The Syntax-Semantics Interface in the Chinese Ba-Construction
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Morphological Causatives Are Voice Over Voice
Morphological causatives are Voice over Voice Yining Nie New York University Abstract Causative morphology has been associated with either the introduction of an event of causation or the introduction of a causer argument. However, morphological causatives are mono-eventive, casting doubt on the notion that causatives fundamentally add a causing event. On the other hand, in some languages the causative morpheme is closer to the verb root than would be expected if the causative head is responsible for introducing the causer. Drawing on evidence primarily from Tagalog and Halkomelem, I argue that the syntactic configuration for morphological causatives involves Voice over Voice, and that languages differ in whether their ‘causative marker’ spells out the higher Voice, the lower Voice or both. Keywords: causative, Voice, argument structure, morpheme order, typology, Tagalog 1. Introduction Syntactic approaches to causatives generally fall into one of two camps. The first view builds on the discovery that causatives may semantically consist of multiple (sub)events (Jackendoff 1972, Dowty 1979, Parsons 1990, Levin & Rappaport Hovav 1994, a.o.). Consider the following English causative–anticausative pair. The anticausative in (1a) consists of an event of change of state, schematised in (1b). The causative in (2a) involves the same change of state plus an additional layer of semantics that conveys how that change of state is brought about (2b). (1) a. The stick broke. b. [ BECOME [ stick STATE(broken) ]] (2) a. Pat broke the stick. b. [ Pat CAUSE [ BECOME [ stick STATE(broken) ]]] Word Structure 13.1 (2020): 102–126 DOI: 10.3366/word.2020.0161 © Edinburgh University Press www.euppublishing.com/word MORPHOLOGICAL CAUSATIVES ARE VOICE OVER VOICE 103 Several linguists have proposed that the semantic CAUSE and BECOME components of the causative are encoded as independent lexical verbal heads in the syntax (Harley 1995, Cuervo 2003, Folli & Harley 2005, Pylkkänen 2008, a.o.). -
A Dimasa Grammar
F. Jacquesson with the kind help of G.K. Thaosen A Dimasa Grammar Contents Acknowledgments 5 Glosses 7 Sentence types 9 Verbs 20 Nouns 40 Pronouns 52 Numerals and Classifiers 55 Observations on lexicon 57 Acknowledgements and history of the essay This study began, years ago, in Haflong with the very kind help of G. K. Thaosen. Most of the information here provided comes from him. Other details came later, either from Bikash Roy Debbarma when in Agartala, or from Uttam Bathari and friends when we travelled together (March 2007) to record Dimasa dialects. To have a look at this later work, see: Jacquesson François. 2006. La reconstruction linguistique du passé : le cas des langues boro- garo , Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 101/1, 273-302. On the whole I devoted some time to the variants of Dimasa. I think I could show (see above) François Jacquesson June 2008. Glosses see A Agent Abl 3.4.5. Ablative : -ni-praŋ Acc 3.4.2. Accusative : -ke Adj 2.3. Adjective prefix : gV- Apt 2.2.3.2.3. Actual Present : -du Ass 2.2.3.2.2. Assertive : -bi Aux Auxiliary verb Cl 5.2. Classifier (with number) Cnt 2.2.1.4. Continuative : -sai- Com 2.2.2.4. Comitative-Reflexive : -pa- D 3.3. determinative, genitive : -ni Dat 3.4.8. Dative : -ne, -tane Def 2.2.4. Negative imperative : da²- Dis 2.2.1.1. Distal : -ha- Dw 2.2.1.3. from up down : -klei- Ela 3.4.5. Elative : -ni-ha² Emp 2.2.3.2.11 Emphatic particle : ti Exs 1.2.4. -
Typological Studies with Passive/Antipassive As an Example
Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example Irina Burukina [email protected] *** . Irina Burukina ([email protected])Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example *** 1 / 53 This lecture is about 1. Typology What is linguistic typology 2. Examples of linguistic typologies Word order typology Morphological typology Morphosyntactic typology: Nominative vs. ergative languages 3. Voices from a typological perspective Voice Passive Antipassive . Irina Burukina ([email protected])Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example *** 2 / 53 What is linguistic typology . Irina Burukina ([email protected])Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example *** 3 / 53 References The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology. 