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Should it move or should it stay? How speakers of two Basque dialects organize meaningful elements in transitive clauses

Goergens, Anne LU (2015) SPVR01 20152
Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
Abstract
This thesis investigates word order patterns in spoken Basque for two dialects, Navarrese-Lapurdian and Gipuzkoan. The data for the analysis was elicited with stimuli pictures in an experiment in dialogue form. The 26 participants were from Hazparne (Lapurdi), Donostia, and Andoain (both Gipuzkoa). The data consists of transitive main clauses, both questions and declaratives with nominal subject and object, some uttered in a neutral context, others with a focused subject, and others with a focused object. Every sentence contained 2-4 verbal elements (lexical verb, inflectional auxiliary, ari, saiatu/entseatu). The data confirmed previous findings: the basic word order of Basque is A O V. The focused NP or WH-word has to be left-adjacent to... (More)
This thesis investigates word order patterns in spoken Basque for two dialects, Navarrese-Lapurdian and Gipuzkoan. The data for the analysis was elicited with stimuli pictures in an experiment in dialogue form. The 26 participants were from Hazparne (Lapurdi), Donostia, and Andoain (both Gipuzkoa). The data consists of transitive main clauses, both questions and declaratives with nominal subject and object, some uttered in a neutral context, others with a focused subject, and others with a focused object. Every sentence contained 2-4 verbal elements (lexical verb, inflectional auxiliary, ari, saiatu/entseatu). The data confirmed previous findings: the basic word order of Basque is A O V. The focused NP or WH-word has to be left-adjacent to the verb but this rule can be broken in Navarrese-Lapurdian, where the constituents can also occur in situ. It was also confirmed that Navarrese-Lapurdian speakers use a marked focus, in which the focused NP or WH-word is followed by the auxiliary only. Surprisingly, this pattern was also found for the speakers from Andoain. Moreover, it was found that the variety of orders in which verbal elements can follow the focused NP or WH-word is bigger than assumed. These orders underlie a common pattern: the auxiliary moves to the left of the focused NP or WH-word and can pied-pipe other verbal elements, beginning with the one deepest embedded in the structure of the verb phrase. Pied-piping was found to be optional for the speakers from Hazparne and Andoain but obligatory for the speakers from Donostia. Furthermore, the data indicates in which way the change from obligatory adjacency of focus/WH-word and verb to in situ is about to happen in the Hazparnian dialect. It also shows that both dialects try to be as economical as possible in trying to avoid movements from the underlying word order A O V, where possible. Furthermore it shows that the two dialects are complex in a different way: while the obligatory adjacency of focused NP/WH-word in Gipuzkoan forces certain movements, the Navarrese-Lapurdian dialect is complex as two structures exist parallel to each other. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Goergens, Anne LU
supervisor
organization
course
SPVR01 20152
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
free word order, Basque, Navarrese-Lapurdian, Gipuzkoan, focus, information structure, structural priming, economy, Galdegaia, in situ, pied-piping, markedness, complexity, syntactic movement
language
English
id
8408712
date added to LUP
2015-12-17 12:46:40
date last changed
2015-12-17 12:46:40
@misc{8408712,
  abstract     = {{This thesis investigates word order patterns in spoken Basque for two dialects, Navarrese-Lapurdian and Gipuzkoan. The data for the analysis was elicited with stimuli pictures in an experiment in dialogue form. The 26 participants were from Hazparne (Lapurdi), Donostia, and Andoain (both Gipuzkoa). The data consists of transitive main clauses, both questions and declaratives with nominal subject and object, some uttered in a neutral context, others with a focused subject, and others with a focused object. Every sentence contained 2-4 verbal elements (lexical verb, inflectional auxiliary, ari, saiatu/entseatu). The data confirmed previous findings: the basic word order of Basque is A O V. The focused NP or WH-word has to be left-adjacent to the verb but this rule can be broken in Navarrese-Lapurdian, where the constituents can also occur in situ. It was also confirmed that Navarrese-Lapurdian speakers use a marked focus, in which the focused NP or WH-word is followed by the auxiliary only. Surprisingly, this pattern was also found for the speakers from Andoain. Moreover, it was found that the variety of orders in which verbal elements can follow the focused NP or WH-word is bigger than assumed. These orders underlie a common pattern: the auxiliary moves to the left of the focused NP or WH-word and can pied-pipe other verbal elements, beginning with the one deepest embedded in the structure of the verb phrase. Pied-piping was found to be optional for the speakers from Hazparne and Andoain but obligatory for the speakers from Donostia. Furthermore, the data indicates in which way the change from obligatory adjacency of focus/WH-word and verb to in situ is about to happen in the Hazparnian dialect. It also shows that both dialects try to be as economical as possible in trying to avoid movements from the underlying word order A O V, where possible. Furthermore it shows that the two dialects are complex in a different way: while the obligatory adjacency of focused NP/WH-word in Gipuzkoan forces certain movements, the Navarrese-Lapurdian dialect is complex as two structures exist parallel to each other.}},
  author       = {{Goergens, Anne}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Should it move or should it stay? How speakers of two Basque dialects organize meaningful elements in transitive clauses}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}