@phdthesis{Ritz2013, author = {Ritz, Julia}, title = {Discourse-givenness of noun phrases : theoretical and computational models}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70818}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This thesis gives formal definitions of discourse-givenness, coreference and reference, and reports on experiments with computational models of discourse-givenness of noun phrases for English and German. Definitions are based on Bach's (1987) work on reference, Kibble and van Deemter's (2000) work on coreference, and Kamp and Reyle's Discourse Representation Theory (1993). For the experiments, the following corpora with coreference annotation were used: MUC-7, OntoNotes and ARRAU for Englisch, and TueBa-D/Z for German. As for classification algorithms, they cover J48 decision trees, the rule based learner Ripper, and linear support vector machines. New features are suggested, representing the noun phrase's specificity as well as its context, which lead to a significant improvement of classification quality.}, language = {en} } @article{DipperGoetzeStedeetal.2004, author = {Dipper, Stefanie and G{\"o}tze, Michael and Stede, Manfred and Wegst, Tillmann}, title = {ANNIS}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8432}, pages = {245 -- 279}, year = {2004}, abstract = {In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of our first version of the database "ANNIS" ("ANNotation of Information Structure"). For research based on empirical data, ANNIS provides a uniform environment for storing this data together with its linguistic annotations. A central database promotes standardized annotation, which facilitates interpretation and comparison of the data. ANNIS is used through a standard web browser and offers tier-based visualization of data and annotations, as well as search facilities that allow for cross-level and cross-sentential queries. The paper motivates the design of the system, characterizes its user interface, and provides an initial technical evaluation of ANNIS with respect to data size and query processing.}, language = {en} } @incollection{HartmannZimmermann2006, author = {Hartmann, Katharina and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Morphological focus marking in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m (West Chadic)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19525}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The paper presents an in-depth study of focus marking in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m, a West Chadic language spoken in Bauchi Province of Northern Nigeria. Focus in G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m is marked morphologically by means of a focus marker a, which typically precedes the focus constituent. Even though the morphological focus-marking system of G{\`u}r{\`u}nt{\`u}m allows for a lot of fine-grained distinctions in information structure (IS) in principle, the language is not entirely free of focus ambiguities that arise as the result of conflicting IS- and syntactic requirements that govern the placement of focus markers. We show that morphological focus marking with a applies across different types of focus, such as newinformation, contrastive, selective and corrective focus, and that a does not have a second function as a perfectivity marker, as is assumed in the literature. In contrast, we show at the end of the paper that a can also function as a foregrounding device at the level of discourse structure.}, language = {en} } @article{Kitagawa2007, author = {Kitagawa, Yoshihisa}, title = {When we fail to question in Japanese}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, volume = {9}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24481}, pages = {29 -- 64}, year = {2007}, abstract = {When we pay close attention to the prosody of Wh-questions in Japanese, we discover many novel and interesting empirical puzzles that would require us to devise a much finer syntactic component of grammar. This paper addresses the issues that pose some problems to such an elaborated grammar, and offers solutions, making an appeal to the information structure and sentence processing involved in the interpretation of interrogative and focus constructions.}, language = {en} } @article{Ishihara2007, author = {Ishihara, Shinichiro}, title = {Intonation of sentences with an NPI}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, volume = {9}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24497}, pages = {65 -- 96}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper presents the results of a production experiment on the intonation of sentences containing a negative polarity item (NPI) in Tokyo Japanese. The results show that NPI sentences exhibit a focus intonation: the F₀-peak of the word to which an NPI is attached is raised, while the pitch contour after the NPI-attached word is compressed until the negation. This intonation pattern is parallel to that of wh-question, in which the F₀ of the wh-phrase is raised while the post-wh-contour is compressed until the question particle.}, language = {en} } @article{Gussenhoven2007, author = {Gussenhoven, Carlos}, title = {Notions and subnotions in information structure}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19704}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Three dimensions can be distinguished in a cross-linguistic account of information structure. First, there is the definition of the focus constituent, the part of the linguistic expression which is subject to some focus meaning. Second and third, there are the focus meanings and the array of structural devices that encode them. In a given language, the expression of focus is facilitated as well as constrained by the grammar within which the focus devices operate. The prevalence of focus ambiguity, the structural inability to make focus distinctions, will thus vary across languages, and within a language, across focus meanings.}, language = {en} } @misc{HoehleWeissenbornKieferetal.2004, author = {H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Weissenborn, J{\"u}rgen and Kiefer, Dorothea and Schulz, Antje and Schmitz, Michaela}, title = {Functional elements in infants' speech processing : the role of determiners in the syntactic categorization of lexical elements}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16285}, year = {2004}, abstract = {How do children determine the syntactic category of novel words? In this article we present the results of 2 experiments that investigated whether German children between 12 and 16 months of age can use distributional knowledge that determiners precede nouns and subject pronouns precede verbs to syntactically categorize adjacent novel words. Evidence from the head-turn preference paradigm shows that, although 12- to 13-month-olds cannot do this, 14- to 16-month-olds are able to use a determiner to categorize a following novel word as a noun. In contrast, no categorization effect was found for a novel word following a subject pronoun. To understand this difference we analyzed adult child-directed speech. This analysis showed that there are in fact stronger co-occurrence relations between determiners and nouns than between subject pronouns and verbs. Thus, in German determiners may be more reliable cues to the syntactic category of an adjacent novel word than are subject pronouns. We propose that the capacity to syntactically categorize novel words, demonstrated here for the first time in children this young, mediates between the recognition of the specific morphosyntactic frame in which a novel word appears and the word-to-world mapping that is needed to build up a semantic representation for the novel word.}, language = {en} } @misc{HoehleSchmitzMuelleretal.2006, author = {H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Schmitz, Michaela and M{\"u}ller, Anja and Weissenborn, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {The recognition of discontinuous verbal dependencies by German 19-month-olds : evidence for lexical and structural influences on children's early processing capacities}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16297}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Recent work has shown that English-learning 18-month-olds can detect the relationship between discontinuous morphemes such as is and -ing in Grandma is always running (Gomez, 2002; Santelmann \& Jusczyk, 1998) but only at a maximum of 3 intervening syllables. In this article we examine the tracking of discontinuous dependencies in children acquiring German. Due to freer word order, German allows for greater distances between dependent elements and a greater syntactic variety of the intervening elements than English does. The aim of this study was to investigate whether factors other than distance may influence the child's capacity to recognize discontinuous elements. Our findings provide evidence that children's recognition capacities are affected not only by distance but also by their ability to linguistically analyze the material intervening between the dependent elements. We speculate that this result supports the existence of processing mechanisms that reduce a discontinuous relation to a local one based on subcategorization relations.