Functions of Language
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The Ongoing Eclipse of Possessive Suffixes in North Saami
Te ongoing eclipse of possessive sufxes in North Saami A case study in reduction of morphological complexity Laura A. Janda & Lene Antonsen UiT Te Arctic University of Norway North Saami is replacing the use of possessive sufxes on nouns with a morphologically simpler analytic construction. Our data (>2K examples culled from >.5M words) track this change through three generations, covering parameters of semantics, syntax and geography. Intense contact pressure on this minority language probably promotes morphological simplifcation, yielding an advantage for the innovative construction. Te innovative construction is additionally advantaged because it has a wider syntactic and semantic range and is indispensable, whereas its competitor can always be replaced. Te one environment where the possessive sufx is most strongly retained even in the youngest generation is in the Nominative singular case, and here we fnd evidence that the possessive sufx is being reinterpreted as a Vocative case marker. Keywords: North Saami; possessive sufx; morphological simplifcation; vocative; language contact; minority language 1. Te linguistic landscape of North Saami1 North Saami is a Uralic language spoken by approximately 20,000 people spread across a large area in northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. North Saami is in a unique situation as the only minority language in Europe under intense pressure from majority languages from two diferent language families, namely Finnish (Uralic) in the east and Norwegian and Swedish (Indo-European 1. Tis research was supported in part by grant 22506 from the Norwegian Research Council. Te authors would also like to thank their employer, UiT Te Arctic University of Norway, for support of their research. -
Rule Based Morphological Analyzer of Kazakh Language
Rule Based Morphological Analyzer of Kazakh Language Gulshat Kessikbayeva Ilyas Cicekli Hacettepe University, Department of Hacettepe University, Department of Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering, Ankara,Turkey Ankara,Turkey [email protected] [email protected] Abstract Zaurbekov, 2013) and it only gives specific Having a morphological analyzer is a very alternation rules without generalized forms of critical issue especially for NLP related alternations. Here we present all generalized tasks on agglutinative languages. This paper forms of all alternation rules. Moreover, many presents a detailed computational analysis studies and researches have been done upon on of Kazakh language which is an morphological analysis of Turkic languages agglutinative language. With a detailed (Altintas and Cicekli, 2001; Oflazer, 1994; analysis of Kazakh language morphology, the formalization of rules over all Coltekin, 2010; Tantug et al., 2006; Orhun et al, morphotactics of Kazakh language is 2009). However there is no complete work worked out and a rule-based morphological which provides a detailed computational analyzer is developed for Kazakh language. analysis of Kazakh language morphology and The morphological analyzer is constructed this paper tries to do that. using two-level morphology approach with The organization of the rest of the paper is Xerox finite state tools and some as follows. Next section gives a brief implementation details of rule-based comparison of Kazakh language and Turkish morphological analyzer have been presented morphologies. Section 3 presents Kazakh vowel in this paper. and consonant harmony rules. Then, nouns with their inflections are presented in Section 4. 1 Introduction Section 4 also presents morphotactic rules for nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and Kazakh language is a Turkic language which numerals. -
Possessive Constructions in Najdi Arabic
Possessive Constructions in Najdi Arabic Eisa Sneitan Alrasheedi A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theoretical Linguistics School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Newcastle University July, 2019 ii Abstract This thesis investigates the syntax of possession and agreement in Najdi Arabic (NA, henceforth) with a particular focus on the possession expressed at the level of the DP (Determiner Phrase). Using the main assumptions of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, and subsequent work) and adopting Abney’s (1987) DP-hypothesis, this thesis shows that the various agreement patterns within the NA DP can be accounted for with the use of a probe/goal agreement operation (Chomsky 2000, 2001). Chapter two discusses the syntax of ‘synthetic’ possession in NA. Possession in NA, like other Arabic varieties, can be expressed synthetically using a Construct State (CS), e.g. kitaab al- walad (book the-boy) ‘the boy’s book’. Drawing on the (extensive) literature on the CS, I summarise its main characteristics and the different proposals for its derivation. However, the main focus of this chapter is on a lesser-investigated aspect of synthetic possession – that is, possessive suffixes, the so-called pronominal possessors, as in kitaab-ah (book-his) ‘his book’. Building on a previous analysis put forward by Shlonsky (1997), this study argues (contra Fassi Fehri 1993), that possessive suffixes should not be analysed as bound pronouns but rather as an agreement inflectional suffix (à la Shlonsky 1997), where the latter is derived by Agree between the Poss(essive) head and the null pronoun within NP. -
