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This study explores various issues related to negative PPs, focusing on (i) why some negative PPs trigger negative inversion, whereas some do not, (ii) why negative phrases can have scope beyond their c-domain, and (iii) why the distribution of negative PPs is restricted. This study is divided into two parts. The first part demonstrates that negative phrases exhibit a pattern similar to wh-phrases. They cooccur with a zero morpheme NEG_ø, which carries out the function of extending their restriction. Just as Q extends the restriction of a wh-operator and triggers pied-ping, NEG_ø extends the restriction of a negative operator, enabling it to have scope beyond its c-domain. The second part argues that English employs covert negative concord in that in negative sentences T must be merged with a covert head called Polarity, which has the feature [u(ninterpretable) Neg]. Additionally, it suggests that (i) the [uNeg]-feature on Polarity can be deleted via a mutual c-command relationship with a NegP, and (ii) when the [uNeg]-feature on it cannot be deleted in situ, it triggers head movement as a last resort. This claim provides a principled account for negative inversion and the distribution of negative PPs.

Training of a foreign language speech sound pair may lead to the formation of new memory traces in young adults who are not very experienced in the target language, as well as to the strengthening of existing memory traces in advanced target language students. We used listen-and-repeat training to test whether previously formed memory traces exist approximately a year later. Further, we compared these learning results with those obtained from advanced target language students. Both groups participated in a recording that was identical to the one that the less experienced learners had already completed a year before, but only once and without training. The experiments included EEG recordings measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) and N1, as well as listening tests. The less experienced learners’ MMN responses were similar to those of advanced students, and their N1 amplitude had increased close to that of the advanced students. These results suggest long-lasting speech memory traces resulting from a brief training and the development of increased sensitivity.

This study addresses linguistic and cross-disciplinary issues connected with the study of personality trait words, e.g., shy, selfish, outgoing. Although the personality lexicon has long been seen as a primary concern for the field of psychology, it is argued here that the study of personality words belongs primarily within the domain of linguistics and can be performed by methods of lexical semantics and corpus analysis. To demonstrate this, two English personality adjectives representative of the personality dimension Extraversion (namely, shy and outgoing) are analysed using a corpus-assisted Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. The results highlight the status of the English words as folk concepts. The risks of excessive reliance on such folk concepts in personality research are demonstrated by the brief comparison with Russian, and alternative ways forward are outlined.

In this paper, I explore the syntax of two quirky Albanian subject constructions, both containing a dative experiencer that surfaces in subject position and behaves like a subject even if it does not induce agreement with the verb, along with an object bearing the nominative case, triggering agreement on the verb. The first type of quirky subject construction is characterised by the restriction of verb agreement to the third person, while the second type does not show person restrictions. The partial agreement data discussed here can be accounted for by resorting to the Person-Case Constraint. A split-feature checking analysis is conducted, whereby the person feature is checked separately from the number feature in contexts where a dative and a nominative DP are associated with two different features of a unique single probe (Tense).

Copredication is the phenomenon that two or more predicates can jointly apply to the same argument. In “The book is heavy and informative” the word book seems to refer to both a concrete physical object that can be heavy and an abstract content that can be informative. It has been observed that if the concrete sense of the nominal is triggered first, the copredication statement often sounds better compared to when the abstract sense is triggered first. However, the cognitive underpinnings of this effect are not well understood. In this theoretically oriented paper, we propose a predictive processing model of order effects aimed at advancing our understanding of that phenomenon. We also connect the debate regarding ordering preferences with an existing strand of research on ordering preferences in multi-adjective strings and the information structure of sentences.

The present study describes the nature of the dynamic spectral changes of Spanish vowels /a e o/ produced by 10 native Spanish (L1) speakers and 13 native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language (L2). The investigation seeks to identify variations in formant change through the application of both two- and three-point measures, evaluating their efficacy in capturing the formant dynamics of Spanish vowels. F1 and F2 formant dynamic variations were assessed in a set of acoustic measures, including Vector Length (VL), Trajectory Length (TL) and Formant Velocity (FV). Results show that L1 Spanish vowels are more dynamic than L2 Spanish vowels produced by native English speakers, challenging the traditional view that Spanish vowels are rather static. Moreover, the findings indicate that two- and three-point measures yield similar results for most vowels regarding the amount of formant change, rendering them ineffective in accurately describing Spanish vowels. The main difference between L1 and L2 Spanish vowels lies not in the magnitude of formant change, but in the direction of such change. Consequently, a measure that incorporates the direction of formant movement, such as FV, emerges as a more suitable acoustic characterization for both L1 and L2 Spanish vowels.