}, language = {en} } @misc{HoehlevandeVijverWeissenborn2006, author = {H{\"o}hle, Barbara and van de Vijver, Ruben and Weissenborn, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Word processing at 19 months and its relation to language performance at 30 months : a retrospective analysis of data from German learning children}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16302}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Recent research has shown that the early lexical representations children establish in their second year of life already seem to be phonologically detailed enough to allow differentiation from very similar forms. In contrast to these findings children with specific language impairment show problems in discriminating phonologically similar word forms up to school age. In our study we investigated the question whether there would be differences in the processing of phonological details in normally developing and in children with low language performance in the second year of life. This was done by a retrospective study in which in the processing of phonological details was tested by a preferential looking experiment when the children were 19 months old. At the age of 30 months children were tested with a standardized German test of language comprehension and production (SETK2). The preferential looking data at 19 months revealed an opposite reaction pattern for the two groups: while the children scoring normally in the SETK2 increase their fixations of a pictured object only when it was named with the correct word, children with later low language performance did so only when presented with a phonologically slightly deviant mispronunciation. We suggest that this pattern does not point to a specific deficit in processing phonological information in these children but might be related to an instability of early phonological representations, and/or a generalized problem of information processing as compared to typically developing children.}, language = {en} } @misc{OttvandeVijverHoehle2006, author = {Ott, Susan and van de Vijver, Ruben and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {The effect of phonotactic constraints in German-speaking children with delayed phonological acquisition : evidence from production of word-initial consonant clusters}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16316}, year = {2006}, abstract = {In this study the effect of phonotactic constraints concerning word-initial consonant clusters in children with delayed phonological acquisition was explored. Twelve German-speaking children took part (mean age 5;1). The spontaneous speech of all children was characterized by the regular appearance of the error patterns fronting, e.g., Kuh (cow) → /tu:/, or stopping, e.g., Schaf (sheep) → /ta:f/, which were inappropriate for their chronological age. The children were asked to produce words (picture naming task, word repetition task) with initial consonant clusters, in which the application of the error patterns would violate phonotactic sequence constraints. For instance, if fronting would apply in /kl-/, e.g., Kleid (dress), it would be realized as the phontactically illegal consonant cluster /tl-/. The results indicate that phonotactic constraints affect word production in children with delayed phonological developments. Surprisingly, we found that children with fronting produced the critical consonants correctly significantly more often in word-initial consonant clusters than in words in which they appeared as singleton onsets. In addition, the results provide evidence for a similar developmental trajectory of acquisition in children with typical development and in children with delayed phonological acquisition. Keywords: Children with delayed phonological acquisition, phonotactic constraints, word-initial consonant clusters, fronting, stopping.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-1329, title = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; Working papers of the SFB 632. - Vol. 8}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Jannedy, Stefanie and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-939469-72-8}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-14359}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {230}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The 8th volume of the working paper series Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS) of the SFB 632 contains a collection of eight papers contributed by guest authors and SFB-members. The first paper on "Biased Questions" is an invited contribution by Nicholas Asher (CNRS, Laboratoire IRIT) \& Brian Reese (University of Texas at Austin). Surveying English tag questions, negative polar questions, and what they term "focus" questions, they investigate the effects of prosody on discourse function and discourse structure and analyze the interaction between prosody and discourse in SDRT (Segmented Discourse Representation Theory). Stefan Hinterwimmer (A2) explores the interpretation of singular definites and universally quantified DPs in adverbially quantified English sentences. He suggests that the availability of a co-varying interpretation is more constrained in the case of universally quantified DPs than in the case of singular definites, because different from universally quantified DPs, co-varying definites are inherently focus-marked. The existence of striking similarities between topic/comment structure and bimanual coordination is pointed out and investigated by Manfred Krifka (A2). Showing how principles of bimanual coordination influence the expression of topic/comment structure beyond spoken language, he suggests that bimanual coordination might have been a preadaptation of the development of Information Structure in human communication. Among the different ways of expressing focus in Foodo, an underdescribed African Guang language of the Kwa family, the marked focus constructions are the central topic of the paper by Ines Fiedler (B1 \& D2). Exploring the morphosyntactic facilities that Foodo has for focalization, she suggests that the two focus markers N and n have developed out of a homophone conjunction. Focus marking in another scarcely documented African tone language, the Gur language Konkomba, is treated by Anne Schwarz (B1 \& D2). Comparing the two alleged focus markers l{\´e} and l{\´a} of the language, she argues that l{\´e} is better interpreted as a syntactic device rather than as a focus marker and shows that this analysis is corroborated by parallels in related languages. The reflexes of Information Structure in four different European languages (French, German, Greek and Hungarian) are compared and validated by Sam Hellmuth \& Stavros Skopeteas (D2). The production data was collected with selected materials of the Questionnaire on Information Structure (QUIS) developed at the SFB. The results not only allow for an evaluation of the current elicitation paradigms, but also help to identify potentially fruitful venues of future research. Frank K{\"u}gler, Stavros Skopeteas (D2) \& Elisabeth Verhoeven (University of Bremen) give an account of the encoding of Information Structure in Yucatec Maya, a Mayan tone language spoken on the Yucatecan peninsula in Mexico. The results of a production experiment lead them to the conclusion that focus is mainly expressed by syntax in this language. Stefanie Jannedy (D3) undertakes an instrumental investigation on the expressions and interpretation of focus in Vietnamese, a language of the Mon-Khmer family contrasting six lexical tones. The data strongly suggests that focus in Vietnamese is exclusively marked by prosody (intonational emphasis expressed via duration, f0 and amplitude) and that different focus conditions can reliably be recovered. This volume offers insights into current work conducted at the SFB 632, comprising empirical and theoretical aspects of Information Structure in a multitude of languages. Several of the papers mine field work data collected during the first phase of the SFB and explore the expression of Information Structure in tone and non-tone languages from various regions of the world.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Kiss2007, author = {Kiss, Katalin {\´E}.}, title = {Topic and focus}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19639}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The paper explicates the notions of topic, contrastive topic, and focus as used in the analysis of Hungarian. Based on distributional criteria, topic and focus are claimed to represent distinct structural positions in the left periphery of the Hungarian sentence, associated with logical rather than discourse functions. The topic is interpreted as the logical subject of predication. The focus is analyzed as a derived main predicate, specifying the referential content of the set denoted by the backgrounded post-focus section of the sentence. The exhaustivity associated with the focus and the existential presupposition associated with the background are shown to be properties following from their specificational predication relation.}, language = {en} } @article{Tomioka2007, author = {Tomioka, Satoshi}, title = {Information Structure as information-based partition}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19657}, year = {2007}, abstract = {While the Information Structure (IS) is most naturally interpreted as 'structure of information', some may argue that it is structure of something else, and others may object to the use of the word 'structure'. This paper focuses on the question of whether the informational component can have structural properties such that it can be called 'structure'. The preliminary conclusion is that, although there are some vague indications of structurehood in it, it is perhaps better understood to be a representation that encodes a finite set of information-based partitions, rather than structure.}, language = {en} } @article{Abusch2007, author = {Abusch, Dorit}, title = {Focus presuppositions}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19663}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper reviews notions related to focus and presupposition and addresses the hypothesis that focus triggers an existential presupposition. Presupposition projection behavior in certain examples appears to favor a presuppositional analysis of focus. It is argued that these examples are open to a different analysis using givenness theory. Overall, the analysis favors a weak semantics for focus not including an existential presupposition.