of proper nouns as linguistics pointers that take you beyond their literal meaning to different levels of connotative value. It takes most of its ideas from the late linguistics and literary critique. This research gets down to serious business by cherry-picking and analysing a set of Russian masterpieces. An intensive method of semantic analysis was used by the study to properly identify and categorize all the structural features of proper nouns. Also, it conducts an examination of the usage of language by these instrumentalities so as to discover their common features and themes which lead to the invention of the main narrative. The results of this study add to our comprehension of proper noun semantics in Russian literature and provide us with a stepping-stone to broader discussions on the linguistic theory and literary studies. This cognitive effort exceeds the linguistic borders, as it takes into consideration the cultural and historical value of the proper nouns being presented. The report shows why it is necessary to reconsider the theoretical design to account for the distinctive linguistic and particular cultural features of the Russian literary heritage. This research is a step toward unravelling noun semantics' mystery and adds to the already existing linguistic aesthetics and cultural semiotics debates.

Researchers examining the structure of questions in signed languages, often using elicited data from informants, have proposed that there are specific manual and nonmanual actions produced by signers to indicate different question types (e.g., Zeshan 2004), for example, raised eyebrows for polar questions. In the current study, we add to this body of work with an investigation into the use of two common interactional behaviors -- finger pointing and palm-up actions -- as they occur in questions asked during naturalistic conversations in Norwegian Sign Language. The interactional work finger pointing and palm-up actions can achieve in various settings is well-documented (e.g., Bavelas 1994), and their presence in question contexts has been observed in Norwegian Sign Language (Ferrara 2020). In total, 455 questions produced by thirty-four deaf signers were examined as they appeared across dyadic, triadic, and multiparty conversations recorded in the Norwegian Sign Language Corpus (Ferrara and Ringsø 2021; Ferrara and Bø 2022; Ferrara in prep). These questions were then examined for the presence of interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions. Analyses firstly revealed that interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions appeared in many of the questions examined. Within this subset of the data, further analysis showed that these forms may be the only manual action that signals an utterance as a question, or they may occur in combination with other manual (e.g., WH-question forms: HOW, WHERE) and nonmanual actions (e.g., furrowed or raised brows). In many of these questions, the two forms appear in utterance-final position, thereby indexing an interlocutor in order to solicit a response. Such initial observations suggest that these two manual actions must be considered as part of the constellation of behaviors that characterize the highly indexical and interactional nature of question-asking in Norwegian Sign Language.

This paper argues that descriptions of Sri Lankan English (SLE) are influenced by ideologies of linguistic racism and coloniality through an examination of the possible reasons for their neglect of Burgher English -- an underprivileged variety of SLE spoken by a minority community. Although descriptions of SLE identify different categories of the variety, they neglect the language use of the Burghers, despite the fact that they are the only ethnic community for a large majority of whom English serves as a first language. The paper claims that descriptions of SLE are interested in elevating the language use of the elite and anglicized sections of the racially dominant Sinhalese instead of focusing on understanding and depicting how diverse people of the multiethnic and multicultural Sri Lankan speech community such as the Burghers of Sri Lanka adapt it to suit their needs and contexts. Demonstrating the possible influence of linguistic racism and colonial ideologies on descriptions of SLE, the paper posits that the unique structural features rendering Burgher English to be perceived as sub-standard could be understood through the theoretical lens of postcolonial performativity which would help appreciate the creativity and diversity of the variety instead of devaluing it as sub-standard.

The study tested how the Recency Preference and Predicate Proximity model (Gibson et al. in Cognition 59(1):23-59, 1996, https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(88)90004-2) plays out by examining the attachment preferences of native Russian speakers when processing locally ambiguous participial relative clause sentences with three potential NP attachment sites in Russian. Using a self-paced reading task, reading times and noun phrase selection responses were collected. Results showed significantly shorter reading times at the disambiguating region and higher accuracy rate of selection in the high-attaching condition than in the middle- and low-attaching conditions. No significant differences were found between the middle- and low-attaching conditions. We argue that Predicate Proximity is a much stronger factor than Recency Preference in Russian.

This study sheds light on the relation between assessment modalities and student behavior through linguistics styles, and academic performance. First, we examine the effect of assessment modalities (self-evaluation quizzes and summative quizzes) on academic performance. Using two modalities of online quizzes, we mainly focus on the student participation, student behavior (the work pacing and time management), type of assessment, and student characteristics. Second, we analyze the student behavior through linguistic styles and third, we examine the levels of anxiety and the expectation of success during the course. Specifically, we compare the linguistic styles of high performing students and low performing students and changes in anxiety levels and expectation of success. Methodologically, this study includes a static and dynamic perspective and combines quantitative analysis with a qualitative approach. The participants are students enrolled in Managerial Accounting for Tourism course in the academic year 2019-2020. The results show that both quizzes modalities are positively associated with academic performance. The linguistic analysis shows differences in the language between high performing students and low performing students. Finally, a pattern of changes on the students' expectations of success and levels of anxiety are identified during the course.

