Information structure (Languages And Linguistics) Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Discourse Analysis, Assyriology, Anatolian Studies, Ancient Indo-European Languages

Some languages of South America that belong to the Tupi-Guarani family display a special verb form that is triggered when an adverbial element is in the left periphery (Jensen 1998; Vieira 2014). Kamaiura is one of these languages. It has a verb form labeled 'circumstantial mode' (Seki 2000, 131), which is further restricted to only occurring when the subject is third person. Previous analyses on other Tupi-Guarani languages have suggested that the fronted oblique is either the focus (Dobson 1987; Vieira 2014) or the topic (Payne 1994) of an utterance. In Kamaiura the fronted adverbials are part of the focus domain (cf. Van Valin 2005, 77), but they can also be frame setters (cf. Krifka 2007, 45) when they are not focalized. The triggers of circumstantial mode are the focus when they behave as such in tests involving question-answer pairs, association with focus, and negation (cf. Kanerva 1990, 154; Kaufmann 2005). In question-answer pairs, the fronted oblique in the answer indicates the focus since it replaces the question word. Focus sensitive particles often put the fronted oblique under their scope, indicating that the element in the left periphery is the focus. Frame setters are distinguished from focus by their position in the sentence and their function. They are fronted adjuncts to the main clause and their function is to establish a domain, such as time, and space (cf. Chafe 1994, 128), which will serve for the interpretation of the proposition that follows. The analysis presented in this paper also shows that circumstantial morphology is precluded in medial verbs that are part of a clause chain. Such constraint indicates that an adverbial element in the left periphery and a third-person subject are not enough for the oblique-fronting construction to occur. These findings point to a connection between morphology and discourse structure.

The study explores the grammatical means employed for the expression of information structure in standard colloquial Burmese on the basis of a corpus of written and spoken texts. It analyses the morphosyntactic and prosodic devices identified as relevant for its goals, namely the differential subject and object marking, constituent order, particles used to create a range of interpretations related to the notions of topic, focus and contrast, stand-alone sentence nominalisations and prosody.
The study argues for the existence of a grammatical system of informational PACKAGING in Burmese that has no direct linking to information structural categories like topic, focus and contrast. Expressed by various morphosyntactic means, it segregates information into separate informational units (PACKAGES) and establishes structural relations between them. This partition shows a robust correspondence to prosody.
The PACKAGING system is mobilised for creation of diverse information structure-related interpretive effects through its different configurations and interaction with the context. Concepts like topic, focus, contrast and apparent contrast-degrees observed in Burmese are interpretive outcomes of this interaction and have no immediate expression in the language. Furthermore, the usage of PACKAGING is not restricted to information structural effects and the system plays a crucial role in discourse structuring and content management in Burmese.
Analysis of stand-alone nominalised sentences along the lines of a speaker’s subjective channel of communication suggests the resemblance with the function of similar phenomena in many other Tibeto-Burman languages. It proposes PACKAGING motivations for this function and shows how this can be mobilised for information structure-related interpretations.
Hence, the study rejects the view of a direct expression of information structural categories by linguistic means. Instead, similarly to many other linguistic categories, it proposes an indirect interpretive link between a pragmatically-semantically underspecified grammatical system and the derived interpretation.

- by Pavel Ozerov
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- Languages and Linguistics, Pragmatics, Prosody-Semantics/Pragmatics, Linguistics

While matrix clauses pronouns are almost never dropped in matrix clauses in Russian, silent pronouns are licensed in almost all kinds of embedded clauses. Null pronouns in such positions share similarities with PRO, but they also differ from PRO in many respects. In this paper, I show that there are two kinds of environments in which such pronouns can appear. The first kind of environment includes complements of attitude verbs, where there is strong evidence for a syntactic relation between the null pronoun and its antecedent. In the second kind of environment, which includes sentential adjuncts and embedded wh-questions, the nature of this relation seems to be different. I propose that Russian possesses a minimally specified silent pronoun which is phonologically deficient and must cliticize onto a higher projection and thus can only be found in the presence of an overt complementizer. I adopt the proposed in Holmberg (2005) that a major feature of pro-drop phenomena is the valuation of the D feature of the null pronoun. I propose that in Russian the null pronoun is unable to value this feature inside the clause where it is merged and therefore needs to probe outside the clause to get the D feature valued. The difference between properties of silent pronouns in the two kinds of environments is derived from the exact mechanism by which the valuation takes place. In the case of complements of attitude verbs, the valuation takes place as a result of an agree relation, in other cases the valuation takes place via a topic-chain.