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Selkirk2007, author = {Selkirk, Elisabeth}, title = {Contrastive focus, givenness and the unmarked status of "Discourse-New"}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19670}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {New evidence is provided for a grammatical principle that singles out contrastive focus (Rooth 1996; Truckenbrodt 1995) and distinguishes it from discourse-new "informational" focus. Since the prosody of discourse-given constituents may also be distinguished from discourse-new, a three-way distinction in representation is motivated. It is assumed that an F-feature marks just contrastive focus (Jackendoff 1972, Rooth 1992), and that a G-feature marks discoursegiven constituents (F{\´e}ry and Samek-Lodovici 2006), while discoursenew is unmarked. A crucial argument for G-marking comes from second occurrence focus (SOF) prosody, which arguably derives from a syntactic representation where SOF is both F-marked and G-marked. This analysis relies on a new G-Marking Condition specifying that a contrastive focus may be G-marked only if the focus semantic value of its scope is discourse-given, i.e. only if the contrast itself is given.}, language = {en} } @article{Zimmermann2007, author = {Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Contrastive focus}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19688}, year = {2007}, abstract = {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' (Vallduv{\´i} \& Vilkuna 1998) or 'identificational focus' ({\´E}. 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.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Jannedy2007, author = {Jannedy, Stefanie}, title = {Prosodic focus in Vietnamese}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19478}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper reports on pilot work on the expression of Information Structure in Vietnamese and argues that Focus in Vietnamese is exclusively expressed prosodically: there are no specific focus markers, and the language uses phonology to express intonational emphasis in similar ways to languages like English or German. The exploratory data indicates that (i) focus is prosodically expressed while word order remains constant, (ii) listeners show good recoverability of the intended focus structure, and (iii) that there is a trading relationship between several phonetic parameters (duration, f0, amplitude) involved to signal prosodic (acoustic) emphasis.}, language = {en} } @article{Schwarz2007, author = {Schwarz, Anne}, title = {The particles l{\´e} and l{\´a} in the grammar of Konkomba}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19449}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The paper investigates focus marking devices in the scarcely documented North-Ghanaian Gur language Konkomba. The two particles l{\´e} and l{\´a} occur under specific focus conditions and are therefore regarded as focus markers in the sparse literature. Comparing the distribution and obligatoriness of both alleged focus markers however, I show that one of the particles, l{\´e}, is better analyzed as a connective particle, i.e. as a syntactic rather than as a genuine pragmatic marker, and that comparable syntactic focus marking strategies for sentence-initial constituents are also known from related languages.}, language = {en} } @article{Fiedler2007, author = {Fiedler, Ines}, title = {Focus expressions in Foodo}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19428}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper aims at presenting different ways of expressing focus in Foodo, a Guang language. We can differentiate between marked and unmarked focus strategies. The marked focus expressions are first syntactically characterized: the focused constituent is in sentence-initial position and is second always marked obligatorily by a focus marker, which is nɩ for non-subjects and N for subjects. Complementary to these structures, Foodo knows an elliptic form consisting of the focused constituent and a predication marker gɛ́. It will be shown that the two focus markers can be analyzed as having developed out of the homophone conjunction nɩ and that the constraints on the use of the focus markers can be best explained by this fact.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-1195, title = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; Working papers of the SFB 632 - Vol. 5}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Schmitz, Michaela and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-13047}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {221}, year = {2006}, abstract = {In this paper we compare the behaviour of adverbs of frequency (de Swart 1993) like usually with the behaviour of adverbs of quantity like for the most part in sentences that contain plural definites. We show that sentences containing the former type of Q-adverb evidence that Quantificational Variability Effects (Berman 1991) come about as an indirect effect of quantification over situations: in order for quantificational variability readings to arise, these sentences have to obey two newly observed constraints that clearly set them apart from sentences containing corresponding quantificational DPs, and that can plausibly be explained under the assumption that quantification over (the atomic parts of) complex situations is involved. Concerning sentences with the latter type of Q-adverb, on the other hand, such evidence is lacking: with respect to the constraints just mentioned, they behave like sentences that contain corresponding quantificational DPs. We take this as evidence that Q-adverbs like for the most part do not quantify over the atomic parts of sum eventualities in the cases under discussion (as claimed by Nakanishi and Romero (2004)), but rather over the atomic parts of the respective sum individuals.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{PflegerAlexandersson2006, author = {Pfleger, Norbert and Alexandersson, Jan}, title = {Towards resolving referring expressions by implicitly activated referents in practical dialogue systems}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-10187}, year = {2006}, abstract = {We present an extension to a comprehensive context model that has been successfully employed in a number of practical conversational dialogue systems. The model supports the task of multimodal fusion as well as that of reference resolution in a uniform manner. Our extension consists of integrating implicitly mentioned concepts into the context model and we show how they serve as candidates for reference resolution.}, language = {en} } @article{Kuegler2003, author = {K{\"u}gler, Frank}, title = {Do we know the answer?}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {21}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32424}, pages = {9 -- 29}, year = {2003}, abstract = {Content: 1. Introduction 2. The corpus 2.1 Subjects 2.2 Recordings 2.3 Data processing 2.4 Materials 3. Intonation in Upper Saxon German yes-no-questions 4. Intonational variation and information structure 5. Conclusions and discussion}, language = {en} } @article{JannedyMendozaDenton2005, author = {Jannedy, Stefanie and Mendoza-Denton, Norma}, title = {Structuring information through gesture and intonation}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8774}, pages = {199 -- 244}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Face-to-face communication is multimodal. In unscripted spoken discourse we can observe the interaction of several "semiotic layers", modalities of information such as syntax, discourse structure, gesture, and intonation. We explore the role of gesture and intonation in structuring and aligning information in spoken discourse through a study of the co-occurrence of pitch accents and gestural apices. Metaphorical spatialization through gesture also plays a role in conveying the contextual relationships between the speaker, the government and other external forces in a naturally-occurring political speech setting.}, language = {en} } @article{Kasimir2005, author = {Kasimir, Elke}, title = {Question-answer test and givenness}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8698}, pages = {1 -- 52}, year = {2005}, abstract = {In order to investigate the empirical properties of focus, it is necessary to diagnose focus (or: "what is focused") in particular linguistic examples. It is often taken for granted that the application of one single diagnostic tool, the so-called question-answer test, which roughly says that whatever a question asks for is focused in the answer, is a fool-proof test for focus. This paper investigates one example class where such uncritical belief in the question-answer test has led to the assumption of rather complex focus projection rules: in these examples, pitch accent placement has been claimed to depend on certain parts of the focused constituents being given or not. It is demonstrated that such focus projection rules are unnecessarily complex and in turn require the assumption of unnecessarily complicated meaning rules, not to speak of the difficulties to give a precise semantic/pragmatic definition of the allegedly involved givenness property. For the sake of the argument, an alternative analysis is put forward which relies solely on alternative sets following Mats Rooth's work, and avoids any recourse to givenness. As it turns out, this alternative analysis is not only simpler but also makes in a critical case the better predictions.}, language = {en} } @article{TeichFankhauser2005, author = {Teich, Elke and Fankhauser, Peter}, title = {Exploring lexical patterns in text}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {2}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8685}, pages = {129 -- 145}, year = {2005}, abstract = {We present a system for the linguistic exploration and analysis of lexical cohesion in English texts. Using an electronic thesaurus-like resource, Princeton WordNet, and the Brown Corpus of English, we have implemented a process of annotating text with lexical chains and a graphical user interface for inspection of the annotated text. We describe the system and report on some sample linguistic analyses carried out using the combined thesaurus-corpus resource.}, language = {en} } @article{Weskott2005, author = {Weskott, Thomas}, title = {Stop bashing givenness!