Makassar language (bM) is a language of ethnic groups which is taught as local content subjects in schools, both in oral and written literary traditions. This study aimed to examine the behavior of affixes and clitic morphosyntactics in the passivation of Makassar sentences. Field research methods were used by applying the conversational engagement listening technique, recording technique, and note-taking technique as an advanced technique. This research was conducted in Somba Opu District, Gowa Regency. Data were analyzed by distributional method. The results showed that the morphosyntactic behavior of the Makassar language was formed by a set of affixes in the form of prefixes, confixes, infixes, and a set of clitics in the form of proclitics "ku-," "nu-," "ki-," "na-" and enclitics "-ak," "-ko," "-ki," "-i." The Makassar language passivity forms two types of passive sentences, namely passive derivatives and passive (innate) ones. The derived passive is formed by the prefix "ni-" and the proclitic of the persona. Furthermore, the prefix "ni-" can be combined with the prefixes "paK- ," "pa-+si-," suffixes "--i," and "-ang." Persona proclitic prefixes are characterized by personal pronouns "ku-" (first personal pronoun), "nu-" (second personal pronoun), "ki-" (honorific second personal pronoun), "na-" (third personal pronoun), which has two types of structure. The natural passive is formed by prefixes "taK-," "paK-," confix "ka-" /"-ang" and non-prefixed passive. Furthermore, the prefix "paK-" and the unprefixed passive can be combined with the suffix "-ang" or "-i," which have two types of structure. Thus, derived passive and natural passive sentences have six variations of structure. The relationship between clitics and pronouns or nouns/noun phrases is mandatory, optional, and some are complementary. The implication of the results of this study is to enrich the linguistic treasures of the Makassar language so that the rules and morphosytactic constructions are determined. In future, the linguistic construction of the Makassar language must continue to be studied in more depth, because this research is limited to the morphosyntactic aspect, there are still many other research opportunities related to the Makassar language.

This study analyzes the linguistic features of counter-arguments and support arguments using two computational linguistic tools: Coh-Metrix and Gramulator. The research question investigates whether counter-argument paragraphs and support paragraphs are different in terms of their linguistic features. To conduct this study, a corpus of 78 argumentative papers was collected. The paragraphs in the papers were categorized in terms of their function. The categories included functions of Support, Counter-argument, Expostulation, Counter-argument and Expostulation, Background, and Other. The paragraphs were analyzed for their readability and writing quality through Coh-Metrix. With the exception of the measure of Deep Cohesion, the Coh-Metrix results suggest minimal differences in terms of readability and writing quality between counter-argument and support paragraphs. Following the Coh-Metrix analysis, both counter-argument and support corpora were analyzed through Gramulator for their lexical features. The Gramulator results suggest the presence of causal language and fixed expressions in counterarguments, as well as some tagged language in support arguments.

This study investigated why object-gap relative clauses (RCs) are dominant in early child Mandarin. We discuss how restrictive-RCs differ from pseudo-RCs syntactically and pragmatically, and examine how these two types of RCs are distributed in the RC utterances of ten children and their caregivers. The results showed that (a) Mandarin-speaking children produce many more pseudo-RCs than restrictive-RCs, (b) restrictive-RCs exhibit a subject-gap advantage and are dominantly headed, and (c) pseudo-RCs exhibit an object-gap advantage and are dominantly headless. We propose that the development of restrictive-RCs is mainly influenced by the structural factor, and that the extensive use of pseudo-RCs is attributed to the communicative needs of young children. Our findings also suggest that young children's pseudo-RCs tend to have a subject-focus reading, and the object-gap dominance observed in the pseudo-RCs of child Mandarin is related to the head-final RCs and the special structural features of the cleft construction in Mandarin.

This paper aims to give an account of the multiple determination (determiner spreading) phenomenon in Arabic. Determiner spreading is the syntactic representation and phonological realization of multiple determiners within the same determiner phrase. As a cross-linguistic phenomenon, determiner spreading has been investigated in other languages (e.g., Scandinavian and Greek); different accounts have been proposed. For Scandinavian languages, determiner spreading has been analyzed as a representation of different semantic interpretations. As far as Greek is concerned, some analyses have been proposed; however, two prominent ones have received considerable attention in the literature: (i) a residue of a reduced relative clause and (ii) an instantiation of close appositions. Contrary to those analyses, this paper claims that none of the two analyses is suitable for Arabic; thus, a language-specific analysis is required. To analyze determiner spreading in Arabic, the current paper posits the following research question: "What is the linguistic purpose of the multiple determiners found in Arabic determiner phrases?" Answering the research question, the paper claims that, in addition to its indispensable role in establishing agreement between nouns and adjectives within the Arabic determiner phrase, determiner spreading demarcates syntactic and semantic phrase boundaries. The paper takes Minimalist Program and Distributed Morphology as a theoretical framework to argue that attributive adjectives are projection of an agreement phrase headed by the definite article [Lushootseed] or by the indefinite phonological marker "nunation: -n." This proposal requires no syntactic movements in the syntax proper. The ultimate linear order is achieved in the phonological components.

