bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perspectives on morphological complexity
Authors: Di Sciullo Anna Maria
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the notion of morphological complexity and differentiates language external complexity (E-complexity) from language internal complexity (I-complexity). While E-complexity is measurable on the basis of the statistical occurrences of affixes and their combinations with roots, I-complexity can be measured on the basis of the number of operations applying in the derivation of morphological forms. The author compares results from studies classifying languages based on their E-complexity to results from studies showing similarities between languages with respect to I-complexity. The comparison reveals that languages with different E-complexity may have similar I-complexity. The author revisits results from psycholinguistic and parsing experiments and discusses how the two sorts of complexity can be reduced. Finally, the role of I- and E-complexity for the understanding of the relation between the language faculty and the external systems is considered.
A working typology of multiple exponence
Authors: Caballero Gabriela , Harris Alice C.
Published: March 2014

The authors present the results of a preliminary investigation of the range of cross-linguistic variation of Multiple Exponence (ME), the occurrence of multiple realizations of a single feature, bundle of features, or derivational category in more than one position in a domain. Their survey of ME patterns documented in 95 language varieties belonging to 25 language families reveals that while there is great diversity in terms of the properties that ME patterns may display, ME is more common and less constrained than commonly believed. Specifically, the survey reveals the following generalizations: (i) while exuberant ME, the repetition of several identical markers, may be uncommon, ME patterns involving stem alternation are quite common; (ii) while occurrence of three or more markers seems to be uncommon, occurrence of two is quite frequent; and (iii) there do not seem to be many constraints on the types of ME attested, in either formal or semantic terms, though there are very few documented cases of contiguous stacking of surface identical allomorphs in ME.
Linguistic self-regulation
Authors: Anastassiadis-Syméonidis Anna , Mitsiaki Maria
Published: March 2014

We report on a case of morphological change in progress that falls within the scope of Greek grammatical gender. We interpret gender-related variation of Modern Greek feminine nouns in terms of cognitive and usage patterns, i.e. prototypicality and frequency. Our basic claim is that the observed masculine gender assignment to [+ learned] feminine nouns in -(o)s reveals the shifting boundaries of the specific inflection class and reflects the way in which linguistic use is imposed on linguistic structure through self-regulation. In order to investigate the motivation and the diffusion of the reported gender change, we focus on the use of individual nouns with overlapping gender assignment in written electronic data. The data analysis suggests that (i) gender change is motivated by prototypicality, strengthened by phonetic similarity, and consolidated by high frequency of use, and (ii) gender mobility is explicitly observed in specific text categories characterized by [– learned] style and informal context.
Suffix predictability and stem transparency in the acquisition of German noun plurals
Authors: Laaha Sabine , Dressler Wolfgang U.
Published: March 2014

This study examines the impact of suffix and stem properties on children’s acquisition of German noun plural morphology. As to suffix selection, we distinguish three levels of predictability: highly predictable, partially predictable and exceptional, based on sonority/gender distributions in actual language use. As to stem change, we distinguish three levels of transparency: no change, slight change (revoicing) and strong change (Umlaut). The relevance of suffix predictability and stem transparency is tested in 140 German-speaking children from the age of three to nine years, by using a plural elicitation task. Results show that both variables have an impact on children’s correct production of plural forms; there was no significant interaction between the two variables in the acquisition process. The results are discussed with regard to single- and dual-route models of morphology and acquisition.
Acquisition of German diminutive formation and compounding in a comparative perspective
Authors: Dressler Wolfgang U. , Lettner Laura E. , Korecky-Kröll Katharina
Published: March 2014

Early phases of first language acquisition can shed light on general preferences in diminutive formation and compounding, as is demonstrated in this typological characterization of German diminutives and compounds and their acquisition. The role of typology is shown to be similar to that in acquisition of inflection in the parameters of morphological richness, productivity, and transparency, but different in other respects. The impact of frequency in children’s input by caregivers on their output appears to be important in corresponding token frequencies, but very restricted in predicting order of emergence.
Etymology and the OED
Authors: Durkin Philip
Published: March 2014

