bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Makonde
Authors: Kraal Peter
Published: March 2014

There have been a number of reports in the linguistic literature, dating back to the beginning of the previous century, about a ‘weak/strong’ or ‘conjoint/disjoint’ distinction between verbal forms in Bantu languages. Some linguists described the distinction as follows: Only the disjoint form can be used in final sentence position, implying a break between the verb and what follows, whereas the conjoint form implies a continuity. The present study of two Makonde variants spoken in southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique pays detailed attention to this distinction between verbal forms as part of a general overview of participant marking in the present volume; it also shows that the conjoint/disjoint distinction exists between (nominal) specifiers as well. This distinction is based on pragmatics, with focus and information structure of the sentence in general being the key words connected with this distinction.
The notion of oblique subject and its status in the history of Icelandic
Authors: Faarlund Jan Terje
Published: March 2014

The term ‘oblique subject’ is used in recent descriptions of Icelandic about NPs that behave syntactically like subjects without having nominative case. Data in support of such an analysis can easily be found in Modern Icelandic. Various linguists have assumed that also Old Icelandic has oblique subjects. In this paper I first discuss the notion of oblique subject on a metatheoretical basis. My claim is that oblique subject is not an empirical entity, it is a result of a decision to use it as a descriptive device because it may yield a more economical or elegant description of certain facts about the language. The main body of the paper is a thorough examination of the kinds of data that have been used in support of an oblique subject analysis for Old Icelandic, supplemented by some of my own additional data. It turns out that the set of subject properties of Old Icelandic is different (smaller) than that of Modern Icelandic, and the result of this examination is that Old Icelandic does not exhibit data that call for an oblique subject analysis. The final section of the paper offers an account of the diachronic process that may have led to the kind of structure that justifies an oblique subject analysis of Modern Icelandic. This process is a reanalysis leading to a change in the possible content of the Specifier position of IP, whereby it has become an exclusive subject position. Non-nominative NPs in that position may have kept their oblique case, and become oblique subjects.
Towards personal subjects in English
Authors: van Gelderen Elly
Published: March 2014

The paper examines the well-known change from impersonal to personal subject from the point of view of a slight person split in Old and Early Middle English: third person pronouns remain impersonal longer than first or second person. This split is shown to be linked to the different rates of disappearance of morphological Case in the first, second, and third person paradigm by arguing that the change from impersonal to personal involves the loss of inherent/lexical/semantic Case and the introduction of structural Case. Both changes are indicative of a larger typological change from synthetic to analytic, which can be seen as a change from Interpretable to Uninterpretable features.
Focus and universal principles governing simplification of cleft structures
Authors: Harris Alice C.
Published: March 2014

Harris and Campbell (1995: Chapter 7) propose specific universals governing processes that simplify biclausal structures, including the simplification of focus clefts to monoclausal focus constructions. In particular, it is claimed there that after a biclausal construction is reanalyzed as monoclausal, the main verb governs the syntax of the single-clause structure, even though conservative coding rules (e.g. case marking, agreement, word order) at first make it appear that the derived auxiliary governs those constituents that originated in its clause.

Since the writing of that book, another example has come to light. Synchronic data on the typology of focus in North East Caucasian (NEC) languages by Konstantine Kazenin (1994, 1995, 1996) provide the basis for the present study of diachronic development of biclausal and monoclausal focus structures in these languages and make it possible to test the claims referred to above. It is argued in the present paper that some NEC languages have a focus cleft and/or a monoclausal focus construction, historically derived from (1). It is shown that the derived monoclausal structures in various NEC languages have the range of properties predicted in Harris and Campbell (1995). Additional data show a different development of biclausal focus in Udi, a NEC language not treated by Kazenin.
Subject and object in Old English and Latin copular deontics
Authors: Miller D. Gary
Published: March 2014

The history of deontic expressions in several languages reveals some naturalness in (a) constructions involving BE plus infinitive/gerundial, (b) thematic object initially surfacing in the nom, (c) reanalysis via case accommodation in neuters to a structure in which the thematic object surfaces in the acc, and (d) animates being first to adopt the change obligatorily. Neuters permitted two analyses of the theme argument: (i) nom subject; (ii) acc object. BE and non-neuters of most word-classes favor the nom subject analysis. In Latin, impersonals in -um favored an object analysis. In Latin and OE the possibility of analyzing the agentive dative as a quirky subject in the (OE) type us is to ponder the word/what is us to ponder shifted the cues in favor of an analysis of the theme as structural object, whence overt acc objects.
The loss of lexical case in Swedish
Authors: Norde Muriel
Published: March 2014

