1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Lingvisticæ Investigationes
  4. Volume 48, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 48 Number 2
  • ISSN 0378-4169
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9927
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

The present study proposes a typology of relatively new similatives in Serbian, derived from nouns and forming part of a nominal phrase in an [NP1 SIM NP2] construction (where SIM stands for ‘similative’). In Serbian, there are two semantic source domains for similatives at issue: taxonomic nouns and manner nouns. The study analyzes six similative markers: ‘of the type’, ‘in the style’, ‘manner’, ‘in the manner’, ‘on the trick’, and ‘on the trick’. These markers are derived from one taxonomic noun () and three manner nouns (, and ). The study explores their syntactic diversity — ranging from prepositions to particles — and their numerous semantic and pragmatic values, such as similarity, exemplification, approximation, clarification, and characterization. Findings suggest that while Serbian follows general evolutionary trends observed in other European languages, it also displays unique features, particularly in the prominence of manner nouns as sources for similatives.

© 2025 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/li.00136.sto
2026-02-19
2026-03-07

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/li.00136.sto
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aijmer, K.
    (2020) Sort of and kind of from an English-Swedish perspective. InE. Jonsson & T. Larsson (Eds), Voices Past and Present — Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts: In honor of Merja Kytö, 248–263. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.97.15aij
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.15aij [Google Scholar]
  2. Benigni, V.
    (2023) The complementizer function of type nouns in ad hoc concept construction: Evidence from Italian and Russian. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 619–654.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Buchstaller, I. & van Alphen, I.
    (2012) Preface: Introductory remarks on new and old quotatives. InI. Buchstaller & I. van Alphen (Eds), Quotatives: Cross-linguistic and Cross-disciplinary Perspectives, xi–xxx1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. 10.1075/celcr.15.02pre
     https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.15.02pre [Google Scholar]
  4. Davidse, K. & Brems, L.
    (2023) English type noun-constructions with lexical functions: A new functional-structural typology. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 95–140.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Davidse, K., Brems, L. & De Smedt, L.
    (2008) Type noun uses in the English NP: A case of right to left layering. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 13(2), 139–168. 10.1075/ijcl.13.2.02dav
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.13.2.02dav [Google Scholar]
  6. Diewald, G.
    (2011) Pragmaticalization (defined) as grammaticalization of discourse functions. Linguistics, 49(2), 365–390. 10.1515/ling.2011.011
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2011.011 [Google Scholar]
  7. Đurić, Lj.
    (2024) Šta je u fazonu? Prilog leksikografskoj obradi žargonske leksike [What is u fazonu? A contribution to the lexicographical treatment of slang lexicon]. InS. Marjanović (Eds), Leksikografski susreti, 139–150. Beograd: Filološki fakultet.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Fagard, B., Pinto de Lima, J., Smirnova, E. & Stosic, D.
    (2020) Introduction: Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators. InB. Fagard, J. Pinto de Lima, E. Smirnova & D. Stosic (Eds), Complex adpositions in European Languages, 1–30. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110686647‑001
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110686647-001 [Google Scholar]
  9. Fellbaum, C.
    (Ed.) (1998) WordNet. An Electronic Lexical Database. Cambridge: MA: MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/7287.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7287.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  10. (2002) On the Semantics of Troponymy. InR. Green, C. Bean & S. Hyon Myaeng (Eds), The Semantics of Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, 23–34. Dordrecht: Kluwer. 10.1007/978‑94‑017‑0073‑3_2
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0073-3_2 [Google Scholar]
  11. Flaux, N. & Stosic, D.
    (2015) Pour une classe des noms d’idéalités. Langue française, 1851, 43–57. 10.3917/lf.185.0043
     https://doi.org/10.3917/lf.185.0043 [Google Scholar]
  12. Haspelmath, M.
    (2023) On what a construction is. Constructions, 15(1). 10.24338/cons‑539
     https://doi.org/10.24338/cons-539 [Google Scholar]
  13. Haspelmath, M. & Buchholz, O.
    (1998) Equative and similative constructions in the languages of Europe. InJ. van der Auwera (Ed.), Adverbial constructions in the languages of Europe, 277–334. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110802610.277
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110802610.277 [Google Scholar]
  14. Heine, B.
    (2002) On the role of contexts in grammaticalization. InI. Wischer & G. Diewald (Eds), New Reflections on Grammaticalization, 83–101. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.49.08hei
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.49.08hei [Google Scholar]
  15. Irsara, M.