In-Text References
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The expression of modifiers and arguments in the noun phrase and beyond A typological study van Rijn, M.A. Publication date 2017 Document Version Other version License Other Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van Rijn, M. A. (2017). The expression of modifiers and arguments in the noun phrase and beyond: A typological study. LOT. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 177 In-text references Abbott, Miriam. 1991. Macushi. In Desmond C. Derbyshire & Geoffrey K. Pullum (eds.), Handbook of Amazonian languages, vol. 3, 23–160. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 1995. Person marking and discourse in North Arawak languages. Studia Linguistica 49(2). -
An Investigation of Possession in Moroccan Arabic
Family Agreement: An Investigation of Possession in Moroccan Arabic Aidan Kaplan Advisor: Jim Wood Submitted to the faculty of the Department of Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Yale University May 2017 Abstract This essay takes up the phenomenon of apparently redundant possession in Moroccan Arabic.In particular, kinship terms are often marked with possessive pronominal suffixes in constructions which would not require this in other languages, including Modern Standard Arabic. In the following example ‘sister’ is marked with the possessive suffix hā ‘her,’ even though the person in question has no sister. ﻣﺎ ﻋﻨﺪﻫﺎش ُﺧﺘﻬﺎ (1) mā ʿend-hā-sh khut-hā not at-her-neg sister-her ‘She doesn’t have a sister’ This phenomenon shows both intra- and inter-speaker variation. For some speakers, thepos- sessive suffix is obligatory in clausal possession expressing kinship relations, while forother speakers it is optional. Accounting for the presence of the ‘extra’ pronoun in (1) will lead to an account of possessive suffixes as the spell-out of agreement between aPoss◦ head and a higher element that contains phi features, using Reverse Agree (Wurmbrand, 2014, 2017). In regular pronominal possessive constructions, Poss◦ agrees with a silent possessor pro, while in sentences like (1), Poss◦ agrees with the PP at the beginning of the sentence that expresses clausal posses- sion. The obligatoriness of the possessive suffix for some speakers and its optionality forothers is explained by positing that the selectional properties of the D◦ head differ between speakers. In building up an analysis, this essay draws on the proposal for the construct state in Fassi Fehri (1993), the proposal that clitics are really agreement markers in Shlonsky (1997), and the account of clausal possession in Boneh & Sichel (2010). -
Spanish and Nahuatl Convergence: the Case of Pre- and Post-Positions *
SPANISH AND NAHUATL CONVERGENCE: THE CASE OF PRE- AND POST-POSITIONS * Alma P. Ramírez-Trujillo The University of Western Ontario This paper discusses the possible effects of Spanish on the structure of Nahuatl due to contact. In particular, I focus on adpositions (pre and postpositions). According to the Nahuatl classic grammars Nahuatl is a postpositional language and since Spanish is a prepositional language I predicted that a change from postpositions to prepositions could have taken place in Nahuatl because of its extreme contact with Spanish. The prediction was confirmed with the results. However, I also found evidence that showed that Nahuatl allowed prepositions even before this language started to be in contact with Spanish, even though modern Nahuatl prepositions are more frequent and in most cases the use of postpositions is ungrammatical. This research was carried out in two towns where Nahuatl and Spanish are spoken. In the first town (Cuetzalan), the traditional linguistic method of eliciting particular structures from a small number of informants (n=2) was applied. For the second town (San Isidro Buen Suceso) a production task was designed and then applied to the participants (n=6). I argue that the change from postpositions to prepositions in modern Nahuatl is due to convergence (between Spanish and Nahuatl) and not to transference. That is, Spanish did not introduce prepositions into Nahuatl; rather, it increased the preference for prepositions. This paper contributes evidence in favor to the Functional Convergence Hypothesis (FCH) proposed by Sanchez (2003). 1. Introduction: Socio-historical background of the contact between Spanish and Nahuatl Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish was a place where many indigenous languages were spoken. -
