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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A new converb originating from the locative noun in Beserman
Author(s): Maria Usacheva and Natalia SerdobolskayaAvailable online: 07 November 2023More LessAbstractIn Beserman, a new converb grammaticalizes from the possessive locative form of the locative noun in (o)ń-ńig. We show that the constructions with the converb have a clausal structure, while the constructions with the locative noun are mostly noun phrases, even if they include an indication of the agent and patient of the situation encoded by the locative noun. Semantically, the two types of constructions are also different. In the converb constructions the situations encoded by the main and the embedded clause must overlap, while with locative nouns this is not necessarily the case. The temporal reference of locative nouns is habitual/iterative, while converbs often have episodic (non-habitual) interpretation. The original locative noun denotes a reference to a fixed location where the situation usually takes place. In the constructions with the converb this meaning is bleached and generalized as an action which takes place in any possible location.
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Adjectival intensification in West Germanic
Author(s): Daniel Van OlmenAvailable online: 31 October 2023More LessAbstractThis article investigates the forms and functions of adjectival intensification in West Germanic. With corpus data from different discourse types, we challenge claims that German tends to use synthetic means and Dutch is between German and English but more like English in its preference for analytic ones. Our results show that all three languages, and Afrikaans too, favor analytic intensifiers but also that only English employs synthetic ones to a lesser extent. The other languages are found to use synthetic forms more especially in literature. The study also offers corpus-based support for an earlier hypothesis that both English and German prefer amplifying to downtoning adjectives. We show that this tendency exists more pronouncedly in Afrikaans and Dutch too and that English speech stands out with more functionally ambiguous intensifiers. The article also explores possible explanations for its findings in (dis)similarities in word formation, discourse types’ linguistic potential and politeness
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A binary inflectional voice contrast in Mabaan (Western Nilotic)
Author(s): Torben AndersenAvailable online: 03 October 2023More LessAbstractIn Mabaan, a Western Nilotic language, there is a binary inflectional voice contrast in the morphology of verbs. In addition to a morphologically unmarked basic voice, there is a fully productive applicative voice, which is morphologically marked. This applicative voice may be called circumstantial in order to distinguish it from another applicative voice, which is derivational, namely benefactive. The circumstantial voice turns an adjunct into an object, making an intransitive verb transitive and a transitive verb ditransitive. In a main clause, however, a transitive verb needs to be detransitivized via antipassive derivation in order for an adjunct to become object through the circumstantial voice. In some types of subordinate clauses, by contrast, any verb can get the circumstantial voice, whatever its transitivity, derivational status and meaning. This voice is obligatory in relative clauses when the relativized constituent is an adjunct and in some types of adverbial clauses.
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Comparing zero and referential choice in eight languages with a focus on Mandarin Chinese
Author(s): Maria VollmerAvailable online: 01 September 2023More LessAbstractMandarin has a low rate of overtly expressed arguments in all syntactic functions without agreement marking on the verb. It has been claimed that Mandarin exhibits higher rates of zero arguments than other languages. Most previous work has compared Mandarin with English, while comparison with other languages remains a desideratum. This study compares Mandarin with seven languages (Cypriot Greek, English, Northern Kurdish, Sanzhi, Teop, Tondano, Vera’a) taken from Multi-CAST ( Haig & Schnell 2019 ). Results suggest that while Mandarin exhibits more zero arguments than pronouns, this is not unique, with e.g. Cypriot Greek having a higher rate of zero arguments. In addition, a relatively stable rate of lexical expressions can be found across languages, relativising Mandarin’s unique position with regard to referential choice even further.
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Minimal participant structure of the event and the emergence of the argument/adjunct distinction
Author(s): Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Natalia Gurian and Sergei KarpenkoAvailable online: 24 August 2023More LessAbstractThe present study answers the following questions: why the semantic roles of agent or patient are often unmarked; why other semantic roles, such as benefactive, stative locative, goal, or source, are unmarked when used with some verbs and marked when used with other verbs; and why semantic relations such as ‘associative’, ‘instrumental’, ‘reason’, ‘purpose’, and others often referred to as ‘adjuncts’ are usually marked. The study, based on Sino-Russian idiolects spoken in the Far East of Russia, proposes that at an early stage in the formation of grammatical systems by adult speakers, if a noun phrase fulfills the role of one of the participants in the minimal participant structure of the event, the semantic role of the noun phrase is not marked. If the noun phrase does not fulfill the role of one of the participants in the minimal participant-structure of the event, the role of the noun phrase must be marked.
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Argument indexing in Kamang
Author(s): Katherine Walker, Pegah Faghiri and Eva van LierAvailable online: 27 June 2023More LessAbstractKamang (Alor-Pantar, non-Austronesian/Papuan) has a typologically unusual system of argument indexing, in which the S or P argument can be indexed on the verb by one of several prefix paradigms. Some verbs always show indexing, while others exhibit differential argument indexing (DAI). In DAI, the use of a particular prefix paradigm or zero marking depends on different (combinations of) factors. We investigate the effects of argument role (S, P), independent argument realisation, the animacy and topicality of the indexed argument, and lexical stipulation. We perform a quantitative analysis of these factors for the first time in Kamang discourse, drawing on an annotated corpus of spoken Kamang. A complex picture emerges in which Kamang argument indexing is best viewed not as a single system, but as multiple subsystems for which different factors are relevant in a given context, and which do not operate on all verbs or all indexing strategies equally.
