The Role of Prosodic Factors in Determining The Meaning of The Text

Intonation is a very complex language unit. It has many functions, and these functions are performed by different phonetic events: 1. A phonetic event that performs the attitude function. This function reflects attitude, emotion, and different phonetic events. For example, depending on the context of the speech and the current situation of the speaker, you can use falling intonation, rising intonation, falling-rising intonation, rising-falling tones. 2. A phonetic event that performs an accentual function. This term is used in connection with an accent. Some phonetics also use stress instead of accent. In this function, the emphasis falls on the last lexical word, and the phonetic event of accentuation and clarification of intonation is performed. 3. A phonetic event that performs a grammatical function. In this function, tone boundaries are defined by intonation. With the help of this phonetic phenomenon, the listener can better recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said. 4. A phonetic event that performs a discourse function. The main task of this phonetic event is to convey to the listener what "new" information is. An eye-catching tonic accent is placed on the appropriate syllable of a particular sound.

The role of grammar in spelling homophonous regular verbs

Can a lack of grammatical knowledge alone be held accountable for the spelling errors that are made for homophonous verb forms and do these errors occur because spellers do not apply their grammatical knowledge? Three experiments with secondary school pupils were conducted on Dutch weak prefix verbs. The results confirmed that pupils made many spelling errors and also have great problems identifying the verb forms’ functions. Moreover, a direct correlation was revealed between a pupil’s identification of the form’s grammatical function and its spelling. These results indicate that many errors result from pupils’ inability to determine the grammatical functions of the forms. If pupils know the form’s function, they are more likely to also spell the form correctly. If they do not, they often choose the form’s homophone, especially if the homophone is more frequent than the target form. Spelling education thus needs a strong grammatical basis.

Comparative alternation in y-adjectives

<p>There are two main ways of expressing the comparative in English adjectives. One is to precede the adjectival base with more and the other is to suffix -er to the base. For the group of adjectives ending in an orthographic -y and an /i/ sound, which I call the y-adjectives, the alternation between more and -er cannot be neatly explained by structural accounts, whether predominantly synchronic or diachronic. The idea of understanding this alternation with respect to a paradigm of comparative constructions is introduced in this thesis. This paradigm comprises a multitude of more and -er constructions (including those of y-adjectives) that share the grammatical function of the comparative. The goal of this thesis is to examine to what extent the comparatives of y-adjectives can be accounted for by the comparative constructions of other members in this paradigm, in addition to a set of syntactic, morphological and phonological considerations. Two empirical studies are reported: a study of the comparative constructions in seven corpora of British comedies spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries; and an experimental study where reading times in the context of comparative y-adjective constructions were observed in a series of self-paced reading tasks. In the corpus study, the morphology of y-adjective bases is found to be a significant predictor of their comparatives. Additionally, significant correlations are found between: • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of the disyllabic adjectives that are not y-adjectives (to which I have given the cover term of HANDSOME adjectives); • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of the monosyllabic adjectives; and • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of adverbs that share some formal features with y-adjectives. The experimental study furthers an investigation of comparative alternation in y-adjectives in terms of the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives and the morphological structure of y-adjective bases. In this study, pre-to-post treatment reading is found to be facilitated in y-adjective more comparatives by an exposure to multiple instances of more constructions from the HANDSOME adjectives. The more constructions from HANDSOME adjectives are also found to reduce facilitation in reading in morphologically simple y-adjectives paired with -er. On the other hand, the -er constructions from HANDSOME adjectives are found to reduce facilitation in reading in morphologically complex y-adjectives paired with more. The studies undertaken in this work indicate two important predictors of the comparatives of y-adjectives: the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives; and the morphological structure of y-adjective bases. The involvement of the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives as a predictor points to the importance of a paradigm of comparatives for an understanding of the comparatives of y-adjectives. The influence of this paradigm, combined with the influence of morphology, is argued to shed light on a question motivated by the diachronic literature on what could be suppressing the susceptibility of y-adjectives to the structural motivators for particular comparatives. Additionally, the potential for interpreting some unanticipated findings in terms of theories from psychological views on language, and in ways that remain coherent with paradigmatic and morphological viewpoints, is discussed.</p>

