Showing papers on "Head (linguistics) published in 2016"

DP-internal semantic agreement: A configurational analysis

Abstract: “Hybrid” nouns are known for being able to trigger either syntactic or semantic agreement, the latter typically occurring outside the noun’s projection. We document and discuss a rare example of a Hebrew noun that triggers either syntactic or semantic agreement within the DP. To explain this and other unusual patterns of nominal agreement, we propose a configurational adaptation of the concord-index distinction, originated in Wechsler and Zlatic (2003). Morphologically-rooted (=concord) features are hosted on the noun stem while semantically-rooted (=index) features are hosted on Num, a higher functional head. Depending on where attributive adjectives attach, they may display either type of agreement. The observed and unobserved patterns of agreement follow from general principles of selection and syntactic locality.

Misinterpretations in agreement and agreement attraction

Abstract: It has been well established that subject–verb number agreement can be disrupted by local noun phrases that differ in number from the subject head noun phrase. In sentence production, mismatches in the grammatical number of the head and local noun phrases lead to agreement errors on the verb as in: the key to the cabinets are. Similarly, although ungrammaticality typically causes disruption in measures of sentence comprehension, the disruption is reduced when the local noun phrase has a plural feature. Using a forced-choice comprehension question method, we report two experiments that provide evidence that comprehenders were likely to misinterpret the number information on the head noun phrase when morphosyntactic number markings on the local noun phrase and verb did not match the head. These results are consistent with a growing body of research that suggests that comprehenders often arrive at a final interpretation of a sentence that is not faithful to the linguistic input.

Labeling, maximality and the head – phrase distinction

Abstract: Abstract Combining the labeling algorithm of Chomsky (2013) with bare phrase structure raises the question of how heads (simple or complex) and phrases can be distinguished. I propose a notational device which draws the distinction in a way which solves technical problems for the labeling algorithm. Focusing on phrasal movement, I show how the “halting problem” for wh-movement, and in particular the freezing effects arising in criterial positions, can be derived from labeling and a maximality principle, restricting movement to maximal elements with a given label. Looking then at head movement, I argue that it can be made consistent with the No Tampering condition, and work out the labeling algorithm for structures derived by head movement. Finally, I argue that the ban against excorporation in head movement can be analyzed as a case of freezing, and traced back, much as freezing in phrasal movement, to the maximality principle relativized to the head – phrase distinction.

The location of gender features in the syntax

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to critically review the results of linguistic research on the syntactic location of gender features. It has become relatively clear that gender features do not project their own phrase “GenP” and they are not located on the Num(ber) head that hosts number features. Instead, the field mostly agrees that gender features are located on the nominal—either on N or, in approaches that decompose lexical categories, on the nominalizing head n. Additional gender features have been proposed higher in the structure in order to capture certain processes that impose their own gender (e.g., diminutives are always feminine in the Semitic language Amharic) and to capture patterns of hybrid agreement (e.g., Russian nouns that are grammatically masculine but may trigger feminine agreement when referring to a woman).

Noun incorporation and phrasal movement

Abstract: While we agree with Baker (2009) that noun incorporation (NI) is not a unified phenomenon cross-linguistically, we argue against his claim that head movement is still needed for NI in a number of languages (including Mohawk and Mapudungun). Our proposal is that NI involves phrasal movement. The motivation behind our proposal is that incorporated nominals can be much larger than bare roots with a structure incompatible with head movement. The empirical foundation for the phrasal movement claim comes primarily from Onondaga (qua Northern Iroquoian) and Ojibwe (qua Algonquian). In these languages, incorporated nouns appear with nominalizers and inflectional morphemes violating Baker’s (1996, 2003) Proper Head Movement Generalization. Our proposal about NI has important theoretical ramifications: while it has been popular to build words in polysynthetic languages in the syntax via head movement, we view “wordhood” and the polysynthetic properties of such languages as a phonological phenomenon (Dechaine 1999; Branigan et al. 2005; Compton and Pittman 2010).

