Constraint cumulativity and gradience: Wh-scrambling in Persian

Adli, Aria

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2010.01.003

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…In fronted wh-questions the wh-phrase moves to the beginning of the sentence to form a wh-question (see example 1) whereas in wh-in-situ questions the wh-phrase does not move to the sentence-initial position (Carnie 2007;Chomsky 1977). One of the languages which is characterized by wh-in-situ is Persian (Abedi et al 2012;Adli 2007;Gorjian et al 2012;Kahnemuyipour 2009;Karimi 2005;Karimi and Taleghani 2007;Lotfi 2003;Megerdoomian and Ganjavi 2000;Mirsaeedi 2006;Toosarvandani 2008). In Persian, wh-questions are in-situ by default; the wh-phrase does not need to move to the beginning of the sentence, rather it occurs at the same site where its declarative counterpart is expected to occur (see example 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

Shiamizadeh

Caspers

Schiller

2017

Linguistics Vanguard

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It has been reported that prosody contributes to the identification of utterances which lack lexico-syntactic indicators of interrogativity but do have characteristic prosodic correlates (e.g. Vion and Colas 2006. Pitch cues for the recognition of yes-no questions in French. Journal of Psycholinguistics . In Persian wh-in-situ questions, the interrogativity device (the wh-phrase) does not move to the sentence-initial position, and the pre-wh part is characterized by specific prosodic correlates (Shiamizadeh et al. 2016. Do Persian native speakers prosodically mark wh-in-situ questions? Manuscript submitted for publication). The current experiment investigates the role of prosody in the perception of Persian wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives. To this end, an experiment was designed in which Persian native speakers were asked to choose the correct sentence type after hearing only the pre-wh part of a sentence. We hypothesized that prosody guides perception of wh-in-situ questions independent of wh-phrase type. The results of the experiment corroborate our hypothesis. The outcome is discussed in terms of Ohala´s frequency code, and Bolinger´s claim about the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other hand.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

Shiamizadeh

Caspers

Schiller

2017

Linguistics Vanguard

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“…The term scrambling is commonly employed in the literature for the phenomenon of ee (or non-canonical) word order (Karimi, 2003). Many languages allow considerable flexibility with respect to word order and scrambling has been investigated in detail for a variety of languages, such as Japanese (Saito, 1985;Saito, 1992;Fukui, 1993), German (Webelhuth, 1990;Müller & Sternefeld, 1993;Fanselow, 2001), Italian (Frascarelli, 1999;Cardinaletti, 2004;Brunetti, 2009;Samek-Lodovici, 2009), Dutch (Neeleman, 1994), Turkish (Kural, 1992), Spanish (Torrego, 1984;Ordóñez, 1998), French (Obenauer, 1976), Icelandic (Holmberg, 1986;Haider & Rosengren, 2003), Hindi (Mahajan, 1990 and, Hungarian (Kiss, 1998), Warlpiri (Hale, 1983), Jingulu (Pensalfi ni, 2004), Serbo-Croatian (Bošković, 2001), Russian (Baylin, 1995), and Persian (Karimi, 2005;Adli, 2010).…”

Section: Scrambling 12mentioning

confidence: 99%

A-Bar Scrambling in Repetition in a Case of Mixed Transcortical Aphasia: Hints for the Psychological Reality of the Syntax/Pragmatic Interface

Franco¹,

Zampieri²,

Meneghello³

2013

discours

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The present study deals with sentence repetition in MB, an Italian patient with mixed transcortical aphasia. In preliminary testing, MB spontaneously resisted accurate repetition when presented with sentences featuring morphosyntactic violations (see Davis et al., 1978). MB also managed to repeat all the proposed phrasal chunks, even in complex sentences. Interestingly, MB tended to move the constituents with the violation (always oblique arguments/adjuncts) to the beginning of the sentence or to another non-canonical position (e.g., dislocating adjuncts immediately before verbs). Thus, he selectively performed “adjunct scrambling”. A detailed experimental task confirmed that MB only moved adjuncts or optional complements. Interestingly, most of the scrambled constituents were prosodically-marked by pitch-peaks as contrastive foci. We argue that MB resorts to scrambling as a syntactic strategy. In doing so, he activates projections that encode information related to the interface between syntax and discourse-pragmatics

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“…On the other hand, there are languages, including Persian, in which the wh-phrase is not required to move to sentence-initial position to form a wh-question. In Persian, wh-questions are in situ by default (Abedi, Moinzadeh, & Gharaei, 2012; Adli, 2010; Gorjian, Naghizadeh, & Shahramiri, 2012; Kahnemuyipour, 2009; Karimi, 2005; Karimi & Taleghani, 2007; Lotfi, 2003; Megerdoomian & Ganjavi, 2000; Mirsaeedi, 2006; Toosarvandani, 2008). 1 In wh-in-situ questions, the wh-phrase occurs at the same site as its declarative counterpart is expected to occur (2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1.The wh-phrase can optionally move to the earlier parts, including the beginning of the sentence (Abedi et al, 2012; Adli, 2010; Gorjian et al, 2012; Kahnemuyipour, 2009; Karimi, 2005; Karimi & Taleghani, 2007; Lotfi, 2003; Megerdoomian & Ganjavi, 2000; Mirsaeedi, 2006; Toosarvandani, 2008) for non-syntactic reasons. These authors claim that the movement of the wh-phrase to earlier parts of the sentence is not triggered by the syntactic (+wh) feature.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, Persian cannot be categorized as a wh-movement language. Adli (2010), Kahnemuyipour (2001), Karimi (2005), Karimi & Taleghani (2007), Lotfi (2003), and Toosarvadani (2008) claim that the wh-phrase moves to earlier parts of the sentence to receive contrastive focus. (1) is an example of a sentence in which the wh-phrase “chi” (what) moves to the beginning of the sentence to receive contrastive focus.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Do Persian Native Speakers Prosodically Mark Wh-in-situ Questions?

2018

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It has been shown that prosody contributes to the contrast between declarativity and interrogativity, notably in interrogative utterances lacking lexico-syntactic features of interrogativity. Accordingly, it may be proposed that prosody plays a role in marking wh-in-situ questions in which the interrogativity feature (the wh-phrase) does not move to sentence-initial position, as, for example, in Persian. This paper examines whether prosody distinguishes Persian wh-in-situ questions from declaratives in the absence of the interrogativity feature in the sentence-initial position. To answer this question, a production experiment was designed in which wh-questions and declaratives were elicited from Persian native speakers. On the basis of the results of previous studies, we hypothesize that prosodic features mark wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives at both the local (pre- and post-wh part) and global level (complete sentence). The results of the current study confirm our hypothesis that prosodic correlates mark the pre-wh part as well as the complete sentence in wh-in-situ questions. The results support theoretical concepts such as the frequency code, the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other, the relation between prosody and pragmatics, and the relation between prosody and encoding and decoding of sentence type.

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Constraint cumulativity and gradience: Wh-scrambling in Persian

Cited by 11 publications

References 83 publications

The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

A-Bar Scrambling in Repetition in a Case of Mixed Transcortical Aphasia: Hints for the Psychological Reality of the Syntax/Pragmatic Interface

Do Persian Native Speakers Prosodically Mark Wh-in-situ Questions?

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