One of the most fundamental changes in the history of the Germanic languages was the loss of inflectional case marking. This paper will discuss the mechanisms involved in the decline of inflectional case systems with special reference to the loss of lexical case in Swedish. It will be seen that the decline of lexical case was by no means a straightforward affair. The tendency towards loss was powerfully counteracted by tendencies of maintenance, which managed to slow down the eventual collapse of the case system. Ultimately, these opposed tendencies can be identified as the conflicting interests of the speaker and the hearer, or ease of production vs. ease of perception. This will be illustrated by a case study in changes in prepositional case assignment.
The king is on huntunge
Authors: de Groot Casper
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses the diachronic development of two periphrastic constructions in Old and Middle English, He wæs huntende and He wæs on huntunge, into the progressive in Modern English. The literature on the origin of the progressive offers several hypotheses for explaining the coalescence of the two constructions. This paper offers a new hypothesis based on the consideration that the first construction, consisting of be + present participle, developed into the progressive, and that the second construction, consisting of be + on + verbal noun, was originally a construction denoting absence. The evidence for the coalescence comes from a partial overlap in the semantics of the progressive and the absentive, and the fact that progressives often originate from spatial constructions.
Grammar as an adaptive evolutionary product
Authors: Givón T.
Published: March 2014

The functional correlates of grammatical constructions can be given heuristically as (i) “the discourse context within which the grammatical construction is used”. They can also be given as the more cognitive-sounding (ii) “the communicative intent of the speaker using the construction”. In this paper I will suggest that the cognitive-sounding definition (ii) above needs to be specified more precisely in cognitive terms, bringing it in line with more up-to-date work in cognitive neuro-science. More specifically, I will suggest that in using grammar, speakers create mental models of the knowledge (epistemic) and intention (deontic) states of their interlocutors, in a way already implicit in H. P. Grice’s work. These models are created rapidly, on-line, automatically and with high specificity of the ever-shifting communicative context. The traditional pragmatic notions of “communicative context” (i) and “communicative intent” (ii) may thus be expressed more precisely in terms of so-called “Theories of Mind”, i.e. the mental models socially-cooperative organisms build of the presumed mental states of their cooperating interlocutors.
Towards an integrational approach in linguistics
Authors: Stoevsky Andrei
Published: March 2014

Integrationism has had a rather chequered history in post-Saussurean linguistics. This paper chronicles some of its manifestations and argues, to put it paradoxically, that crossing the dividing lines in the well-known dichotomies, langue vs. parole, synchrony vs. diachrony, internal linguistics vs. external linguistics, etc., does not amount to a methodological transgression. A substantial part of the discussion also bears on the issue of what counts as an adequate explanation. The aim of this study is to lend support to the view that given the complexity of language, both internally and in its relation to cognitive and social systems, truly explanatory adequacy is achievable only by applying an integrational approach.
Problems in NP structure
Authors: Davies Eirian C.
Published: March 2014

This paper considers a textual example of the nominal group found in a British tabloid daily newspaper (The Sun), with a view to examining how far two standard treatments of nominal group/noun phrase structure, directed at a student readership, account for the pattern of pre-modification found in it. The two works referred to are, Greenbaum, S. and R. Quirk (1992) A Student’s Grammar of the English Language, and, Halliday, M.A.K. and C.M.I.M. Matthiessen (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd edn). Halliday’s functional category of ‘classifier’ and Greenbaum and Quirk’s category of ‘noun pre-modifier’ largely overlap, and rules for the relative sequence of different elements in NP/nominal group structure in these two accounts have a good deal in common. Problems with the analysis of the chosen example exist for both. The main distinction between these accounts with respect to pre-modification lies in Halliday’s proposal of a division between a logical and an experiential basis for nominal group analysis. Using the example given, the suggestion is made that these two dimensions are not mutually independent, and that a case can be made that it is set inclusion attributes of the experiential structure that determine the features dealt with under the heading ‘logical structure’ in Halliday’s account.
Patterns of multiple theme and their role in developing English writing skills
Authors: Hannay Mike
Published: March 2014

This paper looks at patterning in multiple themes in written English. Adopting a view of theme in declarative SVO clauses which extends up to the grammatical subject and its non-restrictive postmodifications, and building on an earlier study by Smits (2002), it uses corpus data to identify three major patterns, labeled “stepwise”, “focalizing” and “grounding”. All three patterns are used by advanced learners of English in their writing, but the stepwise pattern is significantly overused while the others are underused. In light of the relevance of these patterns for writing text conforming to the C levels of the Common European Framework of Reference, the paper argues for the development of study and exercise material making use of data from learner corpora.
The English Contrastive Discourse Marker instead
Authors: Fraser Bruce
Published: March 2014

This paper examines the English Contrastive Discourse Marker instead as it occurs both in written and spoken discourse. I conclude that there are two primary uses for instead: a “pseudo-action” use, where instead signals a contrast between a non-occurring action and an occurring action; and an “actual-action” use, where it signals a contrast between two occurring actions. I then discuss the semantic restrictions on the discourse segments contrasted with each of these two uses and find them mutually exclusive. Finally, I look at instead in combination with and, but, and so.
Global and local attention in task-oriented conversation
Authors: Lavid Julia
Published: March 2014