- by Philip Shushurin
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- Slavic Languages, Syntax, Control, Formal syntax

Dieser Aufsatz ist der Versuch einer Widerlegung aller Ansätze, die verschiedenste Phänomene der russischen Grammatik durch Definitheit erklären. Mit Korpusbelegen zeigt er vor allem, dass die Opposition zwischen den Wortstellungen NP–VP und VP–NP durch die Informationsstruktur bestimmt wird und die Wahl des Kasus des direkten Objekts bei Negation (Akkusativ vs. genitivus negationis) die Präsupponiertheit vs. Assertiertheit des direkten Objekts und den Skopus der Negation zum Ausdruck bringt, also nichts mit Definitheit zu tun hat, wie sie in Artikelsprachen funktioniert.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the Catalan and Spanish quotative recomplementation (QRC) in terms of pragmatic features encoded by morphosyntax. In QRC constructions, the second complementizer (que2) is used to set the boundaries between a reproduced discourse and the clausal elements that were implicit in the original discourse, which must be reintroduced in the new communicative situation because they are not shared by the interlocutor (e.g. Sp. Están sentados en la mesa --> Ha dicho que1 los invitados #(que2) están sentados en la mesa). QRC is an evidence for the existence of two types of complements for assertive verbs: quotative complements (embedded speech acts with a de dicto interpretation) and reportative complements (speech events that are stated, with a de re interpretation; e.g. Sp. Están sentados en la mesa --> Ha dicho que1 los invitados (#que2) ya están en su sitio). Quotative complements have the same propositional structure as the original sentence and can include some elements such as speech act adverbs —which are oriented to the original speaker (i.e. the matrix clause subject)—, Hanging Topics, or discourse connectors. On the contrary, reportative complements may be a summary of the original discourse and they have not such elements oriented to the original speaker or the previous discourse. Besides, reportative complements allow long-distance movement from the embedded CP to the matrix CP.

O objetivo deste artigo é descrever e apresentar uma análise tentativa para variadas construções de tópico marcado no português brasileiro, assim como situar essa gramática no contexto românico. Após breves considerações sobre a abordagem teórica que orienta o trabalho, são apresentadas quatro construções de fronteamento quanto às suas propriedades sintáticas e discursivas: a topicalização conectada, o deslocamento à direita, a topicalização pendente e o deslocamento à esquerda, e duas construções de tematização, em que objetos lógicos ou constituintes preposicionados se movem para a posição de sujeito. Os últimos tipos se distinguem dos primeiros exatamente pelo alvo do movimento, ou pela posição em que é gerado o tópico. Em seguida, apresento alguns processos de mudança diacrônica no domínio das construções de tópicos marcados que prepararam o caminho para diferenças importantes entre português brasileiro e português europeu moderno. Finalmente, ofereço algumas reflexões tipológicas sobre a natureza do português brasileiro quanto à sintaxe de constituintes tópicos. Nas conclusões indico a relevância das construções de tópico marcado para a compreensão da gramática do português brasileiro e proponho alguns caminhos para pesquisa futura.

In Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics, much has been done in reconstructing the sound system of Proto-Sino-Tibetan and in reconstructing a large number of cognate lexical items assumed to have been part of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, and there has been considerable work in terms of what morphology can or cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Sino-Tibetan, but it is much harder to say that two syntactic patterns are cognate than to say that two morphological paradigms or particular words are cognate. Within the family we find that modern Sinitic varieties vary from most of the Tibeto-Burman languages in terms of basic clause structure. In this paper we look at information structure in Old Chinese to attempt to find a directionality to the changes found in the long period we think of as Old Chinese, and to look back to the starting point of those changes to see what the clause structure of the precursor of Old Chinese might have been. As it turns out to be more similar to the dominant patterns of Tibeto-Burman languages, it allows us to hypothesize what the patterns were in Proto-Sino-Tibetan.

In present-day German, we find new word order options, particularly well-known from Turkish-German bilingual speakers in the contexts of new urban dialects, which allow violations of canonical verb-second in independent declarative clauses. In these cases, two positions are occupied in the forefield in front of the finite verb, usually by an adverbial and a subject which identify, at the level of information structure, framesetter and topic, respectively. We present a study that investigated the influence of verbal versus language-independent information-structural preferences for this linearisation, comparing Turkish-German multilingual speakers who have grown up in Germany with monolingual German and Turkish speakers. For tasks where grammatical restrictions were largely minimised, results indicate a general tendence to place verbs in a position after framesetter and topic; in addition, we found language-specific influences that distinguish Turkish-German and monolingually German speakers from monolingually Turkish ones. We interpret this as evidence for an information-structural motivation for verb-third, and for a profound dominance of German for Turkish-German speakers in Germany.

- by Mehmet Tahir Öncü and +2
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- Languages and Linguistics, Multilingualism, German Language, Linguistics

In this talk I propose a terminological revision of the terms "cleft", "pseudo cleft" and “reversed pseudo cleft” traditionally used for Spanish cleft constructions in Hispanic linguistics. Departing form the traditional classification, I propose that Spanish has three different types of cleft sentences: que-clefts (or just clefts) wh-clefts, and pseudo-clefts, which are only those cleft constructions introduced by the locution lo-que. I then address in detail the syntactic and information structure properties of lo-que clefts that justify this specific classification of clefts in Spanish. The most important results that I present are two cases in which the cleft constituent (i.e. the pivot) of Spanish pseudoclefts is composed of given, unfocused information, which does not show any contrast relation; i.e. in which it is not a focus. This provides evidence for the analyses of clefts that claim that focusing of the cleft constituent (the pivot) is not an inherent property of clefts: instead, clefts specialize in providing different partitions of the information structure of a proposition.

