6,262 research outputs found
Lexicalised Locality: Local Domains and Non-Local Dependencies in a Lexicalised Tree Adjoining Grammar
Get PDFContemporary generative grammar assumes that syntactic structure is best described in terms of sets, and that locality conditions, as well as cross-linguistic variation, is determined at the level of designated functional heads. Syntactic operations (merge, MERGE, etc.) build a structure by deriving sets from lexical atoms and recursively (and monotonically) yielding sets of sets. Additional restrictions over the format of structural descriptions limit the number of elements involved in each operation to two at each derivational step, a head and a non-head. In this paper, we will explore an alternative direction for minimalist inquiry based on previous work, e.g., Frank (2002, 2006), albeit under novel assumptions. We propose a view of syntactic structure as a specification of relations in graphs, which correspond to the extended projection of lexical heads; these are elementary trees in Tree Adjoining Grammars. We present empirical motivation for a lexicalised approach to structure building, where the units of the grammar are elementary trees. Our proposal will be based on cross-linguistic evidence; we will consider the structure of elementary trees in Spanish, English and German. We will also explore the consequences of assuming that nodes in elementary trees are addresses for purposes of tree composition operations, substitution and adjunction
Dependencias (anti-)locales en latín: Un estudio radicalmente minimalista
Get PDFEl presente trabajo pretende continuar la línea general inaugurada por Krivochen y Luder (2012) en el desarrollo de herramientas formales para el estudio de las lenguas clásicas, en particular la lengua latina. Tales herramientas, desarrolladas a partir de métodos axiomático-formales, son puestas a prueba con los datos concretos y nos ayudan a comprender mejor no solamente el funcionamiento de una lengua como sistema sino el sustrato cognitivo-biológico que posibilita el desarrollo de tal sistema. Nuestro foco en este trabajo será la noción de "localidad" en las derivaciones sintácticas, que ha sido el centro de gran parte de los estudios de orientación chomskyana durante la última década. Basándonos en problemas concretos que aparecen en la consideración de ejemplos atestiguados en los textos, proporcionaremos una explicación alternativa a la ortodoxia chomskyana. El objetivo es proveer al lector de una serie de herramientas teóricas explícitas que pueda utilizar en el análisis de la localidad en la lengua latinaThe present contribution pretends to build on the line of Krivochen and Luder (2012) in the development of formal tools for the study of classical languages, particularly Latin. Such tools, stemming from axiomatic-formal systems, are put to test with concrete data, and help us achieve a better understanding not only of language taken as a system, but also the biological-cognitive substratum that underlies such system. Our focus in this paper will be set on the notion of "locality" in syntactic derivations, which has been the object of most Chomskyan-related studies during the last decade. Departing from concrete problems that appear in attested data, we will attempt an explanation of locality alternative to Chomskyan orthodoxy. The aim is to provide the reader with fully explicit theoretical tools that they can use more generally in the analysis of locality phenomena in LatinFil: Krivochen, Diego Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Report on design of new teaching methods and remediation tools for dyslexia
Get PDFThe aim of this work is to provide a review of the remediation therapies that can be used in the rehabilitation of developmental dyslexia; a special emphasis is put on morphological instruction as a promising strategy for compensating the phonological deficits exhibited by dyslexic children, both monolinguals and bilinguals, and enhancing their literacy skills. We will begin our discussion by presenting an overview of developmental dyslexia, discussing its manifestations and its relationships with other developmental disorders, and in particular with Specific Language Impairment. We will then present the results of the studies that we carried out within the European Project AThEME, which confirm the presence of a morphological deficit in dyslexic children, but also point to an advantage in morphological tasks of bilingual children, both dyslexics and typically developing, over their monolingual peers. On the basis of these results, we propose that morphological training could be a viable and effective strategy for the treatment of reading difficulties in both monolingual and bilingual children. We will back this proposal up by presenting the results of three meta- analyses, for a total of 46 studies reviewed, confirming that morphological treatment can lead to enhancements in reading, spelling and literacy-related skills, including phonological and morphological competence, vocabulary development and reading comprehension
Dependencias (anti-)locales en latín: un estudio radicalmente minimalista
Get PDFEl presente trabajo pretende continuar la línea general inaugurada por Krivochen y Luder (2012) en el desarrollo de herramientas formales para el estudio de las lenguas clásicas, en particular la lengua latina. Tales herramientas, desarrolladas a partir de métodos axiomático-formales, son puestas a prueba con los datos concretos y nos ayudan a comprender mejor no solamente el funcionamiento de una lengua como sistema sino el sustrato cognitivo-biológico que posibilita el desarrollo de tal sistema. Nuestro foco en este trabajo será la noción de “localidad” en las derivaciones sintácticas, que ha sido el centro de gran parte de los estudios de orientación chomskyana durante la última década. Basándonos en problemas concretos que aparecen en la consideración de ejemplos atestiguados en los textos, proporcionaremos una explicación alternativa a la ortodoxia chomskyana. El objetivo es proveer al lector de una serie de herramientas teóricas explícitas que pueda utilizar en el análisis de la localidad en la lengua latina.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació
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Disentangling sequential from hierarchical learning in artificial grammar learning: evidence from a modified Simon task