To participate in the global conversation on how to combat climate change, Japanese university students need to better utilise their English for Academic Purposes (EAP) skills outside the second language (L2) classroom. Therefore, this study seeks to enhance the public speaking skills of Japanese university students by analysing and drawing from a series of recent speeches by Swedish climate-change activist Greta Thunberg. Being of a similar age and speaking in a second language, Thunberg resonates as a public speaker that Japanese university students can model. The research design for this study consisted of two phases. Initially, a structural analysis of Thunberg's speech transcripts was conducted, exploring her use of positive and negative message framing approaches. Secondly, an analysis of the persuasive discursive techniques (PDTs) used in her speeches was conducted, focusing on identifying established rhetorical devices such as "tripling," "contrasting," and "personalising," as well as the use of "inclusive language" and "exclusive language." This paper details and analyses the approaches and techniques used by Thunberg (framing and rhetorical) and then discusses how they can be taught to Japanese university students seeking to move beyond generic English language classroom presentations.

In Turkish, Relative Clause (RC) attachment ambiguity arises when two noun phrases (NPs) in a genitive construction follow the (RC). The present paper studies Turkish RC attachment preferences of Turkish native speakers in two experiments through off-line comprehension tasks. While in the first experiment the main verb immediately follows the NP group, in the second experiment a group of adjuncts intervened between the second NP and the main verb. The aim of this setting was to observe the effect of Recency and Predicate Proximity in attachment preferences. The results of the first experiment showed a clear preference for low attachment (NP1). This preference was considered to be the result of Recency effect. The outcomes of the second experiment also showed a higher frequency for low attachment preference, but with an increasing rate for high attachment in comparison to the first experiment. This outcome showed first, the effect of Recency was still prevalent, and second, Predicate Proximity along with Relativized Relevance Principle may also have an increasing effect when there is an intervening group of adjuncts between the NP group and the main verb.

Since 2012, many Title IV institutions of higher education have sent their students debt letters to inform them of their outstanding loan amounts, estimated or real monthly payments, and other loan-related information. However, no extant research has analyzed whether these letters are written at an appropriate level for college students, nor has research articulated what complex jargon is used in these letters (e.g., "subsidized," "consolidated") and what content is contained in these letters (e.g., interest rates, loan types). Subsequently, this study analyzes a sample of 24 letters gathered from institutions of higher education across the country to fill these research gaps. Results suggest most debt letters are not comprehensible by the average first-or second-year college student, jargon differs between sectors (e.g., public, private), and debt letters share many common elements, such as aggregate loan totals and interest rates, but many do not include contact information or any multimedia, even though letters were written to be delivered digitally. Implications for research, practice, and financial aid communication are addressed.

Background/Objectives: There is no attempt to investigate the relationships between dependency and markedness even though the syntactic roles in language are decided by dependency relations and markers. The main objective of this study was to understand markedness beyond syntactical tables and propose a syntax graph with various syntax structures to verify the relationship between dependence of proposed markers. Methods/Statistical analysis: The methodology involved enquiry into the origin and development of dependency relations, starting from their definition, abstraction, and usage in syntactic structures through graphical presentations. Findings: This study revealed that dependency relations denoted by the markers can be classified into two types of dependencies according to their syntactic functions: implicit and explicit. Eventually, this markedness can be presented through syntax graphs of various syntactic structures to validate the functions of the markers and dependency relations. Improvements/Applications: This paper presents a reasonable method to define dependency relations based on the markedness and the valence theory of the predicate. This approach provides a systematic view to define dependency relations for natural language processing. The implementation of syntax graphs is a future research project.

This study aims to analyze the syntax of serial verbs in the Punjabi language. The serial verb construction (SVC) is a widespread phenomenon across the world languages and in Punjabi as well. The SVC in Punjabi specifically is used as a full event described by two sub-events, with each event described by a separate verb coming together in a sequence. It shows that two different events have their own individuality during overall event. This study is descriptive in nature and a naturalistic methodology is adopted for detailed categorization of SVC in Punjabi. The study shows how the two types of SVCs in Punjabi are completely different from Complex Predicates (CPs) because each SVC contains two VPs but only one V whereas the complex predicate constructions have only one VP but two Vs. The study also shows that the relationship between two verbs/VPs is that of adjunction but not complementation (or coordination). Since this study explores the Indo-Aryan languages which are facing the dearth of linguistic research, it is going to be a useful contribution to the domain of serial verb constructions cross-linguistically. It will also be helpful to draw a line between SVCs and CP formations in the Punjabi language.

The present study focuses on long distance scrambling and operator movement from embedded clauses to sentence initial position in Turkish. It proposes that the scrambling of the arguments out of the complement clauses is possible due to the fact that such phrases move cyclically through phases in Turkish. It is also asserted that the adjuncts that have nominal features can scramble to the sentence initial position by using the spec DP position as an escape hatch similar to the arguments. On the other hand, the Phase Impenetrability Condition is violated in the movement of the non-nominal adjuncts out of such clauses. In the analysis of the adjunct clauses, it is asserted that the Late Adjunction Hypothesis successfully explains all types of extractions out of such clauses in Turkish. Arguments, adjuncts or their operators cannot be moved out of relative clauses or adverbial clauses since these clauses adjoin to the derivation post-cyclically. Turkish data support the assertion that extractions out of adjuncts are banned universally.

