On Left and Right Dislocation: A Dynamic Perspective

The paper argues that by modelling the incremental and left-right process of interpretation as a process of growth of logical form (representing logical forms as trees), an integrated typology of left-dislocation and right-dislocation phenomena becomes available, bringing out not merely the similarities between these types of phenomena, but also their asymmetry. The data covered include hanging topic left dislocation, clitic left dislocation, left dislocation, pronoun doubling, expletives, extraposition, and right node raising, with each set of data analysed in terms of general principles of tree growth. In the light of the success in providing a characterisation of the asymmetry between left and right periphery phenomena, a result not achieved in more wellknown formalisms, the paper concludes that grammar formalisms should model the dynamics of language processing in time.Articl

Statistical Parsing by Machine Learning from a Classical Arabic Treebank

Research into statistical parsing for English has enjoyed over a decade of successful results. However, adapting these models to other languages has met with difficulties. Previous comparative work has shown that Modern Arabic is one of the most difficult languages to parse due to rich morphology and free word order. Classical Arabic is the ancient form of Arabic, and is understudied in computational linguistics, relative to its worldwide reach as the language of the Quran. The thesis is based on seven publications that make significant contributions to knowledge relating to annotating and parsing Classical Arabic. Classical Arabic has been studied in depth by grammarians for over a thousand years using a traditional grammar known as i’rāb (إعغاة ). Using this grammar to develop a representation for parsing is challenging, as it describes syntax using a hybrid of phrase-structure and dependency relations. This work aims to advance the state-of-the-art for hybrid parsing by introducing a formal representation for annotation and a resource for machine learning. The main contributions are the first treebank for Classical Arabic and the first statistical dependency-based parser in any language for ellipsis, dropped pronouns and hybrid representations. A central argument of this thesis is that using a hybrid representation closely aligned to traditional grammar leads to improved parsing for Arabic. To test this hypothesis, two approaches are compared. As a reference, a pure dependency parser is adapted using graph transformations, resulting in an 87.47% F1-score. This is compared to an integrated parsing model with an F1-score of 89.03%, demonstrating that joint dependency-constituency parsing is better suited to Classical Arabic. The Quran was chosen for annotation as a large body of work exists providing detailed syntactic analysis. Volunteer crowdsourcing is used for annotation in combination with expert supervision. A practical result of the annotation effort is the corpus website: http://corpus.quran.com, an educational resource with over two million users per year

Slaganje s bližom imenicom u koordiniranom postverbalnom subjektu u bosanskom/hrvatskom/srpskom jeziku: eksperimentalna studija