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The psycholinguistic realization of topic in Chinese
Author(s): Liulin ZhangAvailable online: 23 June 2023More LessAbstractAn OSV word order that deviates from the canonical SVO word order is typically viewed as derived through movement. This theory has been widely supported by psycholinguistic studies showing that the displaced constituents are mentally reactivated at the gap positions. However, some cognitive-functionalists have proposed an alternative account: in a topic-prominent language like Chinese, topic is the basic unit of a sentence that delimits the frame within which the main predication holds. The present study adopts the cross-modal antecedent priming technique to test whether the sentence-initial object is structurally associated with the verb in native speakers’ online processing. Results of two experiments show that the sentence-initial object is not associated with the verb whatsoever, neither lexically nor structurally, shedding light on the typological characteristics of Chinese as a topic-prominent language. However, the processing of the antecedent object was shown facilitated at the post-quantifier position.
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Person marking in Longxi Qiang
Author(s): Wuxi ZhengAvailable online: 22 June 2023More LessAbstractIn Longxi Qiang, a Tibeto-Burman language, the verb agreement system is not marking a syntactic function or semantic role. Previous studies of the Qiang language have argued that person markings reflect the person and number of the agent. My analysis based on a large amount of natural data, however, reveals several different uses of person marking. First, person marking does not always agree with the agent. It can also be used to mark non-agent, such as the possessor, recipient, beneficiary, or patient. Second, the person markings in imperatives differ from those in non-imperatives. Finally, person marking may be omitted in certain contexts.
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Phasal polarity in Tunisian Arabic
Author(s): Jens G. Fischer, Bastian Persohn and Veronika Ritt-BenmimounAvailable online: 20 March 2023More LessThis paper gives a corpus-based descriptive account of the phasal polarity system (still, already, not yet, and no longer) in the Arabic vernacular of Tunisia. The aim is to broaden the empirical foundations for cross-linguistic research in this domain, and to narrow the gap between typologically oriented and philological research on Arabic varieties. Like many languages ( van Baar 1997 : 118), Tunisian Arabic has autochthonous expressions for the three concepts still, not yet, and no longer. still is primarily expressed via a construction < ‘has not ceased’. Despite its conceptual transparency, this appears to be a cross-linguistically uncommon source. not yet is expressed via the inner negation of still, and no longer via a construction < ‘has not repeated’. For already, northern sedentary varieties have borrowed from French (replacing an older autochthonous expression), whereas southern Bedouin varieties have a “gap” in their system. The description further includes notes on the synchronic and diachronic variation of individual items, and functions of these outside the realm of phasal polarity.
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The constructional categorization of Saisiyat multi-predicate sentences
Author(s): Chien-pang WangAvailable online: 08 March 2023More LessAbstractThis study investigates the constructional categorization of multi-predicate sentences in Saisiyat. This type of complex sentences simultaneously involves features of serial verb construction and complementation in Saisiyat, which give rise to indeterminacy in constructional categorization. In order to solve this problem, the current study probes into the categorization between serial verb construction and complementation regarding Aarts’ (2007) constructional gradience and semantic relations ( Van Valin & LaPolla 1997 ). The investigation demonstrates a discrete boundary between the two constructions with convergence on each other, while subtypes of multi-predicate sentences are aligned on the convergence based on intra- and inter-categorical relations. Two structural dependencies are proposed to carry out a taxonomy of Saisiyat complex sentences. A theoretical implication derives from this study that Saisiyat multi-predicate sentences are manifestations of formalized morphosyntactic configurations with a pairing of particularized semantic relations instead of coinage based on analogic conventionalization ( Fillmore 1997 ; Goldberg 2019 ).
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Early Vedic compounds
Author(s): Erica BiagettiAvailable online: 07 February 2023More LessAbstractDespite a longstanding tradition of studies in Sanskrit compounds, a description that enables comparisons in cross-linguistic perspective has not yet been worked out. The present article follows classificatory criteria introduced by Bisetto & Scalise ( 2005 , 2009 ) and sketches a typology of compounds in the most archaic variety of Sanskrit, Early Vedic, as transmitted by the RigVeda. Analyzing compounds on the basis of the grammatical relations holding between their constituents provides a classification into coordinate, subordinate, and attributive compounds, with the endocentric/exocentric divide cutting across all classes. In order to identify the position of Early Vedic compounds on the syntax-morphology continuum, the article investigates the degree of cohesiveness at the level of morphology, prosody, syntax, and semantics. With this respect, the RigVeda offers a varied picture where relics of archaic, less cohesive forms occur side-to-side with more productive and word-like ones.
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Where Have all the Adjectives Gone?
Author(s): R.M.W. Dixon
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On thetical grammar
Author(s): Gunther Kaltenböck, Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
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On contact-induced grammaticalization
Author(s): Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
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Quotation in Spoken English
Author(s): Patricia Mayes
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