bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
8. Minimal responses in interpreter-mediated medical talk
Authors: Gavioli Laura
Published: March 2014

This chapter looks at minimal responses produced by mediators in healthcare interaction, focussing on items like ‘yes’, ‘no’, echoes, other-completions, and partial repetitions. While such items have traditionally been considered indicators of recipient alignment, they play an essential role in regulating turn taking and pursuing particular interactional goals. The data show that, similarly to what is observed in other types of conversations, mediators’ minimal responses reveal participants’ orientations in the achievement of goal-oriented activities. They also perform translation-coordinating functions such as displaying understanding and acceptance of translation, suspending or shifting into it.
Cancioneiro Chinez
Authors: Pinto Marta Pacheco
Published: March 2014

Referred to as a collection of (indirect or mediated) translations or lyrical adaptations, António Feijó’s Cancioneiro chinez (1890), literally the Book of Chinese Songs, is the first anthology of classical Chinese poetry translated into Portuguese. It was translated from Judith Gautier’s Le Livre de jade, which, since its publication in 1867, has been reprinted five times (1902, 1908, 1928, 1933, and 2004) and extensively translated into several European languages. Widely popular among the late nineteenth-century French audience, Le Livre de jade, which recent research has shown to collect mostly mistranslations and pseudotranslations, combines a selection of what Judith Gautier considered to mirror China’s best poetry with her own notion of an oriental aesthetics. Briefly turning to the Orient in search of new poetic possibilities, António Feijó (1859–1917) had no knowledge of the Chinese language and was never in China, which did not prevent his Cancioneiro chinez from achieving national success. This collection allowed the poet to keep pace with French literary modernity and introduced Portuguese audience to new poetic material, thus allowing him enough leeway for poetic experimentation. Based on José Lambert’s and Van Gorp’s model for translation description, our study sets out from a two-tiered textual approach: one focused on metatextual information (front cover, collection title, and preface) and the other on a macro-level comparative analysis (special focus on text division and formal structure). Both analyses will permit us to understand not only the impact of Cancioneiro chinez on a socio-cultural context highly influenced by French culture and language, but also the poet’s approach to a mediated translation of an exotic language.
Academic navel gazing? Playing the game up front?
Authors: Cheung Martha P.Y.
Published: March 2014

What are the excitement, burden and responsibilities of a postcolonial translator and/or translation scholar in an age of globalization? The excitement, I believe, lies in a heightened awareness of what we can do and achieve. We can play many more roles than the traditional one of an efficient cross-lingual cross-cultural communicator, or a dispassionate manufacturer of cultural products. We can choose to be a cultural mediator, an innovative image-maker, or an architect of a project of political and/or ideological import, to name but just a few of the new possibilities open to us. At the same time, we have to bear in mind that possibilities carry with them the burden of choice, even of divided loyalties. The agency of a translator entails responsibilities, the heaviest being the responsibility to know why one is doing certain things in the first place, and to be articulate about it. This essay analyzes how positionality and agency function in a translation project – the compilation of an anthology, in English translation, of texts registering the thoughts and ideas about translation in China, from ancient times to the early twentieth century. Volume one, entitled An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation, Volume 1: From Earliest Times to the Buddhist Project, was published in 2006, and the sequel, which covers the period from the 13th century to the early 20th century, is under preparation. Attention is focused on a single project because it telescopes many of the ethical, ideological and political issues which a postcolonial scholar has to handle, especially those of identity and representation. The essay also discusses a topic which lies at the heart of all attempts at anthology-making – the construction of knowledge (of the Self or of the Other) and the importance of the personal, the experiential and the introspective in such a venture.
Poetry anthologies as Weltliteratur projects
Authors: Bernardo Ana Maria
Published: March 2014

Following the cultural approach developed in Göttingen (1982–1995), four contemporary anthologies of world poetry, two Portuguese and two German, are analysed. The quantitative and qualitative parameters applied to the anthologies in question provide insights into the different concepts of world poetry underlying the many configurations of national and foreign literatures at a time when the literary canon is more or less stabilised and translation has assumed its invaluable role in the specific task of cultural transfer represented by world poetry anthologies.
Publishing translated literature in late 19th century Portugal
Authors: Flor João de Almeida
Published: March 2014

Applying methodologies that bring together Translation Studies and the history of books and reading, catalogues by very prestigious editors of the period are analysed with a view to characterizing the circuit of translated (para)literatures, in the stages of production, distribution and consumption. By means of a case study, this paper attempts to understand how relations of offer and demand within the cultural market have contributed to conditioning the selection of authors, literary genres and forms, expected to be more successful and popular, and have imposed specific translational norms and adequate typographical configurations
Extra-European literatures in anthology during the Estado Novo (1933–1974)
Authors: Seruya Teresa
Published: March 2014

