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- Volume 32, Issue, 2008
Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 32, Issue 1, 2008
Volume 32, Issue 1, 2008
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Sentence-phrase coordination in Hebrew and the syntax–pragmatics interface
Author(s): Irit Meirpp.: 1–21 (21)More LessThe coordination of a sentence and a phrase (Sentence-Phrase coordination, henceforth SPC) is a very widespread, though marked, construction in Modern Hebrew. It is characterized by special prosody in that it carries two sentential stresses, and is perceived as more forceful or emphatic than its non-conjoined counterpart. A full account of the properties and distribution of the construction involves both a syntactic and a pragmatic component. The analysis presented in the paper proposes that: (a) The conjunction imposes a propositional interpretation on the phrasal coordinand, thus enabling the speaker to convey two pieces of new information in one sentence. (b) Syntactically, the phrasal coordinand is best analyzed as an adjunct to the sentential coordinand. (c) The special discourse effect of the construction is to be analyzed as a case of independent strengthening (following Sperber & Wilson 1986, Blakemore & Carston 2005), whereby each coordinand leads independently to the same conclusion, thus providing cumulative evidence to the same purpose. (d) Although syntactically non-parallel, the two coordinands play a parallel inferential role in deriving cognitive effects of the utterance. Hence the use of the conjunction is taken as an instruction to the hearer to look for pragmatic parallelism between two constituents which are clearly non-like syntactically.
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The irreality of alternatives: Towards a typology of disjunction
Author(s): Caterina Mauripp.: 22–55 (34)More LessThis paper investigates the variety of morphosyntactic strategies that languages use to encode the relation of alternative between states of affairs. A semantic definition of disjunction will be given, based on the notion of alternative meaning proposed by Dik 1968. After defining the functional domain under investigation, it will be shown that languages encode the notion of alternative between states of affairs in different but non-random ways. Specifically, many languages do not have a disjunctive connective, but rather encode the concept of ‘alternative’ by means of the same strategies used for other irrealis domains, such as dubitative, hypothetical or interrogative. Two main implicational patterns will be identified, which will prove irreality to be a basic aspect of disjunction.
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The basic colour terms of Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian and their typological relevance
Author(s): Andrew Hippisley, Ian Davies and Greville G. Corbettpp.: 56–92 (37)More LessBerlin & Kay’s basic colour term framework claims that there is an ordering in the diachronic development of languages’ colour systems. One generalisation is that primary colours, WHITE, BLACK, RED, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, are lexicalised before derived colours, which are perceptual blends, e.g. ORANGE is the blend of YELLOW and RED. The colour systems of Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian offer an important typological contribution. It is already known that primary colour space can contract upon the emergence of a basic derived term; our findings indicate that derived categories also shift as colour systems develop. Tsakhur offers corroborating evidence.
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Orientation as a strategy of spatial reference
Author(s): Angela Terrill and Niclas Burenhultpp.: 93–136 (44)More LessThis paper explores a strategy of spatial expression which utilizes orientation, a way of describing the spatial relationship of entities by means of reference to their facets. We present detailed data and analysis from two languages, Jahai (Mon-Khmer, Malay Peninsula) and Lavukaleve (Papuan isolate, Solomon Islands), and supporting data from five more languages, to show that the orientation strategy is a major organizing principle in these languages. This strategy has not previously been recognized in the literature as a unitary phenomenon, and the languages which employ it present particular challenges to existing typologies of spatial frames of reference.
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The syntax of intonation units in Sasak
Author(s): Fay Woukpp.: 137–162 (26)More LessIn this paper I examine the syntactic nature of intonation units in Sasak, and compare the distribution of syntactic types with previously published work on other languages, in particular Mandarin, and to a lesser extent, Japanese. Sasak and Mandarin prove to have very similar frequencies of clausal IUs, but Sasak has far more complete clauses than Mandarin, which prefers elliptical clauses. Nominal IUs in the Sasak data are far more likely to be independent than in Japanese or Mandarin conversational data, and fulfill very different functions than those found in studies of Mandarin. I argue that cross-linguistic differences in the relative frequencies of different types of syntactic constituents are best explained partly in terms of the syntactic resources available in a given language, and partly in terms of cultural variation in conversational practice. Differences in the relative frequencies of various functions of nominal IUs, however, may relate more to genre than to language, but the limited corpora used in studies to date make this difficult to determine.
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Hither and thither in Saramaccan Creole
Author(s): John McWhorterpp.: 163–195 (33)More LessManhattan Institute
Volumes & issues
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Volume 49 (2025)
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Volume 48 (2024)
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Volume 47 (2023)
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Volume 46 (2022)
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Volume 45 (2021)
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Volume 44 (2020)
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Volume 43 (2019)
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Volume 42 (2018)
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Volume 41 (2017)
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Volume 40 (2016)
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Volume 39 (2015)
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Volume 38 (2014)
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Volume 37 (2013)
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Volume 36 (2012)
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Volume 35 (2011)
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Volume 34 (2010)
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Volume 33 (2009)
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Volume 32 (2008)
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Volume 31 (2007)
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Volume 30 (2006)
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Volume 29 (2005)
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Volume 28 (2004)
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Volume 27 (2003)
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Volume 26 (2002)
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Volume 25 (2001)
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Volume 24 (2000)
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Volume 23 (1999)
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Volume 22 (1998)
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Volume 21 (1997)
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Volume 20 (1996)
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Volume 19 (1995)
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Volume 18 (1994)
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Volume 17 (1993)
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Volume 16 (1992)
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Volume 15 (1991)
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Volume 14 (1990)
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Volume 13 (1989)
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Volume 12 (1988)
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Volume 11 (1987)
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Volume 10 (1986)
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Volume 9 (1985)
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Volume 8 (1984)
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Volume 7 (1983)
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Volume 6 (1982)
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Volume 5 (1981)
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Volume 4 (1980)
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Volume 3 (1979)
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Volume 2 (1978)
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Volume 1 (1977)
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Irrealis and the Subjunctive
Author(s): T. Givón
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