Books

This book offers new dating of the poems of the Old Norse Poetic Edda , perhaps our best sources about the mythology and legends of the Viking Age. This study compares the anonymous Eddic poems to dated skaldic poems with respect to five phenomena that develop diachronically in early Old Norse: the expletive particle of, types of negation, word order, types of relative clause, and metrical criteria. After examining these dating features individually, the three most reliable criteria—the particle of, negation, and relative clause type—are combined into a multifactorial analysis using a Naïve Bayes Classifier. The classifier assigns a date to each Eddic poem, and these proposed dates have interesting implications for our understanding of these texts as sources for the medieval history, mythology, linguistics, and literature of the Germanic peoples. This book will have broad interdisciplinary interest, not just to historical linguists and philologists but also to scholars of Norse history, literature, and mythology.

Since antiquity, scholars have been fascinated by the phenomena of case. The explanation for this fascination is, as Hjelmslev already pointed out over fifty years ago, the fact that he who can unravel the meaning of case-relations, has the key to language structure as a whole.

For over three years, a team of twenty scholars affiliated with the Linguistics Department of Leuven University in Belgium has concentrated on case phenomena in different languages, both Indo- and non-Indo-European. It is the first time that such a large scale investigation into case has been undertaken. Noteworthy is also its reliance on computer-stored corpora of authentic material.

The results are published as a series (Case and Grammatical Relations across Languages) of which the first volume, a bibliography, appeared in 1994.

The first volume on the dative case contains 13 articles, each of which gives a detailed syntactic-semantic description of the dative or its counterparts in a particular language. In addition to the lexico-syntactic frames in which they occur, a number of textual and extra-linguistic factors are taken into account. Languages investigated are English (K. Davidse), German (L. Draye), Dutch (W. Van Belle & W. Van Langendonck), Afrikaans (L.G. de Stadler), Latin (W. Van Hoecke), French (L. Melis), Spanish (N. Delbecque & B. Lamiroy), Portuguese (R. de Andrade), Polish (B. Rudzka-Ostyn), Hungarian (G. Tóth), Pashto (W. Skalmowski), Hebrew (P. Swiggers) and Orizaba Nahuatl (D. Tuggy).

The Low Countries are famous for their radically changing landscape over the last 1,000 years. Like the landscape, the linguistic situation has also undergone major changes. In Holland, an early form of Frisian was spoken until, very roughly, 1100, and in parts of North Holland it disappeared even later. The hunt for traces of Frisian or Ingvaeonic in the dialects of the western Low Countries has been going on for around 150 years, but a synthesis of the available evidence has never appeared. The main aim of this book is to fill that gap. It follows the lead of many recent studies on the nature and effects of language contact situations in the past. The topic is approached from two different angles: Dutch dialectology, in all its geographic and diachronic variation, and comparative Germanic linguistics. In the end, the minute details and the bigger picture merge into one possible account of the early and high medieval processes that determined the make-up of western Dutch.

The book represents a historical overview of the way the topic of gesture and sign language has been treated in the 18th century French philosophy. The texts treated are grouped into several categories based on the view they present of deafness and gesture. While some of those texts obviously view deafness and sign language in negative terms, i.e. as deficiency, others present deafness essentially as difference, i.e. as a set of competences that might provide some insights into how spoken language works. One of the arguments of the book is that these two views of deafness and sign language still represent two dominant paradigms present in the current debates on the issue. The aim of the book, therefore, is not only to provide a historical overview but to trace what might be called a “history of the present”.

