Dissertations / Theses: 'Sinhalese language Word order'

1

Yateem, Nayla Mohammed 1967. "Issues in word order." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288711.

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This work provides facts about word order in this language. In addition to listing the permissible word orders in matrix clauses and simple Wh-questions, I also document the semantic changes which result from the variation in word order. These facts of word order are analyzed within the Minimalist Program. Throughout this work I support the concept of no optionality and that movement has to be well-motivated. I propose that overt movement is not only morphologically motivated, as claimed in the Minimalist Program, but it is also semantically motivated. Such a proposal better accounts for the word order facts, both structural and semantic. In this proposal, I do not have to resort to optionality to explain the variation in word order. I look at the semantic difference between SV and VS word orders. In the SV order, an entity is chosen and a statement is given about it; in VS order, an event is displayed which has an entity that takes part in it. This variation in word order reflects the thetic/categorical distinction. In these word order, the verb raises overtly to the functional heads: T and AGR. This is an example of an overt movement which is morphologically driven. The subject in preverbal position in Gulf Arabic has to be information that is previously given in the discourse while if the subject is in postverbal position, it could either be new or given. Hence, I propose that the subject raises to be topicalized. Overt movement of the subject is not motivated by morphology but by semantics. Accordingly, Case and nominal agreement features are considered weak and they do not motivate the subject to move overtly. In Gulf Arabic, argumental Wh-phrases can be both fronted and left in-situ. I propose that the fronted argumental Wh-phrases raise to (Spec,CP) to be focused. Focus movement is an example of a semantically driven movement. Adjunct Wh-phrases in Gulf Arabic are base-generated in (Spec,CP).

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Chamorro, Adriana. "On Mohawk word order." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=26052.

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This thesis examines the influence of definiteness and movement on Mohawk free word order from the perspective of Government and Binding Theory. On the one hand, Mohawk data show that the relative order of NP's with respect to the verb does not determine definiteness and that the particle ne is not a definite determiner, the language lacking this type of "pure" marker for this feature, all of which contradicts previous claims. It is argued that pragmatic considerations will determine the interpretation of nominals. On the other hand, the evidence shows that there is no movement operation in the production of free word order in Mohawk, unlike in other scrambling languages. The evidence is accounted for by the fact that NP's are base generated in adjunct position (Baker 1991a) and coindexed with pro's in argument position which are licensed by the rich agreement morphology on the verb.

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3

Karali, Maria. "Aspects of Delphic word order." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.316971.

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4

Kuh, Hakan. "Correlation between inflection and word order /." The Ohio State University, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487676847117476.

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5

Patil, Umesh, Gerrit Kentner, Anja Gollrad, Frank Kügler, Caroline Féry, and Shravan Vasishth. "Focus, word order and intonation in Hindi." Universität Potsdam, 2008. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4611/.

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A production study is presented that investigates the effects of word order and information structural context on the prosodic realization of declarative sentences in Hindi. Previous work on Hindi intonation has shown that: (i) non-final content words bear rising pitch accents (Moore 1965, Dyrud 2001, Nair 1999); (ii) focused constituents show greater pitch excursion and longer duration and that post-focal material undergoes pitch range reduction (Moore 1965, Harnsberger 1994, Harnsberger and Judge 1996); and (iii) focused constituents may be followed by a phrase break (Moore 1965). By means of a controlled experiment, we investigated the effect of focus in relation to word order variation using 1200 utterances produced by 20 speakers. Fundamental frequency (F0) and duration of constituents were measured in Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) and Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) sentences in different information structural conditions (wide focus, subject focus and object focus). The analyses indicate that (i) regardless of word order and focus, the constituents are in a strict downstep relationship; (ii) focus is mainly characterized by post-focal pitch range reduction rather than pitch raising of the element in focus; (iii) given expressions that occur pre-focally appear to undergo no reduction; (iv) pitch excursion and duration of the constituents is higher in OSV compared to SOV sentences. A phonological analysis suggests that focus affects pitch scaling and that word order influences prosodic phrasing of the constituents.

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Hu, Wenze. "Functional Perspectives and Chinese Word Order." The Ohio State University, 1995. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392908184.

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7

Knoll, Sonja. "Word order within infinitival complements in Swiss-German." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61299.

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This thesis studies word order variations in Swiss-German sentences that contain infinitival complements. Such sentences exhibit interesting word order. Verbs can be in different orders and the objects selected by these verbs can be in different positions relative to them. The aim of this thesis is to give a general account of these word order facts based solely on structural properties of the complements in the underlying structure. In particular, it is claimed that Swiss-German verbs that take infinitival complements do not all select the same type of complements. Some verbs (like modals, perception verbs and causatives) select VPs, others (like raising verbs) select IPs and others (like control verbs) select IPs or CPs. Mechanisms such as extraposition, verb raising and proliticization then apply to different structures in order for the sentence to satisfy T-linking. Extraposition applies to IPs and CPs, verb raising to IPs and VPs and procliticization to verbs that are sister to VPs.

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Chung, Chan. "A lexical approach to word order variation in Korean /." The Ohio State University, 1995. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487865929457072.

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Godjevac, Svetlana. "Intonation, word order, and focus projection in Serbo-Croatian /." The Ohio State University, 2000. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1488203552777258.

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SAKUMA, Jun'ichi. "Case Marking and Word Order in the Finnish Language." School of Letters, Nagoya University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/12954.

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11

Hong, Hyo-chang. "Discourse functions of Old English passive word order variation." Virtual Press, 2003. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1259301.

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The purpose of this study was to determine discourse and functional motivation for passive word order variation as shown in three of the major Early Old English prose texts, Orosius, Pastoral Care, and Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The main variation of Early Old English passive word orders are of three types, which this study showed to be distinct in the extent to which passive subjects represent information structure. This study further shows that, while thematicity functions as a main motivating factor for the use of passives, positional variation of passive verbal elements is also an important determinant of the degrees of information structure of passive main clause subjects.
Department of English

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12

Kallestinova, Elena Dmitrievna. "Aspects of word order in Russian." Diss., University of Iowa, 2007. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/165.

