LinguaPub Date : 2025-07-03DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104006
Sang-Hee Park , Jungsoo Kim
{"title":"An Experimental Investigation into Voice Mismatches in Pseudogapping: Insights from Acceptability Judgments and Processing","authors":"Sang-Hee Park , Jungsoo Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the acceptability and processing of the pseudogapping construction, focusing on the puzzle of voice mismatch between the antecedent and elliptical clauses (e.g., <em>My problem will be looked into by Tom, but he won’t yours.</em>). While syntactic accounts predict ungrammaticality for such mismatches, semantic accounts suggest that they should be acceptable. Through two acceptability judgment experiments and a self-paced reading experiment, we examine how these mismatches interact with factors that are known to influence ellipsis: information structure and the syntactic complexity of the antecedent. Results of the acceptability judgment experiments indicate that voice mismatch consistently lowers acceptability, with its impact varying by interaction with information structure and antecedent complexity. The self-paced reading experiment further shows that voice mismatch leads to longer reading times both at and before the ellipsis site. In addition, information structure and antecedent complexity independently influence processing, with the latter also modulating the effects of voice mismatch. These findings suggest that pseudogapping is not entirely resistant to syntactic mismatches; however, its judgment and processing are shaped by factors beyond syntactic identity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"325 ","pages":"Article 104006"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144549113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-07-03DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103999
Yaxin Wu , Ying Hu , Elliott M. Hoey
{"title":"Projecting incongruity in turn and action: the TCU-medial particle ha in Chinese conversation","authors":"Yaxin Wu , Ying Hu , Elliott M. Hoey","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103999","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103999","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the interactional function of the particle <em>ha</em> in TCU-medial position in Chinese talk-in-interaction. While <em>ha</em> is generally recognized as a modal particle that solicits affirmation or confirmation in sentence-final position, and functions as a theme indicator, politeness marker, or filler in sentence-medial position, our analysis of naturally occurring conversational data reveals a distinct interactional use. Specifically, speakers deploy <em>ha</em> in mid-TCU to project relations of inconsistency, adversativeness, contrast, or unexpectedness between components within the same TCU. When occurring in responsive turns, <em>ha</em> also serves to foreshadow disalignment and/or disaffiliation with the prior speaker’s action. This projectability contributes to the organization of turn-taking by helping recipients anticipate the forthcoming incongruity and orient toward a possible transition-relevance place. In doing so, <em>ha</em> affords recipients additional processing time to prepare a response that is interactionally fitted to the projected stance or action. This study contributes to our understanding of grammar-in-interaction and projection in turn construction and action. Data are presented in Chinese with English translation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"325 ","pages":"Article 103999"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144549112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-07-02DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104003
Julia Krebs
{"title":"How animacy impacts word order in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS): Evidence from sentences with inanimate subject arguments","authors":"Julia Krebs","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cross-linguistic evidence shows that the animacy of event participants may impact the syntactic structure in language production. This study examines the effect of animacy on word order and the previously observed preference for subject-initial orders in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS). Therefore, word order in two sets of transitive sentences with inanimate subject arguments was tested by a production task. In particular, word order was examined in structures with an inanimate subject and an animate object argument, as well as in sentences with two inanimate arguments. Deaf fluent signers were asked to sign event descriptions elicited by stimuli that included a picture illustrating the subject argument, a picture showing the object argument, and a verb presented as a written gloss. Data analysis provides support for SOV as the basic order in ÖGS and demonstrates the robustness of the subject preference, even in sentences with inanimate subject arguments. Furthermore, while animacy does not override the subject preference in ÖGS, the data suggest that it may still influence word order in this language.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"325 ","pages":"Article 104003"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144523684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104005
Rui Xie , Yao Yao , Wenkang Zhang , Andrew K.F. Cheung