- by Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Bravo
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- Languages and Linguistics, Syntax, Formal syntax, Spanish Linguistics

This paper presents the process of creating an annotated partial corpus of Middle Welsh native prose. I will discuss some of the challenges I faced annotating the morpho-syntactic and information-structural features of this first historical Welsh corpus and how I addressed those. Apart from challenges, there are also promising opportunities for future research in various fields when insights from both historical morpho-syntax as well as philology are used to develop the annotation scheme. I therefore present this blueprint for adding morpho-syntactic and information-structural features to a Welsh corpus that can be used to build a fully-parsed Welsh historical treebank: an indispensable resource for (Celtic) philologists as well as any linguistics working on syntax, language typology, history and change.

Kang, Byong-Chang (HUFS) 2. Informationsstruktur und die Funktionen von (n)ŭn

Este capítulo es una introducción a la interacción entre la sintaxis y la Estructura de la Información, en específico en lo que se refiere a las nociones de tópico y foco. Cuando hablamos de interacción, nos referimos al hecho de que los diferentes niveles de la gramática muestran áreas que interactúan con otros niveles de la gramática distintos. Estas áreas, en las que dos (o más) niveles de la gramática trabajan conjuntamente, se conocen como interfaces y han sido uno de los fenómenos más estudiados en la lingüística en los últimos 25 años, desde todas las diferentes posturas teóricas y aplicadas. Así pues, en este capítulo se presenta un primer acercamiento a la interfaz entre sintaxis y Estructura de la Información.

- by Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Bravo
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- Languages and Linguistics, Syntax, Spanish Linguistics, Spanish Grammar

The conjoint/disjoint alternation is a phenomenon in Eastern and Southern Bantu languages whereby two verb forms exist with the same tense/aspect semantics, but a difference in the relation between the verb and a following element. The forms are distinguished by their morphological and phonological marking, and their clause-final distribution: the conjoint form needs to be followed by a postverbal element. The interpretational difference between the forms lies in the associated information structure: postverbal focus takes a conjoint verb form, whereas predicate-centred focus requires the disjoint verb form, although in some languages this interpretation is only indirectly encoded in the constituency. The alternation provides an insight into the interfaces of information structure with syntax, morphology, and prosody.

Many tests have been used in eliciting focus constructions and determining what type of focus a certain linguistic strategy expresses. This paper provides an overview of the various diagnostics for focus, indicating how they show the size of the focused constituent and what semantic-pragmatic type of focus is expressed. These types range from simple pragmatic focus to semantically more complex focus, signalling exclusivity or exhaustivity either as an inherent semantic part of the focus, or merely an implicature. The discussion of these diagnostics brings to light how some diagnostics are flawed, and whether the linguistic strategy tested is actually a dedicated strategy for focus at all.

- by Jenneke van der Wal
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- Research Methodology, Pragmatics, Semantics, Syntax-Semantics Interface

Los estudios translingüísticos y comparativos de las oraciones hendidas frecuentemente se encuentran con un obstáculo: el hecho de que, por una parte, las construcciones hendidas no muestran las mismas propiedades en lenguas distintas, y por otra, la terminología que se utiliza para designar los distintos tipos de construcción hendida en una determinada lengua puede usarse de manera muy diferente en los estudios sobre una lengua diferente. En este trabajo abordo precisamente este problema en relación con las construcciones a las que se refieren los términos oración “hendida”, “pseudohendida” y “pseudohendida invertida” en la lingüística hispánica. Planteo que estos términos presentan problemas para la clasificación de los distintos tipos de oraciones en cuestión, y propongo una revisión de esta terminología, basándome principalmente en el comportamiento y propiedades de las oraciones introducidas por la locución lo que. Concretamente, propongo que el español tiene tres tipos diferentes de oraciones hendidas: las oraciones hendidas-que (o solamente hendidas), las oraciones hendidas-wh (entendidas como aquellas en las que la cláusula relativa reducida de la oración hendida está introducida por un pronombre relativo), y las oraciones pseudohendidas, las que propongo son solamente aquellas en las que la cláusula relativa reducida es introducida por lo que. Propongo esta revisión terminológica a partir tanto de las propiedades sintácticas formales, como de las propiedades informativas, de las oraciones hendidas en las que se observa lo que.