During the right-wing dictatorship (Estado Novo) that governed Portugal from 1933 to 1974, collectionism (covering anthologies, collections and libraries) was the preferred way of organizing and divulging international literature in Portugal. This study looks at literary anthologies from outside the European space, namely from countries/cultures with which Portugal had developed a special relationship after the Discoveries. Indeed, in the light of the national identity adopted by the Estado Novo, the ideology of Empire generated expectations as to how the literary production of those countries would be accepted. As this corpus could not really include Brazil and Africa, the focus was on short story anthologies translated (mostly indirectly) from Indian, Chinese, Asian and Japanese literature. Drawing on historians such as António Hespanha, these anthologies are contextualized against the background of Orientalism in Portugal. Every anthology found is described and commented upon with regard to the selection of authors and texts as well as the image of the respective culture conveyed to the reader through the work. Judging by the small number of anthologies found, it appears that the interest shown by publishers in these cultures was no more than an afterthought and reflected a lack of demand on the part of the reading public. Nonetheless such anthologies accomplish an ideological function à contrecoeur because they de-historise literary history and follow a universalising trend, thus de-characterising or, in some cases, stereotyping, at times naively, what these respective cultures may give.
Philosophical collections, translation and censorship
Authors: Zenekorta Ibon Uribarri
Published: March 2014

Translations played an important role in introducing new philosophical ideas into Spain from 1850 on, but modern secular philosophy was more often than not in conflict with Catholicism, the dominant power in the symbolic field. Since there was little chance of publishing and publicising such works in the established media, the patrons of these translations had to establish their own publishing houses and book collections. These were used as tools to fight against a system of structural censorship that gave priority to the dominant Catholic ideology. Patricio de Azcárate, who created the first Biblioteca collection, José Perojo, Antonio Zozaya, Ortega y Gasset and Juan Bergua among others organised important collections that were based mainly on translations. Their cultural efforts were driven by a political agenda that was progressive in nature, as they all wanted to modernise Spain economically, socially and politically. As a result, they all suffered different forms of censorship and persecution.
What matters to Translation Studies?
Authors: Koskinen Kaisa
Published: March 2014

In this article, the field of Translation Studies is mapped with the help of a matrix developed by Michael Burawoy for sociology. His four fields of professional, critical, policy and public sociology are used to chart similar trends in TS. Burawoy argues for a more visible engagement in public sociology. This paper argues for a similar focus on public Translation Studies.
Magnifying glasses modifying maps
Authors: Pezza Cintrão Heloísa
Published: March 2014

There has been some debate about the usefulness of translation theory in initial levels of translator training. Here we consider translation theory as a form of declarative knowledge abstracted from translation practice and empirical studies. We report on a study in which the data suggest that translation theory can have a positive impact on the performance of undergraduate participants in an introductory translation course.
fMRI for exploring simultaneous interpreting
Authors: Ahrens Barbara , Kalderon Eliza , Krick Christoph M. , Reith Wolfgang
Published: March 2014

After a review of the literature on the use of brain-imaging techniques in the study of conference interpreting, the paper reports on a preliminary fMRI study in which 6 student interpreters alternated between simultaneous interpreting from Spanish into German (B into A) and free speech production in German (A language). Significant statistical differences were found between the two activities, and active brain areas were identified for each. One finding which raises interesting questions is that a brain area specialized in hand movement was activated during SI.
Time lag in translation and interpreting
Authors: Timarová Šárka , Dragsted Barbara , Gorm Hansen Inge
Published: March 2014

Time lag between the source text input and the interpreter’s target text is known as ear-voice span or décalage. Recently, time lag has also been measured in written translation based on eye-tracking and key-logging (hence called eye-key span). Time lag provides insight into the temporal characteristics of simultaneity in interpreting, speed of translation and also into the cognitive load and cognitive processing involved in the translation/interpreting process. Ear-voice span/eye-key span (EVS/EKS) thus have the potential to become very valuable measures in translation/interpreting process-oriented research, but more needs to be known about their properties and the information this metric yields. Several exploratory analyses were carried out to compare methods used in previous research and to address the questions of EVS/EKS variability among participants, stability of EVS/EKS over the course of an individual’s performance, and variation in EVS/EKS at different points of measurement and across different tasks performed by the same person. The results indicate that EVS/EKS is indeed a sensitive measure useful for process-oriented research. Finally, some methodological challenges and procedures for both interpreting and translation are discussed.
A new pair of glasses
Authors: Shlesinger Miriam , Almog Ruth
Published: March 2014