{"title":"Language interference in Mandarin Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting: insights from multi-dimensional syntactic complexity","authors":"Rui Xie , Yao Yao , Wenkang Zhang , Andrew K.F. Cheung","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Simultaneous interpreting (SI), a cognitively demanding task that requires real-time language comprehension and production, is influenced by source speech complexity. While extensive research has utilized mean dependency distance (MDD) to examine interpreted language, the interaction between MDD and genre in SI remains underexplored. Through the lens of cross-linguistic interference, this study investigates the influence of MDD in Mandarin Chinese source speech on the syntactic complexity of English output in SI, with a focus on the moderating effect of genre. We used the Presser Corpus, a parallel corpus of professionally interpreted press conferences that encompasses six sub-corpora across three genres: economics, healthcare, and politics/governance. The results reveal that the MDD of the source speech strongly affects the syntactic complexity of the SI output, especially at the clausal level. Pairwise comparisons indicated that the relationship between source speech MDD and syntactic complexity in interpreted outputs exhibits genre-dependent variability, as significant positive correlations were discovered in healthcare and politics/governance genres. These findings provide insights into the interplay of dependency distance and genre in shaping task difficulty and cognitive effort in Mandarin Chinese–English SI. The results have theoretical and practical implications for interpreter training and professional practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"325 ","pages":"Article 104005"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144513764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104004
Jian Li , Heng Chen
{"title":"Lexical-semantic and morphological co-development in L2 Chinese: a complex network approach","authors":"Jian Li , Heng Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using a complex network approach, this study explores the co-development of lexical-semantic knowledge and morphological awareness in second language (L2) Chinese learners. By tracking specific network metrics—such as the steady decline in density (ND) alongside non-monotonic shifts in weighted average degree (WAD) in the lexical-semantic networks, and the persistent rise in average degree (AD) in the word-formation networks—across three proficiency levels, we show how learners move from breadth-focused vocabulary growth toward deeper semantic integration, while their characters show enhanced compounding productivity and cohesive morphological linking. A strong correlation between these two competences is observed, with pivotal characters serving as critical links between the networks. While lexical-semantic knowledge and morphological awareness in L2 Chinese learners co-develop with increasing proficiency, they remain distinct from those of native Chinese speakers. These findings underscore the necessity of integrated, targeted, and stage-specific instructional strategies to facilitate the development of learners’ lexical competence. The study also provides practical insights for teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) through quantitative and visual analyses of L2 development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"325 ","pages":"Article 104004"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144490974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-24DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103988
Isaac N. Mwinlaaru
{"title":"Is there a polarity-prominent language? A typological perspective on Dagaare verbal systems","authors":"Isaac N. Mwinlaaru","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103988","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103988","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To date, the three-tier typology of verbal systems into tense-prominent, aspect-prominent and mood-prominent proposed by Shankara Bhat at the end of the twentieth century seems to have stuck. The present study reveals a novel type of prominence in Dagaare (Niger-Congo: Mabia/Gur), namely polarity prominence. The study shows that distinctions in <span>tense</span>, <span>mood</span> and <span>modality</span> are cast in terms of <span>polarity</span>. First, the tense category of <span>futurity</span> makes positive and negative distinctions in both future and non-future. Second, indicative and imperative moods are essentially distinguished by polarity markers unique to each mood, and the sub-types of each mood are shades of polarity. This polarity-based mood distinction extends beyond the verbal domain to the domain of clause final particles and focus marking, establishing polarity concord between items of the verbal group and periphery elements of the clause. In addition, the interaction between <span>polarity</span> and <span>modality</span> enacts a cline of polarity from full positivity to full negation with a median modality in the mid region. The study also demonstrates that, although Dagaare verb morphology encodes perfective/imperfective aspectual distinction, <span>aspect</span> is not a competing candidate for prominence in the language. The study reveals that a robust empirical framework of prominence needs to go beyond verbal inflection and as well incorporate finiteness into the criteria of prominence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103988"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144470601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-20DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998
Myung Hye Yoo , Sanghoun Song
{"title":"Dynamics of scope ambiguities: comparative analysis of human and large language model performance in Korean","authors":"Myung Hye Yoo , Sanghoun Song","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how native Korean speakers and large language models (LLMs) resolve scope ambiguities and integrate them with discourse information, focusing on interactions between negation and quantificational phrases (QPs). The objectives were twofold: (i) to determine whether the general preference for surface scope interpretations and integration with discourse information persists in complex syntactic constructions in Korean, which require refined processing, and (ii) to assess how well LLMs comprehend and integrate semantic structures compared with human performance. The results showed a preference for surface scope among Korean speakers but did not rigidly hold against the inverse scope, particularly influenced by object QPs or long-form negation, even when contexts favor an inverse scope. LLMs developed by OpenAI—GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4o—align with human judgments, mainly favoring surface scope interpretations when contexts favor the inverse scope. However, when the context supports an inverse scope, discrepancies in the handling of syntactic nuances are evident. This model tends to overgeneralize the inverse scope in specific configurations in which humans typically find the inverse scope more accessible. These findings highlight the challenges of mimicking human linguistic processing and the need for further refinement of language models to improve their interpretive accuracy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103998"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144322914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-19DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002