(University College London) the Subjunctive Conundrum Plenary II, Thursday, 9:00 – 10:00, Room 1010
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Huddersfield Repository ABSTRACTS OF TALKS AND WORKSHOP PAPERS Bas Aarts (University College London) The subjunctive conundrum Plenary II, Thursday, 9:00 – 10:00, Room 1010 The view espoused in Palmer (1987: 46) that “the notion of a subjunctive mood is a simple transfer from Latin and has no place in English grammar” is generally accepted in most modern descriptive frameworks. But the consequences of accepting such a view have not been sufficiently appreciated in the literature. In this paper I will discuss a number of approaches to the English subjunctive, and I will argue that none of them deals adequately with the fallout of denying the existence of an inflectional subjunctive in English. I will propose that English subjunctive clauses can be described by making reference to the notion of Subsective Gradience (Aarts 2007), and that the grammar of English should recognise a ‘subjunctive clause type’, along with declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and exclamatives. Palmer, Frank (1987) The English verb. London: Longman. Elsbieta Adamczyk (University of Poznan) On morphological restructuring in the early English nominal system: the fate of Old English consonantal inflection Wednesday, 12:00 – 12:30, Room 1016 The paper investigates the morphological shape of the early English nominal inflection, focusing on the developments which contributed to its later restructuring. A prominent feature of the early English inflection was an evident tendency, revealed by nouns considered minor (unproductive) to adopt the inflectional endings of the productive types. This marked inclination of some nouns can be particularly well seen in consonantal stems, such as r-stems (deriving from PIE *-es/-os stems). -
Possessive Predicate Constructions in Indonesian
Possessive Predicate Constructions in Indonesian David Moeljadi Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Letters The University of Tokyo 2010 1 2 Preface This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics at the University of Tokyo. This graduation thesis has profited greatly from the help, support, advice and comments of linguistics professors, Austronesian experts, and a number of friends. Most of all, my gratitude is due to my supervisor, Professor Hayasi, for lots of ideas and comments. I feel I should also direct my gratitude towards Professor Tsunoda, for giving me the inspiration to write about ‘possession’. If I did not take his class in summer 2009, I would not have realized that Indonesian has many possessive predicate constructions. Furthermore, my gratitude is due to the members of Austronesian workshop at the University of Tokyo, in particular to Professor Utsumi for priceless comments during my presentation in October last year, Professor Shiohara, who provided insightful comments on Christmas Day last month, Naonori Nagaya for wonderful ideas and support, Kazuhiro Imanishi and Kanae Iwasaki for critical comments and advice. I also wish to thank Professor Hull for advice and comments during the winter holiday, Mark Rosa, Sami Petteri Honkasalo and Chityee Chang for substantive comments on my English. Finally, I wish to thank my Indonesian friends: Yuliana Lukamto, Fuad Indra Alzakia, Reza Aryaditya Setyagraha, Adeline Muliandi, Candraningratri Ekaputri Widodo, Raffles Senjaya and Michael Nathanel Maramis for their cooperation and comments on examples of Indonesian phrases and sentences, and Mariko Kamba for precious comments on this thesis. -
Appositive Possession in Ainu and Around the Pacific
Appositive possession in Ainu and around the Pacific Anna Bugaeva1,2, Johanna Nichols3,4,5, and Balthasar Bickel6 1 Tokyo University of Science, 2 National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, 3 University of California, Berkeley, 4 University of Helsinki, 5 Higher School of Economics, Moscow, 6 University of Zü rich Abstract: Some languages around the Pacific have multiple possessive classes of alienable constructions using appositive nouns or classifiers. This pattern differs from the most common kind of alienable/inalienable distinction, which involves marking, usually affixal, on the possessum and has only one class of alienables. The language isolate Ainu has possessive marking that is reminiscent of the Circum-Pacific pattern. It is distinctive, however, in that the possessor is coded not as a dependent in an NP but as an argument in a finite clause, and the appositive word is a verb. This paper gives a first comprehensive, typologically grounded description of Ainu possession and reconstructs the pattern that must have been standard when Ainu was still the daily language of a large speech community; Ainu then had multiple alienable class constructions. We report a cross-linguistic survey expanding previous coverage of the appositive type and show how Ainu fits in. We split alienable/inalienable into two different phenomena: argument structure (with types based on possessibility: optionally possessible, obligatorily possessed, and non-possessible) and valence (alienable, inalienable classes). Valence-changing operations are derived alienability and derived inalienability. Our survey classifies the possessive systems of languages in these terms. Keywords: Pacific Rim, Circum-Pacific, Ainu, possessive, appositive, classifier Correspondence: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 2 1. -
