Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 19, Issue 2, 1995

We report an attempt to find more objective measures for identifying basic colour terms. We investigate the types of measure available, both linguistic and behavioural, and the statistical techniques for establishing the closeness of fit with the predictions derived from Berlin and Kay. This leads to an investigation of the interrelation between the measures; having examined consistency across investigators and across languages we establish that certain measures give considerably better results than others. While the indicators point in the same direction, supporting Berlin and Kay to varying degrees, different measures serve different functions.

Korean and Japanese are both known for their extensive utilization of mimetic adverbs. A comparative examination reveals the systematic nature of sound symbolism in the two languages and the striking parallels in their phonology and morphology. Similar mechanisms of symbolic sound alternation, suffixation and reduplication are utilized in both languages to extend the expressive range of mimetic words. The utilization of dark-bright vowel pairs in Korean mimesis is well known, and a comparison between the two languages shows that Japanese also makes use of similar patterns of mimetic volume pairs. Not only does a comparative approach help illuminate the full systematic nature of sound symbolism in each language, but it may also help further our understanding of the wider relationship between the two languages.

This paper addresses the controversy as to whether English will is appropriately analysed as a future tense auxiliary or a modal auxiliary: it examines the place of will within the verbal system and argues in detail on both formal and semantic grounds that it belongs with the uncontroversial modal auxiliaries can, must, may, etc. A crucial step in the formal argument is the demonstration that would needs to be analysed as the preterite counterpart of will (not as a distinct lexeme). The paper demonstrates the modal component in the meaning of will and argues against a grammatical split between modal will and future tense will.

This paper examines the nature of questioning in Japanese by concentrating on questions taking the so-called n(o) da construction, i.e., "commentary questions" or CQs. Going beyond the cognitive and pragmatic features associated with "commentary predicates" explored in my earlier study, I argue that CQs foreground the speaker-listener interpersonal dialogicality. CQs are chosen when modal features of an utterance — including socially as well as emotionally motivated modalities — need to be brought into focus. The high frequency of CQs (approximately once in every three to four questioning opportunities) in the data examined suggests the relative importance of "interactional dialogicality" in Japanese.

This paper shows that an adequate semantic analysis of causative transitive constructions with verbs like break, turn and roll has to take into account two phenomena: 1) semantic specification, and 2) change of state or accomplishment. These two phenomena are not at all specific to this type of transitive construction and, as a matter of fact, causation is nothing more than the co-occurrence of an unspecified subject and a change of state. The process leading up to this change of state is not controlled by the initiator of the event. Interestingly, absence of control occurs precisely when the subject is unspecified.