The document summarizes a seminar on nucleus placement in English sentences from a cognitive perspective. It discusses two traditional accounts of nucleus placement - grammatical and discoursal - and then proposes applying the Gestalt psychology principle of figure and ground. The seminar will explore how this principle can help explain why the nucleus does not always fall on the last lexical item in sentences, as is usually expected.

1. A Cognitive Approach to Nucleus Placement Liceo Cultural Británico Teacher Training College SATURDAY SEMINAR SEASON 2007 15 September 20007 Prof. Andrea Perticone The Case of the Wandering Nucleus

2. “ Language exists to conceal our thoughts.” (Voltaire) “ People use language to conceal the fact that they have no thoughts.” (Kierkegaard)

3. “ Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden” (Karl Kraus)

4. “ Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.” (Humphrey Davy)

6. Abstract The English Nucleus (the most prominent accent in the sentence) appears to have a vexing habit of wandering around. It often fails to show up where you expect it to be. In this seminar we will explore some accounts of this: the grammatical approach and the discoursal approach. A cognitive approach will be proposed, which employs the notion of Figure and Ground, a principle of Gestalt psychology.

19. ELLIRs-Exceptions to the LLIR NPs which do not follow the LLIR (Nuc doesn’t fall on LLI even though the utterances are in BF) Why don’t the nuclei fall on the LLI?  big topic of this seminar Answers on the next slides

20. ... and how about Nucleus Placement in Spanish???

22. the KETTLE boiling Hierve la PAVA boiling The KETTLE So ...Is Spanish NP really different from English NP? A bit of syntax.... and moving constituents The noun phrase carries Nuc with it to pre-verbal position

24. Nucleus Placement in Exceptions to the LLIR(BF): Grammatical Accounts Underlying assumption: It is the language itself that determines the location of the Nuc Nuc Placement determined by syntactic function, grammatical category and semantic meaning of constituents.

25. Here comes the dreaded bit... Prepare for the rules!!!! Where does the nucleus go???

30. Adverbials of time and place: Spanish Usual position: initial Ayer lo ví a JUAN Lo ví a JUAN ayer. Lo ví a Juan AYER. (no antes de ayer; Juan is old info; NF)

37. Discourse Discourse: takes into account NEW and SHARED INFORMATION SHARED info is anything known by speaker and hearer, the COMMON GROUND DISCOURSE takes into account the context of interaction, e.g time and place where the interaction is taking place

39. * Final CSAT and CSAP, where time and place are treated as shared by speaker and hearer (why?) * Transitive * Adjectival wh- objects: What SUBJECTS did you take ? (both participants know that the hearer takes subjects, not teach them) * Noun Phrases+ predictable verb (inf): I’ve got EXAMS to grade. (why?) *Phrasal verbs: Put your SHOES on. Turn the MUSIC down. (why are ON & DOWN shared?)

40. * Noun Phrases+ short, predictable relative clause: We’ve got to discuss the REPORT he gave. * Causative have/ get: She’s had her HAIR cut. I got my CAR repaired.

41. A “different” look at NP... It’s all in your mind!

42. What’s this?

49. Multistability in visual perception If the white area is the Figure, we see a vase on a black background or Ground. If you make the black area the Figure, you see two profiles on a white Ground . The vase-profile image is perceptually ambiguous:

50. Escher: playing with multistable perception

51. Escher

52. One woman or two women?

54. Not all images can be perceived through multistability...

55. Which is the Figure? Is there multistability here?

56. Which is the Ground?

58. What’s this got to do with Nucleus Placement?!

59. Think of 2 sentences about the image

63. Proposal 3: In ELLIRs, the prominent material (incl. Nucleus) is the Figure and any non-prominent material is the Ground Proposal 2: In NF, the material in focus is the Figure and the old info is the Ground

65. went LONDON Thursday FCSAT: Ground (setting); rest: Figure (event) F&G in BF

66. Put SHOES on Which is the Figure?

68. dogs not ALLOWED here

69. BOMB school

70. SILENCE court

71. hope LIKED seminar