- by Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Bravo
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- Languages and Linguistics, Spanish, Syntax, Spanish Linguistics

Proof copy from Speak Out 50 (Newsletter of the Pronunciation Special Interest Group of IATEFL)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the Information-Structural (IS) properties of two English constructions featuring constituents in a non-canonical, left-peripheral position: Topicalization (TOP) and Left-Dislocation (LD). Pulling several research threads together from generative and functional linguistics, it will be argued that seeing these as simple topic-marking devices is a too simplistic approach: in reality, LD marks a subtype of (non-contrastive) topics, Thematic Shifters, while TOP is used for contrastive IS categories: Contrastive Topics (C-TOPIC) and Contrastive Focus (C-FOCUS).

The paper aims to provide a comprehensive description of Hittite clause structure. The picture that emerges is quite different from both the view of Hittite clause architecture as codified in (Hoffner, Melchert 2008) and as documented in the parallel line of research (Luraghi 1990; 2012; forthcoming).
The paper focuses on two key features of Hittite clause architecture: (a) preverbal vs clause initial vs clause second positions; (b) verb’s positions in the clause, although in-depth study of these aspects involves examination of virtually every significant feature of Hittite syntax.
Preverbal position is constituted by wh-words, subordinators, negation markers, negative, indefinite and relative pronouns as well as some adverbs, only part of these constituents can alternatively be clause initial or second. Contrastive focus is normally preverbal, contrastive topic is clause initial. Two focus positions are distinguished in a Hittite clause – high (subjects and objects) and low (adverbs, adverbials). Wh-words, subordinators and relative / indefinite pronouns can also be optionally postverbal. It is significant that only lower focus can be postverbal, never high focus, even though in the canonical word order both high and low focus is preverbal. No information structure difference is detectible between the preverbal and postverbal positions.
It is shown that non-canonical positions of the verb can be described by two movements to the left from the canonical clause final position: (a) to the clause internal position which follows subject and object, both topical and focal, on the one hand, and precedes what is in the canonical word order the preverbal position5, on the other, producing V-wh/Neg/Rel, S-O-V- wh/Neg/Rel word orders; (b) to the clause leftmost position, producing V-S-O word order. *V- wh/Neg/Rel-S-O or *wh/Neg/Rel-V-S-O word orders are not attested in my ‘diplomatic’ corpus.
The last point raises an important question of sociolinguistics of the Hittite language, namely evidence for (idio)lects.

Linguists usually borrow the notion of predicate from Classical Logic in order to represent diverse kinds of relations: syntactic, semantic and sometimes even pragmatic. Yet, the definition of a predicate in formal logic departs from the language-based original one given by Plato in terms of the opposition between 'name' (onoma) and 'predicable' (rhema). As a matter of fact, the definition of the logical predicate follows the one given by Aristotle who replaced Plato's definition by the idea of "relating (terms)" for reasoning purposes. The theoretical approach we propose in order to analyze the problem of predication in linguistics is part of the Distributed Grammar program (DG) we have been developing for more than two decades. We claim that the structure of the content of linguistic utterances is built out of at least three kinds of informative tiers: besides the ortho-informative ("properly" semantic) tier of signification, we distinguish a para-informative tier of identification and the meta-informative one of predication. Hence, preselecting participants and/or spatiotemporal locations together with their respective perspectives produces para-information. In the same way, focusing attention on one, two or even three roles and/or spatiotemporal anchors of ortho-information actually produces meta-information. The theory of the Meta-Informative Centering (MIC) of utterances makes it possible to build more adequate models of predication in natural

- by André Wlodarczyk and +1
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- Predication, Information structure (Languages And Linguistics), Information Structure, Argument Structure

What is the best way to analyze spontaneous spoken language? In their search for the basic units of spoken language the authors of this volume opt for a corpus-driven approach. They share a strong conviction that prosodic structure is essential for the study of spoken discourse and each bring their own theoretical and practical experience to the table. In the first part of the book they segment spoken material from a range of different languages (Russian, Hebrew, Central Pomo (an indigenous language from California), French, Japanese, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese). In the second part of the book each author analyzes the same two spoken English samples, but looking at them from different perspectives, using different methods of analysis as reflected in their respective analyses in Part I. This approach allows for common tendencies of segmentation to emerge, both prosodic and segmental.

- by Shlomo Izre'el
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- Speech Prosody, Pragmatics, Clinical Linguistics, Syntax

This thesis investigates various aspects of phonology and grammar in Kakabe, a hitherto undescribed Mande language. The aim of the study is to provide a unified account of the segmental phonology, the tonal system and the intonational patterns of Kakabe, accompanied by a short grammatical description of the language. In offering a grammatical sketch and a thorough phonological description, this thesis increases the knowledge on little-known Mande languages. Even for those Mande languages that have been described, detailed accounts of tonal, and, especially, intonational phenomena are difficult to come by. Apart from increasing the knowledge in the domain of Mande studies, this research project is intended as a contribution to phonological theory, in particular, the typology of tonal and intonational systems. Sentence-level prosody in languages with lexical tones is a domain which has received very little attention until recently and one of the aims of the present study is to contribute to filling this gap. Finally, the analysis of the various aspects of the Kakabe pragmatics, morphology and syntax, may be of interest for the typological studies in these domains.