2010. edited by Jae Jung Song Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2012. Languages of the World. An Introduction. Croft, William. 1990, 2003. Typology and Universals. Nichols, Johanna. 1992. Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time. World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) – https://wals.info/ . Irina Burukina ([email protected])Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example *** 4 / 53 Linguistic typology Comparative study of human languages: Comparing languages with each other with respect to a given linguistic phenomenon. Classifying observed crosslinguistic variation into types. Formulating generalizations over the distribution of linguistic patterns across the languages of the world and their relationship to other patterns. – universals and parameters . Irina Burukina ([email protected])Typological studies with passive/antipassive as an example *** 5 / 53 Greenberg’s universals Greenberg (1963): What is possible/impossible in human language? Why? Examples of Greenberg’s universals: All languages with dominant VSO order have SVO as an alternative or as the only alternative basic order. -
Applying and Expanding Role and Reference Grammar
Applying and Expanding Role and Reference Grammar Rolf Kailuweit, Lisann Künkel, Eva Staudinger NIHIN Studies This volume is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Website links in this book All website links mentioned in this book were operational at the time of publishing. Publica- tions available on the Role and Reference Grammar website are referenced as “available on RRG website”, and no links are provided. At the time of publication, the RRG website was accessible at http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rrgpage/rrg.html. List of abbreviations ABS absolutive case DET determiner ACC accusative case DIR directional ADJ adjective DM discourse marker ADV adverb DL dual AFFIR affirmative DOB direct object ALL allative case DOM differential object marking ANTI antipassive ERG ergative case ARG argument EVQ event quantification ART article EXL exclusive ASP aspect F feminine AUX auxiliary verb FOC focus CH case hierarchy FUT future CLD clitic left dislocation GEN genitive case CLI clitic IF illocutionary force CLM clause linkage marker INT intensifier COM comitative IO indirect object COMP comparative IMP imperative COMPL completive IPFV imperfective aspect COND conditional IMPS impersonal CONJ conjunction INAN inanimate CONT continuous INC inclusive COP copula INE inessive case DAT dative case INF infinitive DCA domain of case assignment INGR ingressive DCM differential case marking INS instrument/instrumental DEIC deictic INT intensifier DEM demonstrative KP kontrast position DES desiderative -
Te Reo the Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand
Te Reo the Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand Volume 62 Issue 1 (Special Issue): Issue in Honour of Frantisek Lichtenberk Research Article 2019 pp. 93–115 September 2019 Indexing and flagging, and head and dependent marking Martin Haspelmath Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Linguistic and Cultural Evolution (Jena) This paper is a peer-reviewed contribution from https://www.nzlingsoc.org/journal/current-issue/ ©Te Reo – The Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand Guest Editors: Andreea S. Calude & Suzanne Kemmer Martin Haspelmath 93 Indexing and flagging, and head and dependent marking Martin Haspelmath Abstract This paper compares the concept pair indexing/flagging with the well-known concept pair head/dependent marking that is widely used in typology. It shows that a general concept of flagging (comprising case and adpositional marking) is needed, and it sketches the advantages of the indexing concept over the older idea of “person agreement”. It then points out that the notions of head and dependent are hard to define (apart from the two basic domains of clauses and nominals), and that the head/dependent marking typology does not take the function of syntactic relation markers into account. On a functional view, both flags and indexes can be seen as role- identifiers, as opposed to concordants (attributive agreement markers). After discussing three further issues with the head/dependent marking typology, involving construct markers, concordants, and cross-indexes, I conclude that the concept pair indexing/flagging is more suitable for typological purposes than head/dependent marking. Keywords argument indexing, flagging, head marking, dependent marking, case marking, adpositions, language typology 1 Comparative concepts for cross-linguistic grammatical comparison Over the last few decades, we have come to understand the extent of the grammatical differences between languages much better, due in large measure to our ability to compare language structures through comparative concepts. -