The genre of task-oriented conversation has not received much attention within the linguistic literature, but its study is highly relevant for spoken dialogue systems, where dialogue is focused on accomplishing a concrete task. Using a sample of 30 dialogues, randomly selected from a larger corpus of appointment-scheduling dialogues, this paper investigates how speakers focus their global and local attention as the dialogue progresses. It is expected that the results of this empirical investigation will shed light on the global and local attentional features of this type of task-oriented conversations and will contribute to a better understanding of this important cognitive component of discourse processing.
Modality across World Englishes
Authors: Collins Peter
Published: March 2014

This paper reports a corpus-based study which examined the uses of the modals and semi-modals which express meanings associated with prediction and volition (will, shall, be going to/gonna, want to/wanna, and be about to) in British, American and Australian English. Quantitative findings relating to regional and stylistic variation are presented, and consideration is given to the possible influence upon the relative popularity of modal uses of ‘Americanization’ and ‘colloquialization’. It is suggested that these socially-driven dissemination processes provide possible explanations for, inter alia, the differing fortunes of the moribund shall on the one hand and on the other those of the popular semi-modals be going to/gonna and want to/wanna.
Indirect pronominal anaphora in English and French
Authors: Cornish Francis
Published: March 2014

While for certain linguists (e.g. Erkü & Gundel, 1987) and psycholinguists (e.g. Sanford et al., 1983), using unaccented third person pronouns to refer to implicit referents is impossible or highly marked, for other linguists (e.g. Yule, 1982) and psycholinguists (e.g. Greene et al., 1994), this is not only acceptable but common in normal conversational discourse. If we draw a principled distinction between two main types of implicit referent (central or nuclear referents, and peripheral ones), then both sides in the debate may be correct. The results of two reading experiments in both English and French conducted to test this distinction showed indeed that object pronominal reference to implicit referents only caused slower reading times compared to explicit referents for peripheral referents.
Referential collaboration with computers
Authors: Maes Fons , Marcelis Pascal , Verheyen Frank
Published: March 2014

“Is the referential behavior of language users sensitive to the human vs. computer nature of the addressee? In a production experiment participants were asked to help a distant partner to solve a problem by identifying objects on a computer screen. The addressee was either a distant human or a distant computer who/ which was in need of the information. The addressees either provided feedback or not. The results show that human addressees trigger more overspecified referential expressions than computer addressees in a non-feedback situation. In the feedback conditions, the nature of the addressee had no effect. The results suggest differences between humans and computers, not only in terms of users’ evaluations, attitudes and motivation, but also in terms of assumptions on cognitive capacities.”
Metaphorical anaphors
Authors: Skirl Helge
Published: March 2014

Metaphorical anaphors are a special case of textual anaphors which occur in stylistic expressive texts. They have not yet been sufficiently investigated either by theories of metaphor or by theories of anaphors. In my paper I show that the identification and comprehension of metaphorical anaphors has to be characterized as a phenomenon of the semantics-pragmatics interface. They can best be described within the cognitive theory of text-world models. I also show different types of metaphorical anaphors and what authors do to facilitate their comprehension. The procedural costs of metaphorical anaphors, which has been shown by psycholinguistic research, are generally counterbalanced by the rich content they convey, but the specific features of that content have to be studied in more detail.
Corpus-based and machine learning approaches to anaphora resolution
Authors: Strube Michael
Published: March 2014

Anaphora resolution is an important component of natural language processing applications like information extraction, question answering, or automatic summarization. These applications have to deal with unrestricted input which is difficult to process with symbolic anaphora resolution methods. If trained on unrestricted input, machine learning based anaphora resolution methods can robustly deal with a wide variety of input documents. Those methods are mostly implemented as binary classification realizing models of local inference. While this makes the task accessible to standard machine learning techniques, it has the drawback that knowledge about the context is lost. Based on a critical assessment of the state-of-the-art, models of global inference are introduced as a possible alternative.
Trends in the diachronic development of Semitic verbal morphology in typologically different contexts
Authors: Banti Giorgio
Published: March 2014

Five languages belonging to two different Semitic language groups, namely Koranic Arabic, Egyptian Cairene Arabic, Maltese, Ge c ez and Harari are examined in order to assess the diachronic development of three areas of their verbal morphology: (a) how many inflectional classes can be distinguished in the Basic Form and in different derived forms, (b) how many stems they have for marking tense and mood distinctions, and (c) how the Imperfect and Jussive inflectional prefixes are vocalized. Because of the complexity of Semitic verbal systems, only the Basic Form and the derived D-, L-, t D- and t L-forms of strong triradical roots are examined. Within this strictly defi ned sample of languages and infl ectional paradigms, a marked difference is observed between how the Arabic languages and the Ethio-Semitic ones develop through time in the three above areas.
Inalienability and emphatic pronominal possession in European and Mediterraneanlanguages
Authors: Manzelli Gianguido
Published: March 2014

