This dissertation investigates experimentally the role of Question-Answer Congruence (QAC, von St... more This dissertation investigates experimentally the role of Question-Answer Congruence (QAC, von Stechow 1990, Rooth 1985, 1992) in child language acquisition and adult sentence processing. Specifically, I present two case studies: sentences with "only" and sentences with the Rise-Fall-Rise contour (RFR, Jackendoff 1972). Case study 1 investigates a long-standing puzzle concerning the acquisition of "only." Since Crain et al. (1994), many studies report children display difficulties understanding sentences with pre-subject "only" while having no difficulty with pre-verbal "only." The current study manipulates the levels of QAC to study the puzzle. The results show that QAC plays a significant role in the asymmetry between Subject-only vs. VP-only, and more generally, both children and adults are sensitive to QAC, with congruence facilitating processing, and incongruence interfering with processing. We conclude that the cost of the accommodation ...
In the present study, we investigate the aspectual properties and the syntactic nature of Persian... more In the present study, we investigate the aspectual properties and the syntactic nature of Persian ‘become’. Based on the careful examination of degree-achievement predicates (including motion verbs and gradual change-of-state predicates), we show that Persian ‘become’ is not inherently telic (contra what has been proposed in the literature) and that resultativity, brought about by the preverb or a secondary predicate, gives rise to telicity in Persian complex predicates with ‘become’. Further, we argue, based on the so-called passive form of Persian complex predicates, that Voice and little v are two distinct projections and that Persian ‘become’ is a Non-Active Voice head above vP. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol22/iss1/17 U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 22.1, 2016 On the Semantics and Syntax of Persian ‘become’ Negin Ilkhanipour and Ayaka Sugawara
Quantifier Raising (QR) is an instance of covert movement – movement which has been argued to lac... more Quantifier Raising (QR) is an instance of covert movement – movement which has been argued to lack an explicit cue for children to acquire. Significant attention has been given to the acquisition of QR in the literature, and many studies of the acquisition of QR have investigated children’s ability to interpret sentences where different scope relations are relevant. Some early studies reported that children have difficulty understanding readings that require QR (Musolino 1998, Musolino et al. 2000, Lidz and Musolino 2002). However, more recent studies have shown that children at the age of four have QR in their grammars (Lidz et al. 2004, Gualmini 2004, Musolino and Lidz 2006, Conroy et al. 2009, among others). The early studies of QR only focused on scope relations between quantified phrases, or between a quantified phrase and negation, and quite poor performance has been accounted for by difficulties “processing” quantified sentences. It is well-known that these cases can be accou...
This dissertation investigates experimentally the role of Question-Answer Congruence (QAC, von St... more This dissertation investigates experimentally the role of Question-Answer Congruence (QAC, von Stechow 1990, Rooth 1985, 1992) in child language acquisition and adult sentence processing. Specifically, I present two case studies: sentences with "only" and sentences with the Rise-Fall-Rise contour (RFR, Jackendoff 1972). Case study 1 investigates a long-standing puzzle concerning the acquisition of "only." Since Crain et al. (1994), many studies report children display difficulties understanding sentences with pre-subject "only" while having no difficulty with pre-verbal "only." The current study manipulates the levels of QAC to study the puzzle. The results show that QAC plays a significant role in the asymmetry between Subject-only vs. VP-only, and more generally, both children and adults are sensitive to QAC, with congruence facilitating processing, and incongruence interfering with processing. We conclude that the cost of the accommodation ...
In the present study, we investigate the aspectual properties and the syntactic nature of Persian... more In the present study, we investigate the aspectual properties and the syntactic nature of Persian ‘become’. Based on the careful examination of degree-achievement predicates (including motion verbs and gradual change-of-state predicates), we show that Persian ‘become’ is not inherently telic (contra what has been proposed in the literature) and that resultativity, brought about by the preverb or a secondary predicate, gives rise to telicity in Persian complex predicates with ‘become’. Further, we argue, based on the so-called passive form of Persian complex predicates, that Voice and little v are two distinct projections and that Persian ‘become’ is a Non-Active Voice head above vP. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol22/iss1/17 U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 22.1, 2016 On the Semantics and Syntax of Persian ‘become’ Negin Ilkhanipour and Ayaka Sugawara
Quantifier Raising (QR) is an instance of covert movement – movement which has been argued to lac... more Quantifier Raising (QR) is an instance of covert movement – movement which has been argued to lack an explicit cue for children to acquire. Significant attention has been given to the acquisition of QR in the literature, and many studies of the acquisition of QR have investigated children’s ability to interpret sentences where different scope relations are relevant. Some early studies reported that children have difficulty understanding readings that require QR (Musolino 1998, Musolino et al. 2000, Lidz and Musolino 2002). However, more recent studies have shown that children at the age of four have QR in their grammars (Lidz et al. 2004, Gualmini 2004, Musolino and Lidz 2006, Conroy et al. 2009, among others). The early studies of QR only focused on scope relations between quantified phrases, or between a quantified phrase and negation, and quite poor performance has been accounted for by difficulties “processing” quantified sentences. It is well-known that these cases can be accou...
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