This paper compares the expression of information structure in the three indigenous language families of the Caucasus (West Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestanian and Kartvelian) by means of the concepts of focus, contrast, topic and givenness. I concentrated on constituent order and the use of particles, thereby largely ignoring other formal means such as intonation. When comparing all three Caucasian language families we can see a number of parallels in the way information structure is expressed.
First of all, there are obvious (and expectable) similarities in the constituent order at the clause level. All three language families show a clear preference for SOV, but other orders are, in general, possible, whereby Ubykh and Laz are more rigid than the other languages (which might be due to Turkish influence on both languages). The major focus position is preverbal, but postverbal focus is also attested and although focal items are frequently positioned in adjacency to the verb this is not a strict requirement. All three language families allow for verb-initial order for presentational focus in introductory statements of narratives.
By contrast, at the phrasal level we find a sharp difference between West Caucasian with its prenominal and postnominal modifiers as well as nominal complexes on the one hand side and Kartvelian and Nakh-Daghestanian language on the other hand side. Only the latter two families make use of postnominal modifiers for emphasis, contrast or focus, although their syntactic status as belonging to the preceding head noun and forming one NP with it is rather doubtful.
The second major parallel is the existence of cleft-like and pseudo-cleft constructions that normally express constituent focus. Although the exact syntactic nature of these constructions has been investigated only for a handful of languages and their status as genuine cleft constructions is rather doubtful, we can generalize that these constructions have a bipartite structure without necessarily being biclausal and make use of subordinate clause structures that are otherwise found in relative clauses. Cleft-like and pseudo-cleft constructions are commonly found in WH-questions, in particular in West Caucasian and a number of Nakh-Daghestanian languages (e.g. Ingush, Avar, Udi). In general, the extent of use of these constructions varies from family to family, but they seem to be most frequent in West Caucasian because they represent the default strategies for the formation of content questions.
The third similarity concerns the frequent use of enclitics and suffixes for information-structuring purposes, but also dedicated focus particles in some languages. In a great number of languages, modal markers, interrogative markers, additives, scalar-additives, discourse markers, and markers with grammatical meaning (person, tense, negation, etc.) are used as focus-sensitive particles and usually placed after the item they scope over or after the head of the phrase.

This paper presents the concepts of theme-rheme as discussed by the early Prague School and by Michael Halliday, and then, using the facts of Tagalog, argues that, unlike these two approaches, which conflate topic-comment and theme-rheme because all of the languages they looked at happened to have this configuration, we should expand the typology to allow for languages where topic (what the clause is about) and theme (defined as the speaker’s starting point) are not conflated. The latter is important because of the phenomenon known as “projection”, and it is also argued that typologists should consider the different mechanisms that speakers of different languages have conventionalized in order to help the addressee project the speaker’s intention.

In some southern and eastern Bantu languages a subset of tenses shows an alternation between the conjoint and disjoint verb form. These forms do not differ in their TAM semantics but in the relation with a possibly following element, in terms of constituency and information structure. This is, however, not a unified phenomenon. Fourteen surface parameters can be identified concerning the distribution of the forms, their forms, the tenses in which the alternation occurs, and the interpretation of verb and following element. This reveals a wealth of variation between Bantu languages but also identifies some core properties of the alternation.

Biblical Hebrew (BH) poetry poses unique challenges to translators and exegetes because of its often complex textual development, its defamiliarized mode of communication, and its understudied relationship to its co-text. While a comprehensive analysis is welcomed for any discourse type, the unique challenges of BH poetry call for a holistic approach that marshals insights from the extra-linguistic setting, co-text, and multifaceted discourse features. The method of discourse analysis proposed by Wendland (1994) seems to provide a helpful framework for such investigation. Applying this approach to Psalm 70—a short, but incredibly multifaceted text—reveals the value of this sort of comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis. Additionally, following the application of Lambrecht’s (1994) theory of information structure (IS) to BH by Van der Merwe et al. (forthcoming), I propose that the Psalms may use parallel word order variation patterns beyond their IS purposes to create coherence relations at the discourse level.

The aim of this contribution is twofold: first, to describe the link between information structure and the discourse functions of Italian and English Cleft sentences; second, to examine the specific functions displayed by Cleft sentences within journalistic texts in Italian and English. Both goals will be achieved through a corpus-based inquiry. One of the main issues in pursuing a contrastive pragmatic study of clefts is that it relies on an accurate model of information structure. My proposal is based on two distinct but interacting criteria: referential givenness and focus / background, which will be used to identify several types of clefts according to their different information properties. In addition to a qualitative analysis, I will provide quantitative data to show the distribution of different types of clefts in the two languages. Referring to quantitative data while discussing the functions of Cleft sentences, I will also reveal similarities and differences between Italian and English.