Although possession is one of the most widely studied topics in linguistics, this is not true of pronominal possession and emphatic pronominal possession. The present paper is a survey of the different morphosyntactic strategies adopted to express both emphatic pronominal possession and inalienability in a representative sample of European and Mediterranean languages. The primary focus is to investigate possible connections among areally contiguous languages which belong to different groups and families and are often typologically distant.
Complex nominal determiners: A contrastive study
Authors: Mirto Ignazio Mauro , Necker Heike
Published: March 2014

This paper advances the idea that in German, Italian and English multi-word determiner phrases, termed Complex Nominal Determiners (CND), exist which are formed by at least a noun (N1) followed by a preposition ( von, di, of ). CNDs either quantify the referent of the noun they determine (N2) or simultaneously quantify and qualify it. Syntactic tests show that the structure of NPs with a CND can be paralleled to that of clauses with support verbs (Double Analysis) insofar as they are structurally ambiguous. N2, traditionally regarded as a dependent ( of -phrase), can be the phrasal head. Semantic tests provide evidence that in a CND N1 carries neither referential nor lexical meaning and works as a functionword. Our study is based on data drawn from a written corpus for German and two corpora (written and spoken) for Italian. The data for English mainly comes from electronic dictionaries.
Re: duplication. Iconic vs counter-iconic principles (and their areal correlates)
Authors: Stolz Thomas
Published: March 2014

This article provides a new vista of an old problem, viz. the supposed counter-iconic nature of a variety of reduplicative patterns which encode categories such as diminution, attenuation, etc. It is argued that even these categories are iconically represented by reduplication because iconicity is not tied to an increase in size of the entities referred to by the reduplicative construction. Iconicity applies if the semantic description of the quality encoded by reduplication is more complex than the one necessary for the description of the non-reduplicated pattern. This new understanding of iconicity is illustrated by examples of total reduplication drawn from a world-wide convenience sample of languages. Circum-Mediterranean languages are given special emphasis in the final discussion.
Gender, number, and indefinite articles: About the 'typological inconsistency' of Italian
Authors: Stark Elisabeth
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses some typologically signifi cant correlations in nominal determination systems found in the family of Romance languages, specifi cally French, Italian, and Spanish. It proposes to reinterpret the complex system of indefi nite nominal determination in French and Italian, which both feature an indefi nite article and a partitive article, as devices of nominal classifi cation in a broad sense, marking the conceptually important distinction between a single, delimited referent and a non-delimited substance. It is argued that this classifi cation system arose when nominal declension in Latin, which differentiated these two referentially highly relevant cognitive concepts via overt gender and number affi xes, got partially or completely lost. In contrast to modern central Romance languages, like French, which require rather obligatory (indefi nite) determination in almost every argument position and have developed indefi nite articles coding countability on the level of noun phrase, modern peripheral Romance languages like Spanish allow bare arguments to a larger extent and do not possess an explicit marker of non-countability. How to position Italian in this broad typology inside the family of Romance languages will be discussed in some detail and diachronically explained by its complex evolution of its nominal paradigms.
The definite article in non-specific object noun phrases: Comparing French and Italian
Authors: Kupisch Tanja , Koops Christian
Published: March 2014

Italian allows for the use of the definite article in non-specific direct object NPs ( mettersi la giacca ‘put on a jacket’, avere il gatto ‘have a cat’). However, in French, the corresponding constructions typically take only the indefinite article ( se mettre un blouson, avoir un chat ). We present a corpus analysis and a questionnaire study which both establish a striking contrast between French and Italian on this point. We argue that the more widespread use of the Italian definite article in this non-specific function shows that it is further grammaticalized than its French counterpart. This conclusion calls for a reconsideration of the widespread view of French as the language with the more grammaticalized article system.
The discourse-functional crystallization of DP from the original demonstrative
Authors: Abraham Werner
Published: March 2014

In Abraham (this volume), grammatical determiners of various sorts were discussed in regard of the extent to which such determiners co-define anaphors in contexts reaching beyond the single clause. Making use of its findings, the present discussion shows how the defi nite article emerged in the history of German from the determiner homonym and how various steps in their grammaticalization paths invite certain generalizations of diachronic change.
Determinerless noun phrases in Old Romance passives
Authors: Bartra-Kaufman Anna
Published: March 2014