Existential negation is the one type of negation present in languages, which its item is called "negative existential", and it provides to tell the case of "absence", "lack", "there is not", "poor", "empty", "dead" etc. Negative existentials are generally used for the common similarity of a structure as morphological, syntactic and semantic typologies. In Turkish, existential negation occurs with the independent morpheme "yok," which is defined as "absolute absence/non-existence". "Yok" is the main negative existential that is different from the standard negation and it is a separate lexical item with negative content. Since it is a powerful negator with its "absolute absence/nonexistence" meaning, it can be used in different positions, such as existential negation, possessive negation, emphatic negation, standard negation, short answer "no", prohibition or double negation. In addition to "yok," the bound morpheme "-sXz" is used with "without/lack" meaning in existential negation by implying the non-existence case. Besides, general rejection item "degil," which means "is not", is used in existential negation, which implies the non-existentiality by rejecting the existence case that is presupposed.

Given that formulaic sequences play an important role in enhancing L2 learners' academic writing skills and that phraseological sequences constitute a large proportion of written discourse, the current study was an attempt to draw up a list of key phrase frames--phraseological sequences with a variable slot--in a corpus of research articles (RAs) in the field of environment. A complete list of such frames, extracted by kfNgram software, was subjected to a series of corpus statistics such as frequency, range, and keyness, as well as manual filtering. This resulted in the generation of 65 four-word and 20 five-word key phrase frames specific to the field of environment. Structural analysis revealed that the vast majority of these key phrase frames were content word sequences, while functionally most of them belonged to referential expressions. Pedagogically speaking, L2 learners are recommended to develop a rich repertoire of formulaic sequences such as key phrase frames which are considered the cornerstone of academic discourse.

In this paper, I provide an analysis of 'verbless' sentences in Arabic (mainly, the Standard variety, SA) in light of the claims of the feature-based probe-goal-Agree system of Chomsky (2001, 2004) and such assumptions as held by Biberauer et al. (2010) about probe-goal Agree relations being parameterized according to the feature-structure of functional elements derived in sentence structure. This analysis is essentially different from previous analyses in the literature relating to 'verbless' sentences in Arabic, such as Benmamoun's (2008). In the present analysis, verbal inflection is the product of the valuation of a T-feature of verbs -- i.e., [uT], as the unvalued uninterpretable counterpart of [iT] of tense (T as a node in sentence structure) in the syntax of languages. Using this framework of assumptions, I subsequently extend on Halila's (1992) analysis of the "famma"-construction in Tunisian Arabic. In such constructions, "famma"-raising is the result of the verb-like nature of "famma" as an auxiliary or copula, which ultimately enters a probe-goal-Agree relation with T for tense interpretation at Logical Form (LF) in the syntax.

This paper examines how causality is related to coreferential and reciprocal structures, looking at how they are conceived and expressed in Ewe. It deals with one particular type of causative constructions, namely the periphrastic causative construction, where the CAUSER is coreferential with the CAUSEE. This is the case where the CAUSER and the CAUSEE refer to one and the same person. For a more adequate description of this causative phenomenon in Ewe, two types of linguistic data are employed in this paper: textual and introspective. The textual data are composed of didactic materials which include popular story books and descriptions of folklore, customs and traditions, pseudo-literary plays and narratives published by the Bureau of Ghana Languages. All instances of the causative situation were extracted, with a careful consideration of the surrounding contexts so as to allow for a correct interpretation in the analyses (as context is often crucial for a correct semantic analysis and interpretation of causative forms). This paper identifies that just as English and other languages do, it is possible to express threefold coreferentiality in Ewe; where the causer is coreferential with the causee and the patient. It can also be identified that only verbs that can take the same semantic participant types as both subject and object can be reflexivized and reciprocalized; else, prototypical semantically-transitive verbs can be reflexivized only metaphorically.

How strongly a verb is associated with a construction plays a crucial role in the learning of argument structure constructions. We examined the effect of verb-construction association strength on second language (L2) constructional generalization by analysing L2 learners' production and comprehension of two complex constructions (i.e. ditransitive and resultative), comparable in constructional complexity and input frequency but distinctive in verb-construction association. Using a learner corpus study, we found greater verbal usage variability in the production of ditransitive rather than resultative constructions. The results of an acceptability judgment task indicated that L2 learners accepted the ditransitive sentences regardless of whether they contained high-frequency or low-frequency verbs, but learners were more likely to accept the resultative sentences when they read high-frequency rather than low-frequency verbs. These findings suggest that verb-construction association affects the learning of argument structure constructions, supporting its contribution to the constructional generalization.