Understanding Karma Police: The Perceived Plausibility of Noun Compounds as Predicted by Distributional Models of Semantic Representation

Abstract: Noun compounds, consisting of two nouns (the head and the modifier) that are combined into a single concept, differ in terms of their plausibility: school bus is a more plausible compound than saddle olive. The present study investigates which factors influence the plausibility of attested and novel noun compounds. Distributional Semantic Models (DSMs) are used to obtain formal (vector) representations of word meanings, and compositional methods in DSMs are employed to obtain such representations for noun compounds. From these representations, different plausibility measures are computed. Three of those measures contribute in predicting the plausibility of noun compounds: The relatedness between the meaning of the head noun and the compound (Head Proximity), the relatedness between the meaning of modifier noun and the compound (Modifier Proximity), and the similarity between the head noun and the modifier noun (Constituent Similarity). We find non-linear interactions between Head Proximity and Modifier Proximity, as well as between Modifier Proximity and Constituent Similarity. Furthermore, Constituent Similarity interacts non-linearly with the familiarity with the compound. These results suggest that a compound is perceived as more plausible if it can be categorized as an instance of the category denoted by the head noun, if the contribution of the modifier to the compound meaning is clear but not redundant, and if the constituents are sufficiently similar in cases where this contribution is not clear. Furthermore, compounds are perceived to be more plausible if they are more familiar, but mostly for cases where the relation between the constituents is less clear.

Identifying Arabic compounds other than the Synthetic Genitive Construction

Abstract: This study examines types of compounds other than the Synthetic Genitive Construction (SGC) in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Jordanian Arabic (JA), discussing the word class of the parts of the compound and identifying the head. The analysis reveals that there are four types of compounds in MSA, and three in JA. The Prep + Prep combination is missing from JA. I also argue that the word class of the parts of the compound of Arabic in general, and of MSA in particular, is not diverse. Regarding the head, I suggest that N + N compounds other than the SGC, Adj + Adj compounds and reduplicated compounds can be either semantically double-headed or headless

Opinion Holder and Target Extraction on Opinion Compounds – A Linguistic Approach

Abstract: We present an approach to the new task of opinion holder and target extraction on opinion compounds. Opinion compounds (e.g. user rating or victim support) are noun compounds whose head is an opinion noun. We do not only examine features known to be effective for noun compound analysis, such as paraphrases and semantic classes of heads and modifiers, but also propose novel features tailored to this new task. Among them, we examine paraphrases that jointly consider holders and targets, a verb detour in which noun heads are replaced by related verbs, a global head constraint allowing inferencing between different compounds, and the categorization of the sentiment view that the head conveys.

The Role of Modifier and Head Properties in Predicting the Compositionality of English and German Noun-Noun Compounds: A Vector-Space Perspective

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the role of constituent properties in English and German noun-noun compounds (corpus frequencies of the compounds and their constituents; productivity and ambiguity of the constituents; and semantic relations between the constituents), when predicting the degrees of compositionality of the compounds within a vector space model. The results demonstrate that the empirical and semantic properties of the compounds and the head nouns play a significant role.

Head Motion Generation with Synthetic Speech: A Data Driven Approach.

Abstract: To have believable head movements for conversational agents (CAs), the natural coupling between speech and head movements needs to be preserved, even when the CA uses synthetic speech. To incorporate the relation between speech head movements, studies have learned these couplings from real recordings, where speech is used to derive head movements. However, relying on recorded speech for every sentence that a virtual agent utters constrains the versatility and scalability of the interface, so most practical solutions for CAs use text to speech. While we can generate head motion using rule-based models, the head movements may become repetitive, spanning only a limited range of behaviors. This paper proposes strategies to leverage speech-driven models for head motion generation for cases relying on synthetic speech. The straightforward approach is to drive the speech-based models using synthetic speech, which creates mismatch between the test and train conditions. Instead, we propose to create a parallel corpus of synthetic speech aligned with natural recordings for which we have motion capture recordings. We use this parallel corpus to either retrain or adapt the speech-based models with synthetic speech. Objective and subjective metrics show significant improvements of the proposed approaches over the case with mismatched condition.

Notes on “Noun Phrase Structure” in Tagalog

Abstract: This article presents some observations on the syntax and semantics of the Tagalog phrase marking particles ang, ng, and sa. While there is some evidence for the widely held view that the phrase marking particles form a kind of paradigm in that they are at least in partial complementary distribution, they differ significantly in their distributional characteristics. Consequently, it will be argued that sa heads prepositional phrases, while ang and ng head higher-level phrases (i.e. phrases where PPs occur a complements or adjuncts). These phrases may be considered DPs, although they differ in a number of regards from DPs in European languages. Because of these differences, their status as determiners may be open to questions, but there can be little doubt that ang and ng provide examples par excellence for functional elements displaying (syntactic) head characteristics. Analyzing ang and ng as determiners raises the issue of how they relate to other elements which are usually considered determiners, in particular demonstratives. This problem is taken up in the second main part of the article. It is proposed that demonstratives in fact may occur in two different phrase-structural positions, i.e. they occur both as alternate heads instead of ang and ng and as their complements.