- by Davide Garassino
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- Pragmatics, Applied Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Quantitative Methods
- by oscar loureda
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- Pragmatics, Discourse Markers, Corpus Linguistics, Eye Tracking (in reading)

in the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, I'd like to thank Eibhlín Nic Dhonncha for her help and cheerfulness. I am indebted to Julie Stevens for her proof reading and dialogue. Tal Kaplinsky's coaching during this last year has been crucial and has given me tools for life. The writing of this dissertation spanned over seven years in which I went through major life changes. I was lucky to have good friends and colleagues around me. I'd especially like to thank Tali Herman, Shlomit Warshavsky, Adi Navon, Tirza Arav, Michal Shaty-Weissblau, Neta Goder, Inbal Nachum, Hagit Kimchi, Dorreen Nothnagel, Michal Peleg Alboher, Noa Rave, Ilona Spector-Shirz and Ya'ala Cohen. I've been fortunate to have my "Irish family" -Malachy McKenna and Gili Diamant. Thank you Gili for many conversations on all matters Irish and for always being so sensible. To Malachy for an endless conversation about Irish, colours and life, be it in Blackrock, Rann na Feirste, Stockholm, Helsinki or Glasgow, as well as for reading and commenting on some of my drafts. The most vital component of writing the dissertation has been my 'white table havruta' -Tally Shitrit and Efrat Miller. I can't imagine going through this PhD without mutual feedback and our discussions on anything academic and nonacademic. I am indebted to my parents, Yehudit and Eli Eshel, for always being so supportive and generous and for always having literature in my life.

- by Orit Eshel
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- Semiotics, Irish (early and modern), Irish Literature, Narrative

This dissertation explores Information Structure in two sign languages: Sign Language of the Netherlands and Russian Sign Language. Based on corpus data and elicitation tasks we show how topic and focus are expressed in these languages. In particular, we show that topics can be marked syntactically and prosodically (including non-manual markers) in both languages, although some differences between the languages are also found. We also conclude that these languages are not topic prominent. As for focus, certain syntactic and prosodic (manual and non-manual) markers can be used to mark it in both languages, although some quantitative differences between the languages can be found. In addition, we analyze two mechanism previously linked to Information Structure expression in other sign languages, namely doubling and weak hand holds. Doubling in both languages can be used to express focus, emphasis, and foregrounding. Weak hand holds are used in a variety of functions, some of which are related to topicality. We discuss the similarities and differences between the languages in the domain of Information Structure, as well as typological implications of our findings. In addition, we assess the effects of the visual modality on expression of Information Structure.

This dissertation investigates the semantics of each tense and aspect in Xhosa. Since tense and aspect perform important pragmatic functions, the analysis takes into account the correlation between the verb and the wider discourse in... more

Jenni (2007) and Kroeze (2008) have explained the variational use of the particle את in Classical Biblical Hebrew on the basis of the semantic and pragmatic properties of verbal arguments. Malessa (2006), on the other hand, has observed a correlation between the use of את and word order. Malessa’s word order parameter poses a problem for theories that relate the use of את to the properties of individual constituents. Widening the scope to the grammatical properties of the sentence, I will take information structure theory (Lambrecht 1994; Erteschik-Shir 2007) as a starting point to account for the use of את. The use and non-use of את with subjects and direct objects will be shown to be motivated by both word order and the specific pragmatic structure of the sentence.

Prominence is marking of particular syllables as salient in English speech. This marking is accomplished by the pitch, duration and intensity of the voice, and is multi-functional in English. Prominence is the target of increasing research both in regard to its form and its functions Prominence is also one of the most commonly taught suprasegmental features included in published pronunciation materials, and it is uniformly seen by pronunciation researchers as critical to intelligibility. The linguistic and pedagogical research on prominence, however, has diverged, and very little theoretical research is reflected in pronunciation teaching materials. This paper examines what current research shows about the form and functions of prominence in English, describes how prominence is represented in teaching materials, and suggests areas of current research that can profitably be applied to teaching materials.

- by John Levis and +1
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- Speech Prosody, Intonation, Information structure (Languages And Linguistics), Information Structure

