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Introduction
(2010)
Contrastive focus
(2007)
The article puts forward a discourse-pragmatic approach to the notoriously evasive phenomena of contrastivity and emphasis. It is argued that occurrences of focus that are treated in terms of ‘contrastive focus’, ‘kontrast’ (Vallduví & Vilkuna 1998) or ‘identificational focus’ (É. Kiss 1998) in the literature should not be analyzed in familiar semantic terms like introduction of alternatives or exhaustivity. Rather, an adequate analysis must take into account discourse-pragmatic notions like hearer expectation or discourse expectability of the focused content in a given discourse situation. The less expected a given content is judged to be for the hearer, relative to the Common Ground, the more likely a speaker is to mark this content by means of special grammatical devices, giving rise to emphasis.
On the functional architecture of DP and the feature content of pronominal quantifiers in Low German
(2011)
The article investigates the functional architecture of complex pronominal quantifying expressions (PQEs) in Low German, such as jeder-een 'everyone' and keen-een 'no-one', which provide overt evidence for a Num-projection, situated between the NP- and DP-layer. The feature specification of Num as [+lattice] or [-lattice] is responsible for whether the DP denotes into the domain of atomic or mass/plural entities, respectively. In the case of complex PQEs, the syntactic Num-head hosts the overt element een 'a, one', which carries a [-lattice] feature, thus ensuring that the PQE ranges exclusively over the domain of atomic entities, but not mass or plural entities. The Num-head een differs from its simplex counterpart wat 'something', which is analyzed as an NP-proform with an underspecified [lattice]-feature. As a result, wat can range over atomic and mass domains alike. In the final part of the article, it is argued that wat is also underspecified for the operator feature [rel/wh], for which reason it can also function as an interrogative expression (what) and as a relative pronoun (which), respectively, depending on the syntactic context. Throughout the article, the Low German data are compared with relevant data from other German dialects and Germanic and Romance languages, pointing out similarities and differences in the syntactic structure and feature content of PQEs across these languages and dialects.
The grammatical expression of focus in West Chadic variation and uniformity in and across languages
(2011)
The article provides an overview of the grammatical realization of focus in four West Chadic languages (Chadic, Afro-Asiatic). The languages discussed exhibit an intriguing crosslinguistic variation in the realization of focus, both among themselves as well as compared to European intonation languages. They also display language-internal variation in the formal realization of focus. The West Chadic languages differ widely in their ways of expressing focus, which range from syntactic over prosodic to morphological devices. In contrast to European intonation languages, the focus marking systems of the West Chadic languages are inconsistent in that focus is often not grammatically expressed, but these inconsistencies are shown to be systematic. Subject foci (contrastive or not) and contrastive nonsubject foci are always grammatically marked, whereas information focus on nonsubjects need not be marked as such. The absence of formal focus marking supports pragmatic theories of focus in terms of contextual resolution. The special status of focused subjects and contrastive foci is derived from the Contrastive Focus Hypothesis, which requires unexpected foci and unexpected focus contents to be marked as such, together with the assumption that canonical subjects in West Chadic receive a default interpretation as topics. Finally, I discuss certain focus ambiguities which are not attested in intonation languages, nor do they follow on standard accounts of focus marking, but which can be accounted for in terms of constraint interaction in the formal expression of focus.
Predicate focus
(2016)
This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to General South African English. The article compares the results to what is known about prosodic marking of information structure in other varieties of English as a Second Language and underlines the necessity of carefully controlled data in the investigation of phonological and phonetic variation in varieties of English.
In this paper I argue that both parametric variation and the alleged differences between languages in terms of their internal complexity straightforwardly follow from the Strongest Minimalist Thesis that takes the Faculty of Language (FL) to be an optimal solution to conditions that neighboring mental modules impose on it. In this paper I argue that hard conditions like legibility at the linguistic interfaces invoke simplicity metrices that, given that they stem from different mental modules, are not harmonious. I argue that widely attested expression strategies, such as agreement or movement, are a direct result of conflicting simplicity metrices, and that UG, perceived as a toolbox that shapes natural language, can be taken to consist of a limited number of markings strategies, all resulting from conflicting simplicity metrices. As such, the contents of UG follow from simplicity requirements, and therefore no longer necessitate linguistic principles, valued or unvalued, to be innately present. Finally, I show that the SMT does not require that languages themselves have to be optimal in connecting sound to meaning.