}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8718}, pages = {53 -- 62}, year = {2005}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @article{Fanselow2004, author = {Fanselow, Gisbert}, title = {Cyclic phonology-syntax-interaction}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8264}, pages = {1 -- 42}, year = {2004}, abstract = {This paper investigates the nature of the attraction of XPs to clauseinitial position in German (and other languages). It argues that there are two different types of preposing. First, an XP can move when it is attracted by an EPP-like feature of Comp. Comp can, however, also attract elements that bear the formal marker of some semantic or pragmatic (information theoretic) function. This second type of movement is driven by the attraction of a formal property of the moved element. It has often been misanalysed as "operator" movement in the past. Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of Multiple Spell-Out in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a wh-phrase to a phase edge position causes a mismatch between FI and wh-scope. Both predictions are tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out.}, language = {en} } @article{Ishihara2004, author = {Ishihara, Shinichiro}, title = {Prosody by phase}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8391}, pages = {77 -- 119}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of Multiple Spell-Out in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a wh-phrase to a phase edge position causes a mismatch between FI and wh-scope. Both predictions are tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out.}, language = {en} } @article{FeryHerbst2004, author = {F{\´e}ry, Caroline and Herbst, Laura}, title = {German sentence accent revisited}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Schmitz, Michaela and Schwarz, Anne}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8273}, pages = {43 -- 75}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Results of a production experiment on the placement of sentence accent in German are reported. The hypothesis that German fulfills some of the most widely accepted rules of accent assignment— predicting focus domain integration—was only partly confirmed. Adjacency between argument and verb induces a single accent on the argument, as recognized in the literature, but interruption of this sequence by a modifier often induces remodeling of the accent pattern with a single accent on the modifier. The verb is rarely stressed. All models based on linear alignment or adjacency between elements belonging to a single accent domain fail to account for this result. A cyclic analysis of prosodic domain formation is proposed in an optimality-theoretic framework that can explain the accent pattern. Japanese wh-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore, the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the wh-scope. I propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of Multiple Spell-Out in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a wh-phrase to a phase edge position causes a mismatch between FI and wh-scope. Both predictions are tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out.}, language = {en} } @article{SennemavandeVijverCarrolletal.2005, author = {Sennema, Anke and van de Vijver, Ruben and Carroll, Susanne E. and Zimmer-Stahl, Anne}, title = {Focus accent, word length and position as cues to L1 and L2 word recognition}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8769}, pages = {183 -- 198}, year = {2005}, abstract = {The present study examines native and nonnative perceptual processing of semantic information conveyed by prosodic prominence. Five groups of German learners of English each listened to one of 5 experimental conditions. Three conditions differed in place of focus accent in the sentence and two conditions were with spliced stimuli. The experiment condition was presented first in the learners' L1 (German) and then in a similar set in the L2 (English). The effect of the accent condition and of the length and position of the target in the sentence was evaluated in a probe recognition task. In both the L1 and L2 tasks there was no significant effect in any of the five focus conditions. Target position and target word length had an effect in the L1 task. Word length did not affect accuracy rates in the L2 task. For probe recognition in the L2, word length and the position of the target interacted with the focus condition.}, language = {en} } @article{Hinterwimmer2007, author = {Hinterwimmer, Stefan}, title = {The interpretation of Universally Quantified DPs and singular definites in adverbially quantified sentences}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19401}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper deals with the conditions under which singular definites, on the one hand, and universally quantified DPs, on the other hand, receive interpretations according to which the sets denoted by the NP-complements of the respective determiner vary with the situations quantified over by a Q-adverb. I show that in both cases such interpretations depend on the availability of situation predicates that are compatible with the presuppositions associated with the respective determiner, as co-variation in both cases comes about via the binding of a covert situation variable that is contained within the NP-complement of the respective determiner. Secondly, I offer an account for the observation that the availability of a co-varying interpretation is more constrained in the case of universally quantified DPs than in the case of singular definites, as far as word order is concerned. This is shown to follow from the fact that co-varying definites in contrast to universally quantified DPs are inherently focus-marked.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-1537, title = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; Working papers of the SFB 632. - Vol. 10}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Schwarz, Anne}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16929}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2008}, abstract = {The 10th volume of the working paper series contains two papers contributed by SFB-members. The first paper "Single prosodic phrase sentences" by Caroline F{\´e}ry (A1) and Heiner Drenhaus (C6, University of Potsdam) investigates the prosody of Wide Focus Partial Fronting in a series of production and perception experiments. The second paper "Focus Asymmetries in Bura" by Katharina Hartmann, Peggy Jacob (B2, Humboldt University Berlin) and Malte Zimmermann (A5, University of Potsdam) explores the strategies of marking focus in Bura (Chadic).}, language = {en} } @article{SchlesewskyFanselowFrisch2003, author = {Schlesewsky, Matthias and Fanselow, Gisbert and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Case as a trigger for reanalysis}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {21}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32431}, pages = {31 -- 60}, year = {2003}, abstract = {In the recent literature there is a hypothesis that the human parser uses number and case information in different ways to resolve an initially incorrect case assignment. This paper investigates what role morphological case information plays during the parser's detection of an ungrammaticality or its recognition that a reanalysis is necessary. First, we compare double nominative with double accusative ungrammaticalities in a word by word, speeded grammaticality task and in this way show that only double nominatives lead to a so-called "illusion of grammaticality" (a low rate of ungrammaticality detection). This illusion was found to disappear when the second argument was realized by a pronoun rather than by a full definite determiner phrase, i.e. when the saliency of the second argument was increased. Thus, the accuracy in recognizing an ungrammaticality induced by the case feature of the second argument is dependent on the type of this argument. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy in detecting such case ungrammaticalities is distance sensitive insofar as a shorter distance leads to a higher accuracy. The results are taken as support for an "expectationdriven" parse strategy in which the way the parser uses the information of a current input item depends on the expectation resulting from the parse carried out so far. By contrast, "input-driven" parse strategies, such as the diagnosis model (Fodor \& Inoue, 1999) are unable to explain the data presented here.}, language = {en} } @article{Hartmann2007, author = {Hartmann, Katharina}, title = {Focus and Tone}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19729}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Tone is a distinctive feature of the lexemes in tone languages. The information-structural category focus is usually marked by syntactic and morphological means in these languages, but sometimes also by intonation strategies. In intonation languages, focus is marked by pitch movements, which are also perceived as tone. The present article discusses prosodic focus marking in these two language types.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-2260, title = {Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Prosody, Syntax, and Information Structure (WPSI 2)}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22234}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This volume contains the proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Prosody, Syntax, and Information Structure (WPSI2), held at University of Potsdam on March 18, 2005. WPSI 2 was aimed to discuss issues on the interaction of prosody, syntax, and information structure, from interdisciplinary points of view. The contributors (Haruo Kubozono, Shinichiro Ishihara, Yoshihisa Kitagawa, and Satoshi Tomioka) have been recently working on relevant issues, especially looking at the phenomena related to the intonation of focus and (wh-)questions in Japanese.