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- Volume 19, Issue 1, 2019
Languages in Contrast - Volume 19, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 19, Issue 1, 2019
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A corpus-based contrastive study of impersonal passives in Swedish and Dutch
Author(s): Annika Johansson and Gudrun Rawoenspp.: 2–26 (25)More LessAbstractThis paper deals with impersonal passives in two Germanic languages, Swedish and Dutch. Impersonal passives constitute one type of impersonal construction (denoting constructions with non-canonical subjects) as described in Siewierska (2008a: 116). Formally, they consist of an overt expletive subject, such as det ‘it’ in Swedish and er ‘there’ in Dutch, combined with a passive predicate. Semantically, such passive constructions encode actions with a general reference, i.e. where no agent is specified (cf. Siewierska 1984, Engdahl 2006, Viberg 2010). The study is corpus-based and uses a bidirectional translation corpus of Swedish and Dutch to map out the specific morphosyntactic and semantic profile of the impersonal passive in both Swedish and in Dutch. The similarities and differences make these languages suitable to study from a contrastive perspective in that interesting aspects on impersonal passives are highlighted in the translation data.
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French and English lexical blends in contrast
Author(s): Vincent Rennerpp.: 27–47 (21)More LessAbstractTwo sets of 97 French and 374 English lexical units identified as lexical blends are examined from a contrastive perspective. It appears that English displays a wider variety of patterns than French does – a larger number of marginal types of lexical input combination, of lexical shortening and of phonological splitting. Striking dissimilarities between the two languages also include an inclination for the pattern of double inner shortening in English and the pattern of left-hand-side inner shortening in French, as well as a preference for semantic and phonological right-headedness in English and the absence of a preferred lateral head position in French.
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Variable article use with acronyms and initialisms
Author(s): Elena Callegaro, Simon Clematide, Marianne Hundt and Sara Wickpp.: 48–78 (31)More LessAbstractShortening is a common type of word-formation in many languages. Crystal (2008) distinguishes two kinds of abbreviation: initialisms and acronyms. Article use in English is variable with both acronyms and initialisms used as proper names (e.g. (the) UKIP, at the UN vs. at MIT). The question is whether variability is largely dependent on the semantics of the underlying full form (i.e. whether this is derived from a proper name or common noun) or whether the two types of abbreviation show different behaviour with respect to variable article use. This paper uses data from CoStEP, a new, word-aligned version of EuroParl, and a data-driven approach to investigate variable article use with abbreviations and their full forms uttered by English native speakers and compares the findings to data from parallel German and Italian corpora. The results show higher article variability in English and a marked preference for and near categorical article use in German and Italian. Furthermore, our evidence confirms that acronyms tend towards the proper name end of the cline, while initialisms behave syntactically more like common nouns.
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A corpus-based study of the human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans
Author(s): Daniël Van Olmen, Adri Breed and Ben Verhoevenpp.: 79–105 (27)More LessAbstractThis article compares the grammaticalizing human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans to fully grammaticalized men and non-grammaticalized een mens in Dutch. It is shown that 'n mens and een mens can still be used lexically, unlike mens and men, and that ('n) mens and een mens are restricted to non-referential indefinite, universal-internal uses while men exhibits the whole range of (non-) referential indefinite ones. Despite the latter’s presence in the earliest Afrikaans data, it is argued not to have influenced the development of ('n) mens. This pronoun and Dutch een mens are also found to have syntactic functions other than subjecthood, unlike men. The contrast is attributed to their different degrees of grammaticalization. Lastly, the Afrikaans ‘man’-pronoun is shown to differ from its Dutch counterparts in relying on the second person singular for suppletion, though forms of ('n) mens are found to occasionally occur instead.
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Notions of “money” and “house” in the language consciousness of Russians and the Japanese
Author(s): Alexei D. Palkinpp.: 106–132 (27)More LessAbstractCross-cultural research is crucially important in the modern globalized world where different cultural notions clash and interact. This article sheds light on the notions “money” and “house”, which represent attitudes to property, in the perception of Russians and the Japanese. The research method is an association experiment that allows to explain the grounds for mutual understanding or possible misunderstanding in the instances of interethnic contacts. Analysis of association fields formed on the basis of two Russian and one Japanese sampling shows that modern Japanese tend to perceive money as beneficial, while modern Russians tend to perceive it as something evil and related to governance. 21st-century Japanese respondents and 21st-century Russian respondents proved to be more work-oriented than their early 1990s Russian counterparts. Regardless of cultural differences, both Russians and the Japanese admitted their need of money as an indispensable element of modern life. A house is understood in both cultures as a place to live in, but 1990s Russians found it less cozy and comfortable than 21st-century Russians and the Japanese.
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Chinese rhetoric
Author(s): Lorrita Yeungpp.: 133–161 (29)More LessAbstractThis study investigates the question of Chinese indirection as a result of the use of modality expressions, which is conventionally believed to be the hallmark of Chinese rhetoric (e.g. Young, 1994; Bond, 1991; Powers and Gong, 1994). The present research compares and contrasts the degree of assertiveness as reflected in the patterns of modality in two corpora of expert Chinese and English argumentative writing on the same controversial subject. Corpus evidence shows that contrary to expectations, the Chinese writers are significantly more assertive than the English in arguing their case. The frequency of use and distribution patterns of intensifiers present both quantitative and qualitative evidence for the rhetorical differences, which may be accounted for culturally.
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Thomas Egan and Hildegunn Dirdal, Cross-linguistic Correspondences. From Lexis to Genre
Author(s): Ekaterina Lapshinova-Koltunskipp.: 162–165 (4)More LessThis article reviews Cross-linguistic Correspondences. From Lexis to Genre
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Marlies Jansegers, Hacia un enfoque múltiple de la polisemia. Un estudio empírico del verbo multimodal “sentir” desde una perspectiva sincrónica y diacrónica
Author(s): Marta Albelda Marcopp.: 166–171 (6)More LessThis article reviews Hacia un enfoque múltiple de la polisemia. Un estudio empírico del verbo multimodal “sentir” desde una perspectiva sincrónica y diacrónica
Volumes & issues
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Volume 25 (2025)
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Volume 24 (2024)
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Volume 23 (2023)
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Volume 22 (2022)
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Volume 21 (2021)
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Volume 20 (2020)
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Volume 19 (2019)
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Volume 18 (2018)
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Volume 17 (2017)
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Volume 16 (2016)
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Volume 15 (2015)
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Volume 14 (2014)
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Volume 13 (2013)
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Volume 12 (2012)
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Volume 11 (2011)
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Volume 10 (2010)
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Volume 9 (2009)
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Volume 8 (2008)
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Volume 7 (2007)
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Volume 6 (2006)
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Volume 5 (2004)
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Volume 4 (2002)
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Volume 3 (2000)
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Volume 2 (1999)
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Volume 1 (1998)
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