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Zhang, Phyllis Ni. "Word order variation and end focus in Chinese : pragmatic functions /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1994. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/11714827.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1994.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Clifford A. Hill. Dissertation Committee: Franklin E. Horowitz. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-128).

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14

Van, Eerden Brad Lee. "An examination of some issues relating to Greek word order and emphasis." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1994. http://www.tren.com.

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15

Sevinc, Ayca Muge. "Grammatical Relations And Word Order In Turkish Sign Language (tid)." Master's thesis, METU, 2006. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12607289/index.pdf.

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This thesis aims at investigating the grammatical relations in Turkish Sign Language (TiD). For this aim, word order, nominal morphology, and agreement morphology of verbs are examined. TiD lacks morphological case, but it has a very rich pronominal system like other sign languages. Verbs are classified according to their morphosyntactic features. With this classification, we can observe the effect of word order and agreement morphology on the grammatical relations. Combinatory Categorial Grammar as a lexicalized grammar encodes word order, morphological case, and agreement features in the lexicon. Hence, it has the tools for testing any lexicalized basic word order hypothesis for a language based on the gapping data. Gapping data based on grammatical judgments of native signers indicate that TiD is a verb final language. Syntactic ergativity seems to be prevailing in coordination of a transitive sentence and an intransitive sentence where the single argument of the intransitive clause or one of the arguments of the transitive clause is missing. TiD also shows a tendency for ergativity in lexical properties such as agreement and pro-drop.

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16

Moy, Joanna. "Word order and case in models of simulated language evolution." Thesis, University of York, 2005. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9906/.

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17

Vassiliou, Erma, and erma vassiliou@anu edu au. "The word order of Medieval Cypriot." La Trobe University. Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry, 2002. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au./thesis/public/adt-LTU20080214.124104.

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This is the first typological study devoted to Medieval Cypriot (MC). The objective of the study is to provide both syntactic and pragmatic factors which are determining for the word order of the language and to open new ways to recording mechanisms of word order change. Cypriot syntax deserves this attention, as it is a language highly interesting for the typologist as for the researcher of other linguistic areas; Modern Cypriot is VOS, and exhibits a series of exceptions to the general rules of V-initial languages. Medieval Cypriot conforms to most of Greenberg�s Universals (1963) which are pertinent to type VSO in that it has V in initial position in all unmarked clauses, in that it is prepositional, that adjectives mostly follow the noun they qualify, and so on. However, the comparison of MC to Greenberg�s Universals is not the aim of this work. Apart form the order of the main constituents, this research mainly focuses on revealing mechanisms of syntactic change not generally known, and on unveiling particular traits of the Cypriot VSO order that are not common to other VSO languages. The analysis can be defined as diachronic for it deals with the language written over a span of many years, as assumed from studying the texts. Some words and structures, used in the beginning of the narrative, seem to decrease in frequency in the end, or vice versa. It is diachronic considering it also allows for comparison with later (colloquial) and earlier (written) constructions of the language. However, it is mostly a synchronic analysis; the patterns observed are from within the same language spoken by the same people living in the same period, more importantly from within the same work. Makhairas is thus the only broad evidence of his period, offered both as a diachronic and a synchronic linguistic testimony of his time. As no language exists in vacuo, my description of MC starts with a historical approach to the language under study; it is almost impossible to realise the problems of colloquial, literary and foreign features without being aware of the earlier history of Greek in general and of Cypriot in particular, in some of its earlier documents. I refrained as far as possible from entering the field of comparative criticism with Medieval Greek. In this way I decided to focus on discussions based exclusively on the Cypriot forms and patterns, as presented and justified by the evidence in Makhairas, and as witnessed by history which, for many centuries, has singled out Cypriot from the rest of the dialects and the Greek language itself. So, alternative views, criticism and discussion of same mechanisms of change recorded within the broader Greek language have been more or less avoided. The exposition of the MC word order patterns is based on my hypotheses that word order, as I understand it, is founded on purposes of communication and that languages with extreme flexibility of order, such as Medieval Cypriot, may adopt patterns that display rigidity of order in a number of their elements. It is within these areas of rigidity that new mechanisms of change may be detected. I also hypothesised that the same syntactic changes within languages of the same branch may be merely coincidental, and that Greek or forms of Greek may well adopt foreign elements, only (but not exclusively) if these acquire the Greek endings, or if they appear as independent affixes, as is the case with the post-medieval referential Cypriot marker �mish� which is from Turkish. Acquiring particular elements from other languages does not mean acquiring their order. However, acquiring patterns that are similar to Greek from a borrowing language which has the same patterns does not exclude syntactic borrowing. Since Modern Cypriot is V-initial, I presumed that this might have also been its order in the Middle Ages. I judge that major mechanisms of syntactic change of the same period may have been triggered by factors internal to Cypriot rather than by the more general, universal mechanisms of change. Moreover, I speculated that MC was a far more marginalised language in the Middle Ages than what history and literature have taught us. Its creative dynamism and potentiality to �juggle� between words and patterns has been its greater forte. Cypriot has not been studied as a dialect, in this work. I avoided having only a partial or a shadowed understanding of its word order patterns. Exhaustive descriptions that show its particularities in the process of completion appear with both rigidity (in some elements) and flexibility of order, and most importantly, they exhibit a long-life endurance. I have also been concerned with forms and /or patterns of Greek such as the future and other periphrastic tenses, although they are already known and have been analysed at length in Greek linguistic studies. I concentrate here on some of these from a Cypriot perspective. Cypriot has never been classified as Balkan Greek or mainland Greek. Following this study, it will be clarified further that any attempt to fit MC into a framework defined along these categorisations will be successful only in some areas of the general Greek syntax. In fact, Cypriot opens the way for a further understanding of Greek syntax with its (almost) boundless flexibility; it is through MC and the unique data of Makhairas that the study of the Greek syntax is being enriched. Areas of fine-grained classificatory criteria result in connecting some MC syntactic traits to those of Greek and accrediting to the language its own word order singularities in what can be righteously called here the Cypriot syntax. Additionally, the study aims to open new areas of investigation on diachronic syntactic issues and to initiate new and revealing answers concerning configurational syntax. To determine the syntactic traits of MC a meticulous work of counting was needed. The counting of the order of the main constituents from both the more general narrative patterns of the Chronicle as well as of those passages thought to be more immediate to the author�s living experience(s) was done manually. The primarily and more difficult task of considering, following and explaining pragmatic word order patterns in the Chronicle has been the stepping stone of this research. Earlier (and forgotten) stages of Greek, and patterns exclusive to Cypriot, assembled in a unique lexicon and with special Cypriot phrasal verbs, have provided answers to explaining the Cypriot structure. In addition to statistics, areas of language contact have also been explored, both in the morphology and in the syntax. More importantly, the extreme word order freedom of MC that illustrates word order processes based entirely on internal structural changes, aims to contribute to discussions regarding morphology and syntax versus morphosyntax. Chapter 1 provides all the background information of the history and language in Cyprus, prior to the Middle Ages. Chapter 2 deals with the description of the data and the methodology used to assess them. Chapter 3 exhibits the MC verbal forms, both finite and non-finite; it examines non-finites more closely, inasmuch as they play an important role in the change of the order of major constituents and uncover and explain the role of V-initial structures. Chapter 4 is the core chapter of this work. It displays Cypriot particularities of word order, reveals data concerned with the word order of the major constituents within the clause and unfolds explanatory accounts of them; lastly, it classifies MC as a V-initial language. Chapter 5 summarises conclusions, adds a further note on the Cypriot morphosyntactic traits while placing the results into the contemporary scholarship on VSO languages, also suggesting additional research areas into the MC patterns. The examples from Makhairas have been written in the monotonic system, where only one accent has been used; other special symbols have been eliminated or modified in the interest of making the text readable in the absence of the right font. However, Ancient Greek words appear with their appropriate accents. Abbreviation C indicates structures or words that remained unchanged in Cypriot over a long period of time, and G means a form or word accepted in both their written and spoken forms over a long period of time in Greek. A morphemic analysis of each form of the glosses has not always been given. I limited myself to glossing some elements only, for the better understanding of some examples.