}, language = {en} } @article{Tomioka2007, author = {Tomioka, Satoshi}, title = {Intervention effects in focus}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, volume = {9}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24502}, pages = {97 -- 118}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The most recent trend in the studies of LF intervention effects makes crucial reference to focusing effects on the interveners, and this paper critically examines the representative analyses of the focus-based approach. While each analysis has its own merits and shortcomings, I argue that a pragmatic analysis that does not make appeal to syntactic configurations is better equipped to deal with many of the complex and delicate facts surrounding intervention effects.}, language = {en} } @article{Kubozono2007, author = {Kubozono, Haruo}, title = {Focus and intonation in Japanese}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, volume = {9}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, editor = {Ishihara, Shinichiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24472}, pages = {1 -- 27}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper discusses how focus changes prosodic structure in Tokyo Japanese. It is generally believed that focus blocks the intonational process of downstep and causes a pitch reset. This paper presents experimental evidence against this traditional view by looking at the prosodic behavior of Wh words, which receive focus lexically in Japanese as in other languages. It is demonstrated, specifically, that the focused Wh element does not block downstep although it receives a much higher pitch than its preceding element. This suggests that presence of lexical focus does not trigger pitch reset in Japanese.}, language = {en} } @article{Krifka2007, author = {Krifka, Manfred}, title = {Functional similarities between bimanual coordination and topic/comment structure}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19416}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Human manual action exhibits a differential use of a non-dominant (typically, left) and a dominant (typically, right) hand. Human communication exhibits a pervasive structuring of utterances into topic and comment. I will point out striking similarities between the coordination of hands in bimanual actions, and the structuring of utterances in topics and comments. I will also show how principles of bimanual coordination influence the expression of topic/comment structure in sign languages and in gestures accompanying spoken language, and suggest that bimanual coordination might have been a preadaptation of the development of information structure in human communication.}, language = {en} } @article{AsherReese2007, author = {Asher, Nicholas and Reese, Brian}, title = {Intonation and discourse}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19399}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This paper surveys a range of constructions in which prosody affects discourse function and discourse structure.We discuss English tag questions, negative polar questions, and what we call "focus" questions. We postulate that these question types are complex speech acts and outline an analysis in Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) to account for the interactions between prosody and discourse.}, language = {en} } @article{FeryDrenhaus2008, author = {F{\´e}ry, Caroline and Drenhaus, Heiner}, title = {Single prosodic phrase sentences}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19371}, year = {2008}, abstract = {A series of production and perception experiments investigating the prosody and well-formedness of special sentences, called Wide Focus Partial Fronting (WFPF), which consist of only one prosodic phrase and a unique initial accented argument, are reported on here. The results help us to decide between different models of German prosody. The absence of pitch height difference on the accent of the sentence speaks in favor of a relative model of prosody, in which accents are scaled relative to each other, and against models in which pitch accents are scaled in an absolute way. The results also speak for a model in which syntax, but not information structure, influences the prosodic phrasing. Finally, perception experiments show that the prosodic structure of sentences with a marked word order needs to be presented for grammaticality judgments. Presentation of written material only is not enough, and falsifies the results.}, language = {en} } @article{Woolford2009, author = {Woolford, Ellen}, title = {Aspect splits and parasitic marking}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32236}, pages = {39 -- 72}, year = {2009}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @article{Zeijlstra2009, author = {Zeijlstra, Hedde}, title = {Hard and soft conditions on the faculty of language}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32221}, pages = {9 -- 38}, year = {2009}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @article{Vogel2006, author = {Vogel, Ralf}, title = {The simple generator}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32338}, pages = {99 -- 136}, year = {2006}, abstract = {I argue that the shift of explanatory burden from the generator to the evaluator in OT syntax - together with the difficulties that arise when we try to formulate a working theory of the interfaces of syntax - leads to a number of assumptions about syntactic structures in OT which are quite different from those typical of minimalist syntax: formal features, as driving forces behind syntactic movement, are useless, and derivational and representational economy are problematic for both empirical and conceptual reasons. The notion of markedness, central in Optimality Theory, is not fully compatible with the idea of synactic economy. Even more so, seemingly obvious cases of blocking by structural economy do not seem to result from grammar proper, but reflect (economical) aspects of language use.}, language = {en} } @article{ViknerEngels2006, author = {Vikner, Sten and Engels, Eva}, title = {An optimality-theoretic analysis of scandinavian object shift and remnant VP-topicalisation}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32359}, pages = {195 -- 231}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Holmberg (1997, 1999) assumes that Holmberg's generalisation (HG) is derivational, prohibiting Object Shift (OS) across an intervening non-adverbial element at any point in the derivation. Counterexamples to this hypothesis are given in Fox \& Pesetsky (2005) which show that remnant VP-topicalisations are possible in Scandinavian as long as the VP-internal order relations are maintained. Extending the empirical basis concerning remnant VP-topicalisations, we argue that HG and the restrictions on object stranding result from the same, more general condition on order preservation. Considering this condition to be violable and to interact with various constraints on movement in an Optimality-theoretic fashion, we suggest an account for various asymmetries in the interaction between remnant VP-topicalisations and both OS and other movement operations (especially subject raising) as to their order preserving characteristics and stranding abilities.}, language = {en} } @article{SamekLudovici2006, author = {Samek-Ludovici, Vieri}, title = {Optimality theory and the minimalist program}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32328}, pages = {77 -- 97}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Content: 1 Introduction 2 Crosslinguistic Variation 3 Constraint Conflict 3.1 Conflict between Prosody and Syntax 3.2 Conflict between Economy Principles 4 OT and Minimalism}, language = {en} } @article{SchlesewskyFrisch2003, author = {Schlesewsky, Matthias and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Nominative case as a multidimensional default}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {21}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32447}, pages = {61 -- 72}, year = {2003}, abstract = {The present paper addresses a current view in the psycholinguistic literature that case exhibits processing properties distinct from those of other morphological features such as number (cf. Fodor \& Inoue, 2000; Meng \& Bader, 2000a/b). In a speeded-acceptability judgement experiment, we show that the low performance previously found for case in contrast to number violations is limited to nominative case, whereas violations involving accusative and dative are judged more accurately. The data thus do not support the proposal that case per se is associated with special properties (in contrast to other features such as number) in reanalysis processes. Rather, there are significant judgement differences between the object cases accusative and dative on the one hand and the subject nominative case on the other. This may be explained by the fact that nominative has a specific status in German (and many other languages) as a default case.}, language = {en} } @article{Fischer2003, author = {Fischer, Susann}, title = {Partitive vs. Genitive in Russian and Polish}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {21}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32457}, pages = {73 -- 89}, year = {2003}, abstract = {The present paper addresses a current view in the psycholinguistic literature that case exhibits processing properties distinct from those of other morphological features such as number (cf. Fodor \& Inoue, 2000; Meng \& Bader, 2000a/b). In a speeded-acceptability judgement experiment, we show that the low performance previously found for case in contrast to number violations is limited to nominative case, whereas violations involving accusative and dative are judged more accurately. The data thus do not support the proposal that case per se is associated with special properties (in contrast to other features such as number) in reanalysis processes. Rather, there are significant judgement differences between the object cases accusative and dative on the one hand and the subject nominative case on the other. This may be explained by the fact that nominative has a specific status in German (and many other languages) as a default case.