This study demonstrates how native and learner corpora can enhance modal verb treatment in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) textbooks used in mainland China. Data analysis compares modal verbs in the textbook and native corpus by referring to distributional features, semantic functions and co-occurring constructions; and the analysis of the learner corpus refers to the use/misuse of modal verbs. A corpora comparison considers the authenticity of textbook language; and examination of learner use/misuse of modal verbs provides a learner perspective for textbook presentation that is applicable to learning difficulties. In this regard, this study highlights discrepancies between textbook treatment of modal verbs and authentic modal use in constructions, distributions and semantic functions, and its application of error analysis reveals inter/intra-linguistic interference in the use of modal verbs. This study can thus contribute to a corpus-informed and learner-centered design of grammar presentation in EFL textbooks that enhances the authenticity and appropriateness of textbook language for target learners.

Previous studies found that linguistic features can be used to predict the success of novels. However, which specific linguistic features better contribute to a novel's popularity is unclear. This study addressed this issue by investigating the linguistic features of 2,008 online Chinese fantasy novels with different popularity (indicated by the Baidu Index). Specifically, word part-of-speech, personal pronouns, word complexity, and local/overall sentence semantic coherence were analyzed using a word segmentation tool (Jieba) and a latent semantic analysis software (Chinese version of Coh-Metrix). Results showed significant differences between popular and non-popular (high and low popularity) novels in the distribution of parts-of-speech, use of the second person pronoun, word complexity, and sentence semantic coherence. Moreover, the presence of the second person pronoun ("you"), local sentence semantic coherence, auxiliary words, word complexity, overall sentence semantic coherence, and adjectives better predicted the popularity of a Chinese online fantasy novel. The theoretical background and the implications of these results are detailed in the study discussion.

We present in this article corpus analyses, two experiments, and a preliminary English-French comparison on children's acquisition of "wh"-in-situ. Our examination of 10,000 "wh"-questions from CHILDES reveals that the reported empirical picture of "wh"-question acquisition in English is incomplete: A type of "wh"-in-situ, probe questions (PQs), has been left out from most discussions despite its presence in child-directed speech. Unlike "wh"-in-situ echo questions (EQs), PQs are used to request new information, and parents frequently use PQs and fronted information-seeking questions in alternation. The fact that PQs share the pragmatic space with fronted "wh"-questions while involving fewer syntactic operations and exhibiting lower input frequency allows us to test both structure-based and frequency-based theories of syntax acquisition. Our comprehension task with 3;06-5;06-year-olds confirms that children accept and understand PQs as information seeking. On the other hand, results from a production task show a strong avoidance of "wh"-in-situ, which is in line with reported elicited data from French-speaking children. We reason that a structural economy-based approach alone is not sufficient to account for children's disfavor of "wh"-in-situ. Depending on the input frequency and consistency, as well as the number of variants licensed by the grammar of a given language, children may treat part of the input as uninformative and initially only learn from higher-frequent, more regularized input. Their intake is thus selective.

We identify and propose an analysis in LFG of Gapping construction in Taif "Hijazi" Arabic (TA). Gapping occurs in a coordination structure where the initial conjunct is syntactically complete and the non-initial conjunct is incomplete. To my knowledge, there is no previous description or analysis of gapping in TA. There have been two competing analyses in the literature on gapping, which view gapping as a result of a trace of movement and non-constituent coordination. In this paper, we show that none of these approaches succeeds to account for Gapping in TA, and hence, they fail to capture the facts of gapping in this Arabic dialect. Instead, we adopts a function-spreading approach within Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), and show how it is able to account for the facts of gapping in TA, using mechanisms proposed independently for other construction types.

This paper investigates a number of issues regarding negative polarity items (NPIs henceforth), the scope of negation and other negative elements in Turkish. First, based on new data, I argue that the distribution of the adverbial NPI "sakin" 'ever' is not as restricted as it was claimed in previous work (cf. Kelepir 2000, 2001). That's, its behavior is quite similar to that of other adverbial NPIs such as "asla" 'never' and "katiyyen" 'in no way' in the language. Second, in contrast to the some claims made by Kelepir (2000, 2001), I show that neither NPIs nor negation invoke any intervention effects in the environment of Noun Phrases (NPs). Thus I argue that it is not necessary to posit the Immediate Scope Constraint in Turkish. Lastly, I investigate the interaction between the "ne... ne..." phrase (i.e. neither… nor…) and negation in Turkish. More specifically, a small-scale online corpus research on the use of the "ne... ne..." phrase along with negation produced results that are in agreement with the account proposed by Sener and Issever (2003). However, the results also illustrate the fact that negation occurs only when the "ne... ne..." phrase conjoins constituents smaller than clauses.

We analysed both structural and functional aspects of sentences containing the four adverbials "after", "before", "because", and "if" in two dense corpora of parent-child interactions from two British English-acquiring children (2;00-4;07). In comparing mothers' and children's usage we separate out the effects of frequency, cognitive complexity and pragmatics in explaining the course of acquisition of adverbial sentences. We also compare these usage patterns to stimuli used in a range of experimental studies and show how differences may account for some of the difficulties that children have shown in experiments. In addition, we report descriptive data on various aspects of adverbial sentences that have not yet been studied as a resource for future investigations.

