Beatrice Primus

Cases and thematic roles : ergative, accusative and active

This study examines the mapping of thematic roles, such as agent and patient, onto syntactic cases, such as nominative or ergative, or onto structural relations in a cross-linguistic survey that is supplemented with German data. It is shown that cases and structural relations code different aspects of thematic structure and that cases cannot be derived from structural relations in universal grammar. The phenomena that characterize ergative and active languages are shown to be restricted to case mapping.

Zum Silbenbegriff in der Schrift-, Laut- und Gebärdensprache - Versuch einer mediumübergreifenden Fundierung

The following paper examines modality independent and modality specific properties of the syllable in a comparative study of written language, oral language and sign language. It is argued that the main modality independent property is an alternation structure with specific syllable defining characteristics. The differences between the three different modalities are captured by examining the specific properties of the linguistic substance: phonetic sound, gestural sign, written letter. The graphemic syllable is the main concern in the present paper, since it is a concept which has been most often called into doubt. Some linguists have argued that the graphemic syllable is an epiphenomenon of the sound syllable. Evidence from past research as well as evidence to be presented in the current paper suggest an alternative model of the interaction between the three modalities. Instead of deriving one modality specific system from another, an underlying more abstract, modality independent structure is posited. The sound system, the sign system, and the graphemic system are treated as interface phenomena which result from the interaction between the underlying modality independent system and the articulatory-auditive, the gestural-visual and the writing-visual system respectively.

Animacy, Generalized Semantic Roles, and Differential Object Marking

This chapter addresses the role of case and animacy as interacting cues to role-semantic interpretation in grammar and language processing. Animacy is interpreted as a cue to agentivity taken as a multidimensional, generalized semantic role. In this view, several agentivity properties entail or strongly correlate with animacy on the part of the respective participant. In contrast, none of the patient characteristics presuppose an animate participant. By abductive reasoning animacy is used as a probabilistic cue to agentivity. The empirical focus of this chapter lies on animacy-driven differential object marking (DOM). The selection of the case marker in the DOM-patterns under consideration, which was assumed to be triggered by the animacy of the second argument in previous approaches, is explicable by role-semantic constraints tied to agentivity. This view explains some DOM-related phenomena that remain unexplained in other approaches. The close connection between animacy and role-semantic interpretation is also manifest in language processing. This chapter reports experimental studies showing that the brain areas and the neuronal patterns that react to animacy effects are also involved in the interpretation of semantic roles. On a more general level, taking animacy as a cue to agentivity contributes towards a better understanding of the basic notions that characterize agentivity.

The graphematic foot in English and German

Abstract In traditional graphematics words are represented as a linear sequence of letters. We will present a non-linear graphematic approach which supplements linearity with a hierarchical graphematic structure. This hierarchy of graphematic units comprises letter features, letters, graphemes, syllables, feet and words. We will present structural and experimental evidence for this hierarchical organisation of graphematic units. Our focus lies on the graphematic foot and on the graphematics of English and German. We have found an asymmetry between a canonical and a non-canonical structural organisation of graphematic words. The regularities found in these types of structure can be captured with reference to hierarchical graphematic structures and to foot structures in particular. In order to elucidate whether graphematic foot structure is a relevant unit in graphematics that may influence the analysis of the corresponding phonological foot structure we have conducted a production experiment with German pseudowords.