Get PDFIn this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigating implicit learning in a group of school-aged children. We administered a serial reaction time task, in the form of a modified Simon Task in which the stimuli were organised following the rules of two distinct artificial grammars, specifically Lindenmayer systems: the Fibonacci grammar (Fib) and the Skip grammar (a modification of the former). The choice of grammars is determined by the goal of this study, which is to investigate how sensitivity to structure emerges in the course of exposure to an input whose surface transitional properties (by hypothesis) bootstrap structure. The studies conducted to date have been mainly designed to investigate low-level superficial regularities, learnable in purely statistical terms, whereas hierarchical learning has not been effectively investigated yet. The possibility to directly pinpoint the interplay between sequential and hierarchical learning is instead at the core of our study: we presented children with two grammars, Fib and Skip, which share the same transitional regularities, thus providing identical opportunities for sequential learning, while crucially differing in their hierarchical structure. More particularly, there are specific points in the sequence (k-points), which, despite giving rise to the same transitional regularities in the two grammars, support hierarchical reconstruction in Fib but not in Skip. In our protocol, children were simply asked to perform a traditional Simon Task, and they were completely unaware of the real purposes of the task. Results indicate that sequential learning occurred in both grammars, as shown by the decrease in reaction times throughout the task, while differences were found in the sensitivity to k-points: these, we contend, play a role in hierarchical reconstruction in Fib, whereas they are devoid of structural significance in Skip. More particularly, we found that children were faster in correspondence to k-points in sequences produced by Fib, thus providing an entirely new kind of evidence for the hypothesis that implicit learning involves an early activation of strategies of hierarchical reconstruction, based on a straightforward interplay with the statistically-based computation of transitional regularities on the sequences of symbols
On coordination and clitic climbing in Spanish auxiliary verb constructions
Get PDFIn this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing in Spanish sentences with auxiliary verbs. We aim at shedding light on three kinds of structures, or ‘scenarios’: (1) those in which we find coordinated auxiliaries taking a single lexical verb as complement (Puede y debe hacerlo); (2) those in which a single auxiliary takes coordinated lexical verbs as complement (estás molestándonos y mirándonos), and (3) those in which coordinated auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross, John Robert. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Cambridge: MIT disertation, can account for the facts without the need for ad hoc machinery
The Scripps Family\u27s San Diego Experiment
No full textMolly McClain is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of San Diego and co-editor of The Journal of San Diego History. She is the author of “The Bishop’s School, 1909-2009,” in the Fall 2008 issue of this Journal. This article forms part of a forthcoming biography of Ellen Browning Scripps. Special thanks to Judy Harvey Sahak, Dorran Boyle, Colin Fisher, Scripps College, the La Jolla Historical Society, and the San Diego History Center
Some thoughts on language diversity, UG and the importance of language typology scrambling and non-monotonic merge of adjuncts and specifiers in Czech and German
No full textThe following article is concerned with the problem of language diversity within the framework of Radical Minimalism (Krivochen 2011, 2012). How can the diversity and variation of languages be explained? For Noam Chomsky, language faculty in the narrow sense (FLN) is nothing but an "organ of the body,' along with other cognitive systems. Our analysis of human language builds on Chomsky's (1995, 2005, 2010) minimalist assumption that the design of language is grounded in conceptual necessity. Adopting this idea, we expect to find three factors that interact to determine (I-) languages attained: genetic endowment (the topic of Universal Grammar), experience, and principles that are language- or even organism-independent." (Chomsky 2005:1). In the present article we provide some ideas about how generative research based on Radical Minimalism can contribute on a par with the typology of languages to a more profound and sound exploration of language variation. The scope of the paper is to compare the distribution of adverbs within the three domains of the clause in Czech and German. The aim of this paper is to show that the feature-based theory of adverb licensing is not able to handle the problem of adverb order variation. Instead, a more parsimonious approach based on the Theory of Radical Minimalism will be chosen. The paper is organized as follows: After some remarks on the role of Universal Grammar, Variation and Typology in section 1, section 2 introduces the theoretical background by introducing the principles and the core of Radical Minimalism, e.g. free unbounded merge, asymmetric c-command and the restrictions within the clause structure composition. In section 3, the distribution of adverbs in the middle field is discussed for Czech and German. In the last part, we introduce the so-called Late Adjunction Hypothesis that results in similar effects to the Early Spell-Out model argued for in our paper
The San Diego River: A Natural, Historic, and Recreational Resource
Get PDFThe purpose of this Article is to briefly consider the historical importance of the San Diego River, to examine the water quality challenges impacting the River today, and to analyze the principal regulatory programs administered by the Regional Board to meet these challenges. The author\u27s premise is that the water quality of the River is essential to its functional integrity and future
On intensive endophoric devices in English
Get PDFThis paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric device (AD) in English, instantiated by Prn+SELF lexical items (himself/herself/itself…; ‘SELF’ henceforth), which do not behave like anaphors in the sense of Binding Theory either syntactically or semantically. These devices have received the name of intensives in the grammatical literature (Leskosky 1972; Siemund 2000, among many others). We will look at the syntactic behaviour of so-called intensives in different syntactic contexts, and refine the classification of these ADs taking into consideration (a) how each type of intensive is derived, (b) the kinds of syntactic rules that can affect them, and (c) their meaning
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