Although several experiments reported rapid cortical plasticity induced by passive exposure to novel segmental patterns, few studies have devoted attention to the neural dynamics during the rapid learning of novel tonal word-forms in tonal languages, such as Chinese. In the current study, native speakers of Mandarin Chinese were exposed to acoustically matched real and novel segment-tone patterns. By recording their Mismatch Negativity (MMN) responses (an ERP indicator of long-term memory traces for spoken words), we found enhanced MMNs to the novel word-forms over the left-hemispheric region in the late exposure phase relative to the early exposure phase. In contrast, no significant changes were identified in MMN responses to the real word during familiarisation. Our results suggest a rapid Hebbian learning mechanism in the human neocortex which develops long-term memory traces for a novel segment-tone pattern by establishing new associations between the segmental and tonal representations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Inhalt: 1. Einleitung 1.1 Blickbewegungen beim Lesen 1.2 Kognitive Kontrolle und verteilte Verarbeitung 2. Fragestellungen und Hypothesen 3. Methoden 3.1 Probanden 3.2 Material 3.3 Durchführung und Auswertung 4. Ergebnisse 4.1 Unterschiede in Effekten der Wortvorhersagbarkeit 4.2 Unterschiede in Effekten der Wortfrequenz 5. Diskussion 6. Literatur
Aspect splits can affect agreement, Case, and even preposition insertion. This paper discusses the functional ‘why’ and the theoretical ‘how’ of aspect splits. Aspect splits are an economical way to mark aspect by preserving or suppressing some independent element in one aspect. In formal terms, they are produced in the same way as coda conditions in phonology, with positional/contextual faithfulness.This approach captures the additive effects of cross-cutting splits. Aspect splits are analyzed here from Hindi, Nepali, Yucatec Maya, Chontal, and Palauan.
Neologismen
(2009)
Sprachverstehen mit Cochlea-Implantat : EKP-Studien mit postlingual ertaubten erwachsenen CI-Trägern
(2004)
We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with processing light verb constructions such as "give a kiss". These constructions consist of a semantically underspecified light verb ("give") and an event nominal that contributes most of the meaning and also activates an argument structure of its own ("kiss"). This creates a mismatch between the syntactic constituents and the semantic roles of a sentence. Native speakers read German verb-final sentences that contained light verb constructions (e.g., "Julius gave Anne a kiss"), non-light constructions (e.g., "Julius gave Anne a rose"), and semantically anomalous constructions (e.g., 'Julius gave Anne a conversation"). ERPs were measured at the critical verb, which appeared after all its arguments. Compared to non-light constructions, the light verb constructions evoked a widely distributed, frontally focused, sustained negative-going effect between 500 and 900 ms after verb onset. We interpret this effect as reflecting working memory costs associated with complex semantic processes that establish a shared argument structure in the light verb constructions.
Narration in the late middle ages seriality and complexity in the epic prose "Loher and Maller"
(2012)
This paper discusses a hitherto undescribed usage of the particle so as a dedicated focus marker in contemporary German. I discuss grammatical and pragmatic characteristics of this focus marker, supporting my account with natural linguistic data and with controlled experimental evidence showing that so has a significant influence on speakers' understanding of what the focus expression in a sentence is. Against this background, I sketch a possible pragmaticalization path from referential usages of so via hedging to a semantically bleached focus marker, which, unlike particles such as auch 'also'/'too' or nur 'only', does not contribute any additional meaning.
This article deals with the claim that the MAGNITUDE ESTIMATION (ME) method of gathering acceptability judgments produces data that are more informative for linguists than binary or n-point scale judgments. We performed three acceptability-rating experiments that directly compared ME data to binary and seven-point scale data. The results clearly falsify the hypothesis that data gathered by the ME method carry a larger amount of information about the acceptability of a given linguistic phenomenon. The three measures are largely equivalent with respect to informativity. Moreover, ME judgments are shown to be more liable to producing spurious variance under certain circumstances.*
Stop bashing givenness!
(2005)
Elke Kasimir’s paper (in this volume) argues against employing the notion of Givenness in the explanation of accent assignment. I will claim that the arguments against Givenness put forward by Kasimir are inconclusive because they beg the question of the role of Givenness. It is concluded that, more generally, arguments against Givenness as a diagnostic for information structural partitions should not be accepted offhand, since the notion of Givenness of discourse referents is (a) theoretically simple, (b) readily observable and quantifiable, and (c) bears cognitive significance.