Comparative alternation in y-adjectives

<p>There are two main ways of expressing the comparative in English adjectives. One is to precede the adjectival base with more and the other is to suffix -er to the base. For the group of adjectives ending in an orthographic -y and an /i/ sound, which I call the y-adjectives, the alternation between more and -er cannot be neatly explained by structural accounts, whether predominantly synchronic or diachronic. The idea of understanding this alternation with respect to a paradigm of comparative constructions is introduced in this thesis. This paradigm comprises a multitude of more and -er constructions (including those of y-adjectives) that share the grammatical function of the comparative. The goal of this thesis is to examine to what extent the comparatives of y-adjectives can be accounted for by the comparative constructions of other members in this paradigm, in addition to a set of syntactic, morphological and phonological considerations. Two empirical studies are reported: a study of the comparative constructions in seven corpora of British comedies spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries; and an experimental study where reading times in the context of comparative y-adjective constructions were observed in a series of self-paced reading tasks. In the corpus study, the morphology of y-adjective bases is found to be a significant predictor of their comparatives. Additionally, significant correlations are found between: • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of the disyllabic adjectives that are not y-adjectives (to which I have given the cover term of HANDSOME adjectives); • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of the monosyllabic adjectives; and • the comparatives of y-adjectives and those of adverbs that share some formal features with y-adjectives. The experimental study furthers an investigation of comparative alternation in y-adjectives in terms of the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives and the morphological structure of y-adjective bases. In this study, pre-to-post treatment reading is found to be facilitated in y-adjective more comparatives by an exposure to multiple instances of more constructions from the HANDSOME adjectives. The more constructions from HANDSOME adjectives are also found to reduce facilitation in reading in morphologically simple y-adjectives paired with -er. On the other hand, the -er constructions from HANDSOME adjectives are found to reduce facilitation in reading in morphologically complex y-adjectives paired with more. The studies undertaken in this work indicate two important predictors of the comparatives of y-adjectives: the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives; and the morphological structure of y-adjective bases. The involvement of the comparatives of HANDSOME adjectives as a predictor points to the importance of a paradigm of comparatives for an understanding of the comparatives of y-adjectives. The influence of this paradigm, combined with the influence of morphology, is argued to shed light on a question motivated by the diachronic literature on what could be suppressing the susceptibility of y-adjectives to the structural motivators for particular comparatives. Additionally, the potential for interpreting some unanticipated findings in terms of theories from psychological views on language, and in ways that remain coherent with paradigmatic and morphological viewpoints, is discussed.</p>

The ‘of’ word

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.

On the construct state in Arabic

The construct state nominal is a basic, high frequency syntactic construction in Arabic, in which two nominal expressions form a tightly-linked head-dependent construction realising a range of semantic relations. Despite its central importance in the grammar of Arabic, this construction has received very little attention to date in the LFG literature on Arabic, while Falk (2001) and Falk (2007) discuss the corresponding Hebrew construction. Outside of LFG, the majority of accounts posit some sort of movement of the head N to a higher functional position. Within an LFG perspective, a key issue concerns the grammatical function of the dependent nominal, which Sadler argues can be uniformly assigned the POSS function.

Semantics-oriented resultatives: Evidence from valency alternation verbs

Resultative phrases are generally believed to conform to the Direct Object Restriction: that is, they describe the direct object if verbs are transitive. However, some exceptions have occasionally been reported, and this paper investigates the problem by focusing on resultative phrases that occur with the valency alternation verbs in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Verbs that license the locative alternation and locatum-subject alternation describe events that involve two arguments, the location and the locatum, which are perceived to concurrently undergo a change of state. It will be shown that resultative phrases with a valency alternation verb can be predicated of either argument regardless of whether it is expressed as direct object. Furthermore, resultative verbal suffixes in Mandarin, interpreted as description of either the location or the locatum, give rise to the locative alternation while their interpretation remains the same. Thus, it is claimed that in Japanese and Mandarin, the predication relation of resultative phrases is not determined by the grammatical function of arguments as generally believed, but rather by the lexical semantics of the verbs.