Tourism has been growing fast as a global industry. Promoting national tourism is therefore an important part of a country's economic plan and can contribute to its economic success. Tourism slogans have always been part of the promotion of national tourism. Almost every country has their own catchy, pungent taglines to attract new tourists. This study examined 100 tourism slogans available online and investigated the frequency of occurrences of the syntactic structures in the slogans. After the most frequently used syntactic structures were identified, they were analysed further for classifications of sentence types and structures in order to gain insight into patterns of grammatical forms and functions. The findings showed that in terms of occurrences, noun phrases were most frequently used in tourism slogans, followed by simple declarative sentences. Further analysis demonstrated that the most common form of noun phrase in the tourism slogans consisted of an adjective (modifier) and a noun (head). In addition, the most common form of sentence was declarative and its function was to make a statement. Other interesting findings such as linguistic playfulness and incongruence of forms and functions were also discussed in the study

This paper presents an analysis of the structure of relative clauses with an indirect object or adjunct gap in two Mundaka Basque varieties ("Mundaka Basque I" and "Mundaka Basque II"). In Mundaka Basque I, relativization of indirect objects and adjuncts is grammatical when the relative clause is in subject or direct object position, while in Mundaka Basque II this same syntactic configuration is ungrammatical. This variation is explained by a difference in the status of P. In Mundaka Basque I the P has unvalued f-features, whereas in Mundaka Basque II the P has no unvalued f-features. Evidence for this comes from PP extraction out of [-Q] embedded clauses: the intermediate [nu] gets its f-features valued by the P of the extracted phrase in Mundaka Basque I, while it does not in Mundaka Basque II. Additionally, this study shows that the Case matching effect is not a syntactic constraint but rather a morphological constraint.

The present study is a follow-up study of Çakir (2016b) which focused on the wh-adverbial & which NP constructions asymmetry within island structures in Turkish. The characteristics of wh-adverbial nasil "how" is compared with the which-NP constructions "hangisekilde" "in what way" and "hangihalde" "in what condition." The island constraints that are focused on in the study are Complex NP Constraint, Sentential Subject Constraint and Adjunct Island Constraint. The data have been collected through a Self-Paced Reading Task, a Grammaticality Judgment Test and a Multiple Choice Test from 297 participants. The findings of the present study are consistent with the ones obtained in the previous one. It seems that the wh-operators whose wh-phrases include nominal elements in their structures can license the lower CP with [+wh] feature through spec-head agreement while the operators of the single-word wh-adverbials cannot do the same thing.

This piece of work proposes to descriptively investigate the structures of complex verbs in Meiteilon. The categorization of such verbs is based on the nature of semantic and syntactic functions of a lexeme or verbal lexeme. A lexeme or verbal lexeme in Meiteilon may have multifunctional properties in the nature of occurrence. Such lexical items can be co-occurred together in a phrase as single functional word. Specifically, in the co-occurrences of two lexical items, the first component of lexical items has different semantic and syntactic functions in comparison to semantic and syntactic functions of the second component of lexical items. Such co-occurrences of two lexical items are the forms of complex verb that are covered with the term complex predicate in this work. The investigation in constructing complex predicate is thoroughly presenting in this work.

Qualitative data analysis has been criticised for a lack of credibility over recent years when vagueness has been afforded to the reporting of how findings are attained. In response, there has been a growing body of literature emphasising a need to detail methods of qualitative data analysis. This paper adds to this body of knowledge by presenting a reflexive narrative review of the development of a modified version of the 'phenomenological hermeneutical method for interpreting interview texts'. This modification permits greater transparency when dealing with data that relates to multiple contexts. A visual model to represent this modified approach is also presented. Additionally, an exploration of the underpinning theoretical basis to this data analysis method, and modification, is provided. Accordingly, this paper demonstrates this modified qualitative data analysis method ensures that subjective relativistic origins and contexts of interpretations are identifiable, whilst permitting full objectification of the text.

The current research argues that definiteness in Arabic can be used for formal purposes. The definite article and the nunnation suffix "-n" (NnnS) manage the information flow in the sentence through maintaining accepted informativity balance. Additionally, the study assumes that NnnS, "-n," is not an indefinite article. Its main function is rather to stimulate the speaker to add information about indefinite nouns. The information triggered by the NnnS is labelled as "balancing materials", whose aim is to restore sentence acceptability which degrades due to indefinite nouns. Balancing materials can be of two types: semantic and formal. When the speaker balks at adding either types of balancing materials, the definite article is used, instead. Here, the definite article resolves the tension of adding information about the indefinite nouns and refraining from doing so. These issues are supported by empirical evidence. With this new role of definiteness, new insights into some pertinent issues, including sentence building and translation are offered.

The article examines the onomastic aspect of a medieval worldview through the analysis of naming principles for the kings of the Merovingian, the Carolingian and the Wessex dynasties. The etymological, structural and semantic analysis of the first Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kings' names and bynames is used. The etymology of the first Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kings' names is given, and the review of their bynames is made. Special emphasis is placed on the idea that the name chosen for the successor was aimed at preserving the dynastic succession and the legitimization of power. In addition, king's personal charisma was strengthened through a proper noun. The ways of analysis are useful for development of contrastive and historical linguistics, theory of linguistics, naming theory.

