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Leben mit Paradoxien
(2019)
Bienenfresserortungsversuch
(2019)
The instrumental -er suffix
(2019)
Preface
(2019)
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).
Clause typing in Germanic
(2018)
The questionnaire investigates the functional left periphery of various finite clauses in Germanic languages, with particular attention paid to clause-typing elements and the combinations thereof. The questionnaire is mostly concerned with clause typing in embedded clauses, but main clause counterparts are also considered for comparative purposes. The chief aim was to achieve comparable results across Germanic languages, though the standardised questionnaire may also be helpful in the study of other languages, too. Most questions examine the availability of various complementisers and clause-typing operators, and in some cases the movement of verbs to the left periphery is also taken into account. The questionnaire is split into seven major parts according to the types of clauses under scrutiny.
All instructions were given in English and the individual questions either concern translations of given sentences from English into the target language, and/or they ask for specific details about the constructions in the target language.
The present document contains the questionnaire itself (together with the instructions given at the beginning of the questionnaire and at the beginning of the individual sections, as well as the questions asking for personal data), the sociolinguistic data of the speakers, and the actual results for the individual languages. Five Germanic languages are included: Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish. For each language, two informants were recruited. Given the small number of informants, the present study serves as a qualitative investigation and as a basis for further, quantitative and experimental studies.
In this thesis, I develop a theoretical implementation of prosodic reconstruction and apply it to the empirical domain of German sentences in which part of a focus or contrastive topic is fronted.
Prosodic reconstruction refers to the idea that sentences involving syntactic movement show prosodic parallels with corresponding simpler structures without movement. I propose to model this recurrent observation by ordering syntax-prosody mapping before copy deletion.
In order to account for the partial fronting data, the idea is extended to the mapping between prosody and information structure. This assumption helps to explain why object-initial sentences containing a broad focus or broad contrastive topic show similar prosodic and interpretative restrictions as sentences with canonical word order.
The empirical adequacy of the model is tested against a set of gradient acceptability judgments.
It takes two to kiss, but does it take three to give a kiss? Categorization based on thematic roles
(2014)
Meter and syntax have overlapping elements in music and speech domains, and individual differences have been documented in both meter perception and syntactic comprehension paradigms. Previous evidence insinuated but never fully explored the relationship that metrical structure has to syntactic comprehension, the comparability of these processes across music and language domains, and the respective role of individual differences. This dissertation aimed to investigate neurocognitive entrainment to meter in music and language, the impact that neurocognitive entrainment had on syntactic comprehension, and whether individual differences in musical expertise, temporal perception and working memory played a role during these processes.
A theoretical framework was developed, which linked neural entrainment, cognitive entrainment, and syntactic comprehension while detailing previously documented effects of individual differences on meter perception and syntactic comprehension. The framework was developed in both music and language domains and was tested using behavioral and EEG methods across three studies (seven experiments). In order to satisfy empirical evaluation of neurocognitive entrainment and syntactic aspects of the framework, original melodies and sentences were composed. Each item had four permutations: regular and irregular metricality, based on the hierarchical organization of strong and weak notes and syllables, and preferred and non-preferred syntax, based on structurally alternate endings. The framework predicted — for both music and language domains — greater neurocognitive entrainment in regular compared to irregular metricality conditions, and accordingly, better syntactic integration in regular compared to irregular metricality conditions. Individual differences among participants were expected for both entrainment and syntactic processes.
Altogether, the dissertation was able to support a holistic account of neurocognitive entrainment to musical meter and its subsequent influence on syntactic integration of melodies, with musician participants. The theoretical predictions were not upheld in the language domain with musician participants, but initial behavioral evidence in combination with previous EEG evidence suggest that perhaps non-musician language EEG data would support the framework’s predictions. Musicians’ deviation from hypothesized results in the language domain were suspected to reflect heightened perception of acoustic features stemming from musical training, which caused current ‘overly’ regular stimuli to distract the cognitive system. The individual-differences approach was vindicated by the surfacing of two factors scores, Verbal Working Memory and Time and Pitch Discrimination, which in turn correlated with multiple experimental data across the three studies.
This dissertation uses a common grammatical phenomenon, light verb constructions (LVCs) in English and German, to investigate how syntax-semantics mapping defaults influence the relationships between language processing, representation and conceptualization. LVCs are analyzed as a phenomenon of mismatch in the argument structure. The processing implication of this mismatch are experimentally investigated, using ERPs and a dual task. Data from these experiments point to an increase in working memory. Representational questions are investigated using structural priming. Data from this study suggest that while the syntax of LVCs is not different from other structures’, the semantics and mapping are represented differently. This hypothesis is tested with a new categorization paradigm, which reveals that the conceptual structure that LVC evoke differ in interesting, and predictable, ways from non-mismatching structures’.