A Lexical-Pragmatic Approach to Japanese Wakamono Kotoba ‘Youth Language’ yabai

This study uncovers the morphosyntactic properties of yabai and its clipped forms. It aims to arrive at an understanding of how the forms and the meanings might be associated. A lexical-pragmatic-based analysis was carried out using Twitter and speech corpus data. The findings reveal the following picture of the lexeme: (a) when yabai undertakes an adjective role, modifying a noun, it is likely that a negative evaluation is invited. In this regard, yabai fulfils a lexical function. (b) The adverb use of yabai presents two variations: modifying a verb or modifying an i-adjective. At any rate, the adverb use describes the degree of an event or an object, leading to the assumption that yabai fulfils a grammatical function.(c) The predicate function presents the following diversities: the negative-denotation yabai and yabee are lexical items; the positive/neutral-denotation yabai, yabee and yaba are grammatical items. The clipped forms, i.e. yaba; yabee and yabe are limited to interjection use and adverb use, which are signs of complete grammaticalisation. A quantitative analysis via KH Coder suggests that yabai’s adverb function appears to be limited to women friendships, with parent-child relationship and vertical relationship being ruled out.

An Exegetico-Theological Study of Romans 8:1-8: Toward a Pneumatological-Ecclesiology

This article focuses on Paul’s teachings on how the believer’s life in the Spirit contrasts the believer’s previous life of sin, with particular reference to Romans 8:1-8. It first employed the exegetical method—comprising contextual analysis, literary analysis, detailed analysis of lexicology (the meaning of words), morphology (the form of words), grammatical function of words (parts of speech), syntax (the relationships of words) and figures of speech—to explore the text. The next step was a systematic theological formulation of pneumatological-ecclesiology based on the results from the exegetical study of the text. The main argument is that the Spirit applies Christ’s salvific work to the believer in a way that does not only put the believer right forensically but also puts him/her right behaviorally. Thus, the believer walking in the Spirit is both justified by the cross and by good deeds performed through the enabling presence of the Spirit. The article contributes to the academic disciplines of systematic theology and biblical studies by exploring what pneumatological-ecclesiology is embedded in the text and applying this formulated theology to the life of the contemporary church, drawing attention to the fact that since the Holy Spirit breathes upon and through the church, the activities of the Spirit in the church should be the plumb line for assessing the nature and conduct of the church. This contribution serves as an effective tool for enhancing ethical and religious renewals in believers in a way that eventually enhances their relationship with God, other humans and the environment. Keywords: Death, Flesh, Law, Spirit

THE VERBAL SIGNIFIERS IN ARABIC LANGUAGE-A STUDY IN THE IDEATIONAL COMPONENT AND THE INTERPERSONAL COMPONENT-

Our familiarity with our teaching of Arabic grammar detect the state of phobia that infect the majority of students when they are studied the Arabic grammar (El-nahoo), but, when I analyzed this phenomenon as a teacher and - before - studying this science, I noticed that the beginner Arabic language learner may focus on the grammatical or morphological base independently of its linguistic and current context; as if His classical Arabic is other than the language used with its many names. From a dialect, to a daily language, etc, and it is in fact only one aspect of its development, and the strange thing is that the name of the language (Arabic) indicates "' Clarity' that may not be achieved with the same accuracy in other languages, and it is a miracle of rhetoric. The expression of the souls and their phenomena in this language may be in words with real connotations, and it is predominant in the language to achieve communication, and the meanings may arrive in a metaphorical form; some words deviate from the origin of their connotations using the linguistic and current contexts, and therefore it is clear that our understanding of language is not based on single words. Rather, by referring to the sentence or text in many times to determine the grammatical function of these words, and that is what has been suggested in this research to trace the actual functions based on the intellectual and reciprocal components, which are among the foundations of linguistic communication in all languages, including the Arabic language that is the subject of study. On the descriptive comparative approach in defining these functions, in order to be able to compare them with their interviews in French and English; To set the term and its origins first, and secondly to facilitate the translation of these verbs between the three languages.