The literature on the topical organization of essays suggests that there are four possible types of progression from the topic of one clause to the topics of the following clauses. These are parallel, sequential, extended parallel, and extended sequential progressions. Essay writers' ability to create cohesion and coherence can be evaluated on the extent of their capability to use topical progression appropriately and adequately. In other words, essays in which topical structuring is properly accomplished are more cohesive and coherent. Based on this fact, this study aims to analyze the topical structure in argumentative essays written by Turkish learners of EFL. Our objectives in doing this are (1) to assess Turkish EFL learners' ability to construct topical links between clauses, (2) to identify the type of progression mostly preferred by them, and (3) to find out the range of linguistic structures that they use to create progression. To this end, the researchers have conducted Topical Structure Analysis (TSA) on essays produced by 81 ELT students from three different universities in Turkey (Gaziantep, Inönü, and Hakkari). The analysis illustrated the fact that Turkish EFL learners are not as skilled as they should be in topical structuring. It also revealed that they usually prefer to use parallel and sequential types of progression, while extended progression has been observed to be less common in their essays. Finally, we found that the participants of the study mostly use pronouns for parallel progression, whereas they switch to new noun phrases for sequential progression.

This article adopts the surface overlap and derivational complexity hypotheses to study crosslinguistic transfer in the adult second language (L2) acquisition of English genitive alternation (between the s-genitives and the of genitives) by intermediate and advanced Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners. While the "s"-genitive (e.g. "the boy's shirt") and the "of"-genitive (e.g. "the shirt of the boy") are allowed in principle to denote possession, the "s"-genitive is the native option when the possessor is human and the possessum is nonhuman. In standard syntactic analyses, the "s"-genitive is held to be more complex than the "of"-genitive, since it involves raising the possessor in the determiner phrase (DP). Egyptian Arabic is also known for its genitive alternation; it uses the synthetic genitive (the construct state), and the analytic genitive (the free state) that both overlap partially or significantly with the "of"-genitive. The results of an elicited production task showed that the intermediate group tended to produce the "of"-genitives in contexts in which the "s"-genitives were the target construction. The advanced group, on the other hand, produced the more complex "s"-genitives. These findings suggest that the surface overlap involved between the "of"-genitives and the corresponding genitive constructions in Egyptian Arabic conspired to trigger this crosslinguistic transfer. Also, resorting to the overlapping "of"-genitive option can be viewed as a strategy to avoid the more complex "s"-genitive option. The results of the advanced group imply that the acquisition of English genitive alternation undergoes two developmental stages. In the first, learners favor the less complex and overlapping "of"-genitives. In the second, they acquire the syntactic derivation in the "s"-genitives that raises the possessor in the DP.

Much previous work has suggested that word order preferences across languages can be explained by the dependency distance minimization constraint (Ferrer-i Cancho, 2008, 2015; Hawkins, 1994). Consistent with this claim, corpus studies have shown that the average distance between a head (e.g., verb) and its dependent (e.g., noun) tends to be short cross-linguistically (Ferrer-i Cancho, 2014; Futrell, Mahowald, & Gibson, 2015; Liu, Xu, & Liang, 2017). This implies that on average languages avoid inefficient or complex structures for simpler structures. But a number of studies in psycholinguistics (Konieczny, 2000; Levy & Keller, 2013; Vasishth, Suckow, Lewis, & Kern, 2010) show that the comprehension system can "adapt" to the typological properties of a language, for example, verb-final order, leading to more complex structures, for example, having longer linear distance between a head and its dependent. In this paper, we conduct a corpus study for a group of 38 languages, which were either Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) or Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), in order to investigate the role of word order typology in determining syntactic complexity. We present results aggregated across all dependency types, as well as for specific verbal (objects, indirect objects, and adjuncts) and nonverbal (nominal, adjectival, and adverbial) dependencies. The results suggest that dependency distance in a language is determined by the default word order of a language, and crucially, the "direction" of a dependency (whether the head precedes the dependent or follows it; e.g., whether the noun precedes the verb or follows it). Particularly we show that in SOV languages (e.g., Hindi, Korean) as well as SVO languages (e.g., English, Spanish), longer linear distance (measured as number of words) between head and dependent arises in structures when they mirror the default word order of the language. In addition to showing results on linear distance, we also investigate the influence of word order typology on hierarchical distance (HD; measured as number of heads between head and dependent). The results for HD are similar to that of linear distance. At the same time, in comparison to linear distance, the influence of adaptability on HD seems less strong. In particular, the results show that most languages tend to avoid greater structural depth. Together, these results show evidence for "limited adaptability" to the default word order preferences in a language. Our results support a large body of work in the processing literature that highlights the importance of linguistic exposure and its interaction with working memory constraints in determining sentence complexity. Our results also point to the possible role of other factors such as the morphological richness of a language and a multifactor account of sentence complexity remains a promising area for future investigation.