Etymology and historical dictionaries have a symbiotic role: etymology has a key structural role in a historical dictionary, and the data of historical dictionaries is crucial for making advances in the study of etymology. This chapter draws illustrative examples from the new edition of the OED currently in course of publication. The ‘words’ documented by historical dictionaries are often highly complex entities, showing considerable variation in form and meaning, and that variation is typically both diachronic and diatopic, as illustrated by the dictionary entry for poke ‘sack’. It is not always safe to assume historical continuity as opposed to polygenesis in a word history; this sometimes involves assumed relationships of cognacy, as illustrated by freedom. Even when words are monomorphemic, borrowing among cognates often cannot be ruled out, e.g. rash. Two phenomena that historical dictionary structures bring into sharp relief are what can be termed historical splits (e.g. ordnance, ordinance) and mergers (e.g. melt) in word histories; cases of partial or near mergers are particularly problematic (e.g. mean, mystery). Sometimes merger can be hypothesized to explain a problematic history (e.g. queer). In the final part of the chapter the power of explanations based on form change and on meaning change are contrasted: in spite of considerable theoretical advances in the latter area, the unpredictability and isolated nature of most cases of semantic change remains a considerable challenge for etymological research, even in the context of the rich semantic documentation of a historical dictionary.
On the etymological relationships of wank, swank, and wonky
Authors: Cohen Paul S.
Published: March 2014

The English slang verb wank (off) ‘(of a male) to masturbate; to masturbate (a male)’ has no generally accepted etymology. Using historical and dialectal English data, comparative data from German and other Germanic languages, and a parallel semantic development in French, I establish an etymology for wank, connect it etymologically to English swank (and the exactly parallel German wanken ‘to sway, shake, wobble, totter, etc.’ with its apparent s-mobile partner schwanken ‘to sway, shake, tremble, stagger, totter, etc.’, and items related to these) and wonky ‘shaky, unstable, etc.’, and offer surmises about etymologies and relationships among these items and wang, yang ‘penis’; wonk; and yank (for the last two of which there are also no generally accepted etymologies).
Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English
Authors: Bilynsky Michael
Published: March 2014

Studied in the paper is a reflection of the synonymous strings of verbs in their shared-root coinages over time. The differences in the word-forming and thesaurus-construing potential between native and Romance etymology (Latinate and/or French lineage) parent verbs as regards substantive, adjectival, participial and second order deverbal classes have been established. The cross-sections of the historical thesaurus are forgeable on the parent verbs’ etymological affiliation and coinages’ suffix variance or uniformity. An electronic framework for the study of the rise of verbal and deverbal synonymous strings over time reconstructed on the basis of the OED textual prototypes proceeds from the constituents sequential placement or absolute dating. Two models of quantification suitable for determining the extent of similarity in the formation of synonymous strings are suggested. The etymological affiliation of parent verbs proves to be selectively related to the diachronic expansion of the respective (sub-)strings of varied lengths and category/formative(s) status.
The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution
Authors: Ogura Mieko , Wang William S-Y.
Published: March 2014

We present a quantitative study of the semantic network of the set of nouns and verbs of WordNet, which is a systematic representation of the Present-day English lexicon based on psycholinguistic considerations, and A Thesaurus of Old English to understand the evolution of the global organization of the English lexicon. We demonstrate that whereas the semantic network is dominated by the hypernymy tree, which works as the skeleton of the set of nouns and verbs, the inclusion of polysemy produces a drastic global reorganization of the semantic structure, that is, it is converted into a small world, where all meanings are closer to each other. We then show that the words with higher frequency and therefore with higher number of meanings construct the higher level of the hypernymy tree within each lexical category. This architecture is robust through the times, forming the basis of the smallworld network. We also suggest that the small-world topology of the brain has enhanced the small-world configuration of semantic structure.
Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy
Authors: Lodej Sylwester
Published: March 2014

In the evolution of the language, English terms referring to Christian clergy underwent semantic changes (acquired additional meanings) which sometimes led to their partial transfer to domains unrelated to the Church and its activities, domains such as secular offices, lay people, animals, plants, food, beverages, household objects and clothing. The paper shows how society’s perception of Christian clergy was mirrored in lexical and semantic change. The lexical material of the present study describes the creation of the said domain in Old English and the appearance of Latin/French innovations in Middle English. The study also examines trends in the semantic development of Modern English, with a substantial increase in the number of secular meanings in the centuries following the Protestant Reformation. Set in the framework of cognitive linguistics and prototype semantics, this paper offers a description not only of the relations between language and society but also of the secularisation processes reflected in the English lexicon.
Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English
Authors: Gardner Anne-Christine
Published: March 2014

The present study investigates six elements (-dōm, -hād, -lāc, -nes, -rœden and -scipe) which can form abstract nouns with a noun as a first element in Old English. On the basis of West Saxon selections from the Helsinki Corpus, these elements are classified into two groups according to frequency and productivity, both synchronically and diachronically. Among high frequency elements -hād reaches a stronger productivity than -dōm and -scipe, whereas less frequent -nes is more productive than -rœden and -lāc. A particular focus lies on different prototypical text categories, which reflect general usage patterns while showing idiosyncratic characteristics and display conservative or progressive features in view of developments in Middle English. With its support of -lāc and -rœden religious writing can be shown to promote conservative aspects of language use more than non-fiction. The findings from this investigation form a basis of comparison for future studies on Middle English word formation.
The lexicalisation of syncope
Authors: Thompson Penelope
Published: March 2014