Ever since 1989, students in some secondary schools in Israel have had the option of participating in the two-year Translation Skills Program, focused on written translation from English (L2) into Hebrew (L1), with particular emphasis on developing their meta-linguistic awareness while enriching their command of the two languages. Classes are taught by English teachers, who are first required to participate in a two-semester (112-hour) teacher training course focusing on translation skills, methods of teaching translation and the meta-linguistic insights one may glean from the process of translation. Throughout both courses – the one administered to the teachers and the one they then teach to the secondary school students – the point is made that the course is neither a foreign language (English) class, as such, nor a program for training full-fledged translators. Rather, it is a self-contained module aimed at enhancing students’ grasp of inter-linguistic similarities and differences and exploring relations between language and culture. The paper reports on a study of the direct and indirect effects of the program on fourteen novices’ development of meta-­linguistic awareness. The study is based on both qualitative and quantitative data, including questionnaires, interviews and test results collected over the year during which the program was administered, and points out the advantages of introducing the translation skills program as an elective enrichment course at secondary school level and to its potential contribution to language-related skills in general.
Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors?
Authors: Fougner Rydning Antin , Lachaud Christian
Published: March 2014

The present behavioural study explores the cognitive processing of primary and
complex conceptual metaphors during the first step of the translational process:
comprehension. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), primary and complex conceptual
metaphors are based on different conceptual architectures, a simpler one for primary
conceptual metaphors, and a more sophisticated one for complex conceptual metaphors.
As far as we know, there is no empirical evidence that understanding primary conceptual
metaphors requires less cognitive effort than
understanding complex conceptual metaphors. In order to know whether primary conceptual metaphors are easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors, a psycholinguistic experiment was designed and run to investigate processing speed and conceptual clarity during comprehension. Among other interesting results, our study provides evidence that conceptual clarity is greater with primary conceptual metaphors than with complex conceptual metaphors. Therefore, a translator will not be challenged in the
same way depending on the type of metaphor s/he has to understand.
As a first step towards understanding the mechanisms of comprehension, this study paves the way for further investigations on how comprehension influences the subsequent stages of translation, especially regarding how conceptual clarity may vary during comprehension and help determine the quality of the translation.
On cognitive processes during wordplay translation
Authors: Norberg Ulf
Published: March 2014

The aim of this paper is to identify and describe cognitive processes occurring during the translation of a complex wordplay. Humorous texts have received little attention in empirical translation process research. This exploratory study seeks to develop a research methodology that is suited for the empirical study of wordplay. The experiment comprised the translation of a short adversarial wordplay by three groups of translation students. Their discussions were recorded and analyzed. The results indicate that students possess a high level of awareness of the importance of linguistic structures in creating the desired humorous effect, even though they cannot always translate this theoretical knowledge into practice. Another finding was that collaboration helps students overcome mental blockages and supports creative solutions.
“Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?”
Authors: Angelelli Claudia V.
Published: March 2014

Conversations about chronic illnesses, diseases running in the patient’s family, as well as specific medical record questions are frequent in medical encounters. In the United States, as in most countries, these conversations frequently occur between culturally and linguistically diverse patients and providers, and many times they are brokered by an interpreter. In this study I present a transcript that captures a typical healthcare-­provider-patient conversation about chronic illnesses and medical history and run it through the lens of critical discourse analysis. I examine the power differentials between interlocutors and the role the interpreter plays in mitigating or reinforcing such power. I look at the co-construction of the meaning of “chronic” among the interlocutors, and the way in which the three orchestrate team efforts to de-construct and re-construct the notion of chronic illnesses exploring a life in-between countries and medical traditions. The data is part of a larger ethnographic study (Angelelli 2001 and 2004a) conducted in a public hospital. Interpreters work for Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare providers in face-to-face and over-the-speakerphone interpreted communicative events (ICEs).
Identifying and interpreting scientific phenomena
Authors: Moser-Mercer Barbara
Published: March 2014

Shneider (2009) identifies four different stages in the development of a scientific discipline, and we can safely state that interpreting as a science has advanced from stage one to stage two, where scientists develop a toolbox of methods and techniques for the new discipline, and is currently navigating the early phases of stage three. According to Shneider it is advances in methodology that bring about an improved understanding of the phenomena that fall into the realm of the new science. The range of phenomena included in interpreting as a science has steadily grown over the years. This essay reviews the expansion of disciplinary boundaries in interpreting and identifies the challenges to be addressed if interpreting as a discipline is to successfully mature and manage the scientific process in an optimal manner.
The first three years of a three-year grant
Authors: Metzger Melanie , Roy Cynthia B.
Published: March 2014

