Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy

Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy PDF Author: Isabelle Bril
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027205884
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 645

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Book Description
This collective volume explores clause-linkage strategies in a cross-linguistic perspective with greater emphasis on subordination. Part I presents some theoretical reassessment of syntactic terminologies and distinctive criteria for subordination, as well as typological methods based on sets of variables and statistics allowing cross-linguistic comparability. Part II deals with strategies relating to clause-chaining, conjunctive conjugations, converbial constructions, masdars. Part III centers on the interaction between the syntax, pragmatics, and semantics of clause-linking and subordination, in relation to informa-tional structure, to referential hierarchy, and correlative constructions. Part IV presents insights in the clause-linking and subordinating functions of some T.A.M. markers, verbal inflectional morphology and conjugation systems, which may also interact with informa-tional hierarchy, via the backgrounding effects and lack of illocutionary force of some aspect and mood forms. The volume is of particular interest to linguists and typologists working on clause-linkage systems and on the interface between syntax, pragmatics, and semantics.

Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy

Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy PDF Author: Isabelle Bril
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027205884
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 645

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collective volume explores clause-linkage strategies in a cross-linguistic perspective with greater emphasis on subordination. Part I presents some theoretical reassessment of syntactic terminologies and distinctive criteria for subordination, as well as typological methods based on sets of variables and statistics allowing cross-linguistic comparability. Part II deals with strategies relating to clause-chaining, conjunctive conjugations, converbial constructions, masdars. Part III centers on the interaction between the syntax, pragmatics, and semantics of clause-linking and subordination, in relation to informa-tional structure, to referential hierarchy, and correlative constructions. Part IV presents insights in the clause-linking and subordinating functions of some T.A.M. markers, verbal inflectional morphology and conjugation systems, which may also interact with informa-tional hierarchy, via the backgrounding effects and lack of illocutionary force of some aspect and mood forms. The volume is of particular interest to linguists and typologists working on clause-linkage systems and on the interface between syntax, pragmatics, and semantics.

The Expression of Predicative Possession

The Expression of Predicative Possession PDF Author: Lidia Mazzitelli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110412357
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
This book discusses the constructions used in Belarusian and Lithuanian to express predicative Possession. The work is written within a typological frame: the Belarusian and Lithuanian constructions are analyzed in the light of the typology of the possessive predicative constructions proposed by Heine (1997).

To be or not to be? The Verbum Substantivum from Synchronic, Diachronic and Typological Perspectives

To be or not to be? The Verbum Substantivum from Synchronic, Diachronic and Typological Perspectives PDF Author: Michail L. Kotin
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144388491X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The verbs of the 'to be'-group, also called verba substantiva, belong to the most enigmatic phenomena of the human language. Combining a distinct suppletivity of their conjugational forms in most languages with a striking semantic and functional ambiguity, as well as unique syntactic capabilities, they form a very specific class of linguistic entities. They can be referred to, without exaggeration, as one of the conceptually gravest and most "symptomatic" language formations. Typologically, the be-verbs demonstrate, on the one hand, a set of similar features in almost every language, which is excellent evidence of their universal validity. On the other hand, the differences between these verbs in various language groups and even in particular languages are remarkable proof of language relativism. Historically, the be-verbs show a sequence of relevant stages in their formal, semantic and syntactic developments, which in many aspects coincide with their typological and individual, "idioethnic" features and properties. One can trace, among other things, paths and mechanisms of their development and salient changes of their functions in language systems of different types. Especially important are also changes in the form and function of the be-verbs arising from language contact, for they indicate essential tendencies in the evolution of these entities accelerated by the influence of language interaction triggers. The contribution of to be-verbs to the morphology, semantics and syntax of the majority of the languages of the world is substantial from a number of perspectives, and these verbs belong to the most complex and simultaneously central entities of human language. For this reason their analysis must continually be synchronized with the newest results of general linguistic research. This volume, hence, describes and interprets the to be-verbs and constructions in the broad context of contemporary linguistic research, including synchrony, diachrony, diatopy, language contrast and typology.

Demonstratives and Possessives with Attitude

Demonstratives and Possessives with Attitude PDF Author: Magdalena Rybarczyk
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027268827
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Linking grammatical analyses with ideas about a shareable reality, this book investigates some fascinating ways in which nominal reference is exploited to meet interpersonal and rhetorical goals. It focuses on the use of demonstrative and possessive determiners in Polish discourse and proposes that the phenomenon of deixis be reexamined in the light of linguistic variation. The book illustrates a growing concern with the application of cognitive grammar to the study of situated language use and its social outcomes. What emerges is a new understanding of the role of deictic elements as tools for establishing intersubjective coordination and expressing attitudes. This book is for anyone actively seeking to understand how linguistic systems reflect human socio-cognitive abilities and in what ways reality is mediated through language.