In this paper we take the existence of Bare Noun Phrases acting as subjects or displaced complements as evidence for the licensing properties of Functional Categories other that Determiner Phrase in earlier stages of Romance Languages such as Spanish and Catalan. The fact that in Spanish and Catalan subjects in passive sentences can be licensed inside the Verb Phrase also facilitates the use of BNPs in this context.
3. East Nusantara as a linguistic area
Authors: Klamer Marian A.F. , Reesink Ger P. , Staden Mirjam van
Published: March 2014

In this paper we consider how Eastern Indonesia may be treated as a linguistic area. We propose five defining linguistic features and we discuss their occurrence in some 40 Austronesian (AN) and non-Austronesian (NAN) languages of South Sulawesi, Flores, Sumba, Timor, Alor and Pantar, the Moluccas, Halmahera, the Bird’s Head, and the Cenderawasih Bay. We propose that of these five areal features, three are Papuan features that have diffused into the Austronesian languages, while two Austronesian features have diffused into the Papuan languages. These Papuan features are: (1) possessor-possessum order in adnominal possession, (2) overt marking of the distinction alienable vs. inalienable possession, and (3) clause-final negation. While these features are not generally found in Austronesian, we will demonstrate that they occur in many Austronesian languages in East Nusantara and around the Bird’s Head, as well as in the Papuan languages of this area. The Austronesian features are: (4) SVO as primary constituent order, and (5) an inclusive/exclusive opposition in the pronominal paradigm. These features are not found in Papuan languages in general, yet they are attested in both the Papuan and the Austronesian languages of East Nusantara, as we will demonstrate. Although the features do not all converge on the same isoglosses, together they define a linguistic area: East Nusantara. This area has Halmahera and the Bird’s Head as its core, and radiates outwards to include the Moluccas and Alor/Pantar first, followed by the island Timor.
4. The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area
Authors: Crevels Mily , van der Voort Hein
Published: March 2014

The Guaporé-Mamoré region is one of the world’s linguistically most diverse regions, with over 50 languages representing eight different stocks and 11 genetic isolates. In spite of the fact that these languages diverge enormously at the lexical level, they do seem to share a considerable number of structural features. Most of these languages are seriously endangered, but fortunately recent research initiatives have contributed to their documentation and led to new insights and data. This paper reviews the present research situation with regard to these languages and examines possible areal linguistic relationships in the Guaporé-Mamoré region.
Grammatical complexity in cross-linguistic perspective
Authors: Miestamo Matti
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I address theoretical and methodological issues in the cross-linguistic study of grammatical complexity. I identify two different approaches to complexity: the absolute one – complexity as an objective property of the system, and the relative one – complexity as cost/difficulty to language users. I discuss the usability of these approaches in typological studies of complexity. I then address some general problems concerning the comparison of languages in terms of overall complexity, and argue that in typological studies of complexity it is better to focus on specific domains that are comparable across languages. Next, I discuss a few general criteria for measuring complexity. Finally, I address the relationship between complexity and cross-linguistic rarity.
Complexity trade-offs between the subsystems of language
Authors: Fenk-Oczlon Gertraud , Fenk August
Published: March 2014

Starting from a view on language as a combinatorial and hierarchically organized system we assumed that a high syllable complexity would favour a high number of syllable types, which in turn would favour a high number of monosyllables. Relevant cross-linguistic correlations based on Menzerath’s (1954) data on monosyllables in eight Indo-European languages turned out to be statistically significant. A further attempt was made to conceptualize “semantic complexity” and to relate it to complexity in phonology, word formation, and word order. In English, for instance, the tendency to phonological complexity and monosyllabism is associated with a tendency to homonymy and polysemy, to rigid word order and idiomatic speech. The results are explained by complexity trade-offs between rather than within the subsystems of language.
Complexity trade-offs in core argument marking
Authors: Sinnemäki Kaius
Published: March 2014

Languages have often been claimed to trade off complexity in one area with simplicity in another. The present paper tests this claim with a complexity metric based on the functional load of different coding strategies (head/dependent marking and word order) that interact in core argument marking. Data from a sample of 50 languages showed that the functional use of word order had a statistically significant inverse dependency with the presence of morphological marking, especially with dependent marking. Most other dependencies were far from statistical significance and in fact provide evidence against the trade-off claim, leading to its rejection as a general all-encompassing principle. Overall, languages seem to adhere more strongly to distinctiveness than to economy.
Why does a language undress? Strange cases in Indonesia
Authors: McWhorter John H.
Published: March 2014

I have argued in various presentations that it is inherent to natural grammars to maintain a considerable level of complexity over time: simplifications occur, but are counterbalanced by complexifications due to grammaticalization, reanalysis, and new patterns created by phonetic erosion. I argue that only extensive acquisition by adults makes grammars simplify to a significant overall degree. Creoles are the extreme case, but languages like English, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, and Indonesian are less complex than their sister languages to a degree that correlates with their extensive histories of non-native acquisition at certain points on their timelines. In this paper I address a few cases in Indonesia that challenge my stipulation. The grammatical simplicity of Riau Indonesian and the languages of East Timor is due to adult acquisition. Meanwhile, a few completely analytic languages on Flores suggest either that my stipulation must be taken as a tendency, or that we can take the nature of the languages as spurs for investigating sociological disruption in the past.
Morphological complexity as a parameter of linguistic typology: Hungarian as a contact language
Authors: de Groot Casper
Published: March 2014