Narration requires the appropriate use of reference, which can be particularly challenging in stories with many characters of the same gender, especially for people with language disorders. This study investigates referential choice in the narrative discourse of people with aphasia (PwA) and typical speakers (TS) by observing reference in general and depending on the potential ambiguity of the situation (characters of the same or different gender) and referential functions (introduction, maintenance, and reintroduction of characters). We found no group differences in the number of nouns and pronouns produced. However, PwA showed an overall tendency toward a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio in both situations with characters of the same or different gender. Both groups had a lower pronoun-to-noun ratio when introducing characters and a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio when maintaining characters, with TS having an even higher pronoun-to-noun ratio when referring to characters of different genders. Nevertheless, when reintroducing characters of the same gender, PwA had a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio, which led to ambiguous reference. These findings contribute to the limited research on referential choice in PwA, suggesting that PwA are sensitive to the characteristics of discourse but have a limited ability to consider listeners’ knowledge.

Originally, scholarly discussions of metalinguistic awareness (MeLA), as a distinct concept, primarily focused on monolinguals. However, increasing scientific attention has more recently been paid to multiple language learning, which poses new challenges in this area of linguistic-cognitive research. This article first discusses a holistic and dynamic view of multilingual development and portrays MeLA as an emergent property of multilingual systems that varies in quality for multilinguals. Thereafter, a longitudinal study investigates the development of MeLA in three languages among adolescent learners in South Tyrol. For this purpose, a metalinguistic awareness test battery was specifically tailored to the trilingual situation. Subsequently, the effects of MeLA on decoding a new language system unknown to the learners were explored. The results from Part I of the study show that most learners developed MeLA skills that improved to varying degrees within the testing period. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between the MeLA test results for most participants. Analysing Part II of the study showed that, on average, participants with higher MeLA test scores could more frequently activate their prior linguistic knowledge, and they exhibited higher levels of awareness when decoding the new language system than did participants with lower MeLA scores. These findings show the interconnectedness of metacognitive skills and confirm the catalytic role of MeLA in multilingual systems, which calls for more cross-curricular multilingual teaching approaches that promote MeLA, particularly in multilingual regions such as South Tyrol.

This study is intended to examine the syntactic functions of words grammatically related to verbs in interlanguage. Based on probabilistic valency patterns, a wider variety and a larger number of syntactic functions were investigated. The distributional data of these syntactic functions show significant differences between interlanguage and the target language and between interlanguage at different proficiency levels. Specifically, verbs in interlanguage have stronger associations with subjects, adverbials and complements, whereas verbs in the target language are more strongly associated with prepositions and objects; verbs in lower-level interlanguage have stronger associations with subjects and complements, while verbs in higher-level interlanguage are more strongly associated with auxiliaries, connections and subordinations; the distributions of the syntactic functions in interlanguage gradually approach those in the target language as the proficiency level of interlanguage improves. Our analysis shows that the syntactic functions in interlanguage have unique, progressive, and probabilistic characteristics.

This study explores the hierarchical structures of Mandarin Chinese aspectual projections with a cartographic approach. We firstly revisit Mandarin aspectual expressions across three domains within a sentence, including preverbal aspectual adverbs, postverbal suffixes and sentence-final aspectual particles. Then we demonstrate that Mandarin aspectual projections are distributed in three zones (i.e., vP, TP and CP layers) by using appropriate position tests: transitivity tests for adverbs, the affixation order for verb suffixes, and location tests in the bǎ construction for both adverbs and suffixes. Finally, a three-layered topography of Mandarin aspectual projections is provided, which largely conforms to the universal hierarchy. The list of syntactic heads is expanded with the consideration of Mandarin data, especially for aspectual heads in the domain below VoiceP.