This study reports findings from two truth value judgment experiments to address two research questions on Mandarin: (i) whether children and adults have the knowledge of the structural constraint Principle C in their pronoun resolution; and (ii) whether adults and children show the prohibition effect of the cyclic-c-command constraint or the QR account of pronouns on the coreference reading of backward anaphora for different types of subordinate clauses. The results show that children pattern similarly to adults for their interpretation of the Principle C sentences. For backward anaphora sentences, adults disallow the coreference reading for the "deshihou" 'while/when' clause but accept it for the "yinwei" 'because' clause, contrary to the predictions of the cyclic-c-command account and the QR account. However, children allow coreference for both types of clauses. The pattern from Mandarin-acquiring children is in line with previous studies on English, Italian, and Russian, which demonstrate that children respect a language-universal structural constraint (i.e., Principle C) at the initial stage of development, with the language-specific or even construction-specific constraint being acquired later.

This study investigates the learning of linguistic structures associated with African American English (AAE) among four non-AAE-speaking teachers of AAE-speaking students. It considers implicit and explicit learning/development of a second dialect in two novel ways. First, it focuses on the understanding of a socially-stigmatized dialect by speakers of a socially-valued dialect, the language of the classroom. Second, it considers the knowledge of individual AAE features by outgroup speakers, about which little, if anything, was previously known. This research highlights the linguistic situation in one urban high school over the course of an academic year, focusing on four teachers' proficiency in their students' dialect as demonstrated by teacher performance on a translation task administered four times over the course of an academic year. Results indicate that features cluster into three levels of proficiency, with the highest level attained by the teacher who was most deliberate and explicit in her second dialect (D2) development. This work contributes to the small but growing canon of research on D2 development.

This article investigates the binding properties of the Korean reflexive "caki." Korean "caki" allows a local antecedent, a long-distance sentence-internal antecedent, and (unusually) an extrasentential antecedent. Two experiments were conducted with Korean-speaking child participants (mean age = 5;8; age range = 5;1-6;4) and adult controls. The first tested local binding versus long-distance intrasentential binding, and the second tested extrasentential binding. The results show, first, that the children allowed both a local and a long-distance antecedent for "caki," with a preference for the long-distance reading (counter to many claims that children show a robust preference for local antecedents crosslinguistically). Second, the children allowed "caki" to refer to an antecedent in a preceding sentence. These results indicate that, at an early stage, Korean children have acquired adult-like knowledge of the complex properties of "caki," including what might be considered the computationally taxing option of extrasentential binding.

This study describes the thematic roles of Somali; a language that manifests unorthodox grammatical structures due to the use of the focus particle. A mapping of some language features related to the semantic-syntactic interface is carried out. The effect of the meaning of the lexical items is tested to whether it affects the syntactic structures of the sentences. It was found that the word order of Somali is determined by pragmatic and sociolinguistics factors. The focus particle of Somali plays a key-role in the Surface structure of the sentences. However; the thematic roles of the language appear not to be influenced by the grammatical manifestation of the language at the surface structure. Rather, they are determined at the deep structure level. Somali, being a pro-drop language, shows that predicates require obligatory external arguments while internal arguments are determined by the verb class and kind. Some structures show that certain verbs require PPs as obligatory arguments.

This paper aims at giving an analysis of certain syntactic peculiarities of reciprocal pronouns within verbs of psychological state, commonly known as psych-verbs. The analysis reveal that psych-verbs constructions have a peculiar property in that the binding conditions of reciprocal pronouns are satisfied in Experiencer-Subject (ES) psychverbs constructions but are not in the Experiencer-Object (EO) at the surface level; though the latter constructions are grammatical. However, the paper argues that though binding conditions are not satisfied in EO psych-verb constructions at the surface level, they are satisfied in the deep structure (D-structure) construction wherein the reciprocal pronoun, in the theme argument, is bound by a c-commanding Experiencer argument. By so doing, it satisfies binding condition A which holds that a reciprocal pronoun must be bound by an appropriate c-command antecedent. This analysis shows that reciprocal binding in Experiencer-Object psych-verb constructions, at the D-structure, does not reflect the linear order in the thematic hierarchy as proposed by Grimshaw (1990) and the psych-verb in EO D-structure construction is construed as one with two internal arguments.

This paper examines the essential features of a group of constructions that belong to the family of complementary alternation discourse constructions in English. In this group of constructions, X and Y are two situations such that Y is less likely (or more likely) to happen than X. Each member of this group (X Let Alone Y, X Much Less Y, X Never Mind Y, X Not To Mention Y, Not X Nor Y, X Still Less Y, Not X Not Even Y, and X To Say Nothing of Y) introduces subtle changes in focal structure, resulting in changes on the overall coherence of the text. Based on these theoretical explanations, the paper specifies the conditions for the use of one connector with preference over the others. Finally, the paper argues that in these constructions we find two types of cognitive operations at work: simple cognitive operations (negative addition and/or re-association) and operation amalgams, which combine different cognitive operations.

The present paper aims to analyze the most inherent features and characteristics of household lexis in English. Special emphasis has been placed on their names of the objects used in everyday life, kitchen utensils, animal and birds. Lexical units concerning ceremonies, habits and traditions are also among the scope of the paper. Moreover, the study deals with the structural features of the units under consideration. It is believed that the thematic-semantic characterization of every-day lexis can have both pedagogical and linguistic implications, especially when dealing with comparative structures.