Syncope is a prosodically motivated process removing medial vowels in longstemmed disyllabic Old English adjectives e.g. hālig ‘holy’ when inflected: nom/acc.pl.neut. hālgu *hāligu. Syncope should not affect short-stemmed forms such as hefig ‘heavy’ e.g. nom/acc.pl.neut. hefig *hefgu (Campbell 1959). However, forms such as hālig include derivational -ig, and produce surprising results. in relation to syncope, showing both over- and underapplication not attested in morphologically simple words. Two historical -ig suffixes exist: ig¹ (vulnerable to syncope) and -ig² (immune to syncope). I will show how this interaction of syncope with ig¹ results in a case of lexicalisation. I argue that cases of overapplication of syncope in forms containing -ig¹ e.g. short-stemmed hefgu indicate the lexicalisation of syncope in forms exhibiting -ig¹. Syncope becomes associated with -ig¹ to the extent that the affix itself becomes reanalysed as /j/ from /ij/ underlyingly. The original phonological conditions for syncope therefore cease to apply (Anderson 1989).
Historical text linguistics
Authors: Kohnen Thomas
Published: March 2014

This paper advocates a systematic distinction between the fields of Historical Pragmatics and Historical Discourse Analysis on the one hand and Historical Text Linguistics on the other. Building on basic distinctions introduced in Brinton (2001), it traces three major perspectives of research (Historical Text Linguistics proper, diachronically oriented text linguistics, and text-oriented historical linguistics), giving an overview of relevant linguistic studies on texts and genres in the history of English. It also sketches out a plan for a history of English as a history of its texts and genres, illustrating the outline with the domain of religious discourse.
Repetitive and therefore fixed?
Authors: Kopaczyk Joanna
Published: March 2014

This is a pilot study investigating the role of phrasal fixedness in the development of a standardised text type. The linguistic material comes from the Edinburgh Corpus of Older Scots (ECOS), consisting of samples of administrative records from 15th-century Scotland. The corpus has been searched for re-occurring lemmatic bundles, which are the indicators of emerging patterns and standardising usage in the records, developing in the context of linguistic standardisation of Scots. The findings are interpreted with regard to their semantics and function in the records, and indicate that the text type as such was not yet fully standardised in its repertoire of fixed phrases serving a specific purpose. In individual locations, however, one finds a greater degree of consistency and a tendency to develop a local norm. Similarly, in some specific textual functions the lexical fixedness may be present to a larger extent than in others.
A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850)
Authors: Ortega Barrera Ivalla
Published: March 2014

Extenders are phrases such as “and so on”, “and the like”, “and many others”, which occur at the end of enumerations in order to make them more inclusive. This paper explores the forms and the functions of extenders in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850). To my knowledge, until now, the only historical study on extenders has been carried out by Carroll (2007). Other studies in the field include the works by Graham (1998), Overstreet (1999 and 2005), and Jucker (2003). My intention is to offer a distinct taxonomy of extenders in recipes to see (a) their form and use in specific points in time, and (b) whether extenders have remained stable in time or, conversely, have undergone any type of change, whether formal or functional.
“It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter”
Authors: Chaemsaithong Krisda
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates the use of politeness in various parts of the pauper letters of the 18th century. While grounded in Brown & Levinson’s framework (1987), the paper argues that the writers had much more discursive leeway in choosing politeness strategies to achieve their communicative goals than Brown & Levinson (1987) predict. This in turn shows that the socio-cultural factors such as power and distance do not work out in the same way in all sub-cultural groups, and that politeness is best viewed as local norms operating in a particular socio-cultural context.
Genre analysis
Authors: Dimkovic-Telebakovic Gordana
Published: March 2014

This paper opens with a brief account of the history of the English scientific research article (RA) over the past 350 years. Apart from a historical overview of the genre of RA, a synchronic analysis is also carried out on one of the main sections of the RA introduction. Two RA introductions from waterway and transportation engineering fields are presented and discussed here.The analysis shows that the two RA introductions are structured to perform different discourse functions, and confirms the hypothesis that Swales’ CARS model is applicable to these two RA introductions. Two new steps are also found: Move 2, Step 1B*, which signals shortcomings of the paper and is inserted into Move 3, Step 1B, and Move 1 or Move 3, Step 1*, which is introduced to define key concepts.
The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change
Authors: Supalla Ted
Published: March 2014

