Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 43, Issue 3, 2019

Abstract

This article argues that the logical paraphrases used to describe the meanings of must, need, may, and can obscure the natural-language semantic interaction between these verbs and negation. The purported non-negatability of must is argued to be an illusion created by the indicative-mood paraphrase ‘is necessary’, which treats the necessity as a reality rather than a non-reality. It is proposed that negation coalesces with the modality that must itself expresses to produce a negatively-charged version of must’s modality: the subject of musn’t is represented as being in a state of constraint in which the only possibility open to the subject is oriented in the opposite direction to the realization of the infinitive’s event. The study also constitutes an argument against a lexicalization analysis: in the combination mustn’t, must and not each contribute their own meaning to the resultant sense, but according to their conceptual status as inherently irrealis notions.

Abstract

It is argued that the traditional belief that the formal expression of the dual in Chamorro is restricted to intransitivity / low transitivity is inadequate since it precludes the possibility of accounting constructions in which the dual is also expressed in combination with transitive verbs. In the empirical part of the study, evidence of the recurrent violations of the intransitivity-based restrictions is discussed. It is shown that the dual is not excluded from transitive predicates. The dual is also firmly established in the realm of transitivity albeit only in the third person. In addition, the dual also exists in areas of Chamorro grammar for which it has hitherto been ignored. The hypothesis is put forward that the dual in the domain of transitivity is a diachronic innovation. The Chamorro facts are compared to those of Numic languages in North America.

Abstract

Typological research on agreement systems recognises syntactic and semantic agreement as the two main types of agreement, with the former considered to be more canonical. An examination of different manifestations of semantic agreement found in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa1 noun class (non sex based gender) system is proposed in this paper from the perspective of Canonical Typology, and the findings are related to the Agreement Hierarchy predictions. The results show that Eegimaa has hybrid nouns and constructional mismatches which trigger semantically based agreement mismatches, both in gender and number between controller nouns and certain targets. This paper shows that Eegimaa has two main subtypes of semantic agreement: human semantic agreement and locative semantic agreement. The data and the analysis proposed here reveal novel results according to which these two types of semantic agreement behave differently in relation to the Agreement Hierarchy.

Abstract

In this paper, we offer the first detailed description of expressions of possibility in the Oceanic languages Daakaka and Saliba-Logea. We show that in these languages basic expressions of possibility are bi-clausal. This suggests that, depending on their intended scope, typological studies of modal expressions may need to consider grammaticalized bi-clausal structures which have typically been excluded in studies of this domain based on their structural complexity. Relevant features to consider bi-clausal constructions as basic, grammaticalized expressions of possibility include their frequency, semantic specificity, and paradigmatic relationship with other modal expressions. The findings presented here are based on the analysis of original corpus data and targeted fieldwork.

Abstract

This paper discusses the grammatical-lexical distinction based on Boye and Harder (2012) in the class of aspectual markers in Chinese and aims to decide whether these markers are grammatical or lexical in a theoretically anchored sense. To accomplish this, the language-general criteria proposed in Boye and Harder (2012) are translated into Chinese-specific criteria for diagnosing grammatical vs. lexical status, and these translated criteria are then applied to Chinese aspect markers in a questionnaire-based survey in order to test whether these markers are lexical or grammatical. Our classification of the Chinese markers tested is then compared with a traditional classification based on grammaticalization features (Lehmann 2015). The results support an integration of the two ways of approaching the grammatical-lexical distinction.

Abstract

In this paper we describe a peculiar pattern of case alternation from the polysynthetic Circassian (West Caucasian) languages, where specificity-driven differential marking of noun phrases is attested in all syntactic positions and with the absolutive and the oblique cases alike. We call this phenomenon differential nominal marking (DNM). We show that the presenсe resp. absenсe of overt case marking in Circassian fits in the two-level (DP vs. NP) structural model for nominal constructions and is in some ways similar to the phenomenon of pseudo-incorporation described for various languages with differential object marking. For instance, unmarked nominals in Circassian show number-neutrality and scope inertness with respect to negation and quantifiers. However, DNM in Circassian crucially differs from all known instances of pseudo-incorporation or case alternation in that it is not restricted to any particular syntactic position. We argue that this feature of the Circassian DNM calls all the existing approaches (both functionalist and generative) to the phenomenon of differential case marking in question.

This article reviews Commands: a cross-linguistic typology978 0 19 880322 5