This chapter describes the progress and the challenges of a three-year, small grant-supported project designed to collect, transcribe, code, and analyze interpreted encounters in a variety of institutional settings. In keeping with our project goals, we videotaped nine interpreted interactions, transcribed much of the data, and, with the help of a research assistant, began to code the discourse features in at least three of the transcribed videos. Our discussion focuses on the challenges inherent in a project designed to capture naturalistic data in a wide range of institutional settings. We reflect on our experiences regarding the full research cycle and make recommendations for future interpreting research. In addition, we provide smples from our project, including photos, transcriptions, sample codings, and findings. We also make a case for the benefits of developing a corpus of naturalistic data in the interpreting field, and of developing a body of qualitative analyses of interpreted discourse.
Developing and transmitting a shared interpreting research ethos
Authors: Hessmann Jens , Salmi Eeva , Turner Graham H. , Wurm Svenja
Published: March 2014

Sign language interpreters monitor professional encounters to make informed choices in specific interactional constellations. For the profession, progress crucially depends on transcending individual intuitions and communicating experiential knowledge in the light of theory. Introducing a research perspective encourages the evolution of a practice-oriented research community and enables interpreters to substantiate notions of “best practice”. To develop such a perspective, we need to impart standard methods and concepts of empiricism within and beyond interpreting studies, and to transmit a general research ethos informing the daily practice of practitioners. Here we report an attempt to enhance the research orientation of an international group of working professionals in the quest for a research ethos to be developed by the profession as a whole.
Bimodal bilingual interpreting in the U.S. healthcare system
Authors: Swabey Laurie , Nicodemus Brenda
Published: March 2014

Legislation guarantees communication access in the United States healthcare system for deaf citizens and this access is often made possible by bimodal bilingual interpreters, individuals fluent in spoken and signed languages. Yet there is a conspicuous lack of research on interpreted discourse in this setting. With the exception of research on mental health interpreting, not a single article investigating the practice of bimodal interpreting in the U.S. healthcare system has been published in a refereed journal, although interpreters work in healthcare with increasing frequency. This article examines this deficit in research, beginning with a review of the diagnostic benefits of language access in healthcare settings. Next, the demand for bimodal interpreting is examined in light of historical factors, legislative mandates, and linguistic research on American Sign Language. The lack of scholarship in bimodal interpreting and the potential impact of developing a specialization in healthcare interpreting are discussed. Finally, with the view of interpreting as an applied linguistic activity, critical research questions about interpretation between deaf and non-signing interlocutors in the healthcare setting are provided.
From grammaticalization to expressive constructions
Authors: Legallois Dominique
Published: March 2014

My concern is the relationships between grammar and expressivity which have always remained represented a minority, if not a marginal, interest in linguistics. The paper deals with the construction ‘P, histoire de inf.’ (Prends quelques jours de repos, histoire de te changer les idées ‘take a few days’ rest, just to have a break from everything’). It is shown, from a diachronic perspective, that the construction expresses an attitudinal meaning, the speaker’s stance. The paper argues that, although expressivity and attitude meaning have usually been relegated to a secondary role by the prevailing formal grammatical approach to language, they have long been viewed as relatively important by certain linguists (for example, Bally). Expressivity is part of the grammatical system to a much larger degree than is usually presumed.
Affixation vs. conversion.
Authors: Bauer Laurie , Valera Salvador , Díaz-Negrillo Ana
Published: March 2014

This is a case-study in what happens when word-formation processes compete for bases. Based on a sample of English adjectives, this paper examines how two conflicting patterns (-en suffixation and conversion) distribute themselves in the formation of corresponding deadjectival verbs. Focus is on how the two wordformation processes compete for the expression of largely the same meanings, how this competition may have affected the productivity of each type of form, and how this conflict is resolved. In agreement with general principles of linguistic economy, more verbs are lost where there is competition than where there is none. A tendency towards keeping the two forms can be found, and also towards keeping -en suffixation when one of the competing processes is lost. Three variables, phonological, semantic and historical, are examined in the light of data of competing and noncompeting deadjectival verbs for their influence on the outcomes found.
Morphological variation in the construction of French names for inhabitants
Authors: Eggert Elmar
Published: March 2014

The French names for inhabitants like Paris --> Parisien ‘Parisian’ or Toulouse --> Toulousain, are mainly formed by derivation and exhibit high variability due to the wide range of suffixes used for detoponymic adjectives and their various bases. The derivational stem is formed by morphological processes like epenthesis, allomorphy, or suppletion, and the selection of a suffix is related to the formal shape of the stem. It is impossible to predict the selection of any particular suffix, but one can nevertheless restrict the selection to some of them to the exclusion of others. When forming French ethnonyms, speakers first construct a possible derivational stem and in a second step select a probable suffix in order to derive ethnonyms with a harmonic structure. The concrete construction principles are discussed in the second part of this paper.
Optional multiple plural marking in Maay
Authors: Paster Mary
Published: March 2014