It has frequently been claimed that a synthetic typology is a hallmark of sign language. However, this view is challenged by our historical reconstruction of early forms and subsequent changes in the expression of negation and gendered kinship in American Sign Language. Early rule-governed phrases provided an environment for the formation of analytic paradigms and then cliticization, enabling gradual processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization. These conclusions are reinforced by our fieldwork on young sign languages on Amami Island and in international contact situations among deaf European signers. These data show, respectively, consistent proto-word formation and analytic negative constructions similar to early ASL. Moreover, our fieldwork and analyses of a historically unrelated but mature sign language – Japanese Sign Language – reveal a distinct structure for complex gender morphology as a result of the differing nature and sequential order of the earlier analytic forms. I will also discuss examples of culturally salient gestures which result in different evolutionary paths for unrelated sign languages.
On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification
Authors: Kießling Roland
Published: March 2014

The Niger-Congo noun class system has resisted historical reconstruction due to the advanced stage of grammaticalisation its markers present. Yet, incipient systems of alternative nominal classification such as numeral classifiers and class-terms found across various branches of Niger-Congo provide, by virtue of their cognitive transparency, a key to the identification of both the ultimate lexical sources and the syntactic structures from which the ancient Niger-Congo noun class system must have developed. After an overview of the properties of the Niger-Congo noun class system (Section 2), Section 3 examines alternative systems of nominal classification such as numeral classifiers (3.1) and class-terms (3.2). The synthesis (Section 4) provides a model of the emergence of the Niger-Congo noun class system and its morphological exponents from nouns for basic level concepts, body parts and social functions which were used as head nouns in associative constructions or as class-terms in compounds.
A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals
Authors: Sanada Keisuke
Published: March 2014

This paper takes a closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals, using a case study on the root usage of must in Early Modern English (EModE) and later versions of English and its ancestral form mo(o)t in Middle English (ME). This contribution has the following three aims: (i) to quantitatively show that the root must underwent subjectification through its grammaticalization from the root mo(o)t, (ii) to propose a pragmatic motivation for this subjectification, with a special focus on instances of mo(o)t in the construction expressing a speaker’s prayer, and (iii) to operationalize subjectification in terms of the person distribution of subjects in sentences with mo(o)t and must.
Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min
Authors: Chen I-Hsuan
Published: March 2014

This paper concerns how subjectivity is encoded with a third person singular anaphor through grammaticalization in Taiwanese Southern Min. The case study of constructions hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1, which consist of the third person singular anaphor i1preceded by a functional marker, hoo7 or khit4hoo7, shows that subjectivity can be construed in terms of the speaker’s mental space for the speaker-hearer distance. The core meaning of hoo7 is ‘to give’, and hoo7 and khit4hoo7 are agentive markers in passive constructions. Hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 are undergoing grammaticalization to become speaker-oriented discourse markers. The referent of the third person pronoun in the grammaticalized constructions can no longer be traced in the context. The model of Basic Communicative Space Network (BCSN) (Sanders, Sanders & Sweetser 2009) is adopted to account for how subjectification occurs in grammaticalization. As hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 become grammaticalized, they encode the speaker’s perspective toward an event and reflect the Speaker-Hearer relationship.
Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru)
Authors: Guillaume Antoine
Published: March 2014

This paper deals with the diachrony of the associated motion (AM) category in the Tacanan languages of the Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia and Peru. The category of AM consists of grammatical markers that attach to non-motion verbs and specify that the verb action (V) occurs against the background of a motion event (e.g., ‘go and V’, ‘V while going’, etc.). The AM systems of Tacanan languages are noteworthy for their remarkably high degree of complexity, reaching levels rarely found in languages of other parts of the word. This raises several questions, one of which is how they evolved historically. In this paper, I gather for the first time the information available on the AM systems of the five Tacanan languages (Araona, Cavineña, Ese Ejja, Reyesano and Tacana) and attempt to reconstruct their past. I first argue that between one and four AM markers can be reconstructed in Proto-Tacanan. Secondly, I argue that several AM markers that are not reconstructible have developed recently out of independent verbs of motion and I make the hypothesis that these have been directly copied into already well established AM paradigms.
The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English
Authors: Matsumoto Noriko
Published: March 2014

This paper explores the historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English, relying upon two corpora. The go-adjective sequence has two groups, the change-of-state and the state groups. The change-of-state group is divided into two types. The first type expresses an involuntary change of state. With respect to its historical development, there is a possibility that the adjectives will be replaced by new forms in the future. The second type expresses a voluntary change of state. It is possible to pinpoint incipient development. Similarly, the state group is further divided into two types. The first type expresses a state only. The second type not only expresses a state, but also signals the modal notion of counter-normativity. This second type is currently undergoing a change. This paper demonstrates a corpus-based approach as a means of identifying characteristics underlying the go-adjective sequence, which might otherwise remain unexplained.
Recycling “junk”
Authors: Los Bettelou
Published: March 2014

