Download or read book Cross linguistic Variation in Object Marking written by Peter de Swart and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation shows how languages differ in their morphosyntactic sensitivity to variations in the semantics of direct objects. Whereas some languages reflect semantic changes of the direct object in its marking others do not. As a result, we observe mismatches between semantic and morphosyntactic transitivity in the latter type of languages. This becomes particularly clear in a detailed study of the cognate object construction in English. Besides, this dissertation shows that a cross-linguistically uniform phenomenon can be driven by various motivations. This is demonstrated for differential object marking, a cross-linguistically recurrent phenomenon in which direct objects are overtly case marked depending on their semantic features. Two factors appear to govern differential object marking cross-linguistically: prominence-based marking and recoverability of grammatical roles. For some languages only one of these factors can be identified to be of importance, but in other languages, they are simultaneously responsible for object marking. In order to accommodate the full pattern of differential object marking, a bidirectional optimality-theoretic model is developed in which speakers take into account the perspective of the hearer. By doing so, this study shows how typological and optimality theoretical insights can be combined in order to gain more insight in the interaction of the universal principles that guide the marking of direct objects in natural language.

Download or read book Cross linguistic Variation in Object Marking written by Peter de Swart and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation shows how languages differ in their morphosyntactic sensitivity to variations in the semantics of direct objects. Whereas some languages reflect semantic changes of the direct object in its marking others do not. As a result, we observe mismatches between semantic and morphosyntactic transitivity in the latter type of languages. This becomes particularly clear in a detailed study of the cognate object construction in English. Besides