This paper presents an account of optional Multiple Exponence (ME) in the nominal morphology of Maay (Paster 2007; Comfort and Paster in press), a Cushitic language spoken in southern Somalia and closely related to Somali. In this language, all consonant-final nouns have three possible plural forms: one form with the suffix -o, one form with the suffix -yal, and a third form with both suffixes. The existence of optional ME upholds a prediction made by Optimal Construction Morphology (OCM; Inkelas et al. 2006), which is a subcategorization-based and constraint-based model of morphology. This paper proposes an OCM analysis of ME in Maay, making use of free constraint ranking to handle the optionality of the phenomenon. It concludes with a possible historical scenario for the origin of optional ME in Maay.
Lettered words
Authors: Riha Helena , Baker Kirk
Published: March 2014

Lettered words are new borrowings and native creations in Chinese written fully or partly with Roman letters. Lettered words in which the letters fit into the Chinese visual ‘frame’ of writing, the ‘equidimensional square’, are adopted “as is,” bypassing traditional borrowing processes that employ Chinese morpheme-syllable-characters (zì). These include primarily initialisms, since each letter fits into one frame. Compounds containing a Roman letter as a morpheme (X in X-ray) are adapted as hybrid words that retain the letter morpheme. We hypothesize that lettered words are shorter than English words on average and use primarily upper case letters. We conducted a corpus study of lettered words in Chinese newswires to test these assumptions, finding that shorter words are most frequent, upper case is preferred, and initialisms are most common. We conclude that Roman letters are a new set of zì that can now be used to form words in Chinese.
The role of syntax and morphology in compounding
Authors: Ackema Peter , Neeleman Ad
Published: March 2014

In this chapter it is argued that, although syntax is not directly involved in the formation of compounds themselves, competition between the syntactic and morphological modules of grammar (Ackema and Neeleman 2001, 2004) has a decisive influence on compounding. This is because this type of competition has the effect that certain, grammatically possible, compounds will not surface in a language. This is why synthetic compounds can be based on root compounds that do not themselves surface. We argue that, if the morphology of a language really does not allow for the relevant type of root compound to be formed, then the associated synthetic compounds are ruled out just as well. The fate of synthetic compounds during the development of Saramaccan (and some other creole languages) is shown to provide clear evidence for this hypothesis.
Compound construction: Schemas or analogy?
Authors: Booij Geert
Published: March 2014

This chapter argues that there is no absolute boundary between analogy and abstract schemas in word formation. Patterns of compounding are captured by constructional schemas of various degrees of abstraction. The necessity of such subschemas is argued for on the basis of observations on semantic specialization, headedness variation, diachrony, and allomorphy selection. Analogy and abstract schemas are opposite endpoints on a scale of schematicity.
On the lexical semantics of compounds
Authors: Lieber Rochelle
Published: March 2014

In this chapter I identify a type of compounding in English which I call non-affixal (de)verbal compounds in which one element of the compound is a noun and the other either a verb (attack dog) or a noun derived from a verb (dog attack). Unlike synthetic and root compounds in English, this type of compound has received very little attention, although it exhibits interesting properties. I illustrate that unlike typical synthetic compounds, non-affixal (de)verbal compounds show a propensity for subject-oriented interpretations, and I argue that this propensity follows from an analysis based within the framework of Lieber (2004, 2006, 2009).
The phonology of compounds
Authors: Vogel Irene
Published: March 2014

This chapter examines a number of phonological properties of compounds. These include the limitation of many phonological phenomena to the individual members of compounds, the application of others at the juncture of the members of compounds, and the distribution of prosodic properties over an entire compound. Other areas that involve phonological patterns within compounds, linking elements and rules applying within lexicalized items, are also briefly mentioned. Finally, the phonological constituent structure of different types of compounds is examined.
Computational issues in compound processing
Authors: Pirrelli Vito , Guevara Emiliano , Baroni Marco
Published: March 2014

Understanding compounds is a challenging computational task, cutting across multiple levels of linguistic analysis and touching upon intricate issues of representation, grammar architecture and algorithmic processing. At the same time, compounds raise all these problems in the most direct and exemplar way. From this perspective, they are an ideal probe into core issues of language architecture, making us pause about the need for advanced processing models and multi-disciplinary approaches to long-lasting linguistic cruces. This chapter reviews some of the lessons that can be learned from reading twenty years of computational literature on the topic and assesses them against the background of germane theoretical and cognitive issues.
Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Dobrovie-Sorin Carmen , Pires De Oliveira Roberta
Published: March 2014