First language learners are “morphology machines,” but second language learners are not. This phenomenon is at the heart of those cases of exaptation (in the sense of Lass 1990) where a loss in morphology due to language contact (second language acquisition) triggers new interpretations of morphological relics in a new generation of speakers (first language acquisition). Exaptation is, however, not restricted to morphology. This paper presents two case studies, one from phonology to morphology and syntax (the Celtic mutations), and one from syntax to discourse (verb-second in Early Modern English). The paper argues that a central notion in exaptation, and possibly the key fact that distinguishes it from the notion of reanalysis, is breakdown in transmission. Breakdown makes it more challenging for learners to recover the interpretation of a feature. They will often succeed nevertheless by fine-tuning hypotheses until they have a reasonable fit. Exaptation, then, is an accidental by-product of the (first and second language) acquisition toolkit: learners’ hypotheses may occasionally differ spectacularly from their “model”. It is then that we see how powerful the toolkit really is.
Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian
Authors: Reintges Chris H.
Published: March 2014

Starting from Sapir’s (1921) concept of linguistic “drift”, this chapter explores long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian, with particular attention to the typological shift from agglutinative–synthetic to largely analytic morphological structure. The momentum for the continuing and pervasive analyticization process is to be sought in the profusion of a broad range of auxiliary verb constructions. The flipside of the drift towards analyticity is the decreasing morphological productivity of synthetic inflectional patterns. The structurally marked features of the Coptic particle system can however not exclusively be explained by the general pattern of analytic drift. Rather, the global effects of the long-term analyticization process have been optimized by a short-term process of accelerated grammaticalization during a period of language revival and genesis.
Creoles in education
Authors: Migge Bettina , Léglise Isabelle , Bartens Angela
Published: March 2014

This paper reviews and critically assesses issues that pertain to the implementation of Creole languages in education. We review historical, social and political issues that have hindered the introduction of most of these contact languages in the educational domain as well as the factors that have spurred the integration of some of them into education. Based on the available literature, the paper also provides an overview of current projects around the world. We critically assess the main characteristics of past and current programs and projects that seek to implement Creoles in education and propose a tentative roadmap for setting up viable educational projects. Keywords: Creoles and education; educational projects
Chabacano for everyone?
Authors: Sippola Eeva
Published: March 2014

This paper focuses on the projects that promote the learning of Chabacano and its use in education. It provides information about the projects and offers a critical evaluation of the educational materials and the methodology from a constructivist point of view. The point of departure is the case of Cavite, which is compared with the projects in Cotabato and Zamboanga. The main problems in Cavite are the lack of educational materials and the lack of cooperation between the different actors committed to the promotion of Chabacano. However, the case study demonstrates the importance of grassroots activism for language revitalisation and that a heritage language can be promoted and preserved outside institutional language use. Keywords: Chabacano; educational materials; language learning; language revitalisation
The Teaching of Creole in Guadeloupe
Authors: Bolus Mirna
Published: March 2014

While the teaching of Creole and in Creole have both been practiced in France’s overseas departments since the 1950s, it was not until the beginning of the 21st century that the French government instituted two competitive qualifying examinations for teachers of Creole. This article discusses the state of the teaching of Creole in Guadeloupe. The introduction of Creole in schools appears to be a step towards offi cial recognition of linguistic diversity by the republic. However, it serves a dual purpose: it meets the requirements of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages while, at the same time, preempting demands by local rights activists that might upset the supposedly peaceful atmosphere of the DOM. Keywords: CAPES; teaching of Creole in Gouadeloupe; Langues et Cultures Régionales (LCR)
Language and education in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao
Authors: Dijkhoff Marta , Pereira Joyce
Published: March 2014

Although the Spanish/Portuguese-based Creole Papiamentu is widely used on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, its role in education continues to spark highly emotional debates. Except for four Dutch-medium schools, most schools in Curaçao and Bonaire use Papiamentu in the lower grades of primary school and some schools employ both languages in higher grades. In secondary and vocational education Papiamentu is taught as a subject and widely used to support Dutch-medium education. In Aruba, the medium of instruction is Dutch and Papiamentu is taught as a subject in the lower grades of secondary education. This paper critically reviews the process that led to Papiamentu becoming established in education and discusses current problems that hamper further expansion of its use in education. Keywords: education in Papiamentu; language and education; language and politics in the Dutch Antilles
Trilingual education
Authors: Morren Ronald C.
Published: March 2014