Headedness in Arabic Compounds within the Synthetic Genitive Construction

Abstract: This study aims to pinpoint the position of head in Arabic compounds within the Synthetic Genitive Construction (SGC). It also examines the headedness of these compounds morphologically, syntactica...

The genitive ratio and its applications

Abstract: The genitive ratio (GR) is a novel method of classifying nouns as animate, concrete or abstract. English has two genitive (possessive) constructions: possessive-s (the boy's head) and possessive-of (the head of the boy). There is compelling evidence that preference for possessive-s is strongly influenced by the possessor's animacy. A corpus analysis that counts each genitive construction in three conditions (definite, indefinite and no article) confirms that occurrences of possessive-s decline as the animacy hierarchy progresses from animate through concrete to abstract. A computer program (Animyser) is developed to obtain results-counts from phrase-searches of Wikipedia that provide multiple genitive ratios for any target noun. Key ratios are identified and algorithms developed, with specific applications achieving classification accuracies of over 80%. The algorithms, based on logistic regression, produce a score of relative animacy that can be applied to individual nouns or to texts. The genitive ratio is a tool with potential applications in any research domain where the relative animacy of language might be significant. Three such applications exemplify that. Combining GR analysis with other factors might enhance established co-reference (anaphora) resolution algorithms. In sentences formed from pairings of animate with concrete or abstract nouns, the animate noun is usually salient, more likely to be the grammatical subject or thematic agent, and to co-refer with a succeeding pronoun or noun-phrase. Two experiments, online sentence production and corpus-based, demonstrate that the GR algorithm reliably predicts the salient noun. Replication of the online experiment in Italian suggests that the GR might be applied to other languages by using English as a 'bridge'. In a mental health context, studies have indicated that Alzheimer's patients' language becomes progressively more concrete; depressed patients' language more abstract. Analysis of sample texts suggests that the GR might monitor the prognosis of both illnesses, facilitating timely clinical interventions.

Coordination in Minimalist Grammars: Excorporation and Across the Board (Head) Movement.

Abstract: This paper describes how coordination has been integrated into a broad coverage statistical Minimalist Grammar parser currently under development, and presents a unified analysis for a number of coordinate (and related) constructions sometimes considered problematic for transformational syntax; these include across-theboard (ATB) head and phrasal movements, argument cluster coordination, right node raising and parasitic gaps. To accommodate all these structures, a number of novel extensions are introduced into the formalism, including a mechanism for excorporation which enables ATB head movement; this supplements a variant of Kobele’s (2008) mechanism for ATB phrasal movement. The weak expressive power of the formalism is shown to be unaffected by these extensions.

Head-head relations in Problems of projection

Abstract: Abstract Chomsky 2013 argues that D of an external argument in Spec TP is in principle as close to C as T is. Assuming that “inversion depends upon locality independent of category,” T and D should therefore compete with each other as candidates for raising to C in English questions, yet only T so raises. Chomsky takes this to indicate that the external argument is in its base position, Spec, vP, when C is merged. Our paper argues that this approach cannot generalize to account for why only V+v and not D of an external argument can raise to T in V-v-to-T languages. It also has major difficulties accounting for a well-known asymmetry: T raises to C only in English non-subject questions. We conclude that head-movement is sensitive to categorial and other features of lexical items, contra the claims of Chomsky 2013.

Verb phrase movement as a window into head movement

Abstract: Since Chomsky 2001 suggested that head movement might be a PF operation, there has been debate about the proper place of head movement in the grammar. The interaction of verb movement with verb phrase fronting can shed light on how and when head movement occurs. This paper looks at cases where verb phrase fronting generates two copies of the verb (as in Portuguese or Hebrew), one in the fronted vP and one in an inflectional position, showing how a PF approach to head movement can explain this pattern while addressing some potential problems in other languages.

