Table 2.
Syntactic categories indicated in column 2, tested in English (column 3), Turkish (column 4) and Cantonese (column 5) ROST tests
| Category | Category/language | English (=26) | Turkish (=13) | Cantonese (=14) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Word order (SVO/SOV*) | X | X* | X |
| B | Article | X | ||
| C | Plural (morpheme) | X | X | |
| D | Pronoun (he/she) | X | X | |
| E | Pronoun (his/her) | X | ||
| F | Pronoun (number) | X | X | X |
| G | Preposition (in/on) | X | X | X |
| H | Preposition (others) | X | ||
| I | Compound noun | X | ||
| J | Negative | X | X | X |
| K | DO/IO | X | ||
| L** | Passive | X | X | X |
| M | Long distance movement | X | ||
| N | Seems | X | ||
| O | Comparative | X | X | X |
| P** | As (adjective) as | X | ||
| Q | S(sR)VO | X | X (R)SOV+ | X |
| R | SVO(sR)+ | X | X S(R)OV+ | X SV(SR)+ |
| S | S(oR)VO | X | X | |
| SVO(oR)+ | X SV(OR)+ | |||
| T | More relative clause | X | ||
| U** | PRO | X | ||
| V | Passive negative | X | X | |
| W | Not as (adjective) as | X | X | |
| X | X but not Y (4 pictures) | X | X | |
| Y | Not only X but also Y (4 pictures) | X | X | |
| Z | Neither X nor Y (4 pictures) | X | X | |
| Classifier (number) | X | |||
| Ba-structure (word order SOV-marker) | X |
The labels used in the text for the syntactic categories are indicated in the left column. An X signifies that the category is tested in ROST for that language. Examples of sentence pairs for each category are given for English at the bottom.
Categories dropped from statistical analysis.
Category Example
A Word order: The man chases the lady/The lady chases the man
B Article: A fish/Some fish
C Plural: Cat/Cats
D Pronoun (he/she): He drinks/She drinks
E Pronoun (his/her): His Cat/Her Cat
F Pronoun (number): He sang/They sang
G Preposition (in/on): In the house/On the house
H Preposition (others): On the table/Under the table
I Compound noun: A car cake/A cake car
J Negative: The boy is not running
K DO/IO: The boy gets the girl a cake/The girl gets the boy a cake
L Passive: The girl is carried by the boy/The boy is carried by the girl
M Long distance movement: The chair that the boy sees, the girl sits on/The chair that the girl sees, the boy sits on
O Comparative: The boy is shorter than the girl/The girl is shorter than the boy
P As (adj) as: The boy is as tall as the girl/The girl is as tall as the boy
Q S(sR)VO: The boy chasing the girl wears a hat/The girl chasing the boy wears a hat
R SVO(R): The boy chases the girl who is tall/The girl chases the boy who is tall
S S(oR)VO: The girl the boy chases, is fat/The boy the girl chases, is fat
T More relative clause: The boy the girl says is sitting/The girl the boy says is sitting
U PRO: The girl wants to get the boy a cake/The boy wants to get the girl a cake
V Passive negative: The girl is not carried by the boy/The boy is not carried by the girl
W Not as (adj) as: The boy is not as short as the girl/The girl is not as short as the boy
X X but not Y: The ship but not the car is red/The car but not the ship is red
Y Not only X but also Y: Not only the car but also the ship is blue/Not only the ship but also the car is red
Z Neither X nor Y: Neither the ship nor the car is blue/Neither the car nor the ship is red