The paper builds on studies on Hungarian spoken outside Hungary (Fenyvesi (ed.) 2005), which show a change from synthetic to analytic expression in Hungarian in contact. It argues that a parameter of morphological complexity is helpful to account for most morphological changes. With one exception the changes follow the strategy of replicating use patterns (Heine & Kuteva 2005). Other changes arise by implication of a different typological system adopted by the new varieties of Hungarian (De Groot 2005a). A detailed comparison between Hungarian inside and outside Hungary in terms of linguistic complexity (Dahl 2004) confirm to the idea that languages in contact become linguistically more complex. The paper furthermore discusses the interaction between typology, language change by contact, and complexity.
Language complexity and interlinguistic difficulty
Authors: Lindström Eva
Published: March 2014

This paper explores the related but distinct issues of linguistic complexity and difficulty, as from the viewpoint of an adult learner. Language complexity is seen as an objective property of a system, which could in principle be computed mathematically, while difficulty is grounded in the particular person who experiences the difficulty, involving factors such as the linguistic categories present and the nature of their marking in the learner’s own language. This reasoning will be illustrated with one non-Austronesian language, Kuot, and its three Austronesian neighbours, Nalik, Notsi and Madak, of north-central New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.
Complexity in nominal plural allomorphy: A contrastive survey of ten Germanic languages
Authors: Dammel Antje , Kürschner Sebastian
Published: March 2014

We investigate the complexity of nominal plural allomorphy in ten Germanic languages from a contrastive and diachronic perspective. Focusing on one language family allows us to develop multidimensional criteria to measure morphological complexity and to compare different diachronical drifts. We introduce a three-step complexity metric, involving (1) a quantitative step, (2) a qualitative step, and (3) a validation step comparing the results from step (1) and (2) to actual language use. In this article, we apply the method’s two first steps to the plural allomorphy of our sample languages. Our criteria include for (1) the number of allomorphs and for (2) iconicity in form-meaning relationship, the basis of allomorph assignment, and the direction of determination between stem and suffix. Our approach reveals Faroese as the most complex language and English as the simplest one.
The simplicity of creoles in a cross-linguistic perspective
Authors: Parkvall Mikael
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the possibility of quantifying complexity in languages in general, and in creoles in particular. It argues that creoles are indeed different from non-creoles, primarily in being less complex. While this has been argued before, this is the first attempt to prove it through the use of an extensive typological database. It is noteworthy that the diff ering complexity is not related to the relative lack of morphology in creoles, since they are also simpler than analytical languages. Finally, the parallels between pidgins and creoles (and in particular the fact that languages sociologically intermediate between the two categories are also structurally intermediate) support the increasingly questioned belief that pidgins are born out of pidgins.
Determination in endocentric and exocentric languages: With evidence primarily from Danish and Italian
Authors: Korzen Iørn
Published: March 2014

In this paper it is argued that there is a correlation between lexico-semantic specificity and a tendency towards textual “promotion” of nouns (and, also, of verbs). Textually promoted nouns serve as “instantiators” of nominal “occurrences”, i.e. first, second or third order entities, and in order for a noun to instantiate an entity in a text, a coding of the feature [± identifiable to the hearer] is needed (possibly along with other features as well). In other words: generally, the noun must appear with a determiner. In fact, there is a general tendency for Romance nouns (which are lexically more specific than Germanic ones) to appear with a determiner, whereas Germanic nouns much more often appear undetermined and, possibly, incorporated in verbal or prepositional structures. The mentioned correlation hypothesis is substantiated with evidence mainly from Danish and Italian.
English th- forms
Authors: Bernstein Judy B.
Published: March 2014

This paper develops the idea that English words like the, they, this, and existentialthere share an initial th- morpheme, which is identified as a 3rd person marker unspecified for number and gender. Also developed is the proposal that person is a property of D (head of the functional projection “Determiner Phrase”). Not adopted is the idea that definiteness or deixis is inherently encoded in D, although the proposal is compatible with an approach that takes these features to be derivationally associated with D. The proposed analysis therefore departs from that of Lyons (1999), who argues that the features person and definiteness are conflated and simultaneously associated with D.
Stating the case for þ- root and hw- root determiners
Authors: Klinge Alex
Published: March 2014

In this article I will show that the existence of coherent classes of determiners based on pan-Germanic þ- and hw- roots, such as English ‘this’ and ‘which’ and German ‘diese’ and ‘welche’, make it necessary to reanalyse the syntactic classes and paradigmatic contrasts in the functional domain of Germanic DPs. It will be argued that the two þ- and hw- morphemes contain procedural semantics which encodes two contrasting ways that a referent may be identified for an index in a propositional form. I will focus on English and German, but reference will also be made to Danish.

