Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Grammatical Gender in Hindukush Languages
Grammatical gender in Hindukush languages An areal-typological study Julia Lautin Department of Linguistics Independent Project for the Degree of Bachelor 15 HEC General linguistics Bachelor's programme in Linguistics Spring term 2016 Supervisor: Henrik Liljegren Examinator: Bernhard Wälchli Expert reviewer: Emil Perder Project affiliation: “Language contact and relatedness in the Hindukush Region,” a research project supported by the Swedish Research Council (421-2014-631) Grammatical gender in Hindukush languages An areal-typological study Julia Lautin Abstract In the mountainous area of the Greater Hindukush in northern Pakistan, north-western Afghanistan and Kashmir, some fifty languages from six different genera are spoken. The languages are at the same time innovative and archaic, and are of great interest for areal-typological research. This study investigates grammatical gender in a 12-language sample in the area from an areal-typological perspective. The results show some intriguing features, including unexpected loss of gender, languages that have developed a gender system based on the semantic category of animacy, and languages where this animacy distinction is present parallel to the inherited gender system based on a masculine/feminine distinction found in many Indo-Aryan languages. Keywords Grammatical gender, areal-typology, Hindukush, animacy, nominal categories Grammatiskt genus i Hindukush-språk En areal-typologisk studie Julia Lautin Sammanfattning I den här studien undersöks grammatiskt genus i ett antal språk som talas i ett bergsområde beläget i norra Pakistan, nordvästra Afghanistan och Kashmir. I området, här kallat Greater Hindukush, talas omkring 50 olika språk från sex olika språkfamiljer. Det stora antalet språk tillsammans med den otillgängliga terrängen har gjort att språken är arkaiska i vissa hänseenden och innovativa i andra, vilket gör det till ett intressant område för arealtypologisk forskning. -
Benefactive Applicative Periphrases: a Typological Approach
This is the pre-final version of a paper published in Zuñiga, F. & S. Kittilä, Studies in Ditransitive Constructions, Benjamins, 2010, 29-69. Please don’t quote without checking the published version before. Benefactive applicative periphrases: a typological approach Denis CREISSELS University of Lyon Abstract After defining applicative periphrases as constructions in which a verb (the verb-operator) acts as a valency operator licensing the expression of an additional participant fulfilling a given semantic role in the event encoded by another verb (the lexical verb), this paper analyses applicative periphrases licensing beneficiaries. Three formal types are recognized with respect to the grammatical nature of the two verb forms involved in the periphrasis, and their distribution in the languages of the world is examined. Grammaticalization paths leading to benefactive applicative periphrases are discussed, as well as further evolutions of benefactive applicative periphrases. The last two sections are devoted to autobenefactive applicative periphrases and to the use of verbs other than ‘give’ as verb-operator in benefactive applicative periphrases. 1. Introduction The recognition and analysis of periphrastic constructions functionally equivalent to morphological derivations encoding operations on verbal valency has been a recurrent topic in the study of passive and causative constructions. By contrast, applicative periphrases are largely neglected in the general literature on valency changes, although such constructions have been described in many languages. This paper examines applicative periphrases licensing benefactives in a typological perspective. This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, after defining the notion of applicative periphrasis, I define benefactive applicative periphrases as a semantic subtype of applicative periphrases, and I examine their general properties. -
Nimatullahi Sufism and Deccan Bahmani Sultanate
Volume : 4 | Issue : 6 | June 2015 ISSN - 2250-1991 Research Paper Commerce Nimatullahi Sufism and Deccan Bahmani Sultanate Seyed Mohammad Ph.D. in Sufism and Islamic Mysticism University of Religions and Hadi Torabi Denominations, Qom, Iran The presentresearch paper is aimed to determine the relationship between the Nimatullahi Shiite Sufi dervishes and Bahmani Shiite Sultanate of Deccan which undoubtedly is one of the key factors help to explain the spread of Sufism followed by growth of Shi’ism in South India and in Indian sub-continent. This relationship wasmutual andin addition to Sufism, the Bahmani Sultanate has also benefited from it. Furthermore, the researcher made effortto determine and to discuss the influential factors on this relation and its fruitful results. Moreover, a brief reference to the history of Muslims in India which ABSTRACT seems necessary is presented. KEYWORDS Nimatullahi Sufism, Deccan Bahmani Sultanate, Shiite Muslim, India Introduction: are attributable the presence of Iranian Ascetics in Kalkot and Islamic culture has entered in two ways and in different eras Kollam Ports. (Battuta 575) However, one of the major and in the Indian subcontinent. One of them was the gradual ar- important factors that influence the development of Sufism in rival of the Muslims aroundeighth century in the region and the subcontinent was the Shiite rule of Bahmani Sultanate in perhaps the Muslim merchants came from southern and west- Deccan which is discussed briefly in this research paper. ern Coast of Malabar and Cambaya Bay in India who spread Islamic culture in Gujarat and the Deccan regions and they can Discussion: be considered asthe pioneers of this movement. -