The Diachrony of Verb Meaning

The Diachrony of Verb Meaning PDF Author: Elly van Gelderen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351719025
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This innovative volume offers a comprehensive account of the study of language change in verb meaning in the history of the English language. Integrating both the author’s previous body of work and new research, the book explores the complex dynamic between linguistic structures, morphosyntactic and semantics, and the conceptual domain of meaning, employing a consistent theoretical treatment for analyzing different classes of predicates. Building on this analysis, each chapter connects the implications of these findings from diachronic change with data from language acquisition, offering a unique perspective on the faculty of language and the cognitive system. In bringing together a unique combination of theoretical approaches to provide an in-depth analysis of the history of diachronic change in verb meaning, this book is a key resource to researchers in historical linguistics, theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, and the history of English.

Nominalization in Languages of the Americas

Nominalization in Languages of the Americas PDF Author: Roberto Zariquiey
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 902726273X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
Recent scholarship has confirmed earlier observations that nominalization plays a crucial role in the formation of complex constructions in the world’s languages. Grammatical nominalizations are one of the most salient and widespread features of languages of the Americas, yet they have not been approached as foundational grammatical structures for constructions such as relative clauses and complement clauses. This is due to an imbalance in past scholarship, which has tended to focus on these constructions at the expense of the nominalization structures underlying them. The papers in this collection treat grammatical nominalizations in their own right, and as a starting point for the investigation of their uses in complex grammatical structures. A representative sample of Amerindian languages, with focus on South America, examines properties of grammatical nominalizations such as their multiple functions, their internal and external syntax, and their diachronic development. Among the far-reaching theoretical conclusions reached by the studies in this volume is that the various types of relative clauses recognized in the typological literature are actually no more than epiphenomena arising from the different uses of grammatical nominalizations.

The Present Perfect and the Preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English

The Present Perfect and the Preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English PDF Author: Xinyue Yao
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027248605
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
This book examines developments in the use of the present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and contemporary English, with a focus on American and British English. Drawing on neo-Gricean pragmatics, it proposes a novel and principled analysis of the verb forms’ context-independent meanings and context-dependent inferences. State-of-the-art corpus linguistic methods are used to track their functional changes over two and a half centuries. The book presents new evidence of grammatical change and offers a compelling, contact-based account of regional variation. It brings together the insights of various fields, including formal semantics, historical linguistics, linguistic typology, and variationist sociolinguistics.

Language Contact in Europe

Language Contact in Europe PDF Author: Bridget Drinka
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316841804
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
This comprehensive new work provides extensive evidence for the essential role of language contact as a primary trigger for change. Unique in breadth, it traces the spread of the periphrastic perfect across Europe over the last 2,500 years, illustrating at each stage the micro-responses of speakers and communities to macro-historical pressures. Among the key forces claimed to be responsible for normative innovations in both eastern and western Europe is 'roofing' - the superstratal influence of Greek and Latin on languages under the influence of Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism respectively. The author provides a new interpretation of the notion of 'sprachbund', presenting the model of a three-dimensional stratified convergence zone, and applies this model to her analysis of the have and be perfects within the Charlemagne sprachbund. The book also tackles broader theoretical issues, for example, demonstrating that the perfect tense should not be viewed as a universal category.

Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-Canonical

Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-Canonical PDF Author: Marja-Liisa Helasvuo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027269181
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This volume analyzes constructions with non-canonical subjects in individual languages and cross-linguistically, drawing on insights from cognitive and discourse-functional linguistics. Prototypical subjects have often been characterized in terms of their semantic, syntactic and discourse features, such as animacy, agentivity, topicality, referentiality, definiteness and autonomy of existence of the subject referent. A non-canonical subject is one that lacks some of these features. This may be reflected in its meaning, grammatical coding, and/or discourse function. In discussing non-canonical subjects in individual languages and cross-linguistically, the chapters in the volume address the following more general topics: What kinds of grammatical, semantic and discourse criteria can be used to distinguish subjects from non-subjects? To what extent are subject criteria construction-specific? What kinds of constructions have non-canonical subjects? What are the semantic and discourse functions of constructions with non-canonical subjects? Are subjects which are grammatically non-canonical also atypical in terms of their discourse features?

Dependency Linguistics

Dependency Linguistics PDF Author: Kim Gerdes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027270163
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
This volume offers the reader a unique possibility to obtain a concise introduction to dependency linguistics and to learn about the current state of the art in the field. It unites the revised and extended versions of the linguistically-oriented papers to the First International Conference on Dependency Linguistics held in Barcelona. The contributions range from the discussion of definitional challenges of dependency at different levels of the linguistic model, its role beyond the classical grammatical description, and its annotation in dependency treebanks to concrete analyses of various cross-linguistic phenomena of syntax in its interplay with phonetics, morphology, and semantics, including phenomena for which classical simple phrase-structure based models have proven to be unsatisfactory. The volume will be thus of interest to both experts and newcomers to the field of dependency linguistics and its computational applications.