As a first step it will be argued that there is no coherent syntactic class of articles. Then I will draw on etymological and comparative data, and on morphological and distributional facts to show that the two morphemes have been remarkably resilient across Germanic languages for more than a thousand years. Finally, I will anchor their resilience in their semantic and pragmatic raison d’être.
On certain differences between noun phrases and clauses
Authors: Fukui Naoki , Zushi Mihoko
Published: March 2014

Along with the noted similarities that have prompted much important study in the development of the theory of phrase structure and movement, nouns and verbs (and their projections) exhibit remarkable differences. These differences have often been neglected or otherwise discredited in favor of the similarities that have been a target for novel proposals regarding the internal structures of noun phrases and clauses. This paper tries to pin down the locus of the differences, and identifies the fundamental difference between noun phrases and clauses as the fact that noun phrases (nominal expressions) have a singlelayered internal structure having a single phase and are completed (or “closed”) in terms of licensing of internal elements, whereas clauses have a double-layered internal structure with two internal phases one of which (vP) is not completed (or “open”) in the sense that outside probes (namely, C and C-T) play a role in determining the inner workings of vP. The paper argues in a preliminary form that from this fundamental difference (which itself seems to be rooted in considerations of the C-I interface, i.e., clauses are propositions while nominal expressions are typically arguments), various syntactic differences between the two classes of categories, particularly those with respect to A-movement and A’-movement, naturally follow.
Determination, nominalisation and conceptual processing
Authors: Dam-Jensen Helle
Published: March 2014

The purpose of this article is to account for the interpretive process initiated by nominalisations in Spanish. I shall start from the assumption that both morphological nominalisations and syntactic nominalisations, in which a determiner merges with either an infinitive phrase or a complementizer phrase, generate a complex interpretive process due to a clash between an interpretation in terms of ‘entity’, on the one hand, and an interpretation as ‘situation’, on the other. I shall substantiate this claim by analysing nominalised infinitive phrases, nominalised complementizer phrases and morphological nominalisations.
Epistemological aspects of indeterminacy in postmodernist science
Authors: Budin Gerhard
Published: March 2014

This paper critically discusses the concept of ‘indeterminacy’ as it has developed over time in some scientific disciplines, in particular in their post-modernist communities. Against this background, some epistemological implications of the concept of ‘indeterminacy’ for terminology studies are suggested.
Vague legal concepts
Authors: Simonnaes Ingrid
Published: March 2014

Translated by Benjamin D. Tyrybon

“Ernst: Wovon ich einen Begriff habe, das kann ich auch mit Worten ausdrücken.

Falk: Nicht immer; und oft wenigstens nicht so, daß andre durch die Worte vollkommen eben denselben Begriff bekommen, den ich dabei habe.” (Lessing 1948: 65)

Against the background of modern terminology theory (e.g. Picht 1993), I examine the concept of vagueness as it relates to legal concepts. It is often assumed in lay circles that, generally, legal concepts are or must be clear (and unambiguous). Legal experts (e.g. Heck 1932, Zingel 2001) claim on the contrary that many legal concepts are vague and only shed this inherent property after interpretation. I present some empirical evidence in support of the view that many legal concepts are inherently vague.
Präzision versus Vagheit
Authors: Arntz Reiner , Sandrini Peter
Published: March 2014

The tension between precision and indeterminacy is an intrinsic feature of legal language. Specialist communication, and legal language has to be regarded as such, aims at utmost precision to avoid any form of ambiguity. On the other hand, laws and statutes define general rules for citizens and must be comprehensible to all. Moreover, they have to be adapted to changing social realities. All this leads to varying degrees of indeterminacy in the different legal systems. The paper describes indeterminacy in legal language and proposes ways to handle this problem in order to improve the management of multilingual terminology as well as to optimise the translation of legal texts. An adapted terminographical methodology based on the principles of comparative law helps to overcome the lack of equivalence between concepts from different legal systems. Another important issue is the harmonisation of the law which implies a harmonisation of legal concepts and eventually a harmonisation of terms.
1. Coordinating constructions
Authors: Haspelmath Martin
Published: March 2014

1.Coordination: Basic concepts and terms

1.1 Coordination

1.2 Basic patterns

1.3 Semantic types of coordination

2. The position of the coordinator(s)

3. Category-sensitivity of coordinating constructions

4. Semantic distinctions in conjunction

5. From comitative to conjunctive marker

6. Semantic maps

7. Inclusory constructions

8. Disjunction

9. Extraction from coordinating constructions

10.Ellipsis in coordination

11.Coordination and subordination/dependency
2. Coordination in Mentalese
Authors: Ohori Toshio
Published: March 2014

