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Annelore Willems, Gert De Sutter Faculty of Translation Studies

Where shall I put this? Distance-to-V, length and verb disposition effects on PP placement in Belgian Dutch. Annelore Willems, Gert De Sutter Faculty of Translation Studies University College Ghent – Ghent University { annelore.willems,gert.desutter }@hogent.be.

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Annelore Willems, Gert De Sutter Faculty of Translation Studies

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  1. Where shall I put this?Distance-to-V, length and verb disposition effects on PP placement in Belgian Dutch Annelore Willems, Gert De Sutter Faculty of Translation Studies University College Ghent – Ghent University {annelore.willems,gert.desutter}@hogent.be New Ways of Analyzing Variation 2012

  2. A multifactorial investigation of PP placement in Dutch subordinate clauses • Refine common assumptions in syntactic and psycholinguistic theory • Dutch language users do not strive at maximally reducing the distance between depending elements Goals

  3. datikSUbinneneenvijftientalondernemingen van de Bel20 contactenhebV-final. that ISUwithin about five enterprises of the Bel20 contacts haveV-final. • Midfield dat ikSU contacten hebV-finalbinnen een vijftiental ondernemingen van de Bel20. that ISU contacts haveV-final within about five enterprises of the Bel20. • Postfield • The structural position before V-final (midfield) is the standard slot for PPs, with the slot after V-final being an expansion tank for an overladen midfield slot (ANS 1997, Jansen 1979) • The distance between SU and V should be reduced as much as possible (Jansen 1979, Van Haeringen 1949) Research object

  4. Dutch Parallel Corpus (DPC) • a 10-million-word, parallel corpus of Dutch, English and French • sentence-aligned with basic linguistic annotations • 5 different text genres but for this presentation only journalistic texts • Data selection: • dependent clauses starting with the grammatical conjunction dat(= that) • PP phrases where variation between extraposition and non-extraposition is possible • Belgian Dutch Method: Corpus and data

  5. Logistic regression analysis and generalised linear mixed model • PP position (midfield vs. postfield) as binary response variable • Predictor variables: • Fixed effects • The length of the PP • The distance-to-V • The distance between V and the end of the clause • Random effects • Verbs • Prepositions Method: Statistical evaluation

  6. Results

  7. Overview general distribution • Monofactorial analysis • Fixed effect 1: Length of PP • Fixed effect 2: Distance-to-V • Fixed effect 3: Distance between V and end • Multifactorial analysis Overview Results

  8. […] dat de Belgen aan de Olympische Spelen deelnamen • […] that the Belgiansin the Olympics take part • […] dat de Belgen deelnamen aan de Olympische Spelen • […] thatthe Belgianstake part in the Olympics Distribution of PPs in midfield or postfield

  9. Operationalised in terms of syllables • Example: • […] dat de Belgen aan /de/ O/lym/pi/sche/ Spe/len deelnamen • = 8 • Also counted in terms of words Fixed effect1: The length of the PP

  10. Fixed effect1: The length of the PP 1 = 2 syllables 2 = 3 to7syllables 3 = 8to 12 syllables 4 = 13 or more syllables AV = postfield MV = midfield

  11. Statistical evaluation: Fixed effect1: The length of the PP

  12. Operationalised for the syllables between SU and V (o.a. Jansen 1978, Gibson 2000) • Example: • datikbinneneenvijftientalondernemingen van de Bel20 con/tac/tenheb. • = 3 syllables • Also counted in terms of words and phrases Fixed effect2: Distance-to-V

  13. Fixed effect2: Distance-to-V 1 = 0 syllables 2 = 1 or 6 syllables 3 = 7 or more syllables AV = postfield MV = midfield

  14. Fixed effect2: Distance-to-V 1 = 0 syllables 2 = 1 or 6 syllables 3 = 7 or more syllables AV = postfield MV = midfield

  15. Fixed effect2: Distance-to-V 1 = 0 syllables 2 = 1 or 6 syllables 3 = 7 or more syllables ? AV = postfield MV = midfield

  16. Statistical evaluation: Fixed effect2: Distance-to-V

  17. Operationalised in terms of syllables • Example: • Dat mensen een sympathieke collega zullen verkiezen als/ part/ner. • = 3 syllable • Also counted in terms of words Fixed effect3: Distance between V and the end

  18. Fixed effect3: Distance between V and the end 1 = 0 syllables 2 = 1 or more syllables AV = postfield MV = midfield

  19. Statistical evaluation: Fixed effect3: Distance between V and the end

  20. No correlation • No interaction • Multicollinearity • C concordance = 0.75 Logistic regression analysis

  21. Verbs and preposition as random variables C Concordance = 0.86 Generalised mixed effect model

  22. Gries, Stefanowitsch 2004: Collostructional analysis • An analysis of the verbs/prepositionsthatare distinctiveforeachconstructionmay help uselucidate the existenceanddegree of fine semanticdifferencesthatmightexplain the different restrictions. Interpretation random effects

  23. Collostructional analysis (Gries,Stefanowitsch2004) : PP disposition

  24. Collostructional analysis (Gries,Stefanowitsch2004) : Verb disposition

  25. Collostructional analysis (Gries,Stefanowitsch2004) : Verb disposition

  26. Postfieldposition is more often preferred than midfield position • PP placement will be determined by • 3 length factors • 2 random effects Summary

  27. Common assumption: dat ik contacten heb V-finalbinnen een vijftiental ondernemingen van de Bel20. • But the structural position before V-final (midfield) is not the standard slot for PPs. Implications for linguistic theory OR Distance-V-end 0.43 > OR Distance-to-V 1.68

  28. Subject and verb in subordinate clauses are mostly not adjacent • Distance between subject and V is not to be reduced as much as possible in Dutch dependent clauses Implications for linguistic theory

  29. Thank you! For further information annelore.willems@hogent.be

  30. The length of the PP [words] 1 = 2 or 3 words 2 = 4 to6words 3 = 7to 11 words 4 = 12 or more words AV = extraposition MV = midfield

  31. Logistic regression analysis: • Correlation = 0.81, p < 2.2e-16 The length of the PP

  32. Distance-to-V [words] 1 = 0 words 2 = 1 or 2 words 3 = 3 or more words AV = extraposition MV = midfield

  33. Distance-to-V [phrases] 1 = 0 phrases 2 = 1 phrase 3 = 2-4 phrases AV = extraposition MV = midfield

  34. Logistic regression analysis: • Correlation [words, syllables] = 0.84, p < 2.2e-16 • Correlation [words, phrases] = 0.64 , p < 2.2e-16 • Correlation [syllables, phrases] = 0.58 , p < 2.2e-16 Distance-to-V

  35. Verbs as random variable Mixed effect in logistic regression: C Concordance = 0.85 Verb disposition

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