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18

Wu, Xiaoqi. "Zai', 'dao', and 'gei' constructions -- a study of Chinese word order /." The Ohio State University, 1996. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487940665435198.

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19

Solin, Doreen (Doreen Frances). "Germanic verb order : the case for INFL-second." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=60097.

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Within the framework of Government-Binding Theory, this thesis argues that the Germanic languages, including German and related languages, should be analyzed as having INFL-second underlying work order. Contrary to traditional generative treatments of the so-called "verb-second" (V2) phenomenon, it is claimed here, in light of certain subtle asymmetries, that the final target site of the moved verb is INFL (I$ sp0)$ in sentences with pre-verbal subjects and COMP (C$ sp0)$ in those with pre-verbal non-subjects.
It is further maintained that an analysis, as modified and extended in the thesis, in which verb movement is triggered by the Empty Category Principle (ECP) is superior, on both conceptual and empirical grounds, to other theories advanced by generativists to date. A wide variety of clause types in the modern Germanic languages, including in particular German V2 complements and Icelandic infinitival complements, are examined, the final chapter being devoted to a proposal concerning German "parentheticals".

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20

Hana, Jiri. "Czech clitics in higher order grammar." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1188232919.

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21

Leedy, Randy A. "Greek word order and rhetorical emphasis in the Epistle to the Hebrews." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.

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22

Pederson, Mark John. "Usability evaluation of grammar formalisms for free word order natural language processing /." [St. Lucia, Qld], 2000. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe16187.pdf.

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23

Nakagawa, Natsuko. "Information Structure in Spoken Japanese: Particles, Word Order, and Intonation." Kyoto University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/215634.

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Kyoto University (京都大学)
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(人間・環境学)
甲第19808号
人博第779号
新制||人||187(附属図書館)
27||人博||779(吉田南総合図書館)
32844
京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻
(主査)教授東郷雄二, 教授藤田耕司, 教授田窪行則
学位規則第4条第1項該当

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24

Cheng, Chun-ming. "The connectionism approach to syntactic and semantic acquisition of simple Chinese sentences the role of word order information /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2000. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B23272934.

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25

Lau, Ngar-wai. "A study of Chinese depictive constructions in finance related discourse word order, discourse force and contact-induced changes /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2005. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B3168774X.

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26

Lau, Ngar-wai, and 劉雅慧. "A study of Chinese depictive constructions in finance related discourse: word order, discourse force andcontact-induced changes." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3168774X.

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27

Kennard, Holly Jane. "Breton morphosyntax in two generations of speakers : evidence from word order and mutation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6ed27592-f318-44ea-9895-3bd9f8dba2c9.

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Following a decline over the twentieth century, Breton has seen an increase in revival efforts, including Breton-medium education. This study investigates the effect of the language transmission gap on the morphosyntax of verbs. Fieldwork was undertaken with three distinct age groups: older native speakers (aged over 65), and two groups which make up a younger generation of speakers: children in Breton-medium education, and young adults who have been schooled in Breton. The question of word order and the placement of verbs in Breton has been controversial, largely because it is complex and variable, making the identification of basic word order difficult. The data show that usage across the older generation is fairly consistent, with V2 word order in matrix clauses. Verbal mutation is also maintained. Despite the transmission gap, younger adults from French-speaking homes do not systematically replace Breton patterns with French SVO. Rather, they avoid SVO in some contexts, and indeed use it less than the senior adults. The amount of input speakers receive is crucial: children in bilingual schooling, with only half of their classes in Breton, tend to oversimplify word order patterns and show French influence. In contrast, those with additional Breton input from a family member are more proficient. Children have difficulty acquiring mutation rules, and do not seem to have grasped the system of verbal mutation, but young adults use mutation proficiently, like the older speakers. Consequently, despite strong French influence, Breton word order has remained consistent. The fact that verbal mutation is variable in children reflects late acquisition, since the young adults rarely diverge from the expected usage. Thus, the changes in Breton morphosyntax are subtler than expected in light of the unusual transmission pattern and close proximity to French. The crucial factor appears to be sustained input in the language.