The analysis of the generic readings of Bare Singulars in Brazilian Portuguese is controversial: for Munn & Schmitt (1999, 2005) and Schmitt & Munn (2002) generic Bare Singulars are names of kinds, whereas for Müller (2002) they are indefinites bound by a generic operator. This paper provides two arguments against Müller: (i) relying on a detailed corpus study by Pires de Oliveira et al. (2007), we argue that Müller’s judgments are not shared by all speakers of Brazilian Portuguese; (ii) we provide theoretical and crosslinguistic evidence against analyzing generic Bare Singulars as indefinites bound by a generic operator. We make explicit Munn & Schmitt’s analysis of kind-referring BSs in BrP by proposing that they rely on Chierchia’s Down operator (1998). The contrast between generic Bare Singulars and generic Definite Singulars, both of which are kind-referring, is explained based on Dobrovie-Sorin & Pires de Oliveira (2007).
“Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra”
Authors: Johannesson Nils-Lennart
Published: March 2014

Traditional works on Old English syntax offer no explanation why verbs of naming could combine accusative and nominative complements. This paper offers such an explanation, based on an account of Old English verb complementation in terms of transitivity, copularity and status. transitivity is defined in terms of the number of internal arguments marked for oblique case (none, one or two), copularity in terms of the presence or absence of an internal argument in the nominative case, and status in terms of the presence or absence of an external argument of the verb marked for nominative case. By treating these features as dimensions rather than mutually exclusive categories (in particular transitivity and copularity), it becomes possible to account for combinations of internal arguments marked for nominative case and oblique case, such as þas þing þincað þam arasedum clericum unweorðlice (‘these things seem trivial to experienced clerks’) and þonne hate we hine morgensteorra (‘then we call it the Morning Star’), as well as for verbs of naming showing alternation between, on the one hand, a combination of accusative object and nominative complement, as in the previous example, and on the other hand two accusative objects, as in se steorra ... þone sume menn hatað þone fexedan steorran (‘the star ... which some people call the long-haired star’).
Prescription or practice?
Authors: Straaijer Robin
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates variation in the usage of be and have with participles of mutative intransitive verbs by the Late Modern English grammarian Joseph Priestley. His usage, as exemplified by a corpus compiled from his private manuscript letters, is compared with a reference corpus and with the “rules” in his own grammar. The study shows that Priestley’s usage reflects the general change for this linguistic feature from a predominant use of be to a greater occurrence of have in the late eighteenth century, as discussed by Rydén & Brorström (1987). It is also shown that when compared to his grammar, Priestley’s usage upholds his reputation as an early descriptivist.
On the use of beon and wesan in Old English
Authors: Wischer Ilse
Published: March 2014

This paper commences by characterizing the exceptionality of the Old English double paradigm of sL and bLforms of the verb ‘to be’ in the present tense among the (West) Germanic languages, followed by an analysis of the use of beon and wesan in the Old English section of the Helsinki Corpus with a focus on the linguistic contexts of these verbs in their indicative, subjunctive and imperative forms and on their dialectal distribution. A comparison of my findings with parallel forms and their uses in the Celtic languages supports the assumption that the emergence of the double paradigm in Old English, with wesan expressing current relevance and beon referring to habitual or future events, can only be assigned to Insular Celtic influence.
Empirical evidence
Authors: Aquil Rajaa
Published: March 2014

Continuous and overlapping sounds in connected speech yield an output that has very few reliable cues to detect word boundaries. This may obscure listeners’ recognition of spoken words. Therefore, investigations to find the processes native listeners use to start lexical access have been the focus in psycholinguistic studies. Segmentation was identified as one of the processes. Research conducted on different languages identified different prosodic units employed in segmentation and the recognition of spoken words. The following paper reports on one of the first studies conducted on Arabic connected speech investigating the role stress plays in the segmentation and recognition of words in spoken Cairene Arabic. Phonologically Cairene Arabic is identified as a stress-timed language. However, few empirical studies have been conducted to validate or refute this classification. Using the ‘word spotting’ technique, the present study found an effect for stress as a segmentation unit, hence providing empirical evidence for the theoretical classification.
Regressive voicing assimilation in Cairene Arabic
Authors: Kabrah Rawiah S.
Published: March 2014

Cairene Arabic licenses voicing contrast in obstruents in most positions. However, within sequences all obstruents must agree in voicing. In clusters of obstruents, the voicing of the first obstruent assimilates to that of the second. This paper presents an account of regressive voicing assimilation, as well as the arguments that the feature [voice] must be binary in this language. This paper considers the role of guttural consonants in voicing assimilation. The major finding is that guttural sounds fall into two classes: some gutturals pattern with sonorant consonants, while other gutturals participate in voicing assimilation.
Against the split-CP hypothesis
Authors: Bakir Murtadha J.
Published: March 2014