In some previous experimental work on agreement strategies in South Slavic languages, it was demonstrated that the closest conjunct agreement (CCA) is the only available strategy for agreement with conjoined noun phrases in postverbal contexts. However, the examples that are claimed to be a result of CCA could potentially be analyzed as a clausal ellipsis (CE). Th e CE analysis was argued for by Aoun, Benmamoun and Sportiche (1994). In their approach based on examples from three dialects of Arabic, the postverbal linear agreement was claimed to be a result of CE, not of CCA. Th us, they predicted the semantic independence of two coordinated events. However, this claim is diffi cult to defend if a specifi c type of predicates is taken into account – the so–called collective predicates. Th erefore, we designed a sentence–picture matching experiment with collective verbs and postverbal subjects with speakers of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) to test whether the postverbal linear agreement was a result of phrasal coordination or CE. Th e study managed to show that CCA is not a result of CE, but a distinct agreement strategy.U nekim ranijim radovima o strategijama slaganja predikata s koordiniranim subjektom (vidi Marušič et al. 2015, Willer–Gold et al. 2016, Čordalija et al. 2016), ustanovljeno je da slaganje predikata s bližom imenicom u koordiniranom subjektu jest jedina moguća strategija slaganja kada subjekt slijedi iza predikata. Međutim, primjeri za koje se tvrdi da su rezultat slaganja predikata s bližom imenicom u takvim kontekstima mogli bi se potencijalno analizirati i kao rezultat rečenične elipse. Upravo takvu analizu zagovaraju Aoun, Benmamoun i Sportiche (1994). Njihov pristup se zasniva na primjerima iz triju dijalekata arapskog jezika te utvrđuju da je linearno slaganje u kontekstima s postverbalnim subjektom rezultat rečenične elipse, a ne slaganja predikata s bližom imenicom. Prema tome, oni predviđaju semantičku nezavisnost dva koordinirana događaja. Međutim, Munn (1999) ukazuje kako je ovu tvrdnju teško obraniti ako se uzme u obzir specifi čan tip predikata, tzv. zbirni predikat. Zbog toga smo dizajnirali eksperiment u kojem smo tražili od izvornih govornika bosanskog/hrvatskog/srpskog jezika da ocijene u kolikoj mjeri rečenice sa zbirnim glagolima koje prethode koordiniranom subjektu odgovaraju pratećem crtežu koji predstavlja događaj ili situaciju koju rečenica izražava. Rezultati eksperimenta pokazuju da primjeri slaganja predikata s koordiniranim subjektom nisu rezultat rečenične elipse, već zasebna strategija slaganja – slaganje s bližom imenicom. Budući da eksperiment nije pokazao značajnu razliku u prihvatljivosti između rečenica koje sadržavaju koordinirani subjekt i prosti nekoordinirani subjekt sa zbirnim glagolima, zaključili smo da rečenice s koordiniranim subjektom i zbirnim predikatom (glagoli poput sudarati se) nisu derivirani pomoću rečenične elipse. U protivnom, takve rečenice bile bi rangirane po prihvatljivosti znatno niže od svih drugih zbog toga što bi crtež koji ide uz takve rečenice bio nekompatibilan s interpretacijom koja podrazumijeva dva događaja. Takva interpretacija bila bi neizbježna ukoliko bi se takve rečenice u dubinskoj strukturi sastojale od dviju koordiniranih rečenica

Is there structure at the ellipsis site? evidence from Saudi Arabic sluicing

This thesis reports on the results of eight acceptability judgment experiments on Saudi Arabic elliptical questions (sluicing). These results are presented in two sections. The first section reports on the results of four experiments on sluicing with prepositional phrases in Saudi Arabic. I show that, in standard cases of merger-type sluicing and contrastive sluicing, where the antecedent is a PP, there is no penalty for leaving out the preposition in the wh-remnant. I refer to such examples as OPUS. The findings reveal that the status of the examples depends on the status of the most acceptable synonymous source within the ellipsis site; in particular, when neither a cleft structure nor a resumptive structure is grammatically available at the ellipsis site, the acceptability of OPUS decays. I interpret this as evidence that there is syntactic structure at the ellipsis site and that the wh-remnant in these elliptical questions can – and sometimes must – relate to a resumptive pronoun at the ellipsis site. The second section reports on the results of four experiments on sluicing with degree phrases in Saudi Arabic. I show that, in standard cases of merger-type sluicing, there is a penalty for the lack of a syntactically isomorphic structure within the ellipsis site. The findings reveal that the status of examples depends on the availability of a syntactically isomorphic structure at the ellipsis site; in particular, when only a semantically identical structure is acceptable in Saudi Arabic, the acceptability of sluicing decays. Overall, the results of the eight experiments suggest that sluicing in Saudi Arabic presents evidence that there is a silent structure at the ellipsis site, which is syntactically isomorphic to the antecedent. In cases in which no syntactically isomorphic pre-sluice is grammatical in Saudi Arabic, the acceptability of sluicing decays

A STUDY OF COHESION AS A TEXT-FORMING RESOURCE IN THE ACADEMIC WRITING OF SAUDI UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL)