Xiaobei Zheng , Yageng Li
{"title":"Perspective-taking in referential discourse among Mandarin-speaking children during three-party conversations","authors":"Xiaobei Zheng , Yageng Li","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During conversations, individuals continuously need to take others’ perspectives to constrain the referential domain. The present study specifically investigates how 3-year-old Mandarin-speaking children take the visual perspectives of two partners in three-party communications. In two experiments, two speakers took turns instructing children to identify objects on a shelf, using critical nouns that semantically matched two identical referents from the child’s visual perspective. However, one of these referents might not be visible to the speakers. The critical nouns were presented in the form of bare nouns, allowing for definite or generic interpretations in the Mandarin context, leading to a competition between single and dual references. In Experiment 1, when both speakers only saw one shared candidate object, children preferred definite interpretations, using their partners’ perspectives to narrow the referential domains. However, in Experiment 2, one of the speakers could see both candidate objects while the other could see only the shared one. Results showed that children tended to interpret both partners’ discourse similarly and preferred generic interpretations. Additionally, eye-tracking data indicated that children implicitly processed each partner’s visual perspective. This research sheds light on visual perspective-taking strategies among 3-year-old children in a Mandarin context and provides insight into how children integrate multiple perspectives in communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 104002"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-18DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979
Maïa Ponsonnet
{"title":"The semantic typology of expressive interjections: colexifications in pain, disgust and joy interjections across languages","authors":"Maïa Ponsonnet","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Expressive interjections are most likely a universal feature of human languages, yet for the moment we know very little about their typology. This article presents the first broad-scale cross-linguistic study on the semantic typology of expressive interjections. Specifically, the study examines colexification patterns, i.e. which experiences tend to be expressed by the same interjections. Based on lexicographic sources, we assembled a data set of 523 interjections expressing pain, disgust or joy in a diverse sample of 144 languages. We then inventoried which other meanings (or ‘colexifications’) associate with these three experiences. The analysis revealed that pain, disgust and joy all associate with a large and diverse set of experiences, with significant overlap. However, there are strong contrasts regarding the most prevalent colexifications, delineating a number of experience clusters. Pain interjections often express generic negative emotions, sorrow, fear, and compassion. Disgust interjections often express dislike or disapproval, contempt, and to some extent irritation. Joy interjections often express admiration, approbation and congratulations. Pain and disgust associate preferentially with negative experiences, and joy with positive experiences. At the same time, disgust and joy share a preference for socially-oriented experiences, which is not matched by pain. Importantly, all three experiences frequently associate with surprise, presumably because it is neutral in valence. The pivotal role of surprise in the semantic networks delineated by interjections is a question for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103979"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
LinguaPub Date : 2025-06-07DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989
Kamil Długosz , Megan Brown-Bousfield
{"title":"The acquisition of grammatical gender in German as an additional language: A comparison of L1 English and L1 Polish learners with and without knowledge of other gendered languages","authors":"Kamil Długosz , Megan Brown-Bousfield","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the acquisition of lexical and syntactic knowledge of grammatical gender in German as an additional language (Ln) among L1 Polish speakers (whose native language has grammatical gender) and L1 English speakers (whose native language lacks grammatical gender), both with and without proficiency in other non-native gendered languages (primarily Spanish). We tested learners of German as an additional language at lower to upper-intermediate proficiency levels using two tasks: a gender decision task and an acceptability judgment task with correction. Our findings provide consistent evidence for a significant advantage of L1 Polish learners over L1 English speakers in both gender assignment and gender agreement, regardless of German proficiency. Notably, L1 Polish learners do not exhibit lexical gender congruency effects, suggesting that their advantage is not due to gender overlaps between Polish and German. Instead, our results indicate that the mere presence of a grammatical gender feature in L1 facilitates Ln gender acquisition. Additionally, knowledge of other gendered languages heightens learners’ sensitivity to gender agreement violations in German. Finally, participants’ performance varies by case, showing higher judgment accuracy for definite phrases in the nominative but no defaulting to a specific gender.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103989"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}