On the Colombian-owned Caribbean Islands of San Andres, Providence, & Santa Catalina an English-lexifier Creole is spoken. Recently, Creole-speaking leaders and parents have become apprehensive that Island children and youth are increasingly using Spanish with a concomitant loss of Standard English. Accompanying that concern is the perception that local Creole values, cultural mores, and the Creole language itself, are eroding. Not wanting to lose their Creole identity, an experimental primary school trilingual education project was initiated that begins schooling in Creole, proceeds to Standard English, and then to Spanish. The goal is age appropriate language proficiency in the three languages. The purpose of the following article is to describe this trilingual education project – its initiation, materials development, implementation, and evaluation. Keywords: Trilingual Education; Bilingual Education; San Andres Island; Creole Language Education; Mother Tongue Education
A closer look at the post-nominal genitive in Asian Creole Portuguese
Authors: Baxter Alan N. , Bastos Augusta
Published: March 2014

The chapter discusses the post-nominal genitive present in many varieties of Asian Creole Portuguese and derived from a Portuguese prenominal possessive. The text builds on Clements’ Malabar Pidgin Portuguese hypothesis, and Dalgado’s vision of an easterly spread of Indo-Portuguese features. The role of Dravidian substrate in genitive restructuring is stressed. Possessives in 6 varieties of Asian Creole Portuguese are compared and a grammaticalization path for the post-nominal genitive is proposed. The extension of post-nominal genitives to further inter-NP functions is discussed, focusing on the creoles of Korlai and Malacca. Some extended post-nominal genitive functions may represent early Indo-Portuguese Pidgin/Creole use. Quantitative analysis of post-nominal genitive in Malacca Creole reveals a preference for + hum possessors, and traits of a 3rd person prenominal possessive typical of 16th-century Portuguese. This suggests early consolidation of the structure.
Luso-Asian comparatives in comparison
Authors: Cardoso Hugo C.
Published: March 2014

In this article I compare and contrast the comparative constructions in the Luso-Asian Creoles, establishing their similarities and dissimilarities with Portuguese as well as with all the most relevant adstrate languages. Through a detailed look at a particular construction, this study aims to uncover the various creoles’ degree of reliance on either lexifier or adstrate models and unearth potential links between them. The results of this study are then articulated with a number of comments previously made about the Luso-Asian creoles in particular (such as their interrelatedness, and the perceived impact of socio-historical differences on linguistic structure) and language contact in general (such as the role of congruence in the selection of linguistic features).
Measuring substrate influence
Authors: Smith Ian
Published: March 2014

Word order characteristics of the Ibero-Asian creoles are examined in order to determine the extent of influence of the lexifier and substrate(s) and to correlate this with the strength and extent of lexifier presence in the history of each creole. The design and application of a numerical metric is discussed. The creole most influenced by its substrate is Sri Lanka Portuguese and the least influenced is the creole of Macau. Overall, the degree of substrate influence displays strong negative correlation with the strength of the lexifier presence. Each creole has thus been subject to a “tug-of-war” between lexifier and substrate. Arguably, early Ibero-Asian creoles adopted word order similar to their lexifier and, in weakened lexifier presence allowed former substrates to exert adstrate influence on them.
Indefinite terms in Ibero-Asian Creoles
Authors: Sippola Eeva
Published: March 2014

This paper compares the indefinite terms in the Indian Creole Portuguese varieties of Diu and Korlai, Sri Lanka Creole Portuguese, Malacca Creole, Macau Creole and the Spanish-lexified creole languages in the Philippines, referred to as Chabacano of Cavite, Ternate and Zamboanga. The study uses functional criteria for the definition of indefinite terms that include not only pronouns, but also analytic constructions. The comparison builds on three functional categories: realis indefinites, free-choice indefinites and negative indefinites, and the main formal categories of special indefinites, generic-noun-based and interrogative-based indefinites. The comparison shows that both adstrate and superstrate structures have influenced the indefinite terms in these languages. It also reveals parallels between them, especially in areal subgroups, and shows a clear connection with wider cross-linguistic patterns.
Nenang, nino, nem n­ão, ni no
Authors: Fernández Mauro A.
Published: March 2014

This article analyses the similarities and differences between four particles of negation in various Ibero-Asian creoles: nenang in Malacca’s Kristang, nem nun in 19th-century Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese, nino in Ternate Chabacano, and ni no in Zamboanga Chabacano. It also includes a study of the Portuguese nem não and Spanish ni no constructions, which subsist in Iberian and American dialectal varieties, and are in this article taken as direct sources of the abovementioned creole constructions. Given that the meaning of Kristang nenang differs substantially from both the Portuguese construction proposed as the source and the other three creole particles, I analyse possible paths of semantic evolution which may have resulted in its particular characteristics.
Bilug in Zamboangueño Chavacano
Authors: Rubino Carl
Published: March 2014