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Dold, Simon [Verfasser]. "Basque - Spanish Language Contact : an empirical study on word order in interrogatives / Simon Dold." Konstanz : Bibliothek der Universität Konstanz, 2018. http://d-nb.info/116496934X/34.

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Iulianella, Claudia. "The nominative pronoun and word order in 13th century Italian: A case study of the "Novellino"." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6492.

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Holmberg, Anders. "Word order and syntactic features in the Scandinavian languages and English /." Stockholm : Dept. of General Linguistics, University of Stockholm, 1986. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/33078.

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31

Chen, Selma Shu-Mei. "The effects of L1 word order and English proficiency on non-English speakers' sentence processing." Virtual Press, 1989. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/720150.

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This study is a partial replication of Davison & Lutz's (1984) experiment. It was designed to test if L1 word order and English proficiency are involved in non-native speakers' sentence processing. This study concentrates on the roles of syntax and pragmatics/semantics in sentence processing. By comparing two corresponding syntactic structures with similar meanings but different forms in context, we can detect the different degrees of the salient property of a certain NP. The perception of the salient NP is related to the definition of the sentence topic, which functions as the link between the sentence and the discourse. The salient NP can be identified by applying our linguistic knowledge, syntactic rules, and our real world knowledge, pragmatic principles,. The choice of syntactic structure is conditioned heavily by pragmatic principles. It is believed that response times correspond to the degrees of salience.Sixty international students participated in the experiment. Stimulus sentences were presented with a computer program and response times were recorded in seconds by the computer automatically. A cloze test was given for the measuring of English proficiency.The data collected were analyzed with SPSS-X. The MANOVA was carried out to compare the differences between VO/OV language types, target sentences (transformed and untransformed ones), five types of syntactic constructions, and the interactions ofword order by target sentences, target sentences by syntactic constructions, and L1 word order by target sentences by syntactic constructions. The response times for English proficiency were used as a post hoc variable. Significance was set at .05.The results revealed that there was a significant difference across five syntactic constructions (p < .05). The other tests were not significant. Two important limitations on this study are problems arising out of randomization parameters in the experiment, and the lack of lower level English proficiency subjects.
Department of English

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32

Gupton, Timothy Michael. "The syntax-information structure interface: subjects and clausal word order in Galician." Diss., University of Iowa, 2010. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/510.

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Previous accounts of preverbal subjects in Spanish and European Portuguese (EP) in the literature have debated the syntactic position of these elements. According to some analyses, preverbal subjects are canonical arguments appearing in an A-position (e.g. Goodall 2001, 2002; Suñer 2003 for Spanish; Duarte 1997; Costa 2004 for EP). Other analyses propose that preverbal subjects are non-arguments appearing in a left-peripheral - perhaps CLLD - A'-position (e.g. Uribe-Etxebarria 1990, 1995; Ordóñez & Treviño 1999 for Spanish; Barbosa 1996, 2000 for EP). Although Galician is an ideal language for insight on this debate due to linguistic ties with EP and political ties with Spain, Gupton (2006) obtained inconclusive results regarding the status of preverbal subjects in Galician. As the literature on Galician lacks descriptions of preferred word orders according to discourse context, I collected quantitative and qualitative experimental data to describe the syntax-information structure interface in Galician. The vast majority of speakers of this minority language are Spanish-Galician bilinguals with (self-reported) high levels of competency in both languages. This is of relevance because a variety of bilinguals, including heritage speakers, attrited L1 speakers, and those who have been claimed to have incompletely acquired the heritage language have been shown to exhibit instability and optionality at the linguistic interfaces, in particular at the syntax-discourse pragmatics interface (e.g. Hulk & Müller 2000; Sorace 2005 among numerous others), which is the subject of investigation in this dissertation. The data collected indicate a marked preference for SVO in a wide variety of discourse contexts, a preference that differs from those claimed to apply in similar contexts in Spanish (e.g. Ordóñez 1997, Zubizarreta 1998, Casielles 2004). Assuming that the presence of clitics implies the projection of f (Raposo & Uriagereka 2005) and the extension of the preverbal field into the left periphery, the cliticization data gathered for Galician in main clauses, subordinate clauses and recomplementation contexts suggest a number of preverbal positions in which preverbal subjects, affective phrases, and Topic elements may appear, one of which I suggest is Spec, DoubledFceP, following Martín-González (2002), but with proposed modifications. The data also suggest necessary modifications for López's (2009) syntax-information structure interface proposal in Romance, which suggests a reduced, syncretic left-peripheral position (Spec, FinP) in which CLLD Topics, wh- elements, and Fronted Focus elements appear and are assigned [+c] (contrastive) by the Pragmatics module. Within the preverbal architecture I propose, preverbal subjects and other left-peripheral elements coincide, but in a variety of syntactic positions. Therefore, for pragmatic feature assignment to successfully assign [+c], Pragmatics must distinguish between preverbal subjects and other left-peripheral phrases.

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33

Barrera-Tobon, Carolina. "Contact-induced changes in word order and intonation in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals." Thesis, City University of New York, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3601855.

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This dissertation is a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of the variable word order and prosody of copular constructions (Nicolás es feliz versus Feliz es Nicolás, Es Nicolás feliz, Es feliz Nicolás, ‘Nicolas is happy’) in the Spanish of first- and second-generation Spanish-English bilinguals in New York City (henceforth NYC). The data used for the study come from a spoken corpus of Spanish in NYC based on 140 sociolinguistic interviews (details of the corpus will be presented in Chapter Three). This dissertation addresses the question of whether second-generation bilinguals have a less flexible word order in Spanish as a result of their increased use of, and contact with, English, where a more fixed order prevails.

