Carlo Cecchetto - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Carlo Cecchetto

SIGN-HUB is a European project involving collaborators from seven countries funded within the Hor... more SIGN-HUB is a European project involving collaborators from seven countries funded within the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program. The scope of the project is both socio-cultural and linguistic, as its aim is to document and preserve the culture, the history, and the languages of European Deaf communities. After a brief description of the various components of the project, we focus on the documentation of the life stories of Deaf people and the creation of a digital sign language archive.

Proceedings of 11th International Conference of Experimental Linguistics, 2020

The present work reports the results of a comprehension task on verb directionality in Italian Si... more The present work reports the results of a comprehension task on verb directionality in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and French Sign Language (LSF) considering native and non-native signers. Our goals were to study age of first language exposure effects on the comprehension of verb agreement in LIS and LSF, to verify whether a significant difference between forward and backward directionality was found, and see if our results may provide insight about the nature (gestural vs. linguistic) of verb directionality in sign languages. In both languages we found that the ability to comprehend verb agreement is affected in non-native signers. This indicates that delayed first language exposure has long lasting effects in adulthood. We argue that our results support analyses of verb agreement as a fully grammatical phenomenon.

Linguística : Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto, 2016

In this paper we discuss two distinct, although related questions. The first question is what exp... more In this paper we discuss two distinct, although related questions. The first question is what explains the well-known fact that short-term memory (span) is lower for signs than for words. We review some explanations that have been proposed for this fact at the light of the results of a novel experiment involving gating of signs. The second question is how signers can process fully-fledged grammatical systems like sign languages even if they rely on a limited short-term memory. In order to deal with this issue, we discuss the distribution in sign languages of the configuration that is most challenging for short-term memory, namely center embedding. The conclusion is that center embedding is possible only if special strategies based on the use of space are used that are likely to reduce the short-term memory burden.

Lingue Antiche e Moderne, 2014

The main goal of this paper is to show that the flexible word order of Latin does not prevent us ... more The main goal of this paper is to show that the flexible word order of Latin does not prevent us from fruitfully applying to Latin a set of constituency tests that have been developed in modern linguistics. Particularly, we will show that, when the concept of constituent is correctly defined, it effectively applies to Latin. We will do so by comparing English, a rigid word order language, Italian, a more flexible word order language, and Latin, which is even more flexible. This paper is organized as follows: in section 1, we offer a brief introduction on the current theoretical debate on the topic. In section 2, we argue that constituents may be formed by words that are not contiguous, at least in languages with a flexible word order. In section 3, we discuss various tests that identify VP and TP as possible constituents in Latin: these tests include pro-form substitution, ellipsis and fragment answers. Section 4 discusses tests to identify the CP layer as a constituent: these include pro-form substitution and extraposition. In the same section we deal with a possible complication arising from the use of pro-form substitution as a constituency test but we also show that it does not affect the cases we discuss. Our conclusion in Section 5 is that since constituents may be discontinuous in Latin (as in other languages), they may not be easy to identify, but they do exist.

Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2021

Relativization is a robust subordinating type across languages, displaying important typological ... more Relativization is a robust subordinating type across languages, displaying important typological variability concerning the position of the nominal head that the relative clause modifies, and sign languages are no exception. It has been widely assumed since Keenan & Comrie (1977) that the subject position is more accessible to relativization than object and oblique positions. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the extension of this famous generalization both across modalities (sign as opposed to spoken languages) and across relativization typologies (internally as opposed to externally headed relatives), and to verify how it interacts with age of first language exposure. We here report the results of a sentence-to-picture matching task assessing the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses (RCs) in three sign languages: French Sign Language (LSF), Catalan Sign Language (LSC), and Italian Sign Language (LIS). The results are that object RCs are never easier to c...

Frontiers in psychology, 2018

Whether pattern-parsing mechanisms are specific to language or apply across multiple cognitive do... more Whether pattern-parsing mechanisms are specific to language or apply across multiple cognitive domains remains unresolved. Formal language theory provides a mathematical framework for classifying pattern-generating rule sets (or "grammars") according to complexity. This framework applies to patterns at any level of complexity, stretching from simple sequences, to highly complex tree-like or net-like structures, to any Turing-computable set of strings. Here, we explored human pattern-processing capabilities in the visual domain by generating abstract visual sequences made up of abstract tiles differing in form and color. We constructed different sets of sequences, using artificial "grammars" (rule sets) at three key complexity levels. Because human linguistic syntax is classed as "mildly context-sensitive," we specifically included a visual grammar at this complexity level. Acquisition of these three grammars was tested in an artificial grammar-learning ...

