Search results for " syntax"
showing 10 items of 96 documents
Pragmatic and Informative “Wholes”: the Evolutionary Roots of the Human Language
2011
The study of the origins of language has been the interest of several ungrounded debates which have often affected its scientific plausibility. In this paper, aiming at an internally consistent interdisciplinary approach, I will adopt Botha´s “Windows Approach" (2006) in order to justify the following two assumptions concerning the evolutionary roots of human language: a) despite the uniqueness of human language in sharing and conveying utterances with an open-ended structure, some isolated components of our linguistic competence are somehow shared with non-human primates, grounding a line of evolutionary continuity; b) the evolutionary thesis which sustains that the very first “linguistic”…
Sintaxi dels clítics pronominals en català medieval
2005
In this article a classical topic of the studies on historical syntax is analysed: the enclitical or proclitical collocation of atonic pronouns in Catalan. From a Romanic and comparative prespective, it is shown that the clitical pronouns in Old Catalan have a very similar behaviour to the atonic ones in other Romanic lenguages such as, for instance, medieval Spanish or Portuguese, on one hand, and French, on the other. Specifically, we analyse phenomena such as: (i) pronoun collocation in connection to the verb in main and subordinate propositions, in propositions where the verb is the main constituent, in negative propositions, (ii) duplication of clitics or (iii) clitic raising.
Evolució de la sintaxi dels contextos de polaritat negativa en castellà i català
2007
In this paper we would like to compare the evolution of the syntax of polar contexts in Catalan and Spanish. By doing so, it would be possible to explain the greater syntactic disponibility of Catalan quantifiers and the important constraints for the same class of words in Spanish. After presenting in the first section the main theoretical questions about polarity in natural languages, we will describe in the second section the syntax of corresponding contexts in Middle Ages for both languages. Then, in the third section we will attend to the evolution towards current situation in order to understand the nature of modern differences between Catalan and Spanish on this area of their syntax.
Aportació a l'estudi de la conjunció concessiva «jatsia»
2007
Concessive connectors are the focal point of grammaticalization processes, based on several types of lexical sources. In Catalan, «jatsia» (that) is the result of a grammaticalization process based on an aspectual temporary adverb (or phase adverb), which is comparable to the process that produced «encara que». The case of «encara que» has already been studied specifically by Pérez Saldanya & Salvador (1995), while Klesper (1930), Badia (1982) and Cuenca & Massip (2005) have focused on «jatsia» (that). The interest of the study of these processes is increased in the case of «jatsia»(that) by the polymorphism it shows and by the displacement it has experimented in its use, since it has gone …
Where lol is: function and position of lol used as a discourse marker in YouTube comments
2020
Lol is probably one of the most popular words in computer-mediated communication. It is generally taken to be the acronym of “laughing out loud”, but it is not always used to indicate a humorous response; rather, it is multifunctional. Drawing on previous studies of the different functions of lol, this paper explores a possible correlation between the position and function of non-lexicalized lol in the specific context of YouTube comments. The hypothesis is that the function of lol largely depends on its position: clause-initial lol is not used with the same functions as clause-final lol. The data for the study come from the comment threads of three popular YouTube videos posted in 2017, 20…
The Interplay between Musical and Linguistic Aptitudes: A Review.
2011
According to prevailing views, brain organization is modulated by practice, e.g., during musical or linguistic training. Most recent results, using both neuropsychological tests and brain measures, revealed an intriguing connection between musical aptitude and second language linguistic abilities. A significant relationship between higher musical aptitude, better second language pronunciation skills, accurate chord discrimination ability, and more prominent sound-change-evoked brain activation in response to musical stimuli was found. Moreover, regular music practice may also have a modulatory effect on the brain’s linguistic organization and alter hemispheric functioning in those who have …
On the null-subject phenomenon: an example of successful linguistic research
2018
This chapter deals with the history on the studies on null subjects, and on the most recent approaches.
Pseudo-relatives, gerunds and infinitives in Romance: (only) superficial resemblances and structural connections
2013
L'argomento di questa monografia è un confronto tra i costrutti predicativi di tipo frasale nelle diverse varietà romanze. Mentre le pseudorelative sono diffuse pressoché in tutta la Romània, con qualche variazione parametrica minore, i gerundi predicativi e gli infiniti preposizionali sono usati solo in alcune varietà. Negli studi linguistici sull'argomento è mancata finora l'ottica comparativa, sia tra varietà diverse, sia tra costrutti predicativi diversi. Il mio lavoro si prefissa lo scopo di colmare questa lacuna, senza ignorare però i costrutti percettivi composti da un infinito semplice, che da parte della letteratura sono stati paragonati alle strutture predicative delle pseudorelat…
Spatial Cognition 2020/1: Book of abstracts : August 2-4, 2021, University of Latvia
2021
Spatial Cognition is concerned with the acquisition, development, representation, organization, and use of knowledge about spatial objects in real, virtual or hybrid environments and processed by human or artificial agents. Spatial Cognition includes research from different fields insofar as they are concerned with cognitive agents and space, such as cognitive and developmental psychology, linguistics, computer science, geography, cartography, philosophy, neuroscience, and education. Research issues in the field range from the investigation of human spatial cognition to mobile robot navigation, including topics such as wayfinding, spatial planning, spatial learning, internal and external re…
The vegetation of mining dumps in SW-Sardinia
2005
The vegetation of mining dumps of SW-Sardinia includes several endemic or rare species, that have been confined to such artificial habitats by a millennial mining activity. The extreme edaphic specialisation of these species reflects with unusual fidelity the heterogeneity of substrata, therefore creating a system of plant communities that largely contributes to the environmental diversity of this part of the island. The phytosociological study presented in this paper recognized eight associations, distinguished by the cluster analysis in two main groups, the first including hemicrypto-chamaephytic vegetation, the second including nanophanerophytic garigues. Six associations are belonging t…