This paper will report on a corpus-based study of the use of the numeral classifier bilug (bilog) in Zamboangueño Chavacano (ZAM). Since bilug was borrowed as a numeral classifier from a neighboring indigenous Austronesian language Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), it is not present in other Ibero-Asian Creoles that do not share a Visayan substrate. I will offer a synchronic snapshot of the use of bilug in both Hiligaynon and ZAM, showing that it has semantically evolved over time to disregard previous shape and animacy constraints. I will then introduce the Spanish equivalent, pedaso, which may be in the process of grammaticizing to take on the role of a second, more restricted numeral classifier in ZAM.
Portuguese pidgin and Chinese Pidgin English in the Canton trade
Authors: Matthews Stephen , Li Michelle
Published: March 2014

While the role of Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) in the Canton trade is relatively well-understood, the role of pidgin Portuguese has remained less clear. We review the evidence for the use of pidgin Portuguese and for its influence on the development of CPE. There is evidence of gradual replacement of certain Portuguese lexical items by English ones. In addition, we propose that two puzzling grammatical properties of CPE may be explained in terms of pidgin Portuguese influence: the use of have as locative copula, and the use of for as complementizer. Taken together, the lexical replacement and grammatical influence provide evidence for the role of pidgin Portuguese in the development of CPE.
Traces of superstrate verb inflection in Makista and other Asian-Portuguese creoles
Authors: Pinharanda-Nunes Mário
Published: March 2014

The Makista (Macau Creole Portuguese) verb paradigm contains two types of verbs derived from the indicative mood of the superstrate: those which do not represent superstrate functions and those which bear functional superstrate inflectional morphology of the simple present, the past perfective and the past imperfective. The distribution of inflection with superstrate functions, however, is inconsistent throughout the three existent corpora of Makista. Such inflectional morphology is not found in Makista’s immediate predecessor – Kristang, or Malacca Creole Portuguese. However it is found among the Indo-Portuguese creoles of Diu, Daman and Korlai. The chapter argues that diachronic differences in the Makista verb paradigm indicate the incorporation of inflectional morphology through a late-stage second language acquisition process occurring during decreolization. This view contrasts with the account proposed by Luís (2008) to explain the presence of inflectional morphology in the Indo-Portuguese Creoles via an early stage second language acquisition process based on a Post-basic Variety.
The discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya
Authors: Abudi Michael O. , Yieke Arudo Felicia , Kitetu Catherine W.
Published: March 2014

This paper is based on a study carried out among the Dholuo speakers of Kenya who belong to the Luo community living in the country. The paper sought to identify and describe sexist Dholuo honorific expressions and idioms used in specific contexts of the private domain in order to show how gender is discursively constructed. An interview schedule was prepared using examples of sexist Dholuo honorific expressions and idioms obtained from both a pilot study and Dholuo folklore to help the respondents build the corpus. This interview schedule was subsequently used to administer oral interviews individually to a total of thirty two respondents in the private domain. The interviews were audio-tape recorded and field notes taken during and after each interview. Data collected was subsequently transcribed, coded and analysed using the discourse historical approach of Critical Discourse Analysis. It was found that the Luo tradition and patriarchal society, as discursively expressed in everyday living, reduced women’s self worth and also helped perpetuate the status quo whereby women were regarded as objects and subordinates rather than subjects.
What it means to be a Bosnian woman
Authors: Majstorović Danijela , Mandic Maja
Published: March 2014

Presuming discourse to be both socially determined and socially determinative when
it comes to attitudes, opinions and perceptions about the world, we wanted to explore to
what extent the ways in which women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) speak about
themselves are determined by the patriarchal Balkan tradition, post-WWII modernity,
and/or the current postwar and transitional context. This paper is based on a
small sample of a large discourse and body of gender research in BiH including six different focus groups of women assembled on the basis of social class. In order to provide some indications and guidance for the entire project, this pilot study was meant to isolate relevant discursive elements of the speech of women belonging to two different classes: the working class (boutique workers) and the professional class (doctors, lawyers, journalists), some with children and some without. In the analysis, we critically examined the obtained transcripts by looking into recurrent argumentative and rhetoric strategies, topoi and lexical and syntactic structures. Most specifically, we wanted to find out why feminism appeared to be unpopular among Bosnian women and how a successful woman was constructed with respect to patriarchal and non-patriarchal social values. We did this by looking at what discursive elements the relations of patriarchy (status quo) rested upon and what emancipatory potentials (resistance) were used to challenge it.
Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct
Authors: Hatzidaki Ourania
Published: March 2014

