@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{OPUS4-1195, 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{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{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{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} }