scholarly journals On the Distribution of Determiners in Haitian Creole

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Functional Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
General Constraint ◽  
Precise Data ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Linear Sequence ◽  
Genitive Case

Abstract The paper provides more precise data on the distribution of determiners in Haitian creole. It proposes that there are two independent constraints on the distribution of these functional categories. In Haitian, as in English, Hungarian, Turkish and Hebrew, a specific determiner is necessary to the realization of genitive Case. Moreover there is a general constraint on processing which forbids the insertion of two identical functional category signals in a linear sequence. This processing constraint can be seen in at least on other language (Fon).

Functional categories related to verb inflection are not differentially impaired in Greek aphasia

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
ATHANASSIOS PROTOPAPAS ◽  
SPYRIDOULA CHEIMARIOU ◽  
ALEXANDRA ECONOMOU ◽  
MARIA KAKAVOULIA ◽  
SPYRIDOULA VARLOKOSTA
Keyword(s):  
Matched Control ◽  
Intermediate Position ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Verb Inflection

abstractPrevious research in Greek aphasia has indicated that functional categories related to verb inflection are differentially impacted, with Aspect most severely affected, Agreement least affected, and Tense occupying an intermediate position. However, research materials were not controlled for overall length or position of the verb within the sentence, confounding functional category with processing load. Using balanced materials, here we tested ten persons with aphasia and ten matched control participants on grammaticality judgment and sentence completion in three functional categories (agreement, tense, and aspect) using ten verbs spanning a range of familiarity. Production results indicated no difference in errors of either lexeme or inflectional morpheme selection. In grammaticality judgment acceptance of incorrect sentences was lower for Agreement but this pattern was mirrored in the control group as well. The results provide no basis to support a specific linguistic deficit in the representation of functional categories in Greek persons with aphasia.

Innovation in functional categories: slash, a new coordinator in English

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-644
Author(s):  
BRENT WOO
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
English Expression ◽  
Syntactic Behavior ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
English I

This article presents an analysis of the distribution and syntactic behavior of the English expression slash, as in John is a linguist slash musician. The interpretation of this ‘effable slash’ is largely equivalent to intersective and, but it differs from other connective devices like Latin cum, N–N compounding and the orthographic slash </>. A corpus study of American English finds that slash is productive in this use. Its syntactic properties confirm its status as coordinator, but it is distinguished from standard coordinators and and or, in that it imposes category restrictions on the conjuncts: it cannot coordinate full clauses or noun phrases with determiners. I propose that words like slash, period and quote form a class of ‘effable punctuation’ that entered the spoken language from writing. In sum, by incorporating slash into the grammar of English, I argue that slash is a rare example of innovation in a ‘very closed’ functional category.

The ‘of’ word

2021 ◽  
pp. 238-248
Author(s):  
Nigel Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Architecture ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Categorial Status

This chapter explores from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives the categorial status of words like English of and equivalent items in other languages. It evaluates, and ultimately comes down in favour of, the arguments for continuing to treat such items as prepositions and heads of PP even when they have lost independent semantic content and serve instead a purely grammatical function. This analysis is contrasted both with the proposal to assign them to the functional category K(ase), as favoured within current nanosyntactic work, and with an account in which they retain prepositional status but as non-projecting members of that class. In broader theoretical terms, the chapter argues that one of the benefits of LFG’s parallel architecture is the consequential economy in its postulated inventory of functional categories.

Nominal inflection and the nature of functional categories

1992 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Functional Category ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Maximal Projection ◽  
Nominal Inflection ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Binding

There is a widespread assumption within the Government–Binding theory as it has developed from the Barriers model (Chomsky 1986) that functional categories, that is, categories which play a role in establishing dependencies between parts of a sentence, as opposed to lexical categories, should be represented as heads projecting X-bar phrases. I shall refer to this as the Full Functional Projection Hypothesis (FFPH), stated informally in (1). (i) Full Functional Projection Hypothesis Any morphophonosyntactic formative which corresponds to a functional category in a given language is syntactically the head of a maximal projection.