}, language = {en} } @article{Salzmann2009, author = {Salzmann, Martin}, title = {Variation in resumption requires violable constraints}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32251}, pages = {99 -- 132}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Variation in dative resumption among and within Alemannic varieties of German strongly favors an Evaluator component that makes use of optimality-theoretic evaluation rather than filters as in the Minimalist Program (MP). At the same time, the variation is restricted to realizational requirements. This supports a model of syntax like the Derivations and Evaluations framework (Broekhuis 2008) that combines a restrictive MP-style Generator with an Evaluator that includes ranked violable (interface) constraints.}, language = {en} } @article{Soschen2006, author = {Soschen, Alona}, title = {Natural law}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32316}, pages = {43 -- 76}, year = {2006}, abstract = {This work concentrates on the requirements of the computational system of HL, by developing the idea that Natural Law applies to universal syntactic principles. The systems of efficient growth are for the continuation of motion and maximal distance between the elements. The condition of maximization accounts for the properties of syntactic trees - binary branching, labeling, and the EPP. NL justifies the basic principle of organization in Merge: it provides a functional explanation of phase formation and thematic domains. In Optimality Theory, it accounts for the selection of a particular word order in languages. A comprehensive and definitive understanding of the principles underlying MP will eventually lead to a more advanced design of OT.}, language = {en} } @article{Schaden2009, author = {Schaden, Gerhard}, title = {Say hello to markedness}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32247}, pages = {73 -- 97}, year = {2009}, abstract = {In this paper, it will be shown that Bi-directional Optimality Theory (BOT) runs into problems of undergeneration when confronted with a certain class of partial-blocking phenomena. The empirical problem used to illustrate this is the cross-linguistic variation of one-step past-referring tenses. It will be argued that the well-known 'present perfect puzzle' is a sub-problem of it. The solution to the cross-linguistic variation of these tenses involves blocking of the marked tense. The relevant notion of 'markedness', while underivable synchronically, is argued to be linked to diachronic learning processes similar to those investigated by Benz (2006).}, language = {en} } @article{Komen2009, author = {Komen, Erwin R.}, title = {Branching constraints}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32273}, pages = {157 -- 186}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Rejecting approaches with a directionality parameter, mainstream minimalism has adopted the notion of strict (or unidirectional) branching. Within optimality theory however, constraints have recently been proposed that presuppose that the branching direction scheme is language specific. I show that a syntactic analysis of Chechen word order and relative clauses using strict branching and movement triggered by feature checking seems very unlikely, whereas a directionality approach works well. I argue in favor of a mixed directionality approach for Chechen, where the branching direction scheme depends on the phrase type. This observation leads to the introduction of context variants of existing markedness constraints, in order to describe the branching processes in terms of optimality theory. The paper discusses how and where the optimality theory selection of the branching directions can be implemented within a minimalist derivation.}, language = {en} } @article{GrovePutnam2009, author = {Grove, Kyle Wade and Putnam, Mike}, title = {Deriving pairedness in vP structure}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32284}, pages = {187 -- 210}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Minimalist accounts lack a natural theory of markedness, whereas Optimality-Theoretical accounts fundamentally encode markedness. We think the duality of interfaces assumed in Minimalism is a step towards explaining pairedness behavior, where a given language exhibits a marked/ unmarked pair of items occupying the same niche. We argue that while Minimalism articulates the derivational aspect of language, and underlies grammaticality, an Optimality Theoretic articulation of PF and LF is conceptually natural and explains pairedness behavior. We adopt this 'hybrid' account, first, to explain the existence of marked (often termed 'reflexive') and unmarked anticausatives in German, recently studied in depth by Sch¨afer [2007].}, language = {en} } @article{Hacken2006, author = {Hacken, Pius ten}, title = {The nature, use and origin of explanatory adequacy}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32297}, pages = {9 -- 32}, year = {2006}, abstract = {If we want to compare the explanatory and descriptive adequacy of the MP and OT, the original definitions by Chomsky (1964) are or little direct use. However, a relativized version of both notions can be defined, which can be used to express a number of parallels between the study of individual I-languages and the language faculty. In any version of explanatory and descriptive adequacy, the two notions derive from the research programme and can only be achieved together. They can therefore not be used to characterize the difference in orientation between OT and the MP. Even if 'OT' is restricted to a particular theory in Chomskyan linguistics (to the exclusion of, for instance, its use in LFG), it cannot be said to be stronger in descriptive adequacy than in explanatory adequacy in the technical sense of these terms.}, language = {en} } @article{Nunes2009, author = {Nunes, Jairo}, title = {Preposition insertion in the mapping from spell-out to PF}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {28}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32262}, pages = {133 -- 156}, year = {2009}, abstract = {This paper discusses three case studies on the realization of spurious prepositions and argues that they illustrate a general interaction of convergence requirements of the morphological component with an economy condition that enforces faithfulness between the lexical items present in the numeration and the lexical items present in the PF output.}, language = {en} } @article{Grimshwa2006, author = {Grimshwa, Jane}, title = {Last resorts and grammaticality}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32302}, pages = {33 -- 41}, year = {2006}, abstract = {A "last resort" is argued to be nothing more than a winning, i.e. grammatical form, once it is understood in terms of competition between alternative candidates. It is a theorem of OT that we find last resort effects, since it follows from the nature of competition and constraint interaction.}, language = {en} } @article{Fanselow2004, author = {Fanselow, Gisbert}, title = {M{\"u}nchhausen-style head movement and the analysis of verb second}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, volume = {22}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1864-1857}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32497}, pages = {9 -- 49}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Content: 1 Introduction 2 A restrictive theory of head movement 2.1 Preliminary Remarks 2.2 Theoretical Problems of Head Movement 2.3 Remnant Phrasal Movement 2.4 M{\"u}nchhausen Style Head Movement 3 Verb Second Movement 3.1 Introductory Remarks 3.2 Problems of V/2 constructions: Does V really move to Comp? 3.3 The preverbal position 3.4 The Second Position 4 References}, language = {en} } @article{Vogel2004, author = {Vogel, Ralf}, title = {Dialectal variation in German 3-verb clusters}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, volume = {22}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1864-1857}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32516}, pages = {83 -- 118}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Content: 1 The Typology 1.1 Object Placement 2 Treatment of StG in terms of LF Movement - with and without Head Movement 3 An OT-solution in terms of linearisation ('LF-to-PF-Mapping') 3.1 The trigger for additional orders: Focus 3.2 Competitions 3.3 Summary 4 RP 4.1 LF Movement - with and without Head Movement 4.2 The OT-account for RP 4.3 Competitions 5 Summary}, language = {en} } @article{Meinunger2004, author = {Meinunger, Andr{\´e}}, title = {Interface restrictions on verb second}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, volume = {22}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32502}, pages = {51 -- 81}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Content: 0 Introduction 1 Elements that block verb raising - a discussion 1.1 Haider's observation 1.2 The other constructions 1.3 A possible explanation 1.4 Riemsdijk's grafting approach as a possible alternative? 1.5 Intermediate Summary 2 Parsing problems with speech act adverbials in the pre-field}, language = {en} } @article{VogelZugck2003, author = {Vogel, Ralf and Zugck, Marco}, title = {Counting Markedness}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, volume = {21}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1864-1857}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32476}, pages = {105 -- 122}, year = {2003}, abstract = {This paper reports the results of a corpus investigation on case conflicts in German argument free relative constructions. We investigate how corpus frequencies reflect the relative markedness of free relative and correlative constructions, the relative markedness of different case conflict configurations, and the relative markedness of different conflict resolution strategies. Section 1 introduces the conception of markedness as used in Optimality Theory. Section 2 introduces the facts about German free relative clauses, and section 3 presents the results of the corpus study. By and large, markedness and frequency go hand in hand. However, configurations at the highest end of the markedness scale rarely show up in corpus data, and for the configuration at the lowest end we found an unexpected outcome: the more marked structure is preferred.