Extracting Aspect Specific Sentiment Expressions Implying Negative Opinions

Abstract: Subjective expression extraction is a central problem in fine-grained sentiment analysis. Most existing works focus on generic subjective expression extraction as opposed to aspect specific opinion phrase extraction. Given the ever-growing product reviews domain, extracting aspect specific opinion phrases is important as it yields the key product issues that are often mentioned via phrases (e.g., “signal fades very quickly,” “had to flash the firmware often”). In this paper, we solve the problem using a combination of generative and discriminative modeling. The generative model performs a first level processing facilitating (1) discovery of potential head aspects containing issues, (2) generation of a labeled dataset of issue phrases, and (3) feed latent semantic features to subsequent discriminative modeling. We then employ discriminative large-margin and sequence modeling with pivot features for issue sentence classification and issue phrase boundary extraction. Experimental results using real-world reviews from Amazon.com demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Head-internal relative clauses in Dogrib

Abstract: It is typologically unusual for languages to have both internally-headed relative clauses and post-nominal externally headed relative clauses. When languages do contain both internally-headed and externally headed relative clauses, it is most often the case that the externally-headed relatives are pre-nominal, and do not employ wh-pronouns. Dogrib, a Dene language of Northern Canada, appears at first to go against this trend, making use of internally-headed relatives and what looks like post-nominal externally headed relatives with wh-words. I argue that these latter constructions are in fact internally-headed relatives which have the internal head being modified by a wh-word based on evidence from scope and distribution of these wh-words in relative clauses. Instead of of marking subordination or participating in gap-construction, wh-words in relative clauses simply indicate an indefinite number of the head noun.

Neurophysiological effects of prediction on head reassignment in German compounds.

Abstract: Recent research on noun-noun compounds has suggested that the parser may commit to the first noun (N1) as the head and then have to revise that commitment when the second noun (N2) is encountered. However, it remains unclear under what circumstances head commitment at N1 occurs, and whether it involves both semantic and syntactic revisions at N2. In two event-related potential experiments in German, we explored these questions by manipulating gender matches between a determiner and N1/N2 in compounds. In Experiment 1, a determiner-noun match in gender at N1 compared with a mismatch yielded an effect at N2 for the matching condition (increased negativity at 480-550 ms, strongest in the left hemisphere); there was a similar effect for the gender violation at N2. The observed negativity could have been due to either semantic or syntactic head revision, or both. Experiment 2 increased expectations that an N2 was imminent, which attenuated syntactic, but not semantic, effects at N2. We found N400-like effects, often associated with semantic integration, suggesting that, in Experiment 1, the syntactic effects had masked the semantic costs. Taken together, these results support the idea that both semantic and syntactic head commitment and revision occur during compound processing.

Are Noun Phrases Phases? Evidence from Semitic Construct State

Abstract: That Noun Phrases (or DPs) are phases is a debated issue in the current minimalist syntax. A phase is said to be a unit of syntactic computation that can be sent to the PF and LF interfaces as an independent syntactic chunk (Chomsky 2000, et seq ). In this article, support is added to the claim that Noun Phrases are phases. In particular, I show that a Semitic construct state(CS), a kind of DP, is a KP-sized constituent which constitutes a domain for movement/linearization at PF, interpretation at LF, and cyclic movement within the narrow syntax. It is also feature-saturated. At PF, evidence is provided that a DP CS can undergo extraposition, clefting, isolation, and predicate fronting. At LF, evidence is also provided that a CS is a propositional object, can undergo reconstruction and successive cyclic movements. At the syntax level, I examine some feature-wise facts, concerning feature-saturation of a CS and feature locus, feature transmission, ɸ- completeness , etc., and more importantly how the head K (like phase heads in general) is characterized with these properties. There are also certain facts manifested by the genitive DP complements (GDCs), qualifying CSs to be phases. One such fact is that GDCs constitute ‘phase Spell-Out domains,’ by virtue of being (and always) assigned Gen Case by their heads, and hence they are not accessible to outside operations.

Head-to-Modifier Reanalysis: The Rise of the Adjectival Quantifier Viel and the Loss of Genitive Case Assignment

Abstract: The quantifier viel changes from exhibiting properties of a head in Old High German to exhibiting properties of a modifier in Modern German. This is accompanied by changes in word order vis-a-vis its quantified constituent and the loss of the ability to assign genitive case to some of the quantified constituents. Assuming that quantifying expressions may have various syntactic representations, we argue that viel develops from a quantifying noun to a particle in Card0 to an adjectival quantifier in Spec, CardP, and that this structural change in the position of viel can account in part for the morphosyntactic properties of the quantified element. The development of viel from a quantifying noun to a quantifying particle—a case of head-to-head reanalysis—is typical of grammaticalization. However, the change from a particle to an adjectival quantifier represents head-to-specifier reanalysis, which we relate to degrammaticalization due to analogy with other inflected elements of the DP. The change in word order and case properties of the quantified constituent represents a third type of reanalysis, whereby an embedded nominal undergoes downward reanalysis. Depending on the structural size—that is, whether a DP-layer is present or not—the dependent nominal either integrates into the matrix nominal agreeing with viel or, if too large, it takes up a new embedded position as a complement of the matrix head noun, retaining genitive. We demonstrate that in each case, the morphological change lags behind the syntactic reanalysis. *