Problems in Defining a Prototypical Transitive Sentence Typologically
PROBLEMS IN DEFINING A PROTOTYPICAL TRANSITIVE SENTENCE TYPOLOGICALLY Seppo Kittilei Department of General Linguistics Horttokuja 2 20014 University of Turku FINLAND Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This paper is trying to show that the concept of the prototypical transitive sentence is very useful in the study of transitivity, but is as such not so unproblematic as has often been assumed. This is achieved by presenting examples from different languages that show the weaknesses of the "traditional" prototype. The prototype proposed here remains, however, a tentative one, because there are so many properties that cannot be described typologically because of their language-specific nature. 1. INTRODUCTION Transitivity has been defined in many different ways during the history of linguistics. Traditionally transitivity was understood to be a semantic phenomenon: Transitive sentences were sentences which describe events that involve a transfer of energy from subject to object (e.g. 'he killed the man'). Structurally these are mostly sentences with a grammatical subject and a direct (accusative) object (at least in the languages that were the targets of description). In the golden era of formal grammars transitivity became a purely formal concept: Verbs (or more rarely sentences) with a direct object were classified as transitive and those without one as intransitive without taking their semantics into account (see e.g. Jacobsen 1985:89 [4]). Formal definitions very rarely allow any intermediate forms, i.e. every transitive sentence is equally prototypical (because there are no adequate criteria by means of which the prototypicality could be measured). Therefore, the concept of a prototypical transitive sentence is irrelevant in the formal descriptions. -
Information Structure and Object Marking: a Study Of
INFORMATION STRUCTURE AND OBJECT MARKING: A STUDY OF THE OBJECT PREPOSITION ʾET IN BIBLICAL HEBREW A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES HEBREW UNION COLLEGE—JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION BY PETER JOSEPH BEKINS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ________________________________ First Reader: Dr. Stephen A. Kaufman ________________________________ Second Reader: Dr. W. Randall Garr NOVEMBER 2012 © Copyright by Peter Joseph Bekins 2012 All rights reserved Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking my readers for their tireless work. My advisor, Stephen Kaufman, was everything that one could ask for in a first reader—direct and quick. I have benefited greatly from my years studying under him and completing this project with him. My second reader, Randall Garr, graciously took on this project despite the fact that we had never previously spoken, much less met. He proved to be the perfect complement with an eye to detail, and this work was improved immeasurably by his participation. I would like to thank my professors and colleagues at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion. The faculty of the graduate school, including Sam Greengus, David Weisberg !"#, Nili Fox, David Aaron, Jason Kalman, and Adam Kamesar, have all contributed to my growth as a scholar and a person. I thank my fellow graduate students for their friendship, fellowship, and encouragement. I would like to thank the other scholars who have taken an interest in my work and provided both support and encouragement. Robert Holmstedt and John Hobbins have given feedback and encouragement in various stages of the project. -
The Turkic Languages the Structure of Turkic