Journal of Memory and Language, 2018

Three eye movement experiments investigated the processing of the syntactic ambiguity in strings ... more Three eye movement experiments investigated the processing of the syntactic ambiguity in strings such as the information that the health department provided, where the that-clause can be either a relative clause (RC) or the start of a nominal complement clause (CC; the information that the health department provided a cure). The experiments tested the prediction that comprehenders should avoid the RC analysis because it involves an unforced filler-gap dependency. Readers showed difficulty upon disambiguation toward the RC analysis, and showed facilitated processing of the ambiguous material itself when the CC analysis was available; both patterns suggest rapid initial adoption of the CC analysis in preference to the RC analysis. The strength of the bias of a specific head noun (e.g., information) to appear with a CC did not modulate these effects, nor were these effects reliably modulated by the tendency of an ambiguous string to be completed off-line as a CC or an RC. These results add to the evidence that structural principles guide the processing of filler-gap dependencies.

Sezione di Lettere, 2007

Some preliminary remarks on a 'weak' theory of linearization 1. Introduction One traditional rese... more Some preliminary remarks on a 'weak' theory of linearization 1. Introduction One traditional research topic in syntax is the question of linearization of hierarchical structures. Extensive research stemming from the seminal work by Noam Chomsky in the fifties has shown that natural languages have a hierarchical organization, but, since utterances take place in time and not instantaneously, hierarchical structures must be mapped in a linear sequence of words. Linearization can be seen as a process in which a bi-dimensional structure (as illustrated by the traditional branching trees) is conflated in a mono-dimensional one (a linear sequence). Clearly, this process is rule-governed. It is not the case that anything goes, probably because the linearized structure is the input for language acquisition, namely a child has to infer some properties of his/her own language based on a linear input. Generative grammar has systematically dealt with the question of linearization at least from the seventies, when what would get the name of X-bar theory was first elaborated. X-bar theory claims that the each phrase adheres to a universal format according to which the Head (a lexical item) can be attached to a Complement (itself a phrase). To the unit formed by Head and Complement, a further phrase, called Specifier, is attached (adjuncts can further complete the structure). According to a more or less standard version of X-bar theory, the only significant point of systematic cross-linguistic variation in phrase structure is the linear order between Head and Complement, namely languages would come in two big varieties: the [Spec [Head-Compl] ] type, illustrated by Italian and English, and the [Spec [Compl-Head] ], illustrated by Japanese and Turkish. According to this view, linear order is directly encoded in syntax and a child acquiring a language must set the value of the Head parameter for his/her target language. As for Specifiers, the question was less extensively investigated, but at least prototypical Specifiers created by a movement operation (say, Spec,CP or Spec,IP) seemed to be universally left branching, so no Spec Parameter, akin to the Head Parameter, was part of the standard syntactic toolbox 1. The picture that I have roughly summarized, which was a point of contact between generative theory and the typological tradition stemming from Greenberg's work (cf. Greenberg [1966]), 1 However, X-bar theory assumes that the basic X-bar skeleton can be enriched by the presence of other phrases that have the role of adjuncts, which can be attached more or less freely either to the left or to the right. So, some instances of rightward movement and some rightward branching structures were allowed, but, crucially, not so for canonical cases of movement (wh-movement and A movement).

Experimental brain research, Jan 16, 2015

When someone looses one type of sensory input, s/he may compensate by using the sensory informati... more When someone looses one type of sensory input, s/he may compensate by using the sensory information conveyed by other senses. To verify whether loosing a sense or two has consequences on a spared sensory modality, namely touch, and whether these consequences depend on the type of sensory loss, we investigated the effects of deafness and blindness on temporal and spatial tactile tasks in deaf, blind and deaf-blind people. Deaf and deaf-blind people performed the spatial tactile task better than the temporal one, while blind and controls showed the opposite pattern. Deaf and deaf-blind participants were impaired in temporal discrimination as compared to controls, while deaf-blind individuals outperformed blind participants in the spatial tactile task. Overall, sensory-deprived participants did not show an enhanced tactile performance. We speculate that discriminative touch is not so relevant in humans, while social touch is. Probably, more complex tactile tasks would have revealed an ...

Linguistic Variation Yearbook, 2006

In this paper, after discussing the status of the copy theory of traces in the current formulatio... more In this paper, after discussing the status of the copy theory of traces in the current formulation of the minimalist program and the evidence for the “No-Tampering” Condition from which the copy theory of traces follows, I focus on a specific case study, namely reconstruction effects concerning the head of a relative clause. The common wisdom in the literature is that reconstruction of the relative clause head can be observed by using variable binding as a diagnostic, while the diagnostic based on Condition C gives opposite results. This split has led some researchers to propose that relative clauses are structurally ambiguous, because they would receive both a raising analysis (which explains variable binding reconstruction) and a non-raising analysis (which explains the absence of Condition C reconstruction). One of the goals of this paper is showing that it is not necessary to postulate that relative clauses are structurally ambiguous. In order to do that, I first show that the d...

Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 2015

Subject intervention for A'-dependencies has been one of the most investigated topic in language ... more Subject intervention for A'-dependencies has been one of the most investigated topic in language acquisition studies and in the theory of syntax in recent years, due to the seminal paper by Friedmann, Belletti and Rizzi (2009) and subsequent work by Adriana Belletti and colleagues. Our starting point in this paper is the observation that subject intervention in A'-dependencies is observed in adult grammar as well. One well-known case is the degradation created by a preverbal subject in direct questions in several Romance varieties. The case we focus on here is free relatives. As pointed out by Greco (2013), in Italian there is a contrast between the subject free relative in (1) and the object free relative in (2), * The related article will be part of Di Domenico, E., C. Hamann and S. Matteini (eds.

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2015

The goal of this article is to explore the utility of experimental syntax techniques in the inves... more The goal of this article is to explore the utility of experimental syntax techniques in the investigation of syntactic variation. To that end, we applied the factorial definition of island effects made available by experimental syntax (e.g., Sprouse et al. 2012) to four island types (wh/whether, complex NP, subject, and adjunct), two dependency types (wh-interrogative clause dependencies and relative clause dependencies) and two languages (English and Italian). The results of 8 primary experiments suggest that there is indeed variation across dependency types, suggesting that wh-interrogative clause dependencies and relative clause dependencies cannot be identical at every level of analysis; however, the pattern of variation observed in these experiments is not exactly the pattern of variation previously reported in the literature (e.g., Rizzi 1982). We review six major syntactic approaches to the analysis island effects (Subjacency, CED, Barriers, Relativized Minimality, Structure-building, and Phases) and discuss the implications of these results for these analyses. We also present 4 supplemental experiments testing complex wh-phrases (also called D-linked or lexically restricted wh-phrases) for all four island types using the factorial design in order to tease apart the contribution of dependency type from featural specification. The results of the supplemental experiments confirm that dependency type is the major source of variation, not featural specification, while providing a concrete quantification of what exactly the effect of complex wh-phrases on island effects is.

Lingua, 2015

We analyze a hitherto undescribed case of ellipsis in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and show that i... more We analyze a hitherto undescribed case of ellipsis in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and show that it has common properties with VP ellipsis in languages like English. For example, the ellipsis site can contain a wh-trace and semantic restrictions on the type of predicate that can be omitted are only derivative. We thus propose a phonological deletion approach for the LIS construction. We also consider the issue of how the content of the ellipsis site is recovered from its linguistic antecedent. We present new arguments for a syntactic identity condition, although a limited number of mismatches between the ellipsis site and its antecedent, notably including vehicle change cases, must be accommodated.

ciscl.unisi.it

In this squib we elaborate on the proposal that perché ('whys) does not leave a trace inside... more In this squib we elaborate on the proposal that perché ('whys) does not leave a trace inside the IP and argue that this peculiarity explains the absence of free relatives introduced by 'whys as well as some order restrictions concerning reason clauses. We also discuss why ...

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2010

Although signed and speech-based languages have a similar internal organization of verbal short-t... more Although signed and speech-based languages have a similar internal organization of verbal short-term memory, sign span is lower than word span. We investigated whether this is due to the fact that signs are not suited for serial recall, as proposed by Bavelier, Newport, Hall, Supalla, and Boutla (2008. Ordered short-term memory differs in signers and speakers: Implications for models of short-term memory. Cognition, 107, 433-459). We administered a serial recall task with stimuli in Italian Sign Language to 12 deaf people, and we compared their performance with that of twelve age-, gender-, and education-matched hearing participants who performed the task in Italian. The results do not offer evidence for the hypothesis that serial order per se is a detrimental factor for deaf participants. An alternative explanation for the lower sign span based on signs being phonologically heavier than words is considered.

Linguistic Inquiry, 2011

A tenet of any version of phrase structure theory is that a lexical item can transmit its label w... more A tenet of any version of phrase structure theory is that a lexical item can transmit its label when merged with another category. We assume that if it is internally merged, a lexical item can turn a clause into a nominal phrase. If the relabeling lexical item is a wh-word, a free relative results; if it is an N, a full relative results; if it is a non-wh D, a pseudorelative results. It follows that the head of a relative construction cannot be more complex than a lexical item. We show massive evidence that when it is otherwise (e.g., the book about Obama that you bought), the modifier is late-merged after the noun has moved and relabeled the structure.

