- Home
- e-Journals
- Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language”
- Fast Track Listing
Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
-
-
The action reference construction in Mandarin Chinese and typology of lexical flexibility
Author(s): Liwei Gong and Satoshi UeharaAvailable online: 14 March 2024More LessAbstractThe parts of speech system and lexical flexibility in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Chinese) has long been subjects of debate due to the pervasive zero coding of action reference constructions. In this article, we analyze properties of the Chinese Action Reference Construction from the perspective of Radical Construction Grammar (Croft 2001, 2022), focusing on its structural coding, behavioral potential, productivity, and semantic shifts. We also discuss typological features that potentially reinforce lexical flexibility in Chinese, and the implications that the language-specific properties of Chinese present for cross-linguistic discussions of parts of speech. Specifically, reference, instead of predication, is the most flexible information-packaging function in Chinese, challenging the privileged status of predication established in previous studies on parts of speech and lexical flexibility.
-
-
-
Sequentiality
Author(s): Akua CampbellAvailable online: 30 January 2024More LessAbstractThis paper examines a hitherto unreported use of the Gã Perfect gram termed the ‘sequential perfect’. The sequential perfect represents a late stage of grammaticalization as it no longer conveys any aspectual information on its own, instead deriving its semantics from verbal categories in the prior discourse. It is primarily modal, being used for irrealis, habitual and iterative situations. It occurs in the non-initial clause of multiclausal constructions and signals that the event it marks is temporally posterior to another event. It also imparts the epistemic modal meanings of inevitability and certainty. I propose that these newer functions are developed from the core semantic components of change-of-state and completion. This involves grammaticalization via domain extension, where change-of-state within an event is extended to change between events. The investigation introduces a new pathway for grammaticalization of the perfect, which has implications for studies of the perfect and grammaticalization generally.
-
-
-
Evidentiality as a grammaticalization passenger
Author(s): Eric Mélac and Joanna BialekAvailable online: 29 January 2024More LessAbstractThis article investigates the grammaticalization patterns of evidentiality from a cross-linguistic perspective with a focus on Lhasa Tibetan. It documents the history of the evidential morphemes ’dug, -song, -bzhag, and =ze from Old Literary Tibetan to modern spoken Lhasa Tibetan. Our analyses show that these morphemes started grammaticalizing before encoding evidentiality. We argue that, through pragmatic strengthening, evidentiality tends to infiltrate forms which have already grammaticalized to express other semantic domains. These patterns of grammaticalization are confirmed by diachronic and reconstructed data from genetically unrelated languages. Evidentiality thus tends to be a ‘grammaticalization passenger’ (i.e., a conventionalized meaning which used to be merely implied from the recurrent contexts of a grammaticalized form) rather than a ‘grammaticalization target’ (i.e., a functional domain which triggers grammaticalization). This may explain why evidentiality is less often grammaticalized than other notions, such as time or modality, in the world’s languages.
-
-
-
Frequency differences in reportative exceptionality and how to account for them
Author(s): Tanja MortelmansAvailable online: 29 January 2024More LessAbstractReportative evidential markers are – in contrast to other evidential markers – compatible with distancing interpretations, in which the speaker denies the truth of what is being reported. This exceptional behaviour of reportatives is termed ‘reportative exceptionality’ ( AnderBois 2014 ). In this paper, which addresses French, Dutch and German reportative markers, we argue that they differ with respect to the frequency with which such distancing interpretations actually arise. The French reportative conditionnel most frequently occurs with distancing interpretations, whereas German sollen hardly occurs with this function. Dutch zou takes up an intermediate position. It is claimed that the higher compatibility of the conditionnel with distancing interpretations can be accounted for by a number of factors: its general preference for contexts in which other perspectives than the speaker’s are highly salient; the fact that it has past tense morphology; and its general semantic make-up in which the marking of hypotheticality is a key function.
-
-
-
‘Until’ constructions and expletive negation in Huasteca Nahuatl
Author(s): Jesus Olguin MartinezAvailable online: 03 January 2024More LessAbstractA number of works have explored expletive negation in clause-linkage constructions. Most of them have shown that this type of negative marker can be omitted from the adverbial clause without affecting the interpretation holding between clauses. The study shows, based on the analysis of natural discourse data, that expletive negation has developed an intriguing discourse function in three types of ‘until’ constructions in Huasteca Nahuatl: ‘not…until’ constructions, scalar additive ‘until’ constructions, and beginning-to-end constructions. When the negative marker amo appears in the ‘until’ clause, the proposition should be characterized as expressing surprise. When it is absent from the ‘until’ clause, the proposition does not express surprise. This function of the expletive negative marker amo does not appear in elicited sentences, but only in spontaneous speech. It is proposed that Huasteca Nahuatl developed expletive negation in ‘not…until’ constructions due to contact with Spanish. However, the development of expletive negation in scalar additive ‘until’ constructions and beginning-to-end constructions is an internally motivated development in Huasteca Nahuatl that cannot be attributed to Spanish.