Method and system for embodying real head features of user on virtual head portrait

Abstract: The present invention discloses a method and system for embodying real head features of a user on a virtual head portrait. The method comprises: selecting the virtual head portrait; obtaining a real head image of the user through an infrared camera; analyzing the real head image of the user to obtain the head features; and matching the head features to the virtual head portrait. According to the method disclosed by the present invention, the head features are obtained after analysis of the obtained real head image of the user, and are matched to the virtual head portrait, so that an effect of intelligently mapping the real head features of the userto the virtual head portrait is realized, the head features of the user are more realistically in line with characteristics of the user, and sense of substitution of the user is enhanced.

Minimal Interference from Possessor Phrases in the Production of Subject-Verb Agreement

Abstract: We explore the language production process by eliciting subject-verb agreement errors. Participants were asked to create complete sentences from sentence beginnings such as The elf's/elves' house with the tiny window/windows and The statue in the elf's/elves' gardens. These are subject noun phrases containing a head noun and controller of agreement (statue), and two nonheads, a "local noun" (window(s)/garden(s)), and a possessor noun (elf's/elves'). Past research has shown that a plural nonhead noun (an "attractor") within a subject noun phrase triggers the production of verb agreement errors, and further, that the nearer the attractor to the head noun, the greater the interference. This effect can be interpreted in terms of relative hierarchical distance from the head noun, or via a processing window account, which claims that during production, there is a window in which the head and modifying material may be co-active, and an attractor must be active at the same time as the head to give rise to errors. Using possessors attached at different heights within the same window, we are able to empirically distinguish these accounts. Possessors also allow us to explore two additional issues. First, case marking of local nouns has been shown to reduce agreement errors in languages with "rich" inflectional systems, and we explore whether English speakers attend to case. Secondly, formal syntactic analyses differ regarding the structural position of the possessive marker, and we distinguish them empirically with the relative magnitude of errors produced by possessors and local nouns. Our results show that, across the board, plural possessors are significantly less disruptive to the agreement process than plural local nouns. Proximity to the head noun matters: a possessor directly modifying the head noun induce a significant number of errors, but a possessor within a modifying prepositional phrase did not, though the local noun did. These findings suggest that proximity to a head noun is independent of a "processing window" effect. They also support a noun phrase-internal, case-like analysis of the structural position of the possessive ending and show that even speakers of inflectionally impoverished languages like English are sensitive to morphophonological case-like marking.

Noun Incorporation in Frisian

Abstract: Noun incorporation in Frisian (Dyk 1997) is unusual because it shows certain restrictions that are not seen in other languages with noun incorporation, such as Mohawk and Chukchi. In addition, while others argue that noun incorporation is indeed possible in Germanic (see Booij 2009 for Dutch, Barrie and Spreng 2009 for German), Frisian is unusual even with respect to Germanic in allowing noun incorporation in finite clauses. In this paper, I show that noun incorporation in Frisian should be analyzed as synthetic compounding, with the compound licensed by a null verbal head. It is the presence of this head that accounts for the unusual restrictions. Not only does this head explain the distribution of noun incorporation, it also explains the distribution of detransitivization. I show that there are parallels between noun incorporation and synthetic compounding in English with –ing. An important consequence of this analysis is that it allows us to treat this phenomenon in Frisian as a more typologically appropriate instance of compounding rather than as canonical noun incorporation found in polysynthetic languages. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol22/iss1/4 U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 22.1, 2016 Noun Incorporation in Frisian

The ‘swift of foot’ construction and the phrase structure of the adjectival construct in Hebrew

Abstract: This article sheds new light on the puzzling phrase structure of complex adjectival phrases which are common in Semitic, specifically in Hebrew, and which are equivalent to Indo-European phrases such as ‘swift of foot.’ The article draws a clear distinction between these constructions and adjectival compounds such as ‘swift-footed’, which are prevalent in major Indo-European languages but are absent from Semitic languages. The Hebrew construction under discussion is a genitival construct consisting of an adjective followed by a modifying noun in genitive status. The adjective is the head of the construction, but agrees in number and gender with a noun outside the construction. This construction has invited controversial analyses by different scholars, most recently in the framework of generative grammar. The present study construction is anchored in the framework of Construction Grammar. It nevertheless advances a morphosyntactic and semantic analysis of its inner composition. Functional aspects and the speaker’s perspectival choice in construing such attributive phrases are taken into account as well.