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Bienenfresserortungsversuch
(2019)
Splits and Birds
(2019)
Udmurt as an OV language
(2016)
This is the first study to investigate Hubert Haider's (2000, 2010, 2013, 2014) proposed systematic differences between OV and VO language in a family other than Germanic. Its aim is to gather evidence on whether basic word order is predictive of further properties of a language. The languages under investigation are the Finno-Ugric languages Udmurt (as an OV language) and Finnish (as a VO language). Counter to Kayne (1994), Haider proposes that the structure of a sentence with a head-final VP is fundamentally different from that of a sentence with a head-initial VP, e.g., OV languages do not exhibit a VP-shell structure, and they do not employ a TP layer with a structural subject position. Haider's proposed structural differences are said to result in the following empirically testable differences:
(a) VP: the availability of VP-internal adverbial intervention and scrambling only in OV-VPs;
(b) subjects: the lack of certain subject-object asymmetries in OV languages, i.e., lack of the subject condition and lack of superiority effects;
(c) V-complexes: the availability of partial predicate fronting only in OV languages; different orderings between selecting and selected verbs; the intervention of non-verbal material between verbs only in VO languages;
(d) V-particles: differences in the distribution of resultative phrases and verb particles.
Udmurt and Finnish behave in line with Haider's predictions with regard to the status of the subject, with regard to the order of selecting and selected verbs, and with regard to the availability of partial predicate fronting. Moreover, Udmurt allows for adverbial intervention and scrambling, as predicted, whereas the status of these properties in Finnish could not be reliably determined due to obligatory V-to-T. There is also counterevidence to Haider's predictions: Udmurt allows for non-verbal material between verbs, and the distribution of resultative phrases and verb particles is essentially as free as the distribution of adverbial phrases in both Finno-Ugric languages. As such, Haider's theory is not falsified by the data from Udmurt and Finnish (except for his theory on verb particles), but it is also not fully supported by the data.
This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not.
This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not.
Gegenstand dieser Arbeit sind sog. nicht-kanonische bzw. unintegrierte Nebensätze. Diese Nebensätze zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass sie sich mittels gängiger Kriterien (Satzgliedstatus, Verbletztstellung) nicht klar als koordiniert oder subordiniert beschreiben lassen. Das Phänomen nicht-kanonischer Nebensätze ist ein Thema, welches in der Sprachwissenschaft generell seit den späten Siebzigern (Davison 1979) diskutiert wird und spätestens mit Fabricius-Hansen (1992) auch innerhalb der germanistischen Linguistik angekommen ist. Ein viel beachteter Komplex ist hierbei – neben der reinen Identifizierung nicht-kanonischer Satzgefüge – meist auch die Erstellung einer Klassifikation zur Erfassung zumindest einiger nicht-kanonischer Gefüge, wie dies etwa bei Fabricius-Hansen (1992) und Reis (1997) zu sehen ist. Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, eine exhaustive Klassifikation der angesprochenen Nebensatztypen vorzunehmen. Dazu werden zunächst – unter Zuhilfenahme von Korpusdaten – alle potentiellen Subordinationsmerkmale genauer untersucht, da die meisten bisherigen Studien zu diesem Thema die stets gleichen Merkmale als gegeben voraussetzen. Dabei wird sich herausstellen, dass nur eine kleine Anzahl von Merkmalen sich wirklich zweifelsfrei dazu eignet, Aufschluss über die Satzverknüpfungsqualität zu geben. Die anschließend aufgestellte Taxonomie deutscher Nebensätze wird schließlich einzig mit der Postulierung einer nicht-kanonischen Nebensatzklasse auskommen. Sie ist darüber hinaus auch in der Lage, die zahlreich vorkommenden Ausnahmefälle zu erfassen. Dies heißt konkret, dass auch etwaige Nebensätze, die sich aufgrund bestimmter Eigenschaften teilweise idiosynkratisch verhalten, einfach in die vorgeschlagene Klassifikation übernommen werden können. In diesem Zuge werde ich weiterhin zeigen, wie eine Nebensatzklassifikation auch sog. sekundären Subordinationsmerkmalen gerecht werden kann, obwohl diese sich hinsichtlich der einzelnen Nebensatzklassen nicht einheitlich verhalten. Schließlich werde ich eine theoretische Modellierung der zuvor postulierten Taxonomie vornehmen, die auf Basis der HPSG mittels Merkmalsvererbung alle möglichen Nebensatztypen zu erfassen imstande ist.
Of Trees and Birds
(2019)
Gisbert Fanselow’s work has been invaluable and inspiring to many researchers working on syntax, morphology, and information structure, both from a theoretical and from an experimental perspective. This volume comprises a collection of articles dedicated to Gisbert on the occasion of his 60th birthday, covering a range of topics from these areas and beyond. The contributions have in common that in a broad sense they have to do with language structures (and thus trees), and that in a more specific sense they have to do with birds. They thus cover two of Gisbert’s major interests in- and outside of the linguistic world (and perhaps even at the interface).