This volume is the outcome of the author’s observations and puzzlement over seventeen years of teaching English and French as second languages, followed by 30 years of research into the neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. It examines, within the framework of a neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism (Paradis, 2004), the crucial and pervasive contributions made by declarative and procedural memory to the appropriation, representation and processing of a second language. This requires careful consideration of a number of concepts associated with issues pertaining to second language research: consciousness, interface, modularity, automaticity, proficiency, accuracy, fluency, intake, ultimate attainment, switching, implicit linguistic competence and explicit metalinguistic knowledge. It is informed by data from a variety of domains, including language pathology, neuroimaging, and, from each side of the fence, practical classroom experience. This book introduces four further proposals within the framework of a neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism: (1) There are two sets of cerebral representations, those that are capable of reaching consciousness and those that are not; implicit grammar is inherently not capable of reaching consciousness. (2) The increased activation observed in neuroimaging studies during the use of a second language is not devoted to the processing of implicit linguistic competence. (3) Intake is doubly implicit. (4) Given the premise that metalinguistic knowledge cannot be converted into implicit competence, there can be no possible interface between the two.

This book offers a comprehensive and refined account of movie discourse through the application of Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) to the American Movie Corpus, a collection of authentic, verified movie dialog transcriptions. Expanding on previous MDA-based research, it broadens both the scope of data and the methodological framework by integrating the Grammar of Graphics to facilitate the interpretation of linguistic findings. The study addresses the longstanding debate on the authenticity of scripted dialog, demonstrating the textual and linguistic proximity between movie language and spontaneous conversation. It includes genre-based and diachronic analyses, offering a rigorous, data-driven perspective on movie language as both a linguistic resource and a tool for teaching spoken grammar. Bridging corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, and media studies, the book provides valuable insights for scholars, educators, and learners interested in spoken language, ELT, and telecinematic discourse, while contributing a novel, visualized approach to empirical language analysis.

Deconstructing Creole is a collection of studies aimed at critically assessing the idea of creole languages as a homogeneous structural type with shared and peculiar patterns of genesis. Following up on the critical discussion of notions of ‘creole exceptionalism’ as historical and ideological constructs, this volume tests the basic assumptions that underlie current attempts to present ‘creole structure’ as a special type, from typological as well as sociohistorical perspectives. The sum of the findings presented here suggests that careful empirical investigation of input varieties and contact environments can explain the structural output without recourse to an exceptional genesis scenario. Echoing calls to dissolve the notion of ‘creolization’ as a special diachronic process, this volume proposes that theoretically grounded approaches to the notions of simplicity, complexity, transmission, etc. do not warrant considering so-called ‘creole’ languages as a special synchronic type.

Within the framework of Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program, this work presents a detailed discussion of the different types of wh-question formation and relativization strategies in Cape Verdean Creole (Santiago variety), especially focusing on wh-movement of PPs. The book explores the Copy Theory of Movement, discussing a defective copy construction involving wh-movement of PPs which poses interesting theoretical questions as to how the defective copy is to be generated and form a chain with the relevant displaced wh-constituent. It is also shown that the defective copy strategy ([wh_[PL] … el_[3SG]]) is distinct from resumption ([wh_[PL] … es_[3PL]]) due to some properties of PPs in Cape Verdean Creole and to the nature of the pronominal element that occurs at the foot of the wh-chain. This book relates well with those on Cape Verdean Creole and highlights the need to look more closely at deeper syntactic issues in more creole languages, inspiring further comparative work amongst creole linguists.

While cognitive linguists are essentially in agreement on both the conceptual nature and the fundamental importance of metonymy, there remain disagreements on a number of specific but, nevertheless, crucial issues. Research questions include: Is metonymy a relationship between “entities” or “domains”? Is it necessarily referential? What is meant by the claim that metonymy is a “stand-for” relationship? Can metonymy be considered a mapping? How can it be distinguished from “active zones” or “facets”? Is it a prototype category? The ten contributions of the present volume address such core issues on the basis of the latest research results. The volume is unique in being devoted exclusively to the delimitation of the notion of metonymy without ignoring points of divergence among the various contributors, thus paving the way towards a consensual conception of metonymy.