We will show that the informants in the present study, like their peers in Los Angeles and other parts of the US, exhibit a more rigid word order compared to their first-generation peers. We have established that this increase in rigidity of word order among the second-generation can be attributed in large part to their increased use of and contact with English. The studies mentioned above have interpreted their results to mean that these speakers are losing or have lost the discourse pragmatic constraints that govern word order. However, the data here show that the first- and second-generation speakers in the present study share many of the same conditioning variables and constraints for word order, although these variables appear to account for a smaller amount of variance among the second-generation. In this way, we have established that the second-generation is not losing the discourse pragmatic constraints that govern word order, but that they are differently sensitive to these constraints. In fact, we show that second-generation speakers are very capable of communicating the pragmatic functions that the first-generation speakers do using word order because they maintain the prosodic details of their first-generation counterparts. In other words, the second-generation communicates these functions in ways that are slightly different from the first-generation, relying more on prosodic resources than syntactic ones. Furthermore, the data indicate that their prosodic patterns are not modeled after the prosody of English. In general terms we show that the second-generation does not have a different grammar from their first-generation counterparts, as is claimed by other researchers. Instead we show that these speakers favor certain first-generation strategies over others.

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Wilson, Frances. "Processing at the syntax-discourse interface in second language acquisition." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4298.

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The Interface Hypothesis (Sorace and Filiaci, 2006) conjectures that adult second language learners (L2 learners) who have reached near-native levels of proficiency in their second language exhibit difficulties at the interface between syntax and other cognitive domains, most notably at the syntax-discourse interface. However, research in this area was limited, in that the data were offline, and thus unable to provide evidence for the nature of the deficit shown by L2 learners. This thesis presents online data which address the question of the underlying nature of the difficulties observed in L2 learners at the syntaxdiscourse interface. This thesis has extended work on the syntax-discourse interface in L2 learners by investigating the acquisition of two phenomena at the syntax-discourse interface in German: the role of word order and pronominalization with respect to information structure (Experiments 1-3), and the antecedent preferences of anaphoric demonstrative (the der, die, das series homophonous with the definite article) and personal pronouns (the er, sie, es series) (Experiments 4- 8). Crucially, this work has used an on-line methodology, the visual-world paradigm, which allows an insight into the incremental interpretation of interface phenomena in real-time processing. The data from these experiments show that L2 learners have difficulty integrating different sources of information in real-time comprehension efficiently, supporting the Interface Hypothesis. However, the nature of the processing difficulties which L2 learners demonstrate in on-line processing was not determined by these studies, resulting in the question: are L2 learners’ difficulties a result of a limitation of processing resources, or the inability to deploy those resources effectively? A novel dualtask experiment (Experiment 9), in which native speakers of German were placed under processing load simulated the results previously obtained for L2 learners. It is concluded that syntactic dependencies were constrained by resource limitation, whereas discourse based dependencies were constrained by processing resource allocation.

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Southwood, Frenette. "Specific language impairment in Afrikaans : providing a minimalist account for problems with grammatical features and word order /." Utrecht : LOT, 2007. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9789078328377.

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Gonitzke, Markus. "Mechanisms of harmony and the ordering of word order : consistencies and inconsistencies in language change and acquisition." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2405/.

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The thesis is based on the learning of word-orders in a cross-lingUistic and historic perspective. In linguistics, a certain hannony is expected in word order. X-bars of a language are supposed to be right-branched or left-branched. So, a language, which is right-branched has its head usually first, and a language, which is left-branched has its head usually last. In the generative framework, linguists argue that when a child encounters a structure where the head is to the right, she will assume that the whole language is constructed this way. Cognitive scientists like Christiansen argue that inconsistencies, that means a mixture of right- and left- branching are more difficult to learn because of recursive embeddings, and thus inconsistencies should simply die out or never come into existence in the first place. Greenberg established language universals after having considered forty languages. These universals would show consistencies in an X-bar branching, but Greenberg also cited exceptions and spoke of statistical universals. We are interested in these inconsistencies. If they are really more difficult to learn, why do they evolve in the first place and why are they often quite consistent in language evolution, i.e. they do not die out. Historical linguistics often argue that languages tend to develop from one consistent language via a transitional one and then develop again towards a consistent language. Inconsistent structures exist in most languages although there is a statistical trend towards consistencies. So, how do languages change and what makes persons learn at one stage a language differently and what are the mechanisms involved in learning that we can see as an end-result in language change. We will examine some of these phenomena, when we discussÃ?Â· language change in Romance, the introduction of postpositions in Gennan, and the role of the infinite verb in Gennan and in Old English. Experimental work has been done for the frontability of Gennan particles, which is closely linked to the introduction of postpositions. We did an experiment in English language for the role of the infinite verb in verb-final languages such as Gennan and replicated this experiment in French because of its richer verb morphology because this gives us a greater distinction between finite and infinite verbs. An SRN-simulation on the role of the infinite verb supports the experiments.

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鄭俊洺 and Chun-ming Cheng. "The connectionism approach to syntactic and semantic acquisition of simple Chinese sentences: the role of wordorder information." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31224118.

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Trips, Carola. "The OV-VO word order change in early middle English evidence for Scandinavian influence on the English language /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2001. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB9556634.

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Adamson, Brent Matthew. "Naturalistic versus formal foreign language learning : an analysis of upper-division German students' oral proficiency in nominal inflection and word order /." Digital version accessible at:, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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Shigenaga, Yasumasa. "Processing and Acquisition of Scrambled Sentences by Learners of Japanese as a Second Language." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/344218.