Book of Abstracts
2 June 5 – 7 2014 Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic http://olinco.upol.cz Book of Abstracts Contents: Invited speakers (p. 17-21) Bas Aarts Investigating spoken English syntax and usage David Adger Constraints on Phrase Structure Ocke-Schwen Bohn L2 speech learning: Do cross-language phonetic relationships provide a full account? Noam Chomsky Problems of Projection: Extensions Linda Polka The development of phonetic perception: a journey guided by speech input and intake. 3 Oral presentations (p. 22-200) Víctor Acedo-Matellán and Cristina Real-Puigdollers Locative prepositions and quantifier scope: evidence from Catalan Sascha Alexeyenko Adverbs as PPs and the Semantics of –ly Manuela Âmbar and Ángel L. Jiménez-Fernández Subjunctives: How much left periphery do you need? Maria Andreou and Ianthi Maria Tsimpli Character Reference: A Study of Greek-German and Greek-English Bilingual Children Amir Anvari Remarks on Bridging Pilar P. Barbosa Pseudoclefts: (echo) questions and answers Jitka Bartošová and Ivona Kučerová Against a unified NP-deletion analysis of pronouns: Evidence from demonstratives in Czech Lucie Benešová, Michal Křen, and Martina Waclawičová ORAL2013: representative corpus of informal spoken Czech Štefan Beňuš, Uwe D. Reichel, and Katalin Mády Modelling accentual phrase intonation in Slovak and Hungarian Lolita Bérard and José Deulofeu On the limit between relative and “consecutive clauses”: the case of [NP Det [- def] N que X] construct in spoken French: a corpus based analysis. Theresa Biberauer Towards a theory of syntactic categories: an emergentist generative perspektive 4 Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts Conditional Inversion and Types of Parametric Change Veronika Bláhová and Filip Smolík Early comprehension of verb number morphemes in Czech: evidence for a pragmatic account Anna Bondaruk Three types of predicational clauses in Polish and constrains on their use Karolina Broś Polish voicing assimilation at the phonetics-phonology interface Elena Castroviejo and Berit Gehrke Manner–in–disguise vs. -
Grammatical Gender in the German Multiethnolect Peter Auer & Vanessa Siegel
1 Grammatical gender in the German multiethnolect Peter Auer & Vanessa Siegel Contact: Deutsches Seminar, Universität Freiburg, D-79089 Freiburg [email protected], [email protected] Abstract While major restructurations and simplifications have been reported for gender systems of other Germanic languages in multiethnolectal speech, the article demonstrates that the three-fold gender distinction of German is relatively stable among young speakers of immigrant background. We inves- tigate gender in a German multiethnolect, based on a corpus of appr. 17 hours of spontaneous speech by 28 young speakers in Stuttgart (mainly of Turkish and Balkan backgrounds). German is not their second language, but (one of) their first language(s), which they have fully acquired from child- hood. We show that the gender system does not show signs of reduction in the direction of a two gender system, nor of wholesale loss. We also argue that the position of gender in the grammar is weakened by independent processes, such as the frequent use of bare nouns determiners in grammatical contexts where German requires it. Another phenomenon that weakens the position of gender is the simplification of adjective/noun agreement and the emergence of a generalized, gender-neutral suffix for pre-nominal adjectives (i.e. schwa). The disappearance of gender/case marking in the adjective means that the grammatical cat- egory of gender is lost in A + N phrases (without determiner). 1. Introduction Modern German differs from most other Germanic languages -
Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: a Case Study from Koro
Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: A Case Study from Koro By Jessica Cleary-Kemp A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Associate Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair Assistant Professor Peter S. Jenks Professor William F. Hanks Summer 2015 © Copyright by Jessica Cleary-Kemp All Rights Reserved Abstract Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: A Case Study from Koro by Jessica Cleary-Kemp Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair In this dissertation a methodology for identifying and analyzing serial verb constructions (SVCs) is developed, and its application is exemplified through an analysis of SVCs in Koro, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. SVCs involve two main verbs that form a single predicate and share at least one of their arguments. In addition, they have shared values for tense, aspect, and mood, and they denote a single event. The unique syntactic and semantic properties of SVCs present a number of theoretical challenges, and thus they have invited great interest from syntacticians and typologists alike. But characterizing the nature of SVCs and making generalizations about the typology of serializing languages has proven difficult. There is still debate about both the surface properties of SVCs and their underlying syntactic structure. The current work addresses some of these issues by approaching serialization from two angles: the typological and the language-specific. On the typological front, it refines the definition of ‘SVC’ and develops a principled set of cross-linguistically applicable diagnostics. -
Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 5/3/2015, SPi Understanding and Measuring Morphological Complexity Edited by MATTHEW BAERMAN, DUNSTAN BROWN, AND GREVILLE G. CORBETT 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 5/3/2015, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © editorial matter and organization Matthew Baerman, Dunstan Brown, and Greville G. Corbett 2015 © the chapters their several authors 2015 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted First Edition published in 2015 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947260 ISBN 978–0–19–872376–9 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, cr0 4yy Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. -
Origin and Development of Urdu Language in the Sub- Continent: Contribution of Early Sufia and Mushaikh
South Asian Studies A Research Journal of South Asian Studies Vol. 27, No. 1, January-June 2012, pp.141-169 Origin and Development of Urdu Language in the Sub- Continent: Contribution of Early Sufia and Mushaikh Muhammad Sohail University of the Punjab, Lahore ABSTRACT The arrival of the Muslims in the sub-continent of Indo-Pakistan was a remarkable incident of the History of sub-continent. It influenced almost all departments of the social life of the people. The Muslims had a marvelous contribution in their culture and civilization including architecture, painting and calligraphy, book-illustration, music and even dancing. The Hindus had no interest in history and biography and Muslims had always taken interest in life-history, biographical literature and political-history. Therefore they had an excellent contribution in this field also. However their most significant contribution is the bestowal of Urdu language. Although the Muslims came to the sub-continent in three capacities, as traders or business men, as commanders and soldiers or conquerors and as Sufis and masha’ikhs who performed the responsibilities of preaching, but the role of the Sufis and mash‘iskhs in the evolving and development of Urdu is the most significant. The objective of this paper is to briefly review their role in this connection. KEY WORDS: Urdu language, Sufia and Mashaikh, India, Culture and civilization, genres of literature Introduction The Muslim entered in India as conquerors with the conquests of Muhammad Bin Qasim in 94 AH / 712 AD. Their arrival caused revolutionary changes in culture, civilization and mode of life of India. -
On the Relation Between Grammatical Number and Cardinal Numbers in Development
MINI REVIEW ARTICLE published: 09 October 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01132 On the relation between grammatical number and cardinal numbers in development Barbara W. Sarnecka * Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA Edited by: This mini-review focuses on the question of how the grammatical number system of Ann Dowker, University of a child’s language may help the child learn the meanings of cardinal number words Oxford, UK (e.g., “one” and “two”). Evidence from young children learning English, Russian, Reviewed by: Emily Mather, University of Hull, UK Japanese, Mandarin, Slovenian, or Saudi Arabic suggests that trajectories of number-word Ruth Ford, Anglia Ruskin learning differ for children learning different languages. Children learning English, University, UK which distinguishes between singular and plural, seem to learn the meaning of the *Correspondence: cardinal number “one” earlier than children learning Japanese or Mandarin, which Barbara W. Sarnecka, Department have very little singular/plural marking. Similarly, children whose languages have a of Cognitive Sciences, University of California at Irvine, 3151 Social singular/dual/plural system (Slovenian and Saudi Arabic) learn the meaning of “two” earlier Sciences Plaza A, Irvine, CA than English-speaking children. This relation between grammatical and cardinal number 92697-5100, USA may shed light on how humans acquire cardinal-number concepts. There is an ongoing e-mail: [email protected] debate about whether mental symbols for small cardinalities (concepts for “oneness,” “twoness,” etc.) are innate or learned. Although an effect of grammatical number on number-word learning does not rule out nativist accounts, it seems more consistent with constructivist accounts, which portray the number-learning process as one that requires significant conceptual change. -