While we tend to divide the world into Us and Them, a number of grey nuances exist beyond this white and black distinction. The purpose of this book is to address the fuzzy areas between Us and Them through the study of European belonging as it is represented in the French elite daily, Le Monde. Corpora collected from 2014 to 2017 are used for case studies in the framework of Discourse Analysis to look at the use of “Europe” in headlines, and the representation of the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Turkey. The combination of these case studies allows to present a conceptual framework for the representation of Europe by Le Monde. However, beyond the study of what belonging to Europe means for Le Monde, this book is about the legitimacy of being “in-between”, i.e. belonging neither totally to Us nor to Them.

Basic notions in the field of creole studies, including the category of “creole languages” itself, have been questioned in recent years: Can creoles be defined on structural or on purely sociohistorical grounds? Can creolization be understood as a graded process, possibly resulting in different degrees of “radicalness” and intermediate language types (“semi-creoles”)? If so, by which linguistic structures are these characterized, and by which extralinguistic conditions have they been brought about? Which are the linguistic mechanisms underlying processes of restructuring, and how did grammaticalization and reanalysis shape the reorganization of linguistic, specifically morphosyntactic structures commonly called “creolization”? What is the role of language contact, language mixing, substrates and superstrates, or demographic factors in these processes? This volume provides select and revised papers from a 1998 colloquium at the University of Regensburg in which these questions were addressed. 19 contributions by renowned scholars discuss structural, sociohistorical and theoretical aspects, building upon case studies of both Romance-based and English-oriented creoles. This book marks a major step forward in our understanding of the nature of creolization.

This book proposes a notion of inverse that differs from two widespread positions found in descriptive and typological studies (one of them restrictive and structure-oriented, the other broad and function-centered). This third stance put forward here takes both grammar and pragmatic functions into account, but it also relates the opposition between direct and inverse verbs and clauses to an opposition between deictic values, thereby achieving two advantageous goals: it meaningfully circumvents one of the usual analytic dilemmas, namely whether a given construction is passive or inverse, and it refines our understanding of the cross-linguistic typology of inversion. This framework is applied to the description of the morphosyntax of eleven Amerindian languages (Algonquian: Plains Cree, Miami-Illinois, Ojibwa; Kutenai; Sahaptian: Sahaptin, Nez Perce; Kiowa-Tanoan: Arizona Tewa, Picurís, Southern Tiwa, Kiowa; Mapudungun).

This volume proposes a new way to address the classical question concerning the relation between language, cognition, and culture from the perspective of two basic systems: deixis and the pronominal system. It investigates the linguistic structuring of basic concepts of person, place and time in Romance languages, disclosing structural differences that may be related to mental parameters and other extra-linguistic circumstances and thus possibly linked to a light revision of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

The methodological and theoretical focus is based on the discursive and pragmatic functional approach to deixis. The articles concern linguistic variation and language change, and most of the studies adopt cross linguistic perspectives, primarily among Romance languages, but also with a classical perspective from Ancient Greek discussing the existence of universal categorical patterns. The studies reveal similarities and differences between Romance languages mutually, and set the stage for comparisons between Romance and non-Romance languages. These similarities and differences are subject to change in connection with cultural developments in society and offer in this volume a coordinated effort in exploring the linguistic expressions of these extra-linguistic concepts.

This collection, which transports readers from the age of manuscripts to the digital word, is a good demonstration not only of the current vitality of studies of Catalan language and literature, but also of the variety of interests and theoretical approaches and the diversity of origin of Catalan researchers. The studies are focused primarily on three thematic areas: a) culture and language between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; b) one hundred years of Catalan literature: 1859-1959; and c) multilingualism and interculturality. The collected studies will prove to make a solid contribution to the unstoppable progress that Catalan philology has been making for decades.