Previous studies have revealed that infants aged 6-10 months are able to use the acoustic correlates of major prosodic boundaries, that is, pitch change, preboundary lengthening, and pause, for the segmentation of the continuous speech signal. Moreover, investigations with American-English- and Dutch-learning infants suggest that processing prosodic boundary markings involves a weighting of these cues. This weighting seems to develop with increasing exposure to the native language and to underlie crosslinguistic variation. In the following, we report the results of four experiments using the headturn preference procedure to explore the perception of prosodic boundary cues in German infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with a sequence of names in two different prosodic groupings, with or without boundary markers. Infants discriminated both sequences when the boundary was marked by all three cues (Experiment 1) and when it was marked by a pitch change and preboundary lengthening in combination (Experiment 2). The presence of a pitch change (Experiment 3) or preboundary lengthening (Experiment 4) as single cues did not lead to a successful discrimination. Our results indicate that pause is not a necessary cue for German infants. Pitch change and preboundary lengthening in combination, but not as single cues, are sufficient. Hence, by 8 months infants only rely on a convergence of boundary markers. Comparisons with adults' performance on the same stimulus materials suggest that the pattern observed with the 8-month-olds is already consistent with that of adults. We discuss our findings with respect to crosslinguistic variation and the development of a language-specific prosodic cue weighting.
WH-acquisition in French and German : connections between case, WH- features and unique triggers
(1995)
The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the amount of inter-speaker variability in the articulation of monozygotic twin pairs (MZ), dizygotic twin pairs (DZ), and pairs of unrelated twins with the goal of examining in greater depth the influence of physiology on articulation. Physiological parameters are assumed to be very similar in MZ twin pairs in contrast to DZ twin pairs or unrelated speakers, and it is hypothesized that the speaker specific shape of articulatory looping trajectories of the tongue is at least partly dependent on biomechanical properties and the speaker's individual physiology. By means of electromagnetic articulography (EMA), inter-speaker variability in the looping trajectories of the tongue back during /VCV/ sequences is analyzed. Results reveal similar looping patterns within MZ twin pairs but in DZ pairs differences in the shape of the loop, the direction of the upward and downward movement, and the amount of horizontal sliding movement at the palate are found.
Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals.
Sprachverständnisuntersuchungen sind sowohl für die Forschung zum Spracherwerb und zu dessen Störungen als auch für die Diagnostik in der klinischen Praxis von essentieller Bedeutung. Zwei der verbreitetesten Methoden zur Erfassung des Verständnisses von syntaktischen Strukturen sind das Ausagieren von Sätzen (AS) und die Satz-Bild-Zuordnung (SBZ). Beide Methoden sind mit unterschiedlichen Anforderungen an die Probanden sowie mit spezifischen Vor- und Nachteilen verbunden (vgl. z.B. Goodluck 1996, Gerken & Shady 1996), woraus sich die Frage ergibt, inwiefern die Wahl der Methode das Testergebnis und die damit verbundenen Schlussfolgerungen beeinflusst. In der hier beschriebenen empirischen Untersuchung wurden die AS- und die SBZ-Methode anhand des Verstehens semantisch reversibler Sätze mit Objektvoranstellung direkt miteinander verglichen: Jeweils 24 monolingual mit Deutsch als Muttersprache aufwachsenden, sprachunauffälligen Kindern im Alter von 3;0 bis 3;5 bzw. 5;0 bis 5;5 Jahren wurden insgesamt zwölf Items, von denen neun aus semantisch reversiblen Sätzen mit Objektvoranstellung und drei aus entsprechenden subjektinitialen Kontrastsätzen bestanden, sowohl mittels der AS-Methode als auch mittels der SBZ-Methode präsentiert. Zum Ausagieren der Testsätze (AS-Test) wurden Spielzeugfiguren verwendet, für die Satz-Bild-Zuordnung (SBZ-Test) wurden pro Item ein Ziel- und zwei Ablenkerbilder erstellt. Die kindlichen Reaktionen wurden nach syntaktischen Kriterien als korrekt bzw. inkorrekt bewertet, Abweichungen wurden hinsichtlich der Fehlerart klassifiziert. Zusätzlich wurde bei den einzelnen Kindern der Erwerbsstand der untersuchten Struktur beurteilt und es