This paper examines one of the aspects of the cartography program concerned with the CP projection and the validity of positing a multi-layer CP consisting of a variety of semantically relevant functional projections that encode semantic and pragmatic properties of the sentence, (Rizzi 1997). In a language like Iraqi Arabic, data seem to cast doubts on some of the tenets of this hypothesis. The dislocated elements in the left periphery show positional variation and no uniqueness can thus be attributed to any such positions as specific landing sites for topics, focused elements, wh-elements and others. Some of these elements may surface in other positions than their canonical positions in the left periphery. A′-movement, overt or non-overt, to these canonical positions cannot be always motivated, because of the existence of a second landing site or because of some scope conflict. Given these facts, the hypothesis will have to abandon its universality. Its adequacy may be limited to only some languages. Less restrictive approaches to the structure of the left periphery will be more adequate in accommodating the facts in other languages that show free order and iterability of the dislocated elements like Iraqi Arabic.
Another look at Italian generic sentences
Authors: Mari Alda
Published: March 2014

In this paper we reconsider the interpretation of indefinite singular generics and definite plural generics in Italian. We show that these two types of statements cannot be associated with the traditional distinction between definitional vs. accidental generalizations. In particular we argue that indefinite generic statements are associated with a variety of interpretations that can be unified by reconstructing a hidden abilitative verbal operator triggered by the imperfective interpretation of the present tense. We distinguish between two types of abilities as well as between the overt abilitative modal and the covert one. We correctly derive the prediction that indefinite singular generics cannot be combined with accidental properties, which are perfective in nature. We analyze definite plurals as entering the logical form with a situation variable that is responsible for the fact that definite plural generics are compatible with accidental properties.
An acoustic phonetic study of quantity and quantity complementarity in Swedish and Iraqi Arabic
Authors: Hassan Zeki Majeed
Published: March 2014

This study presents acoustic durational measurements of vowel and consonant sequences from two speakers of Iraqi Arabic (IA) and one speaker of Swedish involving quantity distinctions. Contrary to the findings of Hassan (2002, 2003), the durational difference between long vowels preceding geminates and those preceding singletons are not significant in IA and perceptually go well under the difference limen values, but geminates following long vowels are significantly shorter than geminates following short vowels. Analysis of the durational data shows that in IA quantity is independently phonological in consonants and vowels but quantity complementarity is phonetic. In Swedish quantity is not independently phonological in consonants and vowels because quantity complementarity is phonological. Word overall durations, however, behave similarly in both languages. The study agrees with those above in concluding that quantity and quantity complementarity in IA and Swedish are language specific phenomena and operate differently in the two different phonological systems.
Assimilation of /l/ to /r/ in Syrian Arabic
Authors: Heselwood Barry , Howard Sara , Ranjous Rawya
Published: March 2014

Since the time of Sībawayh over twelve hundred years ago the phenomenon of manner assimilation among sonorant coronal consonants in Arabic has been recognised. In this chapter we present analysis of electropalatographic and acoustic data from three female speakers of Syrian Arabic to investigate the assimilation of word-final /l/ to word-initial /r/. The results show that assimilation is optional at slow, normal and fast speech rates and most common at the fast rate. They also show that assimilation is complete at the fast rate, and may be either complete or gradient at the slow and normal rates. We argue for a phonological model of assimilation in which complete assimilation does not precipitate a phonological category change unless there are no differences in the set of possible realisations of an assimilated and an unassimilated consonant in the same phonological context, which is not the case in Syrian Arabic manner assimilation.
Competing reinforcements
Authors: Biberauer Theresa
Published: March 2014

Drawing on recent developments in Afrikaans and Brazilian Portuguese, this paper proposes a syntactic constraint, alongside previously identified phonological and pragmatic ones, on progression in Jespersen’s (1917) Cycle/ JC. In particular, it argues that languages which draw on structurally high negative reinforcers and subsequently grammaticalise these as concord-elements will not replace the original sentential negator with this element, as would otherwise be expected in the context of JC. Languages of this type may, however, employ alternative reinforcement strategies, which in many cases draw on the same lexical stock as JC. A language may thus appear to have undergone a JC-related development without actually having done so.
Misparsing and syntactic reanalysis
Authors: Whitman John
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that syntactic misparsing is not a significant factor in syntactic change, contrary to many earlier claims. It examines the best known examples in the literature of syntactic change resulting from alleged misparsing, and shows that the misparsing analysis is rejected in the most current research, or at best subject to alternative explanations. Cases discussed include SVO word order in Niger-Congo, the Chinese bǎ construction, and English for NP to VP infinitives. The paper concludes with a brief comparison of the roles of misparsing, broadly construed, in syntactic and phonological change.
OV and V-to-I in the history of Swedish
Authors: Petzell Erik Magnusson
Published: March 2014

