Gary D. Prideaux

The effect of context on dative position

Abstract The putative freedom of dative position in English sentences is questioned. In terms of the distribution of Given and New information in discourse, it is hypothesized that in certain (‘motivating’) contexts, dative position is highly constrained, while in other (‘non motivating’) contexts, it is not. An experiment is reported which tests such a hypothesis by means of a recognition memory task for sentences in different types of contexts. It was found that subjects are indeed sensitive to changes in dative position in motivating contexts but not in nonmotivating contexts. The results provide experimental support for the Given-New strategy of information distribution. Furthermore it is argued that such a strategy can be extended to numerous other syntactic phenomena, and it is concluded that a sentence-bound grammatical description is inadequate to represent such facts, while an alternative formal system sensitive to discourse phenomena can handle the facts in a natural and revealing way.

Markedness as a discourse management device: the role of alternative adverbial clause orders

The hypothesis is explored that a major function of marked structures, specifically marked clause orders in complex sentences containing adverbial clauses, is to signal the beginning of a new discourse unit. A method is presented for defining discourse units and their boundaries which avoids the circularity of definition of discourse units and markedness. The resuts from the narrative data reveal that marked structures are found significantly more often than unmarked ones at discourse unit boundaries, while unmarked structures are significantly more frequent within discourse units. It is conclued that an important function of marked structures is to manage discourse flow

Text data as evidence for language processing principles: The grammar of ordered events

Abstract While most research dealing with language comprehension and production exploits experimental data, the present paper argues that a judicious use of text data can also provide evidence relevant to the operation of various language processing principles. In particular, an investigation is made of those English complex sentences used to represent two ordered events and containing before or after subordinate clauses. Following an analysis of the frequency, position and information distribution of each such structure from some 1331 pages of running text from three different sources, it is argued that the selection of the forms and their distributions in the texts results from the employment of certain syntactic and discourse constraints. It is shown that the GIVEN-NEW constraint is satisfied across all the texts, while the other, more local, ORDER OF EVENTS and MAIN-SUBORDINATE constraints tend to be associated to a greater or lesser degree with the less formal, more oral type of writing. It is concluded that text evidence is directly relevant to an understanding of language processing.

Grammatical properties of sentences as a basis for concept formation.

A concept-formation study was run using sets of sentences in eight different syntactic patterns as target categories. These were based on all possible combinations of voice (active or passive), mood (declarative or interrogative), and modality (affirmative or negative). Subjects were 32 senior high school students who participated as volunteers in the computer-controlled experiment. Subjects were able to categorize sentences based solely on sentence types rather than semantic content, but an analysis of the errors committed in the course of learning showed that it was the semantic significance of different types rather than pattern differences as such to which a subject responded. The implications of this for grammatical formulations and the interpretation of psychological research were discussed.

The role of perceptual strategies in the processing of English relative clause structures

In o rde r to assess compet ing p r e d i c t i o n s made by seve ra l d i f f e r e n t p e r c e p t u a l s t r a t e g i e s , an expe r imen t was conduc ted , u s i n g as s t i m u l i E n g l i s h sentences c o n t a i n i n g a v a r i e t y o f types o f r e l a t i v e c l a u s e s . The r e s u l t s i n d i c a t e d t h a t o f a l l the s t r a t e g i e s i n v e s t i g a t e d , o n l y Word Order and I n t e r r u p t i o n p layed s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e s in the comprehens ion o f the sen tences . A s i m i l a r expe r imen t was then conducted u s i n g dapanese sentences w i t h r e l a t i v e c l a u s e s , and e x a c t l y the same two s t r a t e g i e s were found to account fo r the da ta . The Given-New s t r a t e g y was a l s o found to p l a y an i m p o r t a n t r o l e in the two languages.

The Function of Local Cues in the Acquisition of Japanese Temporal Sentences.

Abstract This study examines the role of Slobins (1982) ‘local cues’ in the acquisition of temporal clauses in Japanese. The local cue under consideration is the grammatical aspect expressed by the verb-ru/-ta form in Japanese temporal clauses, especially in mae ‘before’, ato ‘after’, and toki ‘when’ clauses. Ninety-six children, equally divided into three age groups of 3, 4 and 5 yr, were examined in two distinct tasks. The performance on ato and V-ta toki in the first (“act-out”) task was significantly better than on mae and V-ru toki sentences. The results suggest that the children are sensitive to the local cues expressed by the V-ru/-ta form and indicate that the success of the verb forms as a cue depends on whether the verb forms can express the temporal relations clearly and consistently. These results confirm Slobins claim that overt and clear surface cues facilitate a childs sentence processing. Although there was no significant difference found in the second (“story”) task, an explanation for this result is also offered.