CECL Papers 1
CECL Papers 1 Book of Abstracts Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies Conference (5th edition) Sylviane Granger, Marie-Aude Lefer and Laura Aguiar de Souza Penha Marion (eds) Louvain-la-Neuve, 12-14 September, 2018 Book of Abstracts Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies Conference (5th edition) Louvain-la-Neuve, 12-14 September, 2018 Sylviane Granger, Marie-Aude Lefer and Laura Aguiar de Souza Penha Marion (eds) CECL Papers 1. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain 2018 Organizing committee Conference Chairs Sylviane Granger (Université catholique de Louvain) Marie-Aude Lefer (Université catholique de Louvain) Laura Aguiar de Souza Penha Marion (Université catholique de Louvain) Maïté Dupont (Université catholique de Louvain) Gaëtanelle Gilquin (Université catholique de Louvain) Christine Michaux (Université de Mons) Magali Paquot (Université catholique de Louvain) Scientific committee Silvia Bernardini (University of Bologna) Łucja Biel (University of Warsaw) Bert Cappelle (Université de Lille 3) Andrew Chesterman (University of Helsinki) Lucie Chlumská (Charles University) Hélène Chuquet (Université de Poitiers) Jean-Pierre Colson (Université catholique de Louvain) Gloria Corpas Pastor (University of Malaga) Barbara De Cock (Université catholique de Louvain) Sabine De Knop (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) María de los Ángeles Gómez González (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) Gert De Sutter (Ghent University) Bart Defrancq (Ghent University) Liesbeth Degand (Université catholique de -
The Request System in Italian Interaction
The request system in Italian interaction © Giovanni Rossi 2015 Printed and bound by Ipskamp Drukkers, Nijmegen Cover photo: a workshop in Isera, Trentino, Italy (April 2015). The request system in Italian interaction Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. Th. L. M. Engelen volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 22 juni 2015 om 12.30 uur precies door Giovanni Rossi geboren op 17 april 1987 te Rovereto, Italië Promotor Prof. dr. Nick J. Enfield Copromotor Dr. Kobin H. Kendrick (Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik) Manuscriptcommissie Prof. dr. Stephen C. Levinson Prof. dr. Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen (Helsingin Yliopisto, Finland) Dr. Traci S. Walker (University of York, Groot-Brittannië) The research reported in this thesis was supported by the European Research Council and by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, München, Germany. For my mother, Maria Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... xi Transcription conventions .................................................................................................................................. xv Abbreviations used in glossing ......................................................................................................................... xvii 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... -
Demonstratives in Discourse
Demonstratives in discourse Edited by Åshild Næss Anna Margetts Yvonne Treis language Topics at the GrammarDiscourse science press Interface 6 Topics at the GrammarDiscourse Interface Editors: Philippa Cook (University of Göttingen), Anke Holler (University of Göttingen), Cathrine FabriciusHansen (University of Oslo) In this series: 1. Song, Sanghoun. Modeling information structure in a crosslinguistic perspective. 2. Müller, Sonja. Distribution und Interpretation von ModalpartikelKombinationen. 3. Bueno Holle, Juan José. Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec narrative and conversation. 4. Parikh, Prashant. Communication and content. 5. Balogh, Kata, Anja Latrouite & Robert D. Van Valin‚ Jr. (eds.) Nominal anchoring: Specificity, definiteness and article systems across languages. 6. Næss, Åshild, Anna Margetts & Yvonne Treis (eds.). Demonstratives in discourse. ISSN: 25673335 Demonstratives in discourse Edited by Åshild Næss Anna Margetts Yvonne Treis language science press Næss, Åshild, Anna Margetts & Yvonne Treis (eds.). 2020. Demonstratives in discourse (Topics at the Grammar-Discourse Interface 6). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/282 © 2020, the authors Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-96110-286-0 (Digital) 978-3-96110-287-7 (Hardcover) ISSN: 2567-3335 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4054814 Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/282 Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=282