All languages have demonstratives, but their form, meaning and use vary tremendously across the languages of the world. This book presents the first large-scale analysis of demonstratives from a cross-linguistic and diachronic perspective. It is based on a representative sample of 85 languages. The first part of the book analyzes demonstratives from a synchronic point of view, examining their morphological structures, semantic features, syntactic functions, and pragmatic uses in spoken and written discourse. The second part concentrates on diachronic issues, in particular on the development of demonstratives into grammatical markers. Across languages demonstratives provide a frequent historical source for definite articles, relative and third person pronouns, nonverbal copulas, sentence connectives, directional preverbs, focus markers, expletives, and many other grammatical markers. The book describes the different mechanisms by which demonstratives grammaticalize and argues that the evolution of grammatical markers from demonstratives is crucially distinct from other cases of grammaticalization.

Linking grammatical analyses with ideas about a shareable reality, this book investigates some fascinating ways in which nominal reference is exploited to meet interpersonal and rhetorical goals. It focuses on the use of demonstrative and possessive determiners in Polish discourse and proposes that the phenomenon of deixis be reexamined in the light of linguistic variation. The book illustrates a growing concern with the application of cognitive grammar to the study of situated language use and its social outcomes. What emerges is a new understanding of the role of deictic elements as tools for establishing intersubjective coordination and expressing attitudes.

This book is for anyone actively seeking to understand how linguistic systems reflect human socio-cognitive abilities and in what ways reality is mediated through language.

Passives, middles, and other voice phenomena are issues at the core of modern linguistic research. This volume brings together different perspectives on voice different theoretical viewpoints, different languages, and different kinds of voice phenomena. The eleven articles each make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion, offering new data, new analyses, and bringing new light to long-standing issues. In combination, they present a multi-faceted and yet coherent picture of the topics at hand.

The book covers three major topics crucial for contemporary syntactic research. Firstly, it offers a sketch of a general theory of dependency in natural language. Different types of linguistic dependencies are distinguished (semantic, syntactic, and morphological), the criteria for their recognition are formulated, and all possible combinations are discussed in some detail. Secondly, it demonstrates the application of the general theory in two specific domains: establishing the system of Surface-Syntactic Relations in French and linear positioning of clitics in Serbian. Thirdly, it presents a formal sketch of Head-Driven Phrase-Structure Grammar modelled in terms of syntactic dependencies.

Dependent-Head Synthesis in Nivkh has been awarded a prize of the Offermann-Hergarten Donation at the University of Cologne in 2004. The endowments are granted for outstanding innovative and comprehensibly documented research.This book offers an innovative approach to three interlaced topics: A systematic analysis of the morphosyntatic organization of Nivkh (Paleosiberian); a cross-linguistic investigation of complex noun forms (parallel to complex (polysynthetic) verb forms); and a typology of polysynthesis. Nivkh (Gilyak) is linguistically remarkable because of its highly complex word forms, both verbs and nouns. They are formed productively from ad hoc concatenation of lexical roots in dependent — head relations without further morphological marking: primary object — predicate, attribute - noun, noun — relational morpheme ("adposition"). After an in-depth examination of the wordhood of such complexes the morphological type of Nivkh is explored against the background of polysynthesis, noun incorporation, verb root serialization, noun complexes and head/dependent marking. For this purpose, a new delimitation and classification of polysynthesis is proposed on the basis of an evaluation of 75 languages. Besides contributing to a reconciliation of previous diametrically opposed approaches to polysynthesis, this study challenges some common preconceived notions with respect to how languages "should be".

The Derivation of VO and OV takes a new look at the relationship between head-final or OV structures and head-initial or VO ones, in light of recent work by Richard Kayne and others. The various papers in the volume take different positions with respect to whether one type of structure is derived from the other, and if so, which of the two orders is primary.

Different options explored include derivation of VO order by head movement from a basic OV structure, derivation of VO by fronting of a phrasal VP remnant containing only the verb, derivation of OV by fronting of a remnant VP which the verb has vacated, and others.

