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Where to place inaccessible subjects in Dutch: The role of definiteness and animacy
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory ( IF 2.143 ) Pub Date : 2017-09-26 , DOI: 10.1515/cllt-2013-0021
Jorrig Vogels , Geertje Van Bergen

Abstract Cross-linguistically, both subjects and topical information tend to be placed at the beginning of a sentence. Subjects are generally highly topical, causing both tendencies to converge on the same word order. However, subjects that lack prototypical topic properties may give rise to an incongruence between the preference to start a sentence with the subject and the preference to start a sentence with the most accessible information. We present a corpus study in which we investigate in what syntactic position (preverbal or postverbal) such low-accessible subjects are typically found in Dutch natural language. We examine the effects of both discourse accessibility (definiteness) and inherent accessibility (animacy). Our results show that definiteness and animacy interact in determining subject position in Dutch. Non-referential (bare) subjects are less likely to occur in preverbal position than definite subjects, and this tendency is reinforced when the subject is inanimate. This suggests that these two properties that make the subject less accessible together can ‘gang up’ against the subject first preference. The results support a probabilistic multifactorial account of syntactic variation.

中文翻译:

荷兰语中难以接近的主题的放置位置:确定性和生气勃勃的作用

摘要跨语言地,主题和话题信息都倾向于放在句子的开头。主题通常是高度主题化的,导致两种倾向都集中在相同的词序上。但是,缺少原型主题属性的主题可能会导致在使用主题开始使用句子的偏爱和使用最容易获取的信息开始使用句子的偏爱之间产生不一致。我们提供了一个语料库研究,其中我们调查在荷兰自然语言中通常会发现哪些此类难以接近的主题在什么句法位置(前或后)。我们研究了话语可及性(确定性)和内在可及性(动画)的影响。我们的结果表明,确定性和生气勃勃在确定荷兰语中的主题位置时会相互影响。非指称(裸露)对象比确定对象更不容易出现在言语位置,当对象无生命时,这种趋势会增强。这表明,这两个使主体难以接近的属性可以“增强”主体的第一偏好。结果支持句法变异的概率多因素说明。
更新日期:2017-09-26
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