This chapter reports on a data-driven contrastive study of Greek men’s and
women’s lifestyle magazines. Integrating methodologies of corpus linguistics and
critical discourse analysis, it explores the hypothesis that, despite their apparently
dichotomic gender-oriented differentiation, these two types of publication bear
fundamental discoursal and ideological similarities. The initial quantitative
(n-gram-based) analysis of the two corpora reveals an equally striking prominence
of the power-expressing feature of deontic modality in both men’s and women’s magazines.
The in-depth qualitative (concordance-based) analysis of the instances of deonticity
demonstrates that magazine texts systematically simulate and creatively rearticulate a
multitude of recognizable voices of authority of the public and private spheres
(e.g. official institutions, professional experts, educators, parents and older relatives,
lovers, friends), seamlessly incorporating the relevant styles and registers
(e.g. information leaflet, instructions manual, self-help book, teacher scolding,
parent counseling, lover’s reprimand, friend’s mock-impolite criticism, etc.) in the
magazines’ proposed life scripts. The relentlessly regulative tone is invariably
mitigated by the implication that the rules posed are for the benefit of the reader.
It appears that the extensive appropriation of canonistic discourses and their skillful
and imaginative hybridisation with other replicated non-regulative genres and registers
renders deontic modality a powerful rhetorical instrument for effectively conveying gender-differential and other crucial (e.g. consumerist/commercial, political) messages in both
types of lifestyle magazines.
Representation of desire and femininity
Authors: Sato Toyoko
Published: March 2014

This paper proceeds as a case discourse analysis of a singularly important 1988 advertising campaign, “Hoshii mono ga hoshii wa” (I want what I want) for the Seibu Department Stores, an energetic driving force of Japan’s taste culture. Although the campaign is more than 20 years old, it remains one of the most inspiring advertising campaigns in Japanese history. The case provides an opportunity to study how the concepts of desire and femininity are salient signifiers in late-modern Japan as one kind of representation in paternalistic socio-economic systems. This paper focuses on both the textual sphere of the campaign and the socio-historical/cultural background of the Japanese consumer society in relation to the semiotic and the social. Thus, critical discourse analysis is the chosen methodology. Judith Butler’s (1993) construct of performativity including the concepts of iteration and foreclosure provides the conceptual ground. In my analytical process, I articulate those iterations and foreclosures in the advertisement. For Butler, desire is the desire for recognition and it is connected to the subject’s capacity for self-knowledge. Construing the advertisement as the desire for recognition attempts to show how gender can be perceived as a “doing” and how commercial advertisements can be a site of reflection for women living in a late-modern consumer society.
Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media
Authors: Ha Nguyen Thi Thu
Published: March 2014

Since the late 1980s, studies in language and gender have been turning to the role of discourse as social practice which reflects as well as constitutes social reality (Litosseliti 2006). Discourse, hence, has the power of shaping gender relations as part of social reality. Turning to the context of Vietnam as an advanced country in terms of gender equality promotion, this study is concerned with what is the quality of that equality. The study analyses a number of Vietnamese media articles published on and related to the International Women’s Day – March 8, 2010 to find out the gender ideologies that prevail. Adopting a feminist critical discourse analysis perspective (Lazar 2005), the study draws on a systemic functional framework for multimodal text analysis. The analytical framework includes aspects of the grammar of Halliday (1994), Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)’s visual grammar and van Dijk (1988)’s guidelines for news structure. The study finds that besides the progressive changes in Vietnamese women’s roles in the public domain and their equal status in the society in liberal terms, traditional Confucian expectations on them in the domestic domain still persist. The ever-rising social responsibilities and the ‘monolithic’ traditional roles are blended to pose an unfair challenge for Vietnamese women.
Constructing masculine work identity through narrative
Authors: Advani Stella
Published: March 2014

This study extends the literature on gender, language, and the professions by examining the language practices of two participants from the communities of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 1992; Lave & Wenger 1991) of physicians in emergency medicine departments in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where the percentage of women who are becoming medical doctors is the highest it has ever been – higher than in other Canadian provinces, higher than the national average, and still growing (Kondro 2007). I argue that the growing number of women in this male dominated profession strongly depends on their success in adapting themselves and their lifestyles to an institutional structure that accommodates men and the lifestyles of men. The following study analyzes transcript data from two interviews with a male and a female physician. The research questions being pursued in the analysis are the following: How do these physicians discursively construct and negotiate their professional identity(ies)? What roles do gender and status play in their negotiation of these identities? The findings show that participants’ use of positioning (Davies & Harré 1990; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) and narrative contribute to the construction of this community of practice as relatively masculine and may point to one of the reasons women continue to be underrepresented in this profession.