A partir de un corpus de datos espontáneos analizados en su contexto de uso, en este trabajo se examinan las motivaciones funcionales que subyacen al uso de la pasiva con ser en español. Se argumenta que las hipótesis tradicionales, en términos de la desfocalización del agente y/o la topicalización del paciente, no capturan los datos con la regularidad necesaria, ni permiten describir la especificidad de la pasiva frente a las construcciones alternativas presentes en el sistema. Se propone, en cambio, que la pasiva sirve fundamentalmente para "desanclar" al objeto sintáctico de la posición de asignación de foco informativo, típicamente para crear un "espacio focal vacante" que permita introducir otro constituyente con valor focal, ya sea el agente u otro tipo de oblicuo. Creemos que esta perspectiva permite explicar por qué, en el uso, (i) el espacio postverbal está típicamente ocupado, (ii) no está ocupado por más de un constituyente, (iii) son marginales las pasivas "mínimas" y (iv), a diferencia de otros sujetos intransitivos, el sujeto pasivo evita la posición postverbal. Palabras clave: Pasivas, topicalización, focalización, estructura informativa, lingüística basada en el uso. Abstract This study examines the functional motivations behind the use of periphrastic ser passives in Spanish, based on a corpus of spontaneous data analyzed in their context of occurrence. It is argued that traditional hypotheses in terms of agent-defocusing and/or patient-topicalizing, do not capture usage data with the expected regularity, nor allow for describing the functional specificity of passives vs. alternative constructions. Instead, it is proposed that passives serve basically to "unanchor" the syntactic object from the position of assignment of information focus, in order to create a "vacant focal space" typically with the purpose of introducing another focal element, be it the agent or some other oblique. We propose that this perspective explains why, in natural discourse, (i) the postverbal space is typically occupied, (ii) it is not occupied by more than one constituent, (iii) "minimal" passives are marginal, and (iv), differently from other intransitive subjects, passive subjects do not occur postverbally.

- by Valeria A Belloro
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- Languages and Linguistics, Spanish, Corpus Linguistics, Spanish Linguistics

Given the fact that subjecthood is not marked in Romanian by placement in a dedicated preverbal position, Romanian has been described as a VSO language in generative studies. From this perspective, the frequency of SV orders is somehow unexpected. I present the pragmatic and structural conditions on subject placement in Romanian and discuss an account which derives the (un)acceptability of the various possible orders based on the idea of a multifunctional position in the preverbal field, which is always present and is used for informational-structural purposes but can also be filled by raising the closest argument. I present evidence that preverbal subjects which are neither topics nor foci do exist in Romanian. I identify certain environments where such subjects are disallowed and propose a prosody-based account for the observed restrictions. I compare the multifunctional position account with other possible analyses, concluding that there are two other accounts which can cover the data: one based on distinct peripheral heads associated with an EPP-feature, and one that replaces the EPP-feature by a pragmatic principle. Finally, I argue that the observed facts are compatible with a view of Romanian as a topic-oriented language.

A summary about different analyses of Focus constructions in Hausa

Questo volume si propone di fare chiarezza su una delle nozioni chiave della struttura della frase e del testo cinese, ossia quella di ‘tema’. In primo luogo, fornisce un’introduzione teorica delle funzioni che il tema svolge a livello interlinguistico, in riferimento a concetti quali quello di status e flus- so informativo, focus e dinamismo comunicativo, coreferenza e coesione testuale, con rimandi alla letteratura scientifica di riferimento. In secondo luogo, mira a illustrare l’importanza del tema nella grammatica del cinese moderno standard, ai fini di una più precisa analisi della frase e del testo. Le caratteristiche e le funzioni del tema sono descritte sia nell’ambito della struttura della frase semplice e complessa, dove funge principalmente da cornice interpretativa per l’enunciato che segue, sia nella dimensione più ampia del discorso, dove assicura coerenza e coesione testuale attraverso, ad esempio, le catene tematiche. La trattazione si avvale di una prospettiva comparativa: nozioni, strutture e funzioni comunicative sono illustrate ponendo in confronto il cinese e l’italiano – e laddove utile anche l’inglese – in un’ottica applicata alla didat- tica del cinese come seconda lingua, nello specifico verso discenti italofoni. È dunque un volume particolarmente utile per comprendere le motivazi- oni di errori di organizzazione frasale e testuale in contesti comunicativi che richiedono, ad esempio, topicalizzazione di elementi dati che ancorano l’enunciato al relativo co(n)testo, uso di strutture esistenziali o partitive/ possessive, strutture contrastive parallele, coreferenza espressa attraverso anafore zero o, ancora, coesione testuale realizzata a mezzo di catene tem- atiche. Gli esempi discussi in questo libro, con poche eccezioni e quando non citati dalla letteratura scientifica, sono stati accuratamente selezionati da corpora, libri, riviste e testi specialistici.