}, language = {en} } @article{VogelFrisch2003, author = {Vogel, Ralf and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {The resolution of case conflicts}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, volume = {21}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32466}, pages = {91 -- 103}, year = {2003}, abstract = {This paper reports the results of a pilot study on the resolution of case conflicts in German free relative constructions. Section 1 gives a brief introduction into the phenomenon, section 2 presents the experiment and its results, section 3 ends the paper with a brief more general discussion.}, language = {en} } @article{Krifka2007, author = {Krifka, Manfred}, title = {Basic notions of information structure}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-939469-88-9}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19603}, pages = {13 -- 55}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This article takes stock of the basic notions of Information Structure (IS). It first provides a general characterization of IS — following Chafe (1976) — within a communicative model of Common Ground(CG), which distinguishes between CG content and CG management. IS is concerned with those features of language that concern the local CG. Second, this paper defines and discusses the notions of Focus (as indicating alternatives) and its various uses, Givenness (as indicating that a denotation is already present in the CG), and Topic (as specifying what a statement is about). It also proposes a new notion, Delimitation, which comprises contrastive topics and frame setters, and indicates that the current conversational move does not entirely satisfy the local communicative needs. It also points out that rhetorical structuring partly belongs to IS.}, language = {en} } @article{HartmannJacobZimmermann2008, author = {Hartmann, Katharina and Jacob, Peggy and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Focus asymmetries in Bura}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19381}, year = {2008}, abstract = {(Chadic), which exhibits a number of asymmetries: Grammatical focus marking is obligatory only with focused subjects, where focus is marked by the particle {\´a}n following the subject. Focused subjects remain in situ and the complement of {\´a}n is a regular VP. With nonsubject foci, {\´a}n appears in a cleft-structure between the fronted focus constituent and a relative clause. We present a semantically unified analysis of focus marking in Bura that treats the particle as a focusmarking copula in T that takes a property-denoting expression (the background) and an individual-denoting expression (the focus) as arguments. The article also investigates the realization of predicate and polarity focus, which are almost never marked. The upshot of the discussion is that Bura shares many characteristic traits of focus marking with other Chadic languages, but it crucially differs in exhibiting a structural difference in the marking of focus on subjects and non-subject constituents.}, language = {en} } @article{Petrova2006, author = {Petrova, Svetlana}, title = {A discourse-based approach to verb placement in early West-Germanic}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19540}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The paper presents a novel approach to explaining word order variation in the early Germanic languages. Initial observations about verb placement as a device marking types of rhetorical relations made on data from Old High German (cf. Hinterh{\"o}lzl \& Petrova 2005) are now reconsidered on a larger scale and compared with evidence from other early Germanic languages. The paper claims that the identification of information-structural domains in a sentence is best achieved by taking into account the interaction between the pragmatic features of discourse referents and properties of discourse organization.}, language = {en} } @article{Rooth2007, author = {Rooth, Mats}, title = {Notions of focus anaphoricity}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19622}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This article reviews some of the theoretical notions and empirical phenomena which figure in current formal-semantic theories of focus. It also develops the connection between "alternative semantics" and "givenness" accounts of focus interpretation.}, language = {en} } @misc{AllefeldFrisch2004, author = {Allefeld, Carsten and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Phase synchronization analysis of event-related potentials in language processing}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-20113}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Phase synchronization analysis, including our recently introduced multivariate approach, is applied to event-related EEG data from an experiment on language processing, following a classic psycholinguistic paradigm. For the two types of experimental manipulation distinct effects in overall synchronization are found; for one of them they can also be localized. The synchronization effects occur earlier than those found by the conventional analysis method, indicating that the new approach provides additional information on the underlying neuronal process.}, language = {en} } @article{DipperGoetzeSkopeteas2007, author = {Dipper, Stefanie and G{\"o}tze, Michael and Skopeteas, Stavros}, title = {Introduction [ISIS (2007) 07: Information structure in Cross-Linguistic Corpora]}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22225}, pages = {1 -- 27}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The annotation guidelines introduced in this chapter present an attempt to create a unique infrastructure for the encoding of data from very different languages. The ultimate target of these annotations is to allow for data retrieval for the study of information structure, and since information structure interacts with all levels of grammar, the present guidelines cover all levels of grammar too. After introducing the guidelines, the current chapter also presents an evaluation by means of measurements of the inter-annotator agreement.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaszczakDipperFanselowetal.2007, author = {Blaszczak, Joanna and Dipper, Stefanie and Fanselow, Gisbert and Ishihara, Shinishiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Skopeteas, Stavros and Weskott, Thomas and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Syntax}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22253}, pages = {95 -- 133}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for syntactic annotation contain the layers that are especially relevant for queries related to the interaction of information structure with syntax. The layers of this level are constituent structure, grammatical functions, and semantic roles.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaszczakDipperFanselowetal.2007, author = {Blaszczak, Joanna and Dipper, Stefanie and Fanselow, Gisbert and Ishihara, Shinishiro and Petrova, Svetlana and Skopeteas, Stavros and Weskott, Thomas and Zimmermann, Malte}, title = {Morphology}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22247}, pages = {55 -- 94}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for morphological annotation contain the layers that are necessary for understanding the structure of the words in the object language: morphological segmentation, glossing, and annotation of part-of-speech.}, language = {en} } @article{FeryHellmuthKuegleretal.2007, author = {F{\´e}ry, Caroline and Hellmuth, Sam and K{\"u}gler, Frank and Mayer, J{\"o}rg}, title = {Phonology and intonation}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22217}, pages = {29 -- 53}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The encoding standards for phonology and intonation are designed to facilitate consistent annotation of the phonological and intonational aspects of information structure, in languages across a range of prosodic types. The guidelines are designed with the aim that a nonspecialist in phonology can both implement and interpret the resulting annotation.}, language = {en} } @article{JasinskajaMayerSchlangen2004, author = {Jasinskaja, Ekaterina and Mayer, J{\"o}rg and Schlangen, David}, title = {Discourse structure and information structure}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8414}, pages = {151 -- 206}, year = {2004}, abstract = {In this paper we review the current state of research on the issue of discourse structure (DS)/information structure (IS) interface. This field has received a lot of attention from discourse semanticists and pragmatists, and has made substantial progress in recent years. In this paper we summarize the relevant studies. In addition, we look at the issue of DS/ISinteraction at a different level - that of phonetics. It is known that both information structure and discourse structure can be realized prosodically, but the issue of phonetic interaction between the prosodic devices they employ has hardly ever been discussed in this context. We think that a proper consideration of this aspect of DS/IS-interaction would enrich our understanding of the phenomenon, and hence we formulate some related research-programmatic positions.}, language = {en} } @article{Broekhuis2006, author = {Broekhuis, Hans}, title = {Derivations (MP) and evaluations (OT)}, series = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, journal = {Linguistics in Potsdam}, number = {25}, issn = {1616-7392}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32347}, pages = {137 -- 193}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The main claim of this paper is that the minimalist framework and optimality theory adopt more or less the same architecture of grammar: both assume that a generator defines a set S of potentially well-formed expressions that can be generated on the basis of a given input, and that there is an evaluator that selects the expressions from S that are actually grammatical in a given language L. The paper therefore proposes a model of grammar in which the strengths of the two frameworks are combined: more specifically, it is argued that the computational system of human language CHL from MP creates a set S of potentially well-formed expressions, and that these are subsequently evaluated in an optimality theoretic fashion.