Parameter der Herrschaft: Reflexivpronomina im Deutschen

i Im folgenden werden die syntaktischen Restriktionen, denen Reflexivpronomina im Deutschen unterliegen, näher untersucht. Die Datenerhebungen zu diesem Problem ergaben, daß die Akzeptabilitätsurteile der Sprecher voneinander abweichen und daß sich die Daten nur durch verschiedene Grade der Akzeptabilität voneinander unterscheiden. Es wird gezeigt, daß die Variation und Graduierung systematischen Charakter hat und dadurch zustande kommt, daß mehrere Faktoren-strukturelle, morphologische und topologische Gegebenheiten in einem Satz die Reflexivierung regeln und auf bestimmte Weise miteinander interagieren. Da solche Faktoren auch in anderen Sprachen relevant sind, lassen sie sich mithilfe eines generalisierten Bindungsbegrifis und einer geeigneten Parametrisierung des Herrschaftsbegriffs im Rahmen einer Universalgrammatik theoretisch erfassen. Dieser Vorschlag kann somit in die neuere Parameter-und-Prinzipien-Theorie, die im Rahmen der generativen Transformationsgrammatik nach 1980 entwickelt wurde, mühelos eingegliedert werden.

Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages

Abstract It has been argued in the literature that morpho-syntactically agents are universally more prominent than patients. At first sight, this claim seems to be challenged by so called symmetrical voice languages because these languages show no preference for agents to be the privileged syntactic argument (PSA). They do thus not display an obvious syntactic prominence of agents. However, this paper will argue that even symmetrical voice languages show instances of agent prominence. These instances are not reflected in a default linking of agents to PSA function, but rather in a slightly more subtle manner: First, agents always function as binders to reflexive pronouns, regardless of position or grammatical function. Second, agent properties like volitionality, ability and control are reflected in verbal morphology, even in undergoer voice construction in which the agent is not the PSA. This is the case in potentive, stative, and causative construction.

Komma & Co: Zwiegespräch zwischen Grammatik und Performanz

Abstract Three voices in this dialogue reconstruct the most common views on the main function of punctuation. Performance Senior hypothesizes that punctuation is motivated by intonation – a very common but nevertheless questionable assumption. The second voice, Grammar, argues that punctuation, especially the comma, should be analyzed as representing syntactic structure. In this model the comma is a universal sign for a clause-internal non-subordinative concatenation, such as coordination or dislocation. In German and other languages there is an additional condition that licenses the comma at a clause-internal sentence boundary. The third voice, Performance Junior, pleads for a performance-based, reader-oriented reconstruction of the whole system of punctuation. Including the full stop, the colon and the semicolon in her investigation, she shows that punctuation marks reflect specific strategies of parsing sentences. This is achieved by a compositional formal and functional analysis of complex marks such as colon and semicolon. The main empirical results of the present contribution and the problems that clause-internal non-subordinative concatenation such as coordination and dislocation pose for syntactic theories force us to reconsider the relation between grammar and performance. In short, small marks make us face big issues. Appropriately for an anniversary issue, we have chosen the dialogue as a genre invented by the Ancient Greeks for purposes of rhetorical entertainment and instruction. It is particularly well suited to render opposed opinions and to encourage the readers to pursue their own train of thought.