Predicative Constructions and Functional Categories in Haitian Creole

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Déprez ◽  
Marie-Thérèse Vinet
Keyword(s):  
Structural Organization ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Functional Head ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Cleft Constructions ◽  
Predicate Cleft

This paper seeks to provide a unified analysis of the particle se in Haitian Creole, traditionally identified as an equality marker, a resumptive pronoun, or a focus marker. This study also serves to illustrate the role and the structural organization of functional projections in this non-inflected language. Under the proposed analysis, se (as well as ye, which has long been recognized as bearing a relation to se) is not a verbal copula; rather, it is a predicate forming aspectual head. A unified analysis based on general principles of UG is offered for se, appearing in predicative sentences, in nominal clefts, and in predicate cleft constructions. It is argued that in all these contexts, se always occurs with DP predicates or predicates headed by a functional head, such as CP predicates, not with any other type of predicates.

Missing inflection in second language French: accidental infinitives and other verbal deficits

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Herschensohn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
The Third ◽  
Syntactic Differences ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This article re-examines the morphology/functional category debate in the light of empirical data drawn from the author’s longitudinal study of two intermediate learners of French as a second language (L2). It argues that inflectional deficits -which appear both as nonfinite verbs and as other morphological errors in the interlanguage data -support neither a codependence of syntax and morphology (Eubank, 1993/94) nor a gradual structure-building of L2 functional categories (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1998a, 1998b). The French data rather indicate that deficiencies in morphological mapping, not defective syntax (functional categories), are the cause of L2 failed inflection (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996; Lardière, 1998). The data also support the claim that L2 morpholexical characteristics - the most prone to cross-linguistic variation - are more difficult to master than syntactic differences (Herschensohn, 2000). The first section reviews the theoretical issues, discussing the morphology/functional category link in L1 and then in L2 acquisition. The second section presents relevant data on infinitival forms and other errors from the author’s study. The third section discusses the data, arguing that the infinitival forms of intermediate grammars are not ‘root infinitives’ such as those seen in early stages of L1 acquisition, but rather examples of defective inflection.

AGR in Languages Without Person and Number Agreement: The Case of the Clausal Determiner in Haitian and Fon

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
The Difference

In recent literature on the decomposition of INFL (Pollock 1989), it has been proposed that the features of agreement morphology (henceforth the Ф features), and the features of Tense, each head a separate projection, AGR and T, respectively. There are languages which do not exhibit agreement in Ф features. This raises the question as to whether these languages have a functional category AGR. Kornfilt (1989), for example, shows that in contrast to Modern Turkish, Old Turkish does not exhibit agreement phenomena in person and number. She proposes that the difference between the two grammars be expressed in terms of the presence of AGR in the former and the absence of this projection in the latter. Similarly, on the basis of the fact that Haitian Creole lacks agreement in person and number, Ritter (1991b) suggests that Haitian Creole lacks the functional category AGR. In this paper, I demonstrate that there is ample motivation for positing AGR as a syntactic category in Haitian and in Fon.

scholarly journals A Comparative Functional Analysis of Discourse Markers in the Native and the Non-Native English Newspaper Business Corpus

2021 ◽  
Vol volume 05 (issue 2) ◽  
pp. 325-340
Author(s):  
Ammara Riaz ◽  
Moazzam Ali Malik ◽  
Nazia Anwar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Quantitative Difference ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Functional Category ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

Abstract The current study explores the functional nature of Discourse Markers (DMs) in the newspaper business corpus. DMs function as cohesive devices which, additionally, carry pragmatic and semantic meanings present in both the written and the spoken discourse. The focus of this study is to comparatively highlight the differences in the functions of DMs in the business discourse of the native and the non-native newspapers. The study has employed Fung’s (2003) multi-categorical comprehensive framework of DMs. The framework functionally divides DMs into interpersonal, cognitive, structural, and referential categories. These major categories have further been divided into many subcategories of DMs. Based on this comprehensive framework; the current study identifies different functional DMs and compares them for their quantitative and qualitative differences in use. For the analysis of this study, a corpus of one million words was collected from the native business newspapers (The Daily Mail and The Telegraph) and the non-native business newspapers (The Dawn, The Business Recorder, The Nation and Daily Times). Data analysis shows that the most frequently used functional categories of DMs among the native writers are referential and structural, while the least frequently used functional category is cognitive. On the other hand, non-native Pakistani writers make more use of functional DMs of referential, structural and cognitive categories, while the least frequently used functional category is interpersonal. This quantitative difference in the use of DMs makes the native business corpus more coherent and interactive than that of the non-native business corpus. It is expected that the findings of the study may help understand the differences of textuality in the native and the non-native newspaper corpus. It is also expected that the findings of the current study can assist curriculum developers and ESL instructors in developing better teaching materials for second language learners.

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