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The Japanese language exhibits a free word-order phenomenon called scrambling. Because each noun phrase (NP) is case-marked with postpositional particles, it allows a freer word order than such languages as English. For simple transitive sentences, Subject-Object-Verb is the canonical word order while OSV is the scrambled word order. Previous studies with native speaker (NS) children have found that they go through a developmental stage during which they consistently misunderstand scrambled sentences, taking the first NP in OSV sentences to be the subject. It has also been found that NS adults experience slowdowns in reading and comprehending scrambled sentences. However, investigations into the processing of scrambled sentences by second language (L2) learners have been scarce, and it is not entirely clear how scrambled sentences are processed and acquired by L2 learners. This three-article dissertation aimed at investigating how simple transitive sentences with a scrambled word order (i.e., OSV) are processed and acquired by L2 learners whose native language is English. The first article (Chapter 2) examined L2 learners’ grammatical knowledge and production performance of the OSV sentences through two tasks (fill-in-the-blank and picture description). The results indicated a positive relationship between the learners’ general proficiency in Japanese and their knowledge/production performance of the OSV sentences, although there was a rather large individual difference even within proficiency groups. It was also found that the difficulty in producing OSV sentences was mostly due to a lack of grammatical knowledge, but the relationship of grammatical knowledge and production performance interacted with the types of sentences. For reversible sentences (in which both the subject and object NPs are animate), there was evidence that errors in the production of OSV sentences were caused by the overuse of the canonical template (i.e., SOV). For non-reversible sentences (in which the subject NP is animate and the object NP is inanimate), on the other hand, there was little evidence that a processing problem such as the overuse of the SOV template caused the production difficulty. The second article (Chapter 3) examined the comprehension processes of OSV sentences. While the results of a pilot study (sentence correctness decision task) indicated that both the L2 learners and NSs took longer to read and comprehend OSV sentences than SOV sentences, the results of a self-paced reading task suggested that the processing of OSV sentences by L2 learners might be quite different from that of NSs. The NS participants read more slowly at the second NP position when they read the OSV sentences. On the other hand, the L2 learners, regardless of their proficiency level, did not show such slowdowns. However, the data provided evidence that the advanced L2 learners integrated the case particles more consistently in their sentence comprehension than the learners with lower proficiency. The third article (Chapter 4) examined whether a psycholinguistic task (syntactic persistence with picture description) might facilitate the production of scrambled sentences among L2 learners, for the purpose of exploring the possibility of using such a method as an L2 instructional tool. While the main task (Task 4, which used regular SOV/OSV sentences as primes) was not very effective in eliciting the production of OSV sentences, the follow-up task (Task 6, which used questions in SOV/OSV orders as primes) observed a more positive effect of syntactic persistence. Based on the results, explicit instruction and practice on scrambling is suggested. Since processing of scrambled sentences requires that L2 learners be aware of the functions of case markers (and other postpositional particles) instead of relying on the canonical template, such explicit instruction and practice may also contribute to the acquisition of the particles that mark case.

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Ramsey, David Sanford. "Determining possible differing adverbial placement between the linguistic structures of left- and right-handed writers." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1998. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1772.

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This thesis has attempted to determine if there are differences, concerning adverbial placement, between the sentences of left- and right-handed writers. To make this determination, I have statistically analyzed compositions of eight graduate students (four left-handed and four right-), and two left-handed published authors' (Lewis Carroll's and Mark Twains) private correspondence.

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AlQahtani, Saleh Jarallah. "The Structure and Distribution of Determiner Phrases in Arabic: Standard Arabic and Saudi Dialects." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/35081.

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This thesis investigates the syntactic structure of determiner phrases (DP) and their distribution in pre- and postverbal subject positions in Standard Arabic (SA) and Saudi dialects (SUD). It argues that indefinite DPs cannot occupy preverbal subject positions unless they are licensed by modification. Working within the theory of syntactic visibility conditions (visibility of the specifier and/or the determiner) put forth by Giusti (2002) and Landau (2007), I propose that adjectives, diminutives or construct states (CS) together with nunation can license indefinite DPs in preverbal subject positions. The syntactic derivation of the licensed indefinite DP depends on its complexity. In other words, in the case of simple DPs (e.g., a noun followed by an adjective), the correct linear word order is achieved by the syntactic N-to-D movement which takes place in the syntax proper. By contrast, if the DP is complex as in diminutives or CSs, the narrow syntax may not be able to derive the correct linear order. Therefore, I propose a novel analysis that accounts for the mismatches between the spell out of the syntax and the phonological form. I argue that the derivation of diminutives and CSs is a shared process between the narrow syntax and the phonological component (PF). I show that movement operations after-syntax (Lowering and Local-dislocation) proposed by Embick and Noyer (1999, 2001, 2007), in the sense of Distributed Morphology (DM), can account for the mismatch. The last theoretical chapter of the thesis investigates the linguistic status of nunation. I argue that nunation is an indefinite marker that performs half of determination with a full lexical item satisfying the other half. As far as the subject position is concerned, the current thesis includes two experimental studies that investigate processing of syntactic subjects in different word orders (SVO/VSO) by two groups: Native speakers (NSs) and Heritage speakers (HSs) of Arabic whose dominant language is English. The first study aims to answer two questions: a) which word order is more preferred by NSs, SVO or VSO? and b) which word order requires more processing? The second study aims to answer the same questions but with different participants, HSs. It also aims to check whether or not the dominant language grammar affected the heritage language grammar. Results showed that VSO is more preferred than SVO by both groups. As far as processing is concerned, NSs significantly processed subjects in VSO faster the SVO; they showed no significant difference when processing postverbal subjects in definite and indefinite VSO. By contrast, HSs processed subjects in SVO faster than VSO; however, the difference was not significant. The slow processing of VSO shown by HSs might be attributed to the effect of the dominant language which has a different word order from the heritage language.

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Westbury, Joshua R. "Left dislocation in biblical Hebrew : a cognitive linguistic account." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/95852.