}, language = {en} } @article{Bowler2016, author = {Bowler, Margit}, title = {The status of degrees in Warlpiri}, series = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, journal = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, editor = {Grubic, Mira and Mucha, Anne}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-92295}, pages = {1 -- 17}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Recent work in semantics has shown that languages can vary in whether or not they include degrees (that is, elements of type < d >) in their semantic ontology. Several authors have argued that their languages of study lack degrees, including Bochnak (2013) for Washo (isolate, USA), Pearson (2009) for Fijian (Austronesian, Fiji), and Beck, et al. (2009) for Motu (Austronesian, Papua New Guinea). In this paper, I follow the tests proposed in Beck, et al. (2009) to assess the status of degrees in Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan, Australia). I use Warlpiri data collected following the Beck, et al. survey to argue that Warlpiri gradable predicates do not combine with a degree argument. (Like many other Australian languages, adjectival concepts like big and small are expressed using nouns in Warlpiri (Dixon 1982, Bittner \& Hale 1995, among others). I refer to these lexical items as "gradable predicates" in this paper.) This paper represents a first pass at assessing the status of degrees in an Australian language, which have otherwise been unexamined from the point of view of degree semantics.}, language = {en} } @article{HsiehShen2016, author = {Hsieh, I-Ta Chris and Shen, Zheng}, title = {The 'Associative Reading' of DPs and the quantity vs. quality distinction}, series = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, journal = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, editor = {Grubic, Mira and Mucha, Anne}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-92304}, pages = {18 -- 35}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This paper investigates an unnoticed difference in Mandarin between the Q-adjectives and the gradable adjectives of quality and shows that this observation follows straightforwardly from a theory that differentiates gradable predication of quantity and that of quality (e.g., Rett 2008; Lin 2014; Solt 2015; a.o.).}, language = {en} } @article{Korat2016, author = {Korat, Omer}, title = {Singular quantified terms}, series = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, journal = {Proceedings of the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA) 2}, editor = {Grubic, Mira and Mucha, Anne}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-92313}, pages = {36 -- 51}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In this paper, I discuss the behavior of singular partitives, focusing on Hebrew. I show that group noun-headed singular quantified terms behave essentially different from other singular quantified terms. Specifically, the domain of quantification in the former is a discrete set (the members of the group), while in the latter the domain of quantification is a set of mass entities. I propose a preliminary analysis of singular quantified terms in Hebrew, respecting the properties peculiar to this language as well as the observations about group vs. non-group singular quantified terms. This analysis is based on a novel class of quantifiers I name 'Measure Quantifiers', which instantiate relations between algebraic sums. Using shifts between algebraic sums, we can represent the different readings of singular and plural individual or group terms.}, language = {en} } @article{EndrissHinterwimmer2004, author = {Endriss, Cornelia and Hinterwimmer, Stefan}, title = {The influence of tense in adverbial quantification}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-4725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8409}, pages = {121 -- 151}, year = {2004}, abstract = {We argue that there is a crucial difference between determiner and adverbial quantification. Following Herburger [2000] and von Fintel [1994], we assume that determiner quantifiers quantify over individuals and adverbial quantifiers over eventualities. While it is usually assumed that the semantics of sentences with determiner quantifiers and those with adverbial quantifiers basically come out the same, we will show by way of new data that quantification over events is more restricted than quantification over individuals. This is because eventualities in contrast to individuals have to be located in time which is done using contextual information according to a pragmatic resolution strategy. If the contextual information and the tense information given in the respective sentence contradict each other, the sentence is uninterpretable. We conclude that this is the reason why in these cases adverbial quantification, i.e. quantification over eventualities, is impossible whereas quantification over individuals is fine.}, language = {en} } @article{GoetzeWeskottEndrissetal.2007, author = {G{\"o}tze, Michael and Weskott, Thomas and Endriss, Cornelia and Fiedler, Ines and Hinterwimmer, Stefan and Petrova, Svetlana and Schwarz, Anne and Skopeteas, Stavros and Stoel, Ruben}, title = {Information structure}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22277}, pages = {147 -- 187}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for Information Structure include instructions for the annotation of Information Status (or 'givenness'), Topic, and Focus, building upon a basic syntactic annotation of nominal phrases and sentences. A procedure for the annotation of these features is proposed.}, language = {en} } @article{EndrissHinterwimmerSkopeteas2007, author = {Endriss, Cornelia and Hinterwimmer, Stefan and Skopeteas, Stavros}, title = {Semantics}, series = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, journal = {Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1614-4708}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-22265}, pages = {135 -- 145}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The guidelines for semantics comprise a number of layers related to quantificational structures as well as some crucial semantic properties of NPs with respect to information structure: definiteness, countability, and animacy.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Patterson2013, author = {Patterson, Clare}, title = {The role of structural and discourse-level cues during pronoun resolution}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71280}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Pronoun resolution normally takes place without conscious effort or awareness, yet the processes behind it are far from straightforward. A large number of cues and constraints have previously been recognised as playing a role in the identification and integration of potential antecedents, yet there is considerable debate over how these operate within the resolution process. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the parser handles multiple antecedents in order to understand more about how certain information sources play a role during pronoun resolution. I consider how both structural information and information provided by the prior discourse is used during online processing. This is investigated through several eye tracking during reading experiments that are complemented by a number of offline questionnaire experiments. I begin by considering how condition B of the Binding Theory (Chomsky 1981; 1986) has been captured in pronoun processing models; some researchers have claimed that processing is faithful to syntactic constraints from the beginning of the search (e.g. Nicol and Swinney 1989), while others have claimed that potential antecedents which are ruled out on structural grounds nonetheless affect processing, because the parser must also pay attention to a potential antecedent's features (e.g. Badecker and Straub 2002). My experimental findings demonstrate that the parser is sensitive to the subtle changes in syntactic configuration which either allow or disallow pronoun reference to a local antecedent, and indicate that the parser is normally faithful to condition B at all stages of processing. Secondly, I test the Primitives of Binding hypothesis proposed by Koornneef (2008) based on work by Reuland (2001), which is a modular approach to pronoun resolution in which variable binding (a semantic relationship between pronoun and antecedent) takes place before coreference. I demonstrate that a variable-binding (VB) antecedent is not systematically considered earlier than a coreference (CR) antecedent online. I then go on to explore whether these findings could be attributed to the linear order of the antecedents, and uncover a robust recency preference both online and offline. I consider what role the factor of recency plays in pronoun resolution and how it can be reconciled with the first-mention advantage (Gernsbacher and Hargreaves 1988; Arnold 2001; Arnold et al., 2007). Finally, I investigate how aspects of the prior discourse affect pronoun resolution. Prior discourse status clearly had an effect on pronoun resolution, but an antecedent's appearance in the previous context was not always facilitative; I propose that this is due to the number of topic switches that a reader must make, leading to a lack of discourse coherence which has a detrimental effect on pronoun resolution. The sensitivity of the parser to structural cues does not entail that cue types can be easily separated into distinct sequential stages, and I therefore propose that the parser is structurally sensitive but not modular. Aspects of pronoun resolution can be captured within a parallel constraints model of pronoun resolution, however, such a model should be sensitive to the activation of potential antecedents based on discourse factors, and structural cues should be strongly weighted.}, language = {en} }