This paper relates the loss of V-to-I in Swedish, which occurs in the beginning of the 17th century, to changes in the OV system that take place a century before. Prior to ca. 1500, OV is predominantly derived by movement of an argument (Arg) within a single VP (Sg-movement). Such a derivation generates OV patterns where Arg either precedes a non-finite but follows a finite verb (VfArgVnf) or precedes a single finite verb (ArgVf). In the 16th century, the preference for Sg-movement of Arg is reanalysed as a preference for movement to the highest VP (H-movement). H-preference favours ArgVf and the previously marginal ArgVnfVf, but disfavours the former dominant VfArgVnf. Unlike VfArgVnf, both ArgVf and ArgVnfVf have Vf in situ, i.e. they provide cues for new acquirers of the language that V-to-I does not apply.
Word order variation in New Testament Greek wh-questions
Authors: Kirk Allison
Published: March 2014

In this paper I address the syntax of direct object and adjunct questions in New Testament Greek from a comparative perspective. I show that direct object questions involve a two-step derivation. First, the questioned object is moved to the Specifier position of a designated Focus projection in the clausal Left Periphery. In this position it is interpreted as a question. The second step is the movement of the finite verb to the Focus head, which is reminiscent of residual Verb Second in languages like English. In contrast to direct object questions, cause/reason questions do not involve wh-movement at all, but are base-generated in the Int(errogative) projection of the updated Rizzian (2001) Left Periphery. I furthermore show that the IntP hosts non-focused adjunct wh-phrases.
Four languages, one text type
Authors: Nesse Agnete
Published: March 2014

The present chapter discusses bilingualism and language shifts in Bergen, Norway, by analysing one specific text type: the neighbours’ books of Bryggen, produced in the period 1529–1936. The examples of language shifts found in these books are analysed and discussed with regard to types of bilingualism and diglossia, and placed in relation to the sociolinguistic conditions in Bergen. Emphasis is put on the different patterns of language shift, on the linguistic distance between the varieties, and on language attitudes.
The language of the books changes first from Low German to High German, during the 17th century. The second shift, from High German to Danish, takes place between 1770 and 1820. The third shift, from Danish to Norwegian is a phenomenon of the 20th century.
For Heaven’s sake
Authors: DiSciacca Claudia
Published: March 2014

This chapter deals with the Scandinavian loanwords sky and loft and their role in the configuration of the semantic field concerning “sky”, “air”, and “cloud” during the transition between Old and Middle English. It outlines the etymology and Germanic cognates of the two words and explores the contexts of their first occurrences in Old and Middle English. I examine the relationship between ON ský and lopt and their Anglo-Saxon cognates, OE scēo and lyft, reaching the conclusion that they cannot be considered to be competing doublets and that the success of Norse-derived sky and loft over or alongside their native equivalents can be put down to a process of semantic differentiation and specialisation within the semantic field.
Possible and impossible variation in Hungarian
Authors: Kálmán László , Rebrus Péter , Törkenczy Miklós
Published: March 2014

The paper discusses variation in the occurrence and quality of ‘linking vowels’ in Hungarian. While linking vowels are discussed in the traditional and/or generative literature, implicitly or explicitly, this variation is considered or predicted to be accidental by these analyses. In a detailed analysis of the behavior of linking vowels (focusing on the accusative of sibilant-final nouns, loan adjectives, nouns lexicalized as adjectives and linking vowels in hiatus), the paper shows that variation related to linking vowels is systematic and the traditional view is untenable. The authors argue that (a) such a view follows from the theoretical stance these approaches have on variation in general and (b) an analogical approach which sees variation as the conflict of incompatible (surface) generalizations whose strength is determined by token frequency can reveal/explain the systematic nature of variation in the presence and quality of linking vowels.
Morphological complexity and unsupervised learning
Authors: Brown Dunstan , Evans Roger
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses the question of whether it is possible to use machine learning techniques on linguistic data to validate linguistic theory. We determine how readily inflectional classes recognized by linguists can be inferred by an unsupervised learning method when it is presented with the paradigms of a small number (80) of high frequency Russian noun lexemes. We interpret this as a measure of the validity of the linguistic theory. Inflectional classes are of particular interest, because they constitute a kind of autonomous morphological complexity that has no direct relationship to other levels of linguistic description, and hence there is no other objective way of assessing a theoretical characterization of them. Using the same method, we also examine the status of principal parts and defaults in inflectional classes, and the relationship between inflectional classes and stress in Russian nominal morphology. Our experiments suggest that this is an effective and interesting technique for shedding additional light on theoretical claims.