Measuring the Similarity of Grammatical Gender Systems by Comparing Partitions
Measuring the Similarity of Grammatical Gender Systems by Comparing Partitions Arya D. McCarthy Adina Williams Shijia Liu David Yarowsky Ryan Cotterell Johns Hopkins University, Facebook AI Research, ETH Zurich [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract A grammatical gender system divides a lex- icon into a small number of relatively fixed grammatical categories. How similar are these gender systems across languages? To quantify the similarity, we define gender systems ex- (a) German, K = 3 (b) Spanish, K = 2 tensionally, thereby reducing the problem of comparisons between languages’ gender sys- Figure 1: Two gender systems partitioning N = 6 con- tems to cluster evaluation. We borrow a rich cepts. German (a) has three communities: Obst (fruit) inventory of statistical tools for cluster evalu- and Gras (grass) are neuter, Mond (moon) and Baum ation from the field of community detection (tree) are masculine, Blume (flower) and Sonne (sun) (Driver and Kroeber, 1932; Cattell, 1945), that are feminine. Spanish (b) has two communities: fruta enable us to craft novel information-theoretic (fruit), luna (moon), and flor are feminine, and cesped metrics for measuring similarity between gen- (grass), arbol (tree), and sol (sun) are masculine. der systems. We first validate our metrics, then use them to measure gender system similarity in 20 languages. Finally, we ask whether our exhaustively divides up the language’s nouns; that gender system similarities alone are sufficient is, the union of gender categories is the entire to reconstruct historical relationships between languages. Towards this end, we make phylo- nominal lexicon. -
Map by Steve Huffman; Data from World Language Mapping System
Svalbard Greenland Jan Mayen Norwegian Norwegian Icelandic Iceland Finland Norway Swedish Sweden Swedish Faroese FaroeseFaroese Faroese Faroese Norwegian Russia Swedish Swedish Swedish Estonia Scottish Gaelic Russian Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Latvia Latvian Scots Denmark Scottish Gaelic Danish Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Danish Danish Lithuania Lithuanian Standard German Swedish Irish Gaelic Northern Frisian English Danish Isle of Man Northern FrisianNorthern Frisian Irish Gaelic English United Kingdom Kashubian Irish Gaelic English Belarusan Irish Gaelic Belarus Welsh English Western FrisianGronings Ireland DrentsEastern Frisian Dutch Sallands Irish Gaelic VeluwsTwents Poland Polish Irish Gaelic Welsh Achterhoeks Irish Gaelic Zeeuws Dutch Upper Sorbian Russian Zeeuws Netherlands Vlaams Upper Sorbian Vlaams Dutch Germany Standard German Vlaams Limburgish Limburgish PicardBelgium Standard German Standard German WalloonFrench Standard German Picard Picard Polish FrenchLuxembourgeois Russian French Czech Republic Czech Ukrainian Polish French Luxembourgeois Polish Polish Luxembourgeois Polish Ukrainian French Rusyn Ukraine Swiss German Czech Slovakia Slovak Ukrainian Slovak Rusyn Breton Croatian Romanian Carpathian Romani Kazakhstan Balkan Romani Ukrainian Croatian Moldova Standard German Hungary Switzerland Standard German Romanian Austria Greek Swiss GermanWalser CroatianStandard German Mongolia RomanschWalser Standard German Bulgarian Russian France French Slovene Bulgarian Russian French LombardRomansch Ladin Slovene Standard -
T P C C U I F D by Tomohiro Yokoyama a Thesis Submitted In
The Person Case Constraint Unconditional Interfaces and Faultless Derivations by Tomohiro Yokoyama A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto © Copyright 2019 by Tomohiro Yokoyama Abstract The Person Case Constraint Unconditional Interfaces and Faultless Derivations Tomohiro Yokoyama Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto 2019 This thesis advances a theoretical move toward a grammatical model devoid of interface conditions by proposing a novel feature-based structure-building mechanism. In the standardly assumed architecture of grammar, ungrammaticality is often explained in terms of a violation of some condition on an output of the syntactic module. However, some recent research in lin- guistics has attempted to move away from such an approach to ungrammaticality and proposed to reinterpret ungrammaticality as non-generability. In this approach, ill-formed structures are construed not as defective but as impossible to generate with the available syntactic operations. In order to advocate for the latter approach to ungrammaticality, this thesis examines an in- terface condition called the Person Licensing Condition (PLC), which was proposed to account for a linguistic phenomenon known as the Person Case Constraint (PCC). It is shown in the thesis that the PLC fails to capture cross-linguistic variation in the PCC patterns and in the way illicit structures are remedied. It is further argued that previous, Agree-based accounts of the PCC variation, also reliant on an interface condition, cannot fully explain all the patterns and that they obscure the source of the variation. This thesis proposes an alternative account of the PCC, which involves a version of Merge that is constrained by feature valuation, and what is known as articulated person features.