    (2021) Expressing equality and similarity in English, Italian, and Ladin: Interlingual contrastive features and micro-variation. Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads, 1(1), 47–93.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Kisiel, A. & Kolyaseva, A.
    (2023) Towards a comprehensive typology of type noun constructions in Slavic languages, with a special focus on Polish and Russian. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 501–544. 10.1515/9783110701104‑013
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110701104-013 [Google Scholar]
  17. Kisiel, A.
    (2023) Polish w stylu and the rise of hedges. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 545–570. 10.1515/9783110701104‑014
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110701104-014 [Google Scholar]
  18. Kolyaseva, A.
    (2021) The divergent paths of pragmaticalization: The case of the Russian particles tipa and vrode. Journal of Pragmatics, 2011, 181–196. 10.1016/j.pragma.2021.08.003
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.08.003 [Google Scholar]
  19. (2022) The Russian prepositional TIPA and VRODE in online student discourse: evidence of attraction?. Linguistics, 60(5), 1451–1485. 10.1515/ling‑2021‑0004
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0004 [Google Scholar]
  20. Ljubešić, N. & Klubička, F.
    (2014) {bs,hr,sr}WaC — Web corpora of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. InF. Bildhauer & R. Schäfer (Eds), Proceedings of the 9th Web as Corpus Workshop (WaC-9), 29–35. Gothenburg: Association for Computational Linguistics. 10.3115/v1/W14‑0405
     https://doi.org/10.3115/v1/W14-0405 [Google Scholar]
  21. Marques, M. A.
    (2023) Pragmatic functions and contexts of use of TIPO in European Portuguese. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 393–414.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Mihatsch, W.
    (2023) General introduction: Taxonomic nouns and their derived functions in Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages. InW. Mihatsch (Eds) (2023), 1–52.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Mihatsch, W., Hennecke, I., Kisiel, A., Kolyaseva, A., Davidse, K. & Brems, L.
    (Eds) (2023) Type Noun Constructions in Slavic, Germanic and Romance Languages: Semantics and Pragmatics on the Move. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110701104
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110701104 [Google Scholar]
  24. Miller, G. & Fellbaum, C.
    (1992) Semantic networks of English. InB. Levin & S. Pinker (Eds), Lexical & Conceptual Semantics, 197–229. Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Moline, E. & Stosic, D.
    (2016) L’expression de la manière en français. Paris: Ophrys.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Nikolić, M.
    (Ed.) (2007) Rečnik srpskoga jezika [Dictionary of Serbian Language]. Novi Sad: Matica srpska.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Panić Cerovski, N., Đukanović, M. & Kovačević, B.
    (2012) Novi markeri citiranja u srpskom i slovenačkom jeziku [New quotatives in the Serbian and Slovenian language]. InB. Dimitrijević (Ed.), Filologija i univerzitet — Nauka i savremeni univerzitet, 121–131. Niš: Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Nišu.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Panić Cerovski, N.
    (2022) Suprasegmentna obeležja i novi markeri citiranja [Suprasegmental features and new quotatives]. Slovenika, 81, 187–203. 10.18485/slovenika.2022.8.1.8
     https://doi.org/10.18485/slovenika.2022.8.1.8 [Google Scholar]
  29. Polovina, V. & Panić Cerovski, N.
    (2013) Funkcije aproksimatora u srpskom razgovornom diskursu [Functions of approximators in Serbian conversational discourse]. InM. Kovačević (Eds), Tradicija i inovacije u savremenom srpskom jeziku, vol.11, 157–168. Kragujevac: Filološko-umetnički fakultet.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Schmid, H. J.
    (2000) English Abstract Nouns as Conceptual Shells: From Corpus to Cognition. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110808704
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110808704 [Google Scholar]
  31. (2018) Shell Nouns in English. A Personal Roundup. Caplletra, 641, 109–128. 10.7203/caplletra.64.11368
     https://doi.org/10.7203/caplletra.64.11368 [Google Scholar]
  32. Stosic, D.
    (2020) Defining the concept of manner: An attempt to order chaos. Testi e linguaggi, 141, 127–150.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Stosic, D. & Flaux, N.
    (2021) Les noms d’idéalités et les noms sous-spécifiés. Corela, HS-34. 10.4000/corela.13587
     https://doi.org/10.4000/corela.13587 [Google Scholar]
  34. Treis, Y. & Vanhove, M.
    (Eds) (2017) Similative and Equative Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.117
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.117 [Google Scholar]
  35. Vassiliadou, H. & Lammert, M.
    (2022) Clear and Approximate Categorization: an Overview. InH. Vassiliadou & M. Lammert (Eds) (2022), 1–21.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. (Eds) (2022) A Crosslinguistic Perspective on Clear and Approximate Categorization. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/li.00136.sto
Loading
Noun-based similarity markers in Serbian
Lingvisticæ Investigationes 48, 405 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/li.00136.sto
/content/journals/10.1075/li.00136.sto
/content/journals/10.1075/li.00136.sto
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): approximation; manner noun; particle; similarity; similative; taxonomic noun

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error