wurden, sofern möglich, die eingesetzten Sprachverständnisstrategien ermittelt. Der Vergleich der Methoden ergab für die einzelnen Altersgruppen sehr unterschiedliche Befunde: Bei den 3;0- bis 3;5-jährigen Kindern zeigten sich im SBZ-Test teilweise starke Rateeffekte, die zu verfälschten Ergebnissen und kaum interpretierbaren Reaktionsmustern führten, während dies im AS-Test nicht der Fall war. Für diese Altersgruppe ist demnach die AS-Methode als die geeignetere anzusehen. Bei den 5;0- bis 5;5-jährigen Kindern konnte indes keine derartige Diskrepanz zwischen den beiden Tests festgestellt werden. Vielmehr waren die Leistungen hier insgesamt vergleichbar, so dass für diese Altersgruppe die AS- und die SBZ-Methode als für die Untersuchung des Syntaxverständnisses gleichwertig gelten können. Darüber hinaus bestätigte die Untersuchung viele der in der Literatur beschriebenen Vor- und Nachteile der beiden Methoden, darunter der geringere Materialbeschaffungsaufwand bei der AS-Methode, die größere Durchführungspraktikabilität der SBZ-Methode, die höhere Attraktivität und das geringere Risiko für Antwort-biases bei der AS-Methode, die leichtere Bewertbarkeit der kindlichen Reaktionen bei der SBZ-Methode. Im Vergleich der Altersgruppen zeigte sich, dass die 5;0- bis 5;5-jährigen Kinder Testsätze mit Objektvoranstellung deutlich besser verstanden als die 3;0- bis 3;5-jährigen: Die meisten der jüngeren Kinder hatten die untersuchte Struktur offenbar noch nicht erworben – sie interpretierten die Sätze mit Objektvoranstellung stattdessen am häufigsten nach der Wortreihenfolgestrategie, verstanden sie also wie subjektinitiale Strukturen. Von den 5;0- bis 5;5-jährigen Kindern dagegen hatten 75% die untersuchte Struktur rezeptiv erworben, interpretierten die Testsätze also primär korrekt nach der grammatischen Strategie. Aus diesen Ergebnissen wurde geschlossen, dass die Struktur semantisch reversibler Sätze mit Objektvoranstellung frühestens ab einem Alter von 5;0 bis 5;5 Jahren als in der ungestörten Sprachentwicklung rezeptiv erworben gelten kann. Da sich jedoch in beiden Altersgruppen trotz allem eine erhebliche interindividuelle Variation hinsichtlich der Verständnisfähigkeiten zeigte, muss insgesamt von einem relativ langen Zeitfenster für den ungestörten Erwerb dieser Struktur ausgegangen werden.
The paper presents the Polish study Ty-wy-pan. Kartka z dziejów
próżności ludzkiej (‘You (singular)–you (plural)–Lord. An overview on the history of the people’s vanity’, 1916) by Alexander Brückner from a linguistic-pragmatical as well as ideological point of view. In his pioneer study on politeness, the German-Polish slavist Brückner (1856–1939) critically reflects on the current system of Polish addresses and titles, especially in relating to the soon-to-be
refoundation of the Second Polish Republic (1918). The paper analyzes how his linguistic description and his ideas for reformation of the Polish addressative system are pragmatically justified and how they are ideologically motivated.
Furthermore, the paper reconstructs the status of Brückner’s concept of politeness in the context of current studies on Polish pragmatics.
The article presents first results of a pilot study on the syntactic changes in Polish as a language contact in Germany. On the base of the experimental data tests the study examines the syntactic changes in Polish of two diaspora-generations: the so called forgetters and the incomplete learners. The article focuses on the questions: how the situation of languages in contact influences the syntactic changes in the heritage language (Polish) and which status have those syntactic transferences. Other linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, capable to cause the language change in the situation of language contact, are also discussed in the article.
If we can model the cognitive and communicative processes underlying speech, we should be able to better predict what a speaker will do. With this idea as inspiration, we examine a number of prosodic and timing features as potential sources of information on what words the speaker is likely to say next. In spontaneous dialog we find that word probabilities do vary with such features. Using perplexity as the metric, the most informative of these included recent speaking rate, volume, and pitch, and time until end of utterance. Using simple combinations of such features to augment trigram language models gave up to a 8.4% perplexity benefit on the Switchboard corpus, and up to a 1.0% relative reduction in word error rate (0.3% absolute) on the Verbmobil II corpus.