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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The present work consists of an investigation into the form and function(s) of the so-called 'Left Dislocation' construction in Biblical Hebrew. As such, this inquiry is part of a larger domain of research that explores the nature and function of word order variation in Biblical Hebrew. As a result of a pilot study conducted by the present author in 2010, as well as recent advances within the feilds of cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, and discoursepragmatics— particularly with its sub-discipline known as information structure—a fresh examination of Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew is called for. Drawing on research from the aforementioned feilds of study, we propose a cognitive-functional theoretical model that provides a framework for a more comprehensive explanation of Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew. Furthermore, this work situates Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew against a broader profile of Left Dislocation across langauges. This is accomplished by examining the findings of a range of cross-linguistic studies—with respect to a variety of related and unrelated languages—that are concerned with both the syntactico-semantic and discourse-functional attributes of Left Dislocation. Typological generalizations drawn from these studies are then applied to the identification, classification, and explanation of a data set comprised of over 650 tokens taken from Genesis to 2 Kings. The result of this analysis is twofold. First, a thorough description is provided in terms of the external (i.e. global) and internal syntactico-semantic attributes of tokens comprising the data set. Consistent with typological findings, the data set reflects a taxonomic network of constructional schemas that are classified according to an exemplar model of conceptual categorization. Second, utilizing a cognitive-theoretical model, as well as insights garnered from crosslinguistic studies, the aforementioned syntactico-semantic description is explained in terms of the cognitive-pragmatic motivation for the use of Left Dislocation in BH narrative discourse, as well as the prototypical and non-prototypical discourse function(s) accomplished by the construction therein. Lastly, a developmental framework is proposed that accounts for the form-function variation exhibited by the tokens in our data set. This framework consists of broader developmental processes involving usage-based patterns of language change, as well as a 'panchronic' view of grammar, where synchrony and diachrony are viewed as an integrated whole, and where grammars are always emergent and never completely established.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werk verteenwoordig 'n ondersoek na die vorm en funksie(s) van die sogenaamde linksverskuiwingkonstruksie in Bybelse Hebreeus. Dit vorm deel van 'n groter navorsingsinisiatief wat gemoeid is met die ondersoek na die aard en funksie van woordorde-variasies in Bybelse Hebreeus. In die lig van 'n loodsstudie wat in 2010 deur die outeur gedoen is, asook die vooruitgang wat gemaak is op die gebiede van kognitiewe taalkunde, psigolinguistiek en tekspragmatiek—veral in die subdissipline, informasiestruktuur—is ‘n herbesinnig oor linksverskuiwingkonstruksies Bybelse Hebreeus nodig. Gebaseer op die voorafgenoemde studievelde word 'n kognitief-funksionele teoretiese model voorgestel wat as raamwerk sal dien vir 'n meer omvattende verduideliking van linksverskuiwingkonstruksies in Bybelse Hebreeus. Hierdie ondersoek oor linksverskuiwing in Bybelse Hebreeus word gedoen teen die agtergrond van die profiel van linksverskuiwing oor tale heen. Dit word vermag deur die bevindings van 'n wye reeks taalkundige studies—op verskeie verwante en onverwante tale— wat gemoeid is met beide die sintakties-semanties en diskoersfunksionele eienskappe van linksverskuiwing, te ondersoek. Uit die ondersoek word tipologiese veralgemenings verkry wat dan gebruik word vir die identifisering, klassifikasie en verduideliking van 'n stel data wat bestaan uit 650 voorbeelde wat verkry is uit Genesis tot 2 Konings. Die resultate van hierdie analise is tweeledig. Eerstens word 'n uitvoerige beskrywing, in terme van die eksterne (of globale) en interne sintakties-semantiese eienskappe van die voorbeelde binne die datastel, verskaf. Die datastel reflekteer, aan die hand van taaltipologiese bevindinge, 'n taksonomiese netwerk van konstruksieskemas wat geklassifiseer is volgens 'n eksemplaarmodel van konsepsionele kategorisering. Tweedens, deur gebruik te maak van 'n kognitief-teoretiese model, tesame met insigte verkry deur studies oor tale heen, word die voorafgenoemde sintakties-semantiese beskrywing verduidelik in terme van die kognitief-pragmatiese motivering vir die gebruik van linksverskuiwing in Bybels-Hebreeuse narratiewe diskoers. Ook die prototipiese en nieprototipiese diskoersfunksie(s) van die konstruksie kom aan die bod. Laastens word 'n raamwerk voorgestel om die vorm-funksies variasies van die voorbeelde in die datastel as ontwikkelingsstadia te verklaar. Die raamwerk berus op ontwikkelingsprosesse wat tipies in gebruiksgebaseerde modelle van taalvariasie-tendense onderskei word. Verder gaan dit ook uit van 'n pankroniese siening van grammatika waarin diakronie en sinkronie as 'n geïntegreerde geheel gesien word en die grammatika van taal as 'n dinamiese entiteit beskou word. Dit stabliseer nooit volledig nie.

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Eriksson, Linda. "The Effectiveness of Modified Inductive Versus Deductive Teaching : A case study on word order amongst a group of English as a foreign language learners." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-90180.

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This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of modified inductive learning compared with deductive learning of English grammar among foreign language students. In order to achieve this purpose, two classes in Year Nine in a secondary school in Sweden were taught using the two different methods. An initial grammar test determined that the students struggled with word order, which as a result was chosen as the area to teach. A pre-test/post-test-design was used to examine the effect of the two methods, and compared with a control group. The results reveal that the inductive method should be favoured overall, but suggests that the deductive method may produce significantly better results among weaker students.

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Ozge, Umut. "A Tune-based Account Of Turkish Information Structure." Master's thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/770081/index.pdf.

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Languages differ in the means they avail themselves of for the structural realization of information structure, where available options are word order, prosody and morphology. Turkish has long been characterized as predominantly using word order and its variation in realizing information structure, where certain positions in a sentence are associated with certain pragmatic functions related to information structure. Prosody has been proposed to play only a secondary role interacting with word order. Contrary to this widely established view, the thesis argues that the notion that sentential positions have pragmatic functions and word order variation is a syntactic means to realize these functions can be abandoned, without any loss of explanatory power, in favor of a tune-based perspective where prosody is the sole structural determinant of information structure. In this setting word order variations are argued to be prosodically motivated, in that Turkish phonology imposes some precedence constraints on intonational contours. Word order variation then turns out to be just a consequence as opposed to being a determinant in attaining the right information structure required by the discourse context. To substantiate these claims a tune-based account, based on Steedman'
s account of English information structure, is proposed for the structural realization of information structure in Turkish, whereby information structural units are directly associated with prosodic phrases intonationally marked in certain ways. Validity of the account is tried to be established by intonational analysis of recorded speech data. As for the explanatory value, the information structure phenomena that has received positional explanation in the relevant literature, are tried to be captured only in prosodic terms, without committing to positions, syntactic strategies and such.

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Imamura, Satoshi. "Information structure in Japanese : scrambling, topicalization and passives." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:24e129aa-ed33-48bd-beec-90453a99560f.

