Yanru Lu

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik

Yanru Lu’s primary research interests are morphology, syntax and the syntax-semantics interface. She is also trained in experimental methods in psycholinguistics. In the context of A04, Yanru is conducting experiments to validate the statistically induced register categories as a cognitive reality. She investigates the social meanings of topic drop in German and Chinese by conducting experiments, and subsequently models them with Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

Projects

MGK Integrated Graduate School
A04 Building register into the architecture of language – an HPSG account

Contact

Dorotheenstr. 24, D-10117 Berlin

(030)2093-9642

Publications & Presentations

    Publications

  • Varaschin, Giuseppe; Machicao y Priemer, Antonio; Lu, Yanru  (2024) Topic drop in German: Grammar and usage  In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar [DOI] [ViVo]
    German topic drop clauses are a subtype of declarative clauses where the initial position (usually filled by an overt constituent) is left empty. It is often noted that topic drop appears mainly in specific registers (e.g. spoken dialogues), but this claim has neither been previously experimentally validated, nor formally implemented. In this paper, we report the results of a matched-guise study which indicate that the syntactic variation between topic drop and regular V2 declaratives in fact correlates with different social meanings, leading to the register variation postulated in the literature. In order to model German speakers' grammatical and register knowledge about topic drop in HPSG we propose, (i) a unified grammatical constraint that licenses topic drop structures, (ii) a formal theory of register that treats social meanings as a type of use-conditional content subject to compositional rules.

    • Presentations