Children’s interpretations of sentences containing focus particles do not seem adult-like until school age. This study investigates how German 4-year-old children comprehend sentences with the focus particle ‘nur’ (only) by using different tasks and controlling for the impact of general cognitive abilities on performance measures. Two sentence types with ‘only’ in either pre-subject or pre-object position were presented. Eye gaze data and verbal responses were collected via the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture verification task. While the eye tracking data revealed an adult-like pattern of focus particle processing, the sentence-picture verification replicated previous findings of poor comprehension, especially for ‘only’ in pre-subject position. A second study focused on the impact of general cognitive abilities on the outcomes of the verification task. Working memory was related to children’s performance in both sentence types whereas inhibitory control was selectively related to the number of errors for sentences with ‘only’ in pre-subject position. These results suggest that children at the age of 4 years have the linguistic competence to correctly interpret sentences with focus particles, which–depending on specific task demands–may be masked by immature general cognitive abilities.
Children’s interpretations of sentences containing focus particles do not seem adult-like until school age. This study investigates how German 4-year-old children comprehend sentences with the focus particle ‘nur’ (only) by using different tasks and controlling for the impact of general cognitive abilities on performance measures. Two sentence types with ‘only’ in either pre-subject or pre-object position were presented. Eye gaze data and verbal responses were collected via the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture verification task. While the eye tracking data revealed an adult-like pattern of focus particle processing, the sentence-picture verification replicated previous findings of poor comprehension, especially for ‘only’ in pre-subject position. A second study focused on the impact of general cognitive abilities on the outcomes of the verification task. Working memory was related to children’s performance in both sentence types whereas inhibitory control was selectively related to the number of errors for sentences with ‘only’ in pre-subject position. These results suggest that children at the age of 4 years have the linguistic competence to correctly interpret sentences with focus particles, which–depending on specific task demands–may be masked by immature general cognitive abilities.
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 dissertation addresses the question of how linguistic structures can be represented in working memory. We propose a memory-based computational model that derives offline and online complexity profiles in terms of a top-down parser for minimalist grammars (Stabler, 2011). The complexity metric reflects the amount of time an item is stored in memory. The presented architecture links grammatical representations stored in memory directly to the cognitive behavior by deriving predictions about sentence processing difficulty.
Results from five different sentence comprehension experiments were used to evaluate the model's assumptions about memory limitations. The predictions of the complexity metric were compared to the locality (integration and storage) cost metric of Dependency Locality Theory (Gibson, 2000). Both metrics make comparable offline and online predictions for four of the five phenomena. The key difference between the two metrics is that the proposed complexity metric accounts for the structural complexity of intervening material. In contrast, DLT's integration cost metric considers the number of discourse referents, not the syntactic structural complexity.
We conclude that the syntactic analysis plays a significant role in memory requirements of parsing. An incremental top-down parser based on a grammar formalism easily computes offline and online complexity profiles, which can be used to derive predictions about sentence processing difficulty.
Der W-Fragen-Erwerb stellt einen Teilbereich der kindlichen Syntaxentwicklung dar, die sich maßgeblich innerhalb der ersten drei Lebensjahre eines Kindes vollzieht. Eine wesentliche Rolle spielen dabei zwei Bewegungsoperationen, die sich auf die Position des Interrogativpronomens an die erste Stelle der W-Frage sowie die Position des Verbs an die zweite Stelle beziehen. In drei Studien wurde einerseits untersucht, ob deutschsprachige Kinder, die noch keine W-Fragen produzieren können, in der Lage sind, grammatische von ungrammatischen W-Fragen zu unterscheiden und andererseits, welche Leistungen sprachunauffällige und sprachauffällige deutschsprachige Kinder beim Verstehen und Korrigieren unterschiedlich komplexer W-Fragen (positive und negative W-Fragen) zeigen. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf ein frühes syntaktisches Wissen über W-Fragen im Spracherwerb hin und stützen damit die Annahme einer Kontinuität der kindlichen Grammatik zur Standardsprache. Auch scheinen sprachauffällige Kinder sich beim Erwerb von W-Fragen nicht qualitativ von sprachgesunden Kindern zu unterscheiden, sondern W-Fragen lediglich später korrekt umzusetzen. In beiden Populationen konnte ein syntaktischer Ökonomieeffekt beobachtet werden, der für eine spätere Umsetzung der Verbbewegung im Vergleich zur Bewegung des W-Elementes spricht.
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.