1 GİRİŞ Bürün ve sözdizim etkileşimi alanındaki çalışmalar sözdizimsel öbeklerin akıcı konuşma sırasında bürün yapısında öbeklenmelere yol açtığı ve çeşitli sözdizimsel ilişkilerin oluşan bürün öbeklenmelerinin ve tümcenin bürünsel yapısındaki diğer özelliklerin karşılaştırmalı incelenerek ortaya çıkarılabileceği varsayımları üzerine kurulmuştur. 1 Buna göre, tonlamada gözlemlenen alçalmalar ve yükselmeler, perde vurgusundaki değişimler, duraklama, öbek sonundaki seslem uzunluğundaki farklılıklar, sınır tonlamaları ve benzeri parçasal ve parçalarüstü sesbilim olayları bize bürünsel öbeklenmeler hakkında ipuçları verir. Bürün ve sözdizim arakesiti bağlamında ölçülebilen bürünsel öbeklenmeler soyut sözdizimsel yapının somut bir yansıması olarak görülür. Bu açıdan, bürün çalışmaları tümcelerin derin yapıdaki düzenlenişlerini anlamada bize rehber olur. Chomsky ve Halle (1968) ve Selkirk (1972) gibi öncü çalışmalardan itibaren genel görüş, tümcelerin (ve tümceleri oluşturan birimlerin) bürün yapısındaki öbekleşme örüntülerinin sözdizimin etkisiyle oluştuğudur. Buna göre, bir tümcenin bürünsel örüntüsü, o tümcenin sözdizimsel düzenini yansıtmaktadır. Arakesit çalışmalarının amaçlarından biri, bu yansımanın sözdizimsel yapıyı ne doğrulukta yansıttığını saptamak ve eğer bürünsel yapı ve sözdizimsel yapı arasında uyuşmazlıklar varsa, bu uyuşmazlıkların kaynağını bulup bürün yapısının oluşumunda etkili olan sözdizimsel etkilerden ayrıştırılmasını sağlamaktır. Bu bölüm, Türkçenin bildirim tümcelerinde gözlemlenen bürün yapısının temel özelliklerini sunduktan sonra, bürün-sözdizim arakesiti alanında öne çıkan sözdizimsel ilişkileri ve yapıları bürünsel özellikleriyle birlikte tartışmaktadır. Bu tartışma gösterecektir ki, 1 Konuşma dillerine ek olarak işaret dillerinde de bürünsel yapılanmadan bahsedebiliriz (bkz. Sandler, 2011). Bu bölüm konuşma dilindeki bildirim tümcelerinin bürün yapısını kapsamaktadır.

Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Burmese is usually analysed as directly related to the expression of information structure. Yet, this corpus-based study of DOM and the associated prosody finds that DOM is not based on information structure alone, but is also additionally motivated by discourse structure and content management.
The suggested analysis proposes that DOM in Burmese provides a grammatical structure of information PACKAGING: a system of separating information into units (PACKAGES) and establishing relations between them. Different configurations of PACKAGING are employed to create an array of context-dependent interpretive effects related to information structure, discourse structure and other factors. Hence, it is argued that information structure is not directly expressed in the language. Instead, it stems from an interpretation of the interplay between information PACKAGING and various pragmatic-semantic factors, and is but one of the possible effects created by PACKAGING.

- by Pavel Ozerov
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- Languages and Linguistics, Pragmatics, Prosody-Syntax, Prosody-Semantics/Pragmatics

It has been repeatedly proposed in one way or another that there are intriguing similarities between wa-marked topic NPs in Japanese and ang-marked topic (or nominative) NPs in Tagalog and other Philippine languages (Shibatani 1988, 1991, Katagiri 2004, 2006). The key observation here is that Tagalog ang-marked topic NPs are not allowed in exclamative, meteorological, or existential constructions, where it is also not possible to use Japanese wa-marked topic NPs. More recently, Santiago (2013) proposed that the distribution of topic NPs in Tagalog can be accounted for in terms of the thetic/ categorical distinction (Kuroda 1972). In this paper, I carry out a contrastive analysis of Tagalog topic NPs and Japanese topic NPs and challenge this hypothesis about the parallelism between Tagalog and Japanese. By reexamining the data already discussed in the literature and introducing additional sets of facts, it will be shown that: in Tagalog (i) non-topic-marking in allegedly thetic constructions can be explained by means of language-particular factors such as historical sources, (ii) topic NPs can appear in thetic sentences, and (iii) topic-marking is optional in some categorical sentences. Taken together, the above mentioned similarities between Tagalog and Japanese are shown to be superficial and coincidental. The contrast between thetic and categorical judgments realized in Japanese is not a good predictor of the occurrence or non-occurrence of topic NPs in Tagalog.*

Following (Huggard 2011) Hittite does attest wh-in-situ in that there is no obligatory wh-movement to the specifier of the highest CP projection. However, pace (Huggard 2011), Hittite wh-in situ does not involve wh-phrases in the base-generated position. It is syntactic movement out of vP to a low position within the CP layer. Wh-words merge in the same position as focus (Spec,FocP) and then optionally scramble further on to Spec,ForceP. Relative pronouns, bare existential quantifiers and subordinators merge in Spec,QP and then scramble optionally to Spec,TopP or Spec,ForceP. The feature that wh-words satiate in Spec,FocP is +focus and the feature that relative pronouns satiate in Spec,QP is +quantifier.

There are two basic focus constructions, as has been shown by Matić 2003: the narrow focus construction, first identified by Dik 1995, and the broad focus construction. As you can see on your handout ( §H1), in the narrow focus construction, that is when only one constituent is in the focus, this focus constituent is placed immediately before the verb. In the broad focus construction, the verb, optionally followed by one or more other focal constituents, builds up a focus domain. I must emphasize at this point that this focus domain, as a formal construction, is 2.3.1 Narrow focus expressions and presupposed verb