Buchstabenkomponenten und ihre Grammatik

Bei der Erforschung unserer Alphabetschrift im Allg emeinen und der Graphematik des Deutschen im Besonderen dominiert die Auffassung, d ass der Buchstabe die kleinste linguistisch relevante Beschreibungseinheit darstel lt. Das Kernstück einer Graphematik bilden Laut-Buchstaben-Zuordnungen, die im strengen Sinne keine Regeln sind. Regeln, die Grammatikkomponenten wie die Phonologie, Graphemati k oder Syntax definieren, gelten für Klassen von Einheiten und sind keine Einzelfallbest immungen. Regeln müssen nur einmal erworben werden und sind dann immer wieder auf eine Menge von Einheiten anwendbar. Die uns bekannten Laut-Buchstaben-Zuordnungen sind jedo ch auf einzelne Buchstaben und einzelne Laute beschränkt. Listen von Einzelfällen sind schwer lernbar und im Lexikon, dem Ort für einzelfallbezogene Informationen, gespeiche rt. Die Entwicklung zu einer regelbezogenen Graphematik kann nur gelingen, wenn Buchs taben mit Hilfe ihrer Merkmale zu Klassen zusammengefasst werden. Dieses Ziel verfolg t dieser Beitrag, der sich darin von bisherigen merkmalsbasierten Buchstabenanalysen wes entlich unterscheidet. In bisherigen merkmalsbasierten Buchstabenanalysen geht es um automatische Buchstabenerkennung (z. B. Eden / Halle 1961, Coueignou x 1981, Govindan / Shivaprasad 1990), kognitive Buchstabenverarbeitung bzw. -produktion ( z. B. Gibson et al. 1963, Johnson 1981, McClelland / Rumelhart 1981, Kolers 1983, Van Galen 1991, Schomaker / Segers 1999, Thomassen 2003) oder um die Form der Buchstaben sui generis, sei es bei ihrem Erwerb (z. B. Gibson / Levin 1975, McCarthy 1977, Berkemey er 1997, 1998, 2003) oder im Allgemeinen (z. B. Althaus 1980, Feigs 1986, Scharn o st 1988). Eine besondere Erwähnung verdienen die Arbeiten von William Watt und Herbert Brekle, die eine systematische merkmalsbasierte Formanalyse der Buchstaben unseres Alphabets liefern und deren wichtigste Ergebnisse weiter unten erwähnt werden. Ei e systematische merkmalsbezogene funktionale Analyse unserer Alphabetschrift, die Bu chstabenmerkmalen Lautmerkmale zuordnet und somit funktionale Generalisierungen au fstellt, gibt es meines Wissens bisher nicht, wenn man von weiter unten erwähnten verstreu ten Einzelbeobachtungen absieht. Stellvertretend für viele merkmalsbasierte Buchstab en nalysen (u. a. Eden / Halle 1961, Gibson / Levin 1975, Feigs 1986, Scharnhorst 1988, Berkemeier 1998, 1997, 2003) soll der Beitrag von Althaus (1980) kurz vorgestellt werden. Er reduziert alle 59 Buchstabenfiguren unseres Alphabets auf folgende 12 Grundelemente (19 80: 138):

Division of Labour: the Role-semantic Function of Basic Order and Case

A common assumption in cross-linguistic research of both functionalist and generative provenance is that basic word order and case relations are functionally equivalent means of coding semantic roles. Formulated in syntactic terms, the assumption is that case and basic order (deep structure) are functionally equivalent manifestations of grammatical functions such as subject or object.

Beyond Verb Meaning: Experimental Evidence for Incremental Processing of Semantic Roles and Event Structure

We present an event-related potentials (ERP) study that addresses the question of how pieces of information pertaining to semantic roles and event structure interact with each other and with the verb’s meaning. Specifically, our study investigates German verb-final clauses with verbs of motion such as fliegen ‘fly’ and schweben ‘float, hover,’ which are indeterminate with respect to agentivity and event structure. Agentivity was tested by manipulating the animacy of the subject noun phrase and event structure by selecting a goal adverbial, which makes the event telic, or a locative adverbial, which leads to an atelic reading. On the clause-initial subject, inanimates evoked an N400 effect vis-à-vis animates. On the adverbial phrase in the atelic (locative) condition, inanimates showed an N400 in comparison to animates. The telic (goal) condition exhibited a similar amplitude like the inanimate-atelic condition. Finally, at the verbal lexeme, the inanimate condition elicited an N400 effect against the animate condition in the telic (goal) contexts. In the atelic (locative) condition, items with animates evoked an N400 effect compared to inanimates. The combined set of findings suggest that clause-initial animacy is not sufficient for agent identification in German, which seems to be completed only at the verbal lexeme in our experiment. Here non-agents (inanimates) changing their location in a goal-directed way and agents (animates) lacking this property are dispreferred and this challenges the assumption that change of (locational) state is generally a defining characteristic of the patient role. Besides this main finding that sheds new light on role prototypicality, our data seem to indicate effects that, in our view, are related to complexity, i.e., minimality. Inanimate subjects or goal arguments increase processing costs since they have role or event structure restrictions that animate subjects or locative modifiers lack.