Language, 2009

The occurrence of WH-items at the right edge of the sentence, while extremely rare in spoken lang... more The occurrence of WH-items at the right edge of the sentence, while extremely rare in spoken languages, is quite common in sign languages. In particular, in sign languages like LIS (Italian Sign Language) WH-items cannot be positioned at the left edge. We argue that existing accounts of right-peripheral occurrences of WH-items are empirically inadequate and provide no clue as to why sign languages and spoken languages differ in this respect. We suggest that the occurrence of WH-items at the right edge of the sentence in sign languages be taken at face value: in these languages, WH-phrases undergo rightward movement. Based on data from LIS, we argue that this is due to the fact that WH-NONMANUAL MARKING (NMM) marks the dependency between an interrogative complementizer and the position that the WH-phrase occupies before it moves. The hypothesis that NMM can play this role also accounts for the spreading of negative NMM with LIS negative quantifiers. We discuss how our analysis can be extended to ASL (American Sign Language) and IPSL (Indo-Pakistani Sign Language). Our account is spelled out in the principlesand-parameters framework. In the last part of the article, we relate our proposal to recent work on prosody in spoken languages showing that WH-dependencies can be prosodically marked in spoken languages. Overt movement and prosodic marking of the WH-dependency do not normally cooccur in spoken languages, while they are possible in sign languages. We propose that this is due to the fact that sign languages, unlike spoken languages, are multidimensional.*

Traitement automatique des langues, 2007

Comparative correlative (henceforth CC) constructions, exemplified in (1), are widespread across ... more Comparative correlative (henceforth CC) constructions, exemplified in (1), are widespread across the languages of the world (Taylor, 2006). However, only a few studies investigate their characteristics in detail (Culicover and Jackendoff, 1999, henceforth CJ, Den Dikken, 2005). Furthermore, there is no agreement on their syntactic analysis (e.g., whether the two clauses of the CC are coordinated or subordinated), nor on their semantics (e.g., whether their meaning can be derived compositionally). Our goals are both syntactic and semantic. As for the syntax of CCs, we will show that many of the properties described by CJ and Taylor (2006) are found also in Italian Sign Language (LIS), proving that this construction share a bunch of properties across languages and across modality: surface symmetry (2a); non-acceptability in isolation (2c); ATB wh-extraction (2e); inversion of the two clauses is not meaning-preserving (2a vs 2b). On the other hand, LIS CCs have their own specific syntactic and morphological properties: the presence of a specific non manual marker (indicated in 2i); non ATB whextraction only from the second member (2f-g); comparative meaning provided either by reduplication (2a) or by intensification (2d); only "true" gradable predicates allowed in the construction (2h). We analyze CCs in LIS as genuine correlative constructions, with the first member left-adjoined to the second (notice correlatives are a standard strategy for relativization in LIS, Cecchetto et al., 2006). This makes the pattern in (2) clearly accountable for, proving that CCs in LIS are well-behaved constructions. In particular, non ATB wh extraction asymmetry is expected, since it would require wh extraction from an island. As for the semantic interpretation, our starting point is the contrast shown in (3b-c), that, as far as we know, hasn't been noticed so far. (3b) expresses a generic statement: all (relevant) events of me eating more (than a value to be specified) ended up with me gaining weight. (3c) can only be read as episodic: there was a single event of me eating more (than a value), which was correlated with my getting fatter. Since the only difference between (3b) and (3c) is the aspectual value of the verbs, adapting a suggestion from Bonomi (1997) on when-constructions, we propose that CCs create a tripartite structure (with the CC subordinate clause as restriction, and the CC matrix clause as nuclear scope). The universal quantification over events emerges with habitual interpretations (connected with imperfective aspect); while existential quantification emerges when the sentence is interpreted episodically (with perfective aspect). As for the comparison, we assume that the comparative morpheme più/more has the usual semantics of standard comparative constructions, the only difference being that the standard of comparison (the than-clause) is implicit and contextually determined. Assuming Kennedy (1999)'s claim that comparison is a diagnostics to identify gradable predicates (cf. (4)), we explain (2h) assuming that in LIS comparative morphology requires gradable predicates. Moreover, we show that our analysis assigns to CCs with imperfective aspect (habitual interpretation) the same meaning Beck (1997) attributed to CCs. However, we do this maintaining a uniform semantics for the comparative morpheme more, without stipulating that CCs have a conditional structure. Our analysis also explains the marginality of CCs when marked with the perfective aspect in Italian, a fact previously unaccounted for.