This article was downloaded by: 10.3.98.104 On: 27 Sep 2021 Access details: subscription number Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG, UK The Turkic Languages Lars Johanson, Éva Á. Csató The Structure of Turkic Publication details https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203066102.ch3 Lars Johanson Published online on: 21 May 1998 How to cite :- Lars Johanson. 21 May 1998, The Structure of Turkic from: The Turkic Languages Routledge Accessed on: 27 Sep 2021 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203066102.ch3 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR DOCUMENT Full terms and conditions of use: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/legal-notices/terms This Document PDF may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproductions, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The publisher shall not be liable for an loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. 3 The Structure 0/ Turkic Lars lohanson Introduction Throughout their history and in spite of their huge area of distribution, Turkic languages share essential structural features. Many of them are common to Eurasian languages of the Altaic and Uralic types. While often dealt with in typologically oriented linguistic work, most aspects of Turkic structure still call for more unbiased and differentiated description. -
Derived Ergative in Ixil
Derived Ergative in Ixil Yusuke Imanishi 1. Introduction In this paper, I will argue that a subset of derived subjects (particularly the unaccusative subject) is allowed to receive ergative Case, contra the widely accepted generalization that derived subjects such as the subject of unaccusatives and passives are not marked with ergative (Marantz, 1991).1 To illustrate this, I will investigate the interaction between Case alignment and instrumental voice constructions (hereafter IVCs) in Ixil (Mayan) (Dayley, 1981; Ayres, 1983, 1991). In particular, I will address the unexpected emergence of the ergative in a subcase of IVCs: unergatives and unaccusatives. This occurs when an instrumental phrase is fronted to clause-initial position. I will claim that the fronted instrumental phrase feeds the assignment of ergative Case, adopting a recent phase-based analysis of dependent ergative case (Baker, 2014, 2015). As will be shown, the ergative found in unaccusatives and unergatives as well as the regular ergative of Ixil can be analyzed as “dependent” ergative under this analysis. 2. The instrumental voice construction in Ixil Ixil, a member of the Mamean branch of the Mayan languages, is spoken by about 50,000- 69,000 speakers in the Guatemalan Highlands (Lengyel 1978, Ayres 1981 cf. Elliott 1961).2 Like other Mayan languages, Ixil is a head-marking ergative language in the sense of Nichols (1986). Grammatical relations are cross-referenced, with ergative alignment, by agreement morphemes that appear on the predicate. The ergative and absolutive morphemes are called set A and set B markers, respectively, in Mayan linguistics. Set A markers cross-reference transitive subjects and possessors: the homophony between ergative and genitive can be found across Mayan languages. -
Linguistics, 42: 2, 2004, 247-291
Linguistics, 42: 2, 2004, 247-291 Actants in Semantics and Syntax. II. Actants in Syntax IGOR MEL’ČUK Part II of the paper deals with deep-syntactic and surface-syntactic actants. A deep-syntactic actant slot is defined by its correspondence to a semantic actant slot; a deep-syntactic actant of a lexical unit L either fills a deep-syntactic slot of L or corresponds to a surface-syntactic actant of L. The paper discusses the numbering of deep-syntactic actant slots, some problematic cases of such numbering, restrictions on the surface realizations of deep-syntactic actant slots, and the ways to change the active deep-syntactic valence of a given lexical unit. Surface-syntactic actants are defined inductively—by bundles of relevant syntactic properties that a clause element shares with an established surface- syntactic actant, such as the Subject or the Direct Object. The problem of “Actants vs. Circumstantials” is considered, including the DO SO test. The correspondence between semantic, deep- syntactic and surface-syntactic actant slots of a lexical unit is characterized, with special attention to the four cases of discrepancy between them. The concept of Government Pattern of a lexical unit L is introduced and illustrated. After the notion of Semantic Actant has been clarified in Part I of this article, I can move to actants in syntax. As stated in Section 2, Part I, an important feature of my approach is a systematic distinction between Deep- and Surface-Syntactic actants/actant slots. Therefore, I start with an examination of Deep-Syntactic Actants (Section 4), to continue with SSyntAs (Section 5), after which a survey of possible correspondences between actants of the three types is presented (Section 6); finally, the Government Pattern is characterized (Section 7). -