Assuming academic writing as a genre-specific discourse which is linguistically and socio-culturally embedded both in the wider academic discourse community and the local context where it is produced, the present study sought to investigate Saudi EFL undergraduate students' use of cohesive devices as a text-forming resource in the creation of argumentative essays. More specifically, the study attempted to explain the use of cohesion in the creation of texture, and in the rhetorical structure of the sample texts. Structured questionnaires and interviews were also used to gauge the perceptions of the teachers and the students about the teaching and learning of academic writing and cohesive devices, and to triangulate the study. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods approach for analysis of the data. Halliday and Hasan's (1976) model of cohesion analysis was the mainstay of the data analysis; however, frameworks from other perspectives such as the Systemic Functional Linguistics, English for Specific Purposes, Academic Literacies, and English Language Teaching were also consulted to find out answers to the three research questions of the study. The results obtained through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed that cohesive devices were statistically significantly correlated with the text length and sentence units. However, they varied significantly between two extremes of the text length. The appropriate use of cohesive devices was also significant as the non-significant misuse or overuse did not affect the texture or Exam/cohesion scores of the sample texts. The study also claims that cohesive density rather than the text length was the significant variable of differences in the Exam and cohesion scores for the texts. Referential and lexical cohesion appeared to be statistically significant, and thereby the most preferred cohesive devices in the corpus. The pattern of texture in the students' essays corresponded with Halliday and Hasan's (1976 p.296) notion of 'dense texture'. The study also claims to be the first initiative of its kind to have analyzed cohesion in the rhetorical structure of the argumentative essays. The move analysis revealed significant correlations between the moves in the three stages of the sample texts. The survey questionnaires unfolded statistically significant dichotomies between the pedagogic and learning beliefs of the teacher and the student participants. I argue that cohesion is an important non-structural resource in the creation of texture; however, it provides only a partial picture. The students do use cohesive devices but with instances of misuse and overuse. Moreover, there is the need to help students make use of other types of reiteration, collocations and conjunctions for a better cohesive effect, and lexical and semantic diversity. The study recommends raising awareness and functional ability of the students through explicit teaching of cohesive devices not as discrete grammatical items but as discourse semantic resources of text formation

Compositional analysis for clausal exceptives

In this paper I argue that English exceptive constructions introduced by 'except' that appear to have a phrasal structure can be underliyingly clausal. I offer a compositional analysis for such exceptive constructions. I propose that an except- clause introduces quantification over possible situations and serves as a restrictor of this quantification. I show how this analysis derives the inferences exceptives come with and the known restrictions on their use

CRITICAL CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING ARABIC AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TAFL): A CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF A US COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSE

A gap in the critical cultural research paradigm in foreign language teaching (FLT) and teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) at the college level in the U.S. context subsists. FLT and TAFL have been characterized by the prevalence of the communicative and proficiency-based pedagogies and their concomitant research frameworks. This prevalence is tied to the growing neoliberal and terror rhetoric in recent years (Kramsch, 2005; Bernstein et al., 2015). In the face of the latter, a need for critical cultural frameworks of teaching and research became plausible to deconstruct the different clichés and biases in the context of Arabic teaching, and namely in this study, the stereotyping techniques that Arabs and Muslims have been experiencing since the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Morey & Yaqin, 2011; Kramsch, 2005). The ultimate goal is to provide insights on culturally inclusive pedagogies in the Arabic and foreign language classrooms. I corresponded to the gap mentioned above through a critical deconstruction of the development of cultural representations across a variety of classroom discourses in an advanced college-level Arabic course. In so doing, I benefited from the critical ethnographic orientation for data collection, (Carspecken, 1996; Madison, 2012; Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 2011), critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 2003, 2008), and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) for data analysis. Through CDA (Fairclough, 2008), I analyzed two readings and two subsequent in-class debate activities to critically disclose the types of cultural representations constructed in them vis-à-vis their ideological underpinnings as well as the macro- and micro-contextual elements that construe them. Via thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), I analyzed the participants’ interviews to pin down the factors that informed or hindered their cultural engagements with the course’s materials Conclusions are concerned with six points: 1- Texts are ideological artifacts, and they potentially play a role in the augmentation of cultural stereotypes, 2- instructional genres may contribute to the development of cultural clichés, 3- students’ perceptions of Arab cultures may entail cultural decontextualization and labeling, 4- semantics and syntax might represent incentives as well as barriers for cultural growth, 5- goals for Arabic learning may range from economic to social incentives, and 6- the immersion and shared cultural experiences are potential means for cultural connections. Findings suggest recommendations for teaching and research that can enhance inclusive cultural engagements to challenge the cultural labeling dynamics and the neoliberal drive in the foreign language classroom context. The latter can be achieved via reading texts against the grain, deconstruction of the instructional genre, drawing on the immersion and personal experiences as means for all-encompassing cultural engagements, emphasizing non-neoliberal language learning goals, and reconceptualizing the learning of semantics and syntax in foreign language teaching