-
-
-
On the link between grammaticalization and subjectification
Author(s): Jan NuytsAvailable online: 08 December 2023More LessAbstractThis article argues that the widespread view that the diachronic processes of grammaticalization and of subjectification go hand in hand, and that highly subjectivized meanings typically correlate with highly grammaticalized forms, should be revised. The point is made on the basis of the case of the diachrony of the Dutch modal verbs. Corpus data show that four of these verbs recently got involved in a process of collective re-autonomization, while the two other modals in the language do not. This correlates with differences in the semantic development of the verbs: the four re-autonomizing verbs do, but the two outliers do not show a regular process of (inter)subjectification. The paper unravels through which mechanisms the grammatical and the semantic developments may correlate, hence why highly subjectivized meanings do not necessarily like a grammatical status.
-
-
-
The paradigmaticity of evidentials in the Tibetic languages of Khams
Author(s): Dawa Drolma (达瓦卓玛) and Hiroyuki SuzukiAvailable online: 28 November 2023More LessAbstractThis article argues that the evidential system of Khams Tibetan, a cluster of Tibetic languages spoken in the south-eastern Tibetosphere, should be considered a verb paradigm. We propose a paradigm with six evidential categories (egophoric, statemental, visual sensory, nonvisual sensory, sensory inferential, and logical inferential) for all the verb classes. We focus on two varieties – rGyalthang and Lhagang – and examine how these evidential categories are encoded with distinct morphemes. We then discuss the main evidential forms of the copulative and existential verbs available in Khams Tibetan varieties as a whole, as well as their morphological relationship. Our analyses lead us to argue against a differential treatment of evidentiality depending on verb categories. The article concludes that describing the evidential paradigm may be the first essential task in writing a grammar of a Tibetic language.
-
-
-
Evidentiality, discourse prominence and grammaticalization
Author(s): Kasper BoyeAvailable online: 21 November 2023More LessAbstractThis paper seeks to answer three questions: (1) What is the difference between grammatical and lexical indications of information source? (2) What qualifies an element for grammaticalization as an evidential? (3) How can we identify grammatical evidentials and instances of evidential grammaticalization? The answers proposed are as follows: (1) The difference between grammatical and lexical indications of information source is a difference between indications conventionalized as discourse secondary and indications conventionalized as potentially discourse primary. (2) A candidate for grammaticalization as an evidential must (i) have propositional scope, (ii) belong in the conceptual domain of information source, (iii) be frequent enough to pass the threshold for conventionalization, and (iv) be discourse secondary, but not by convention. (3) Grammatical evidentials and instances of evidential grammaticalization can be identified based on focusablity, addressability and modifiability.
-
-
-
Speaking about knowledge
Author(s): Alexandra Y. AikhenvaldAvailable online: 17 November 2023More LessAbstractWe focus on the grammatical expression of four major groups of meanings related to knowledge: I. Evidentiality: grammatical expression of information source; II. Egophoricity: grammatical expression of access to knowledge; III. Mirativity: grammatical expression of expectation of knowledge; and IV. Epistemic modality: grammatical expression of attitude to knowledge. The four groups of categories interact. Some develop overtones of the others. Epistemic-directed evidentials have additional meanings typical of epistemic modalities, while egophoricity-directed evidentials combine some reference to access to knowledge by speaker and addressee. Over the past thirty years, new evidential choices have evolved among the Tariana – whose language has five evidential terms in an egophoricity-directed system – to reflect new ways of acquiring information, including radio, television, phone, and internet. Evidentials stand apart from other means of knowledge-related categories as tokens of language ecology corroborated by their sensitivity to the changing social environment.
-
Most Read This Month Most Read RSS feed
-
-
Where Have all the Adjectives Gone?
Author(s): R.M.W. Dixon
-
-
-
On thetical grammar
Author(s): Gunther Kaltenböck, Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
-
-
-
On contact-induced grammaticalization
Author(s): Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
-
-
-
Quotation in Spoken English
Author(s): Patricia Mayes
-
- More Less