i n f l e c t i o n a l i s l a n d s sally rice & john newmanjohnnewm/islands.pdf · 2005. 7....

I N F L E C T I O N A L

I S L A N D S

Sally Rice & John Newman

University of Alberta

CANADA

STRUCTURE OF THE TALK

I. describe what we mean by “inflectional islands”

II. survey examples from published literature and our own queries of the BNC

III. suggest implications for linguistic theory, lexicography, typology, and psycholinguistic research

• children tend to use uninflected verb roots before inflected forms

• verb inflections are mastered on a verb-by-verb basis

• generalization is gradual

• initially, particular verbs “strand” inflections

• adults use particular inflected forms of individual verbs on a register-specific basis

• verb inflections adhere to verbs on a verb-by-verb basis

• particularization is gradual

• eventually, inflections “strand” particular verbs

THE VERBISLAND HYPOTHESIS

Tomasello 1992, 2004

THE INFLECTIONAL ISLAND HYPOTHESIS

Rice & Newman 2005

V < < < inflection V > > > inflection

they

go

we

go

s/he/it

goes

you

go

I

go

PRES

they have/had

gone

we have/had

gone

s/he/it has/had

gone

you have/had

gone

I have/had

gone

PERF

they are/were

going

we are/were

going

s/he/it is/was

going

you are/were

going

I am/was

going

PROG

we

wentwe need to

go1.PLthey

wentthey need to

go3.PL

s/he/it

went

you

went

I

went

PAST

s/he/it need to

go3.SG

you need to

go2

I need to

go1.SG

INF

GO

An English Verb Paradigm: SUBJ x TAM

GO

Frequency Distribution in BNC

PRES PERFPROG

1.PL

3.PL

PAST

3.SG

2

1.SG

INF

GO


6 %

0 %

4 %

10 %

3 %

PRES

3 %

0 %

2 %

0 %

0 %

PERF

2 %

2 %

15 %

3 %

4 %

PROG

1 %6 %1.PL

1 %2 %3.PL

10 %

0 %

2 %

PAST

13 %3.SG

2 %2

6 %1.SG

INF

words in context(WICs)

+• distribution patterns of

inflected forms

• collocations & N-grams

• susceptibility togrammaticalization

• pragmatic associations

lemmas

• argument structure(s)

• syntactic constructions

• lexical meaning

VVB - present, imperativego

VVZ - 3SG.presentgoes

VVI - infinitivego

VVD - pastwent

VVG - progressivegoing

VVN - perfectgone

conversation

fiction

news

academic discourse

GO


��

��

��

��

��

��

��

conversation

they

think

we

think

s/he/it

thinks

you

think

I

think

PRES

they have/had

thought

we have/had

thought

s/he/it has/had

thought

you have/had

thought

I have/had

thought

PERF

they are/were

thinking

we are/were

thinking

s/he/it is/was

thinking

you are/were

thinking

I am/was

thinking

PROG

we

thoughtwe need to

think1.PLthey

thoughtthey need to

think3.PL

s/he/it

thought

you

thought

I

thought

PAST

s/he/it needs to

think3.SG

you need to

think2

I need to

think1.SG

INF

THINK

Another English Verb Paradigm

3 %

2 %

0 %

2 %

93 %

PRES

4 %

0 %

10 %

11 %

75 %

PERF

6 %

12 %

9 %

8 %

65 %

PROG

7 %2 %1.PL

4 %1 %3.PL

5 %

2 %

82 %

PAST

7 %3.SG

10 %2

80 %1.SG

INF

THINK

Frequency Distribution in BNCcc

THINK

��

��

�� !��

��

��

��

��

��

��


THINK

��

��

�� !��

��

��

��

��

��

��


��

��

��

��

��

Say something about Tao’s findings here

THE INFLECTIONAL ISLAND HYPOTHESISRice & Newman 2005

• uneven distribution of inflection

• verbs (and verb classes) have “weighted” inflectional profiles

• weightings may be universal (experientially motivated)

• inflectional categories are lexically & pragmatically meaningful(and not just part of grammatical house-keeping or concord relationships)

• especially “weighty” inflected verbs (WICs) may grammaticalize

V > > > inflection

searched BNC with Mark Davies’ corpus tool:Variation in English Words and Phrases: http://view.byu.edu

de-lemmatized the verb (re-inflectionalized it)downloaded 100 hits each for every verb matching a BNC tag

factored in genre/registerCasual Conversation (4.2M sub-corpus)

tracked subject & TAM distributioncoded each hit for subject, tense, complement type, etc.

examined inflectional “skew”

Looking for Islands (Stranded Verbs)

rumour

rid

allow

rain

some classic stranded verbs (inflectional islands)

!"#$"!

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

�+�

�

�+�

�

�+�

�

�� , ��

!"#$"!��%"&'�(��)#�

��

��

��

rumour

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

%�*+ ,��-��&.��!"#$"!./

-��.

/�''&�(�0�1�#�

��#�*%2)

(%2%('2��

�*#�*#2�(*%�

2%('2��

0�12� 1 ��-��&.��!"#$"!./

-��.

(%"

�12��

�

*�1�#��2�3�"*#�

%*%�

• 100M BNC

• 273 hits

• 2.8 (freq per M)

• not in casual conversation

rumour

��&.�3�1��3 ��4��

)55$6

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

��

��

��

��

��

�� , ��

!�/

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

��

��

��

��

��

�

��

!�

�� , ��

ridallow

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

)55$6

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

��

��

��

��

��

�� , ��

��* ��

��

!�/

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

��

��

��

��

��

�

��

!�

�� , ��

� ��3��-ridallow

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

rain!)��

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

�

��

��

��

��

�� , ��

!)��

��

�

��

!

�

��

�

�

��

��

��

��

��

��,

��

��

�

4(�4

��52��#�

��

��1�&�

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

��3�

��7��3��

think

know

want

mean

some emerging stranded verbs (inflectional islands)

think ��"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�� , ��

�

89

9 :

88 8:

!��

�,3��

&�0

��

��

�� !��

��

��

��

��

��

��

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

know ��$6"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�� , ��

8

�

;��<

��

��=��

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

mean

VVB-base

VVZ-3sg.pres

VVI-inf

VVD-past

VVG-prog

VVN-perf part

#.)��%�*+ ,��(��)#�

��

��

��

��

��

��

�� (%/��

#.)�

"#�$��%�&��#�'())(*%

�

��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�3��

�� , ��

�

� �8 �� 89� �8

eat

drink

say

tell

some unexpected stranded verbs (inflectional islands)

LEMMAS vs. WICs

implications of usage-based grammars

leaving lemmas behind

substituting words-in-context (WICs) as the starting point of linguistic analysis

A Dene Verb Paradigm

d4mtth’iheheketheda3

dumtth’ithuhketh8da2

deth7ltth’ith7kethida1

PLDUSGsit.IMPF

i n f l e c t i o n a l i s l a n d s sally rice & john newmanjohnnewm/islands.pdf · 2005. 7....

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