23 research outputs found
Realizing Morphemes in the Icelandic Noun Phrase
This dissertation defends a strong version of the view that linguistic surface complexity is the product of interactions between deep syntactic mechanisms and shallow interface-specific mechanisms. I argue that current developments in the theory of locality in Distributed Morphology (Embick 2010, Marantz 2013) impose boundaries on syntactic analysis and that morphemes cannot be identified and analyzed without studying their realization at the interfaces of syntax with both phonology and interpretation. The empirical focus is on a series of phenomena which are attested in Icelandic noun phrases and involve the realization of roots, category-defining heads, inflection morphemes, and definite articles, all of which may appear in the same noun as shown below.
(1) leik-end-ur-nir \u27play\u27-nmlz-m.nom.pl-def
Three main components of the dissertation involve applicative structures, definite articles and morphophonology. I argue for the existence of applicatives in noun phrases which do not include a verbal substructure based on the realization of morphemes in an Icelandic Caused Experience construction. A study which compares definite articles in German and Icelandic supports the findings in Schwarz (2009) that there are two definite articles in natural language and the realization of the Icelandic articles has implications for the theory of suffixation under adjacency (Embick and Noyer 2001).
These case studies, in addition to a series of smaller case studies, support the view that an analysis of one linguistic component may only be well-informed if it considers other interacting components as well. My method, to approach a well-defined empirical case, Icelandic nouns, with a precise theoretical framework like Distributed Morphology, yields valuable results. I show how many types of locality constraints interact in the same word and this is pleasing because it shows that the theory is not based on convenient but cross-linguistically isolated data sets. Rather, aspects of language like syntax, morphology and semantics are constantly interacting and they are best understood in the context of each other
A High Definition Study of Syntactic Lifespan Change
We examine variable use of Stylistic Fronting (SF) in Icelandic in thousands of parliament speeches given by parliament member Steingrímur J. Sigfússon between 1990-2013. This reveals a fine-grained diachronic picture of individual-specific lifespan change. We split the data by year and thus the time resolution of the study is 23 as opposed to a time resolution of 2-3 as is currently common practice in lifespan studies. We argue that a high time resolution is critical for studies of this type as well as a focus on qualitative detail when interpreting quantitative findings
The Evolutionary Trajectory of the Icelandic New Passive
We examine the diachronics of a New Passive construction in Icelandic and use Yang\u27s model of language learning and change to explain its rapid rise. The New Passive has been spreading at the expense of a Canonical Passive in the recent past 50 years. Applying empirical measurements from the IcePaHC corpus, we show that our model can be used to account for the spread of the New Passive and the rate of change. The model also has implications for the actuation of the change
Icelandic Language Resources and Technology: Status and Prospects
Proceedings of the NODALIDA 2009 workshop
Nordic Perspectives on the CLARIN Infrastructure of Language Resources.
Editors: Rickard Domeij, Kimmo Koskenniemi, Steven Krauwer, Bente Maegaard,
Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson and Koenraad de Smedt.
NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 5 (2009), 27-32.
© 2009 The editors and contributors.
Published by
Northern European Association for Language
Technology (NEALT)
http://omilia.uio.no/nealt .
Electronically published at
Tartu University Library (Estonia)
http://hdl.handle.net/10062/9207
Relatório de estágio em farmácia comunitária
Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do Mestrado Integrado em Ciências Farmacêuticas, apresentado à Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbr
Context updates are hierarchical
This squib studies the order in which elements are added to the shared context of interlocutors in a conversation. It focuses on context updates within one hierarchical structure and argues that structurally higher elements are entered into the context before lower elements, even if the structurally higher elements are pronounced after the lower elements. The crucial data are drawn from a comparison of relative clauses in two head-initial languages, English and Icelandic, and two head-final languages, Korean and Japanese. The findings have consequences for any theory of a dynamic semantics
Realizing morphemes in the Icelandic noun phrase
This dissertation defends a strong version of the view that linguistic surface complexity is the product of interactions between deep syntactic mechanisms and shallow interface-specific mechanisms. I argue that current developments in the theory of locality in Distributed Morphology (Embick 2010, Marantz 2013) impose boundaries on syntactic analysis and that morphemes cannot be identified and analyzed without studying their realization at the interfaces of syntax with both phonology and interpretation. The empirical focus is on a series of phenomena which are attested in Icelandic noun phrases and involve the realization of roots, category-defining heads, inflection morphemes, and definite articles, all of which may appear in the same noun as shown below. (1) leik-end-ur-nir \u27play\u27-nmlz-m.nom.pl-def Three main components of the dissertation involve applicative structures, definite articles and morphophonology. I argue for the existence of applicatives in noun phrases which do not include a verbal substructure based on the realization of morphemes in an Icelandic Caused Experience construction. A study which compares definite articles in German and Icelandic supports the findings in Schwarz (2009) that there are two definite articles in natural language and the realization of the Icelandic articles has implications for the theory of suffixation under adjacency (Embick and Noyer 2001). These case studies, in addition to a series of smaller case studies, support the view that an analysis of one linguistic component may only be well-informed if it considers other interacting components as well. My method, to approach a well-defined empirical case, Icelandic nouns, with a precise theoretical framework like Distributed Morphology, yields valuable results. I show how many types of locality constraints interact in the same word and this is pleasing because it shows that the theory is not based on convenient but cross-linguistically isolated data sets. Rather, aspects of language like syntax, morphology and semantics are constantly interacting and they are best understood in the context of each other
Context updates are hierarchical
This squib studies the order in which elements are added to the shared context of interlocutors in a conversation. It focuses on context updates within one hierarchical structure and argues that structurally higher elements are entered into the context before lower elements, even if the structurally higher elements are pronounced after the lower elements. The crucial data are drawn from a comparison of relative clauses in two head-initial languages, English and Icelandic, and two head-final languages, Korean and Japanese. The findings have consequences for any theory of a dynamic semantics.Peer Reviewe