The development of the syntax-information structure interface: Greek learners of Spanish (original) (raw)
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The Development of the Syntax-Information Sructure Interface: Greek Learners of Spanish
Recent acquisitional studies reveal that formal properties at the lexicon-syntax interface are in place before discursive properties at the syntax-information structure interface. It has been argued that this phenomenon results from learners' deficits with interpretable discursive features like [focus]. This study claims that the phenomenon derives from learners' deficits with the un-interpretable formal features responsible for regulating the occurrence of discursive focus, whereas learners' representation of interpretable focus features are intact. This claim was tested by conducting a study with Greek learners of non-native Spanish at three proficiency levels. Learners judged Subject-Verb and Verb-Subject order with intransitives (unergatives and unaccusatives), which is constrained both formally (Unaccusative Hypothesis at the lexicon-syntax interface) and discursively (presentational focus at the syntax-information structure interface). Results confirm that, while the general 'syntax-before-discourse' observation is correct, learners' source of persistent deficits with discursive properties derives from the uninterpretable feature that regulates the syntactic realisation of focus. This implies that learners are sensitive to the (interpretable) [focus] feature, but are unable to grammaticalise it syntactically. (1) Un niño vino / Vino un niño A boy arrived / Arrived a boy 'A boy arrived' (2) Un niño lloró / Lloró un niño A boy cried / Cried a boy 'A boy cried' One of the constraints regulating word order alternations derives from properties operating at the lexicon-syntax interface. Since Perlmutter (1978), the Unaccusative Hypothesis (UH) splits intransitive verbs into two distinct lexical classes: unaccusatives (like venir 'to come/arrive ', llegar 'to arrive', existir 'to exist', suceder 'to happen', etc) and unergatives (like llorar 'to cry', estornudar 'to sneeze', saltar 'to jump', etc). While the (agent) subject of unergatives corresponds to the notional and grammatical subject of the verb, the (theme) subject of unaccusatives corresponds to the grammatical subject but is a notional object (see Alexiadou et al. 2004, Levin & Rappaport-Hovav 1995, Mendikoetxea 2000, Sorace 2000). One of the diagnostics of UH in Spanish and Greek is the syntactic distribution of SV and VS. Given a relevant 'out-of-the-blue context' where speaker A asks a global question like ¿Qué pasó? (Spanish) / Ti ejine? (Greek) 'What happened?', the expected reply cannot contain topicalized or focused material, since, technically, the answer is an 'all focus' reply, where all the information is unknown to speaker A. In these environments, word order
The development of the syntax-information structure interface
Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 2006
Recent acquisitional studies reveal that formal properties at the lexicon-syntax interface are in place before discursive properties at the syntax-information structure interface. It has been argued that this phenomenon results from learners' deficits with interpretable discursive features like [focus]. This study claims that the phenomenon derives from learners' deficits with the un-interpretable formal features responsible for regulating the occurrence of discursive focus, whereas learners' representation of interpretable focus features are intact. This claim was tested by conducting a study with Greek learners of non-native Spanish at three proficiency levels. Learners judged Subject-Verb and Verb-Subject order with intransitives (unergatives and unaccusatives), which is constrained both formally (Unaccusative Hypothesis at the lexicon-syntax interface) and discursively (presentational focus at the syntax-information structure interface). Results confirm that, while the general 'syntax-before-discourse' observation is correct, learners' source of persistent deficits with discursive properties derives from the uninterpretable feature that regulates the syntactic realisation of focus. This implies that learners are sensitive to the (interpretable) [focus] feature, but are unable to grammaticalise it syntactically. (1) Un niño vino / Vino un niño A boy arrived / Arrived a boy 'A boy arrived' (2) Un niño lloró / Lloró un niño A boy cried / Cried a boy 'A boy cried' One of the constraints regulating word order alternations derives from properties operating at the lexicon-syntax interface. Since Perlmutter (1978), the Unaccusative Hypothesis (UH) splits intransitive verbs into two distinct lexical classes: unaccusatives (like venir 'to come/arrive ', llegar 'to arrive', existir 'to exist', suceder 'to happen', etc) and unergatives (like llorar 'to cry', estornudar 'to sneeze', saltar 'to jump', etc). While the (agent) subject of unergatives corresponds to the notional and grammatical subject of the verb, the (theme) subject of unaccusatives corresponds to the grammatical subject but is a notional object (see Alexiadou et al. 2004, Levin & Rappaport-Hovav 1995, Mendikoetxea 2000, Sorace 2000). One of the diagnostics of UH in Spanish and Greek is the syntactic distribution of SV and VS. Given a relevant 'out-of-the-blue context' where speaker A asks a global question like ¿Qué pasó? (Spanish) / Ti ejine? (Greek) 'What happened?', the expected reply cannot contain topicalized or focused material, since, technically, the answer is an 'all focus' reply, where all the information is unknown to speaker A. In these environments, word order
(Keynote talk at the Manchester Forum in Linguistics, 6-7 November 2015) While we know that information structure (topic, focus) influences the morphosyntax, we do not know how integrated the two really are. The two extreme approaches to this issue are not attractive; these are models that assume either that the two are completely independent (e.g. Chomsky 2008), or that all of information structure is represented in the syntax (e.g. Rizzi’s 1997 cartographic approach). In this talk I argue that before we can build an appropriate model of grammar, we need to look beyond the surface effects to establish which aspects of information structure are of direct influence in the grammar. I provide two case studies from Bantu languages of how this can be achieved. The first is Luganda, where I show that with a more elaborate toolbox we can specify a focus marker’s meaning as ‘exclusivity’ rather than an underspecified ‘focus’. The second is a typology of Bantu languages that on the surface have the same verbal focus alternation (conjoint/disjoint) but on closer examination turn out to be two classes: one directly determined by focus and the other only indirectly. These cases highlight the necessity to look beyond ‘what you see’ and the essential role of appropriate methodology in comparative research.
The Syntax-Pragmatics Interface of Focus Phenomena in Greek
2012
Long before I entered the Greek University I knew that I wanted to study Linguistics. While a student of the Linguistics Sector of the Greek Philology Department at the University of Athens, my passion for linguistics was strengthened by two teachers: Prof. George Babiniotis whose teaching inspired by pedagogical aspects of linguistic study and enhanced my background on general and theoretical linguistics. Prof. Dimitra Theofanopoulou-Kontou was the first person who taught me Generative Grammar and convinced me that this was the most exciting subject I had ever encountered during my university studentship.
Narrow presentational focus in heritage Spanish and the syntax-discourse interface
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
The grammars of bilinguals have been found to differ from those of monolinguals especially with regard to phenomena that involve the interface of syntax and discourse/pragmatics. This paper examines one syntax-discourse interface phenomenon—presentational focus—in the grammars of heritage speakers of Spanish. The results of a contextualized acceptability judgment task indicate that lower proficiency heritage speakers show some variability in the structures they accept to realize focus, whereas higher proficiency heritage bilinguals pattern with monolinguals. These results suggest that some explanations of domain-specific vulnerability in bilingual grammars, including the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), may need to be revised.