Robert D. Van Valin

Sex differences in brain regions activated by grammatical and reading tasks

DO the brains of men and women show similar patterns of functional organization for language, or are men more strongly lateralized? We used PET to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) as men and women read real and nonce verbs, and produced past tense forms. While the overall patterns of reaction time, error, and brain activation were similar, there were also significant sex-related differences in CBF patterns. During the past tense generation tasks, men showed left-lateralized activation while women recruited bilateral perisylvian cortex, confirming differences in functional laterality. During all tasks, women showed higher activation in occipital and/or cerebellar regions, suggesting differences in basic reading strategies. We conclude that sex differences in functional cortical organization exist in the absence of significant behavioral differences.

The development of subject-auxiliary inversion in english wh-questions: an alternative analysis

Rowland & Pine (2000) present an analysis of the development of subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions in the speech of Adam from the Brown corpus. They show that there is an uninversion period in which the child fails to invert the subject and auxiliary in wh- questions, and they argue that this is a function of the frequency of wh-word + auxiliary collocations in the input: the more frequent a particular collocation is in the input, the more likely it is to be inverted in the childs speech. In this note an alternative analysis is proposed: the initial position of the tensed auxiliary signals interrogative illocutionary force, and the auxiliaries which are most reliably inverted are those that are overtly tensed morphologically. This analysis not only accounts for Rowland & Pines data but also extends to inversion in yes-no questions. The analysis predicts three different patterns for the development of inversion in both types of questions, and it is shown that all three are attested.

Yaqui and the analysis of primary object languages

The central topic of this study is to investigate three and fourplace predicate in Yaqui, which are characterized by having multiple object arguments. As with other Southern UtoAztecan languages, it has been said that Yaqui follows the Primary/Secondary Object pattern (Dryer 1986). Actually, Yaqui presents three patterns: verbs like nenka ‘sell’ follow the direct–indirect object pattern, verbs like miika ‘give’ follow the primary object pattern, and verbs like chijakta ‘sprinkle’ follow the locative alternation pattern; the primary object pattern is the exclusive one found with derived verbs. This paper shows that the contrast between direct object and primary object languages is not absolute but rather one of degree, and hence two “object” selection principles are needed to explain this mixed system. The two principles are not limited to Yaqui but are found in other languages as well, including English.

Tree wrapping for Role and Reference Grammar

We present a tree rewriting system that aims at formalizing the composition of syntactic templates in Role and Reference Grammar, a linguistic grammar developed mainly for typological analysis. Building on ideas from Tree Adjoining Grammar, we devise two basic operations for syntactic composition: (wrapping) substitution and sister adjunction. The first operation models plain argument insertion as well as the construction of long distance dependencies. The second operation implements adjunction to non-binary trees. We complement the definition of this tree rewriting system, called Tree Wrapping Grammar, by giving a CYK parser for grammars of this type.

Syntax: The goals of linguistic theory

Introduction This book is about some of the devices users of human languages employ to put meaningful elements together to form words, words together to form phrases, phrases together to form clauses, clauses together to form sentences, and sentences together to form texts. The emphasis here will be on the construction of units larger than words, in particular clauses and sentences. This has often been viewed primarily as the domain of syntax . ‘The term “syntax” is from the Ancient Greek sýntaxis , a verbal noun which literally means “arrangement” or “setting out together”. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.’ (Matthews 1982:1). The expressions of a language involve a relationship between a sequence of sounds and a meaning, and this relationship is mediated by grammar, a core component of which is syntax. In English and many other languages, the arrangement of words is a vital factor in determining the meaning of an utterance, as illustrated in (1.1). (1.1) a. The man saw the woman. b. The woman saw the man. In Dyirbal (Australia; Dixon 1972) and many other languages, however, the order of words is irrelevant to the determination of the meaning of a sentence; it is, rather, the inflectional form of a phrase which is the crucial factor determining the interpretation of the sentence, as shown in (1.2). (The base forms of each noun are italicized.)

Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function

1. The goals of linguistic theory 2. Syntactic structure I: simple clauses and noun phrases 3. Semantic representation I: verbs and arguments 4. Semantic representation II: macroroles, the lexicon and noun phrases 5. Information structure 6. Grammatical relations 7. Linking syntax and semantics in simple sentences 8. Syntactic structure II: complex sentences and noun phrases 9. Linking syntax and semantics in complex sentences Epilogue: the goals of linguistic theory revisited Notes References.

Syntax: Semantic representation, I: verbs and arguments

Introduction In the previous chapter we presented a theory of morphosyntactic structure which elucidated the structure of simple sentences and noun phrases. At many points in the discussion we made crucial reference to predicates and their arguments and to the semantic representation of sentences. Our task in this chapter and the next is to present a theory of just these things. We begin by presenting a classification of the kinds of events, actions and situations that sentences express and of the roles that the participants in these states of affairs may play. We then turn to the problem of representing the relevant semantic properties of verbs and other predicates that code these states of affairs; these representations will in turn form the basis of the semantic representations of clauses and sentences. From these we will derive the representation of the arguments of the verbs and other predicates, arguments which denote the participants in the states of affairs. In the next chapter we will present the notion of ‘semantic macrorole’ and investigate the semantic representation of adjuncts, operators and noun phrases. A typology of states of affairs and their participants In chapter 1 we pointed out that the general perspective from which this book is written maintains that the communicative functions of language are central to the analysis of its structure, and one (but not the only) function of language is reference and predication, that is, representing things that happen in the world (or a possible, fictional world) and the participants involved in those situations.

Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar

List of tables List of figures Preface Abbreviations 1. Theoretical preliminaries 2. The semantic structure of the clause 3. Case marking 4. Intraclausal syntax 5. Juncture and operators 6. Nexus 7. Systems of discourse cohesion: reference-tracking mechanisms List of tables List of figures.