1.Introduction: Mental logic meets linguistic typology

2. Against the universality of coordination

2.1 The universalist claim formulated

2.2 Cross-categorial uniformity

2.3 Category-internal uniformity

3. The relationship between and and or

3.1 Underdifferentiation

3.2 Some asymmetries between and and or

3.3 Implications

4. Mentalese from the bottom up

5. Conclusion
Prepositional wars: When ideology defines preposition
Authors: Krivoruchko Julia G.
Published: March 2014

The paper examines the changes in the distribution and connotations of Russian prepositional phrases na Ukraine vs. v Ukraine triggered by the acquisition of independence by Ukraine. Background information about the distribution of constructions in 19–20th century Russian and Ukrainian is provided. The importance of the prepositional construction in the context of the language policy of Ukrainian state is stressed, and the changing norms of contemporary Russian exemplified. It is argued that while retaining its dominance in oral speech, the constructions na Ukraine (Russ.) and na Ukraїni (Ukr.) ceased to be stylistically unmarked, and both na Ukraine and v Ukraine became indexical of socio-cultural identities and value-conferring.
A monosemic view of polysemic prepositions
Authors: Tobin Yishai
Published: March 2014

Prepositions are notorious for being “polysemic”. One of Zipf ’s laws is that the smaller a form, the more frequently it will be used, and the more meanings and functions it will have attributed to it. The Hebrew preposition l- ‘to’ has at least seventeen dictionary entries and the Hebrew preposition b- ‘in’ has at least fifteen and some of these dictionary meanings overlap. In this paper, I will view both of these prepositions as linguistic signs (in the Saussurean sense) and present a signifié or a single invariant or core meaning for each that will account for all of its messages and uses as well as explain the differences between them.
Formulaic tendencies of demonstrative clefts in spoken English
Authors: Calude Andreea S.
Published: March 2014

Despite having been noted as a frequent construction in spoken language, little has been said about the demonstrative cleft. Clefts such as that's what I am talking about, or that's what I mean, are not entirely fixed in their structure; however, they do exhibit recurring patterns and “preferred formulations” (Wray 2006: 591). An investigation of demonstrative clefts in excerpts of spontaneous conversations from the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English shows that, aside from being the most frequent cleft type in conversational English, the cleft is characterized by structural fixedness, fluency, and non-salient reference. As claimed by Ford, Fox and Thompson, grammar is (in general) “a collection of crystalizations of routines” (2002: 120); and nowhere is the emergent (Hopper 1987, 2001) nature of grammar more clear than in spoken language. The demonstrative cleft is an example of such a routine, and thus worth investigating further.
Analytic vs. synthetic verbal constructions in Chukchi and West Greenlandic
Authors: Fortescue Michael
Published: March 2014

In both Chukchi and West Greenlandic, there are certain circumstances where a choice exists between an analytic and a corresponding synthetic construction. These cases are more widespread and systematic in Chukchi, where it is a matter of the presence or absence of an auxiliary verb, although the exact factors behind the choice have hardly been touched upon in the literature. A closer look at these suggests an iconic meaning distinction that may have further typological significance and also casts light on the probable origins of a number of West Greenlandic constructions involving affixes alone, namely in auxiliary constructions of the Chukchi type.
Lexical polysynthesis
Authors: Tersis Nicole
Published: March 2014

Polysynthesis in Inuit appears at both lexical and sentence levels. The analysis of a sampling of 3000 lexical entries and 300 affixes collected in Eastern Greenland (Tunumiisut) shows how polysynthesis works in lexical morphology and how phonetic wastage helps to obscure the motivation for some lexical forms and favors the development of homophones. Furthermore, the analysis of the full set of affixes reveals a number of formal and semantic similarities which relate affixes having different functions. This suggests a continuum over incorporating affixes, TAM verb affixes, and verb inflection, attested in a number of items. While the lexical origin of some incorporating affixes has already been suggested, the hypothesis of a larger lexical, derivational, and inflectional continuum may provide clues for discovering grammaticalization processes operating within the stock of affixes.
Comparative constructions in Central Alaskan Yupik
Authors: Miyaoka Osahito
Published: March 2014

Eskimo comparative constructions include both comparative (’be more __ than’ as well as the superlative ‘be the most __’) and equalitive clauses (‘be as __ as’). In Central Alaskan Yupik at least, a number of typologically interesting features of these constructions have to my knowledge thus far received no attention, in particular the fact that both comparative and equalitive clauses (the ingressive ‘become more __ than’ as well as the stative) may be either transitive or intransitive. The morphological devices employed for this purpose may provide us with a glimpse into the properties of Eskimo-type polysynthesis, among them perhaps, the recursive reverbalisation of deverbalised clauses.