THEMES in TYPOLOGY: Basic Reading List Frans Plank, 1989-99
THEMES IN TYPOLOGY: Basic Reading List Frans Plank, 1989-99, 2005, 2008 [to be updated] [email protected] Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz Contents INTRODUCING TYPOLOGY HISTORY OF TYPOLOGY THE WORLD OF LANGUAGES SAMPLING THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD AREAL LINGUISTICS EUROPE AS A LINGUISTIC AREA ONE LANGUAGE DESCRIBED (GUESS WHICH) PARTS OF SPEECH (a) General (b) Noun-verb distinction (c) Many, few, no adjectives (d) Numerals (e) Articles (and other definiteness marking) (f) Pronouns, personal and other (g) Auxiliaries and verbs INFLECTION: CASE (a) Case and other relational coding (b) The so-called genitive case in English (c) Pronominal case marking in English INFLECTION: NUMBER INFLECTION: GENDER/CLASS WHERE’S INFLECTION? (a) Nominal vs. verbal inflection (b) Head vs. dependent marking (c) Nominal vs. pronominal inflection INFLECTIONAL SYSTEMS MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY AGREEMENT Plank, TYPOLOGY Reading List 2 CONSTITUENT ORDER (a) Word-level (b) Phrase-, clause-, sentence-level GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS (a) General (b) Alignment (c) Voice (d) Direct – Inverse (e) Objects (f) Incorporation and verbal classification NEGATION INTERROGATION CAUSATION COMPLEX PREDICATES, SERIAL VERBS COORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION SWITCH REFERENCE COMPARISON PHONOLOGY (a) Phoneme systems (b) Tone (c) Syllable and morpheme structure (d) Allomorphy (e) Metrical structure (g) Accent (f) Intonation, isochrony (h) Harmony and disharmony, umlaut ... [to be continued] INTERNET SITES OF SPECIAL TYPOLOGICAL INTEREST FORMAL BASICS AND TOOLS (GROUPS OF) TYPOLOGISTS SPECIALIST JOURNALS THE WORLD OF LANGUAGES ONLINE TYPOLOGICAL DATABASES Plank, TYPOLOGY Reading List 3 INTRODUCING TYPOLOGY Comrie, Bernard (1989). Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell. Cristofaro, Sonia & Paolo Ramat (eds.) (1999). Introduzione alla tipologia linguistica. -
2008Impersonalization.Pdf
TRPS 211 Dispatch: 24.6.08 Journal: TRPS CE: Blackwell Journal Name Manuscript No. -B Author Received: No. of pages: 23 PE: Mahendrakumar Transactions of the Philological Society Volume 106:2 (2008) 1–23 1 2 INTRODUCTION: IMPERSONALIZATION FROM A 3 SUBJECT-CENTRED VS. AGENT-CENTRED 4 PERSPECTIVE 5 6 By ANNA SIEWIERSKA 7 Lancaster University 8 9 10 1. PRELIMINARIES 11 The notion of impersonality is a broad and disparate one. In the 12 main, impersonality has been studied in the context of Indo- 13 European languages and especially Indo-European diachronic 14 linguistics (see e.g. Seefranz-Montag 1984; Lambert 1998; Bauer 15 2000). It is only very recently that discussions of impersonal 16 constructions have been extended to languages outside Europe (see 17 e.g. Aikhenvald et al. 2001; Creissels 2007; Malchukov 2008 and the 18 papers in Malchukov & Siewierska forthcoming). The currently 19 available analyses of impersonal constructions within theoretical 20 models of grammar are thus all based on European languages. The 21 richness of impersonal constructions in European languages, has, 22 however, ensured that they be given due attention within any model 23 of grammar with serious aspirations. Consequently, the linguistic 24 literature boasts of many theory-specific analyses of various 25 impersonal constructions. The last years have seen a heightening 26 of interest in impersonality and a series of new analyses of 27 impersonal constructions. The present special issue brings together 28 five of these analyses spanning the formal ⁄ functional-cognitive 29 divide. Three of the papers in this volume, by Divjak and Janda, by 30 Afonso and by Helasvuo and Vilkuna, offer analyses couched 31 within or inspired by different versions of the marriage of 32 Construction Grammar and Cognitive Grammar as developed by 33 Langacker (1991), Goldberg (1995, 2006) and Croft (2001).