Each paper is thoroughly rooted in empirical observations about specific constructions drawn either from the Germanic languages or from others including Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese, and Malagasy.

The volume consists of eleven original papers by Sjef Barbiers, Michael Brody, Naoki Fukui & Yuji Takano, Liliane Haegeman, Hubert Haider, Roland Hinterhölzl, Anders Holmberg, Thorbjorg Hróarsdóttir, Matthew Pearson, Peter Svenonius, and Knut Tarald Taraldsen, plus an introduction by the editor.

This monograph proposes a minimalist, phase-based approach to the derivation of coordinate structures, utilizing the operations Copy and Match to account for both the symmetries and asymmetries of coordination. Data are drawn primarily from English, German and Dutch. The basic assumptions are that all coordinate structures are symmetric to some degree (in contrast to parasitic gap and many verb phrase ellipsis constructions), and these symmetries, especially with ellipsis, allow syntactic derivations to utilize Copy and Match in interface with active memory for economizing with gaps and assuring clarity of interpretation. With derivations operating at the feature level, troublesome properties of coordinate structures such as cross-categorial and non-constituent coordination, violations of the Coordinate Structure Constraint, as well as coordinate ellipsis (Gapping, RNR, Left-Edge Ellipsis) are accounted for without separate mechanisms or conditions applicable only to coordinate structures. The proposal provides support for central assumptions about the structure of West Germanic.

Construction Grammar is enthusiastically embraced by a growing group of linguists who find it a natural way to formulate their analyses. But so far there is no widespread formalization of construction grammar with a solid computational implementation. Fluid Construction Grammar attempts to fill this gap. It is a fully operational computational framework capturing many key concepts in construction grammar. The present book is the first extensive publication describing this framework. In addition to general introductions, it gives a number of concrete examples through a series of linguistically challenging case studies, including phrase structure, case grammar, and modality. The book is suited both for linguists who want to know what Fluid Construction Grammar looks like and for computational linguists who may want to use this computational framework for their own experiments or applications.

National linguistic ideology has been at the base of most historical processes that –whether they are complete or not – have brought us to the current reality: a world of languages that represent, with greater or lesser exactitude, the diversity – and convergences – of human groups. Various of today’s thinkers have predicted the decline or even the end of national ideologies. In the area of language, postmodernism would make the linguistic affiliation of the community individuals irrelevant, de-ideologise language use, and extend plurilingualism and language alternation in association with a new distribution of (physical or functional) spaces of linguistic practice.

But is this true everywhere? Are languages now nowhere the core of collective identity? Or are we witnessing a distinction between languages that, because of their magnitude, status, strategic position, etc., can continue to exercise the function of national languages and languages that have to renounce this function? Has national linguistic ideology really ceased to make sense? What other strategies should the historic language of a given geographic area employ if it wants to continue forming part of the life of the community that is set up there? What kinds of languages are desired by politicians, intellectuals and philologists? This book aims to bring some thoughts about these questions.

Da den unge skotske teolog George Low blev sendt til Shetland i 1774 for at indsamle stof til en beskrivelse af disse øer, lykkedes det ham bl.a. at optegne en lille liste med hverdagsudtryk fra den gamle nordiske dialekt, der nedstammede direkte fra de oprindelige beboeres norrøne sprog, der var blevet ført til Shetland ca. 800 e.Kr., men som uddøde helt i det 19. århundrede.Det er dette gamle nordiske sprogminde, der her for første gang tages til behandling i sin helhed, idet der indledes med en kort sproghistorisk oversigt, hvorefter alle ordene i listen gennemgås grundigt; derefter følger en detaljeret analyse af de påviste lydlige og grammatiske træk, hvilket gør det muligt at drage mere konkrete og præcise slutninger om denne gamle vestnorske mundarts udvikling og stade på den tid end de hidtil accepterede traditionelle forestillinger har tilladt. Der sluttes af med en omfattende bibliografi og en kort opsummering på engelsk.