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The main purpose of this thesis is to shed new light on Japanese grammar under the framework of the Givónian approach, with special attention to OSV word orders and by-passives: scrambling (O_ACCSV), topicalization (O_TOPSV), ni-passive (S NP_NI V), and niyotte-passive (S NP_Niyotte V). This approach measures the discourse status of a referent by utilizing anaphoric and cataphoric co-referencing relationships within the texts. However, it is conceivable that OSV word orders and by-passives are also influenced by multiple factors other than information structure. Specifically, previous studies point out the possibility that heaviness and animacy are relevant to this issue. Therefore, the present study performs the corpus analysis, taking three factors into consideration: heaviness, animacy, and information structure. First, OSV word orders have proven to be influenced by information structure and heaviness. In terms of information structure, scrambling correlates 'topic shift' from the referent of the scrambled object to that of the subject. In contrast, topicalization interrelates with 'continuing topic' realized as the referent of the subject. In terms of heaviness, the direct object tends to be longer than the subject in OSV word orders. Yet, animacy has no influence on the choice of word orders. Second, by-passives are affected by information structure and animacy. In terms of information structure, the ni- and niyotte-passives are selected in order to maintain the topic continuity by promoting the topical logical object to the grammatical subject. However, the ni-passive is relevant to global topic whereas the niyotte-passive is related to local topic. In terms of animacy, the ni-passive prefers animate subjects while the niyotte-passive tends to select inanimate subjects. Yet, heaviness is unrelated to the use of by-passives in Japanese. In conclusion, the thesis provides a functional analysis of OSV orders and by-passives from a descriptive and empirical point of view by using a written Japanese corpus. The new data reported contribute to elucidating the argument encoding system of Japanese.

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García, Rowena [Verfasser], Barbara [Akademischer Betreuer] Höhle, Roelien Akademischer Betreuer] Bastiaanse, Barbara [Gutachter] Höhle, and Jeffrey [Gutachter] [Lidz. "Thematic role assignment and word order preferences in the child language acquisition of Tagalog / Rowena Garcia ; Gutachter: Barbara Höhle, Jeffrey Lidz ; Barbara Höhle, Roelien Bastiaanse." Potsdam : Universität Potsdam, 2018. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-421742.

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García, Rowena [Verfasser], Barbara Akademischer Betreuer] Höhle, Roelien [Akademischer Betreuer] Bastiaanse, Barbara [Gutachter] Höhle, and Jeffrey [Gutachter] [Lidz. "Thematic role assignment and word order preferences in the child language acquisition of Tagalog / Rowena Garcia ; Gutachter: Barbara Höhle, Jeffrey Lidz ; Barbara Höhle, Roelien Bastiaanse." Potsdam : Universität Potsdam, 2018. http://d-nb.info/121840423X/34.

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Garcia, Rowena [Verfasser], Barbara [Akademischer Betreuer] Höhle, Roelien [Akademischer Betreuer] Bastiaanse, Barbara [Gutachter] Höhle, and Jeffrey [Gutachter] Lidz. "Thematic role assignment and word order preferences in the child language acquisition of Tagalog / Rowena Garcia ; Gutachter: Barbara Höhle, Jeffrey Lidz ; Barbara Höhle, Roelien Bastiaanse." Potsdam : Universität Potsdam, 2018. http://d-nb.info/121840423X/34.

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Alamry, Ali. "Grammatical Gender Processing in Standard Arabic as a First and a Second Language." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/39965.

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The present dissertation investigates grammatical gender representation and processing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as a first (L1) and a second (L2) language. It mainly examines whether L2 can process gender agreement in a native-like manner, and the extent to which L2 processing is influenced by the properties of the L2 speakers’ L1. Additionally, it examines whether L2 gender agreement processing is influenced by noun animacy (animate and inanimate) and word order (verb-subject and subject-verb). A series of experiments using both online and offline techniques were conducted to address these questions. In all of the experiments, gender agreement between verb and nouns was examined. The first series of experiments examined native speakers of MSA (n=49) using a self-paced reading task (SPR), an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, and a grammaticality judgment (GJ) task. Results of these experiments revealed that native speakers were sensitive to grammatical violations. Native speakers showed longer reaction times (RT) in the SPR task, and a P600 effect in the ERP, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. They also performed at ceiling in the GJ task. The second series of experiments examined L2 speakers of MSA (n=74) using an SPR task, and a GJ task. Both experiments included adult L2 speakers whom were divided into two subgroups, -Gender and +Gender, based on whether or not their L1s has a grammatical gender system. The results of both experiments revealed that both groups were sensitive to gender agreement violations. The L2 speakers showed longer RTs, in the SPR task, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. No difference was found between the L2 groups in this task. The L2 speakers also performed well in the GJ task, as they were able to correctly identify the grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Interestingly in this task, the -Gender group outperformed +Gender group, which could be due to proficiency in the L2 as the former group obtained a better score on the proficiency task, or it could be that +Gender group showed negative transfer from their L1s. Based on the results of these two experiments, this dissertation argues that late L2 speakers are not restricted to their L1 grammar, and thus, they are able to acquire gender agreement system of their L2 even if this feature is not instantiated in their L1. The results provide converging evidence for the FTFA rather than FFFH model, as it appears that the -Gender group was able to reset their L1 gender parameter according to the L2 gender values. Although the L2 speakers were advanced, they showed slower RTs than the native speakers in the SPR task, and lower accuracy in the GJT. However, it is possible that they are still in the process of acquiring gender agreement of MSA and have not reached their final stage of acquisition. This is supported by the fact that some L2 speakers from both -Gender and +Gender groups performed as well as native speakers in both SPR and GJ tasks. Regarding the effect of animacy, the L2 speakers had slower RT and lower accuracy on sentences with inanimate nouns than on those with animate ones, which is in line with previous L2 studies (Anton-Medez, 1999; Alarcón, 2009; Gelin, & Bugaiska, 2014). The native speakers, on the other hand, showed no effect of animacy in both SPR task and GJT. Further, no N400 effect was observed as a result of semantic gender agreement violations in the ERP experiment. Finally, the results revealed a potential effect of word order. Both the native and L2 speakers showed longer RTs on VS word order than SV word order in the SPR task. Further the native speakers showed earlier and greater P600 effect on VS word order than SV word order in the ERP. This result suggests that processing gender agreement violation is more complex in the VS word order than in the SV word order due to the inherent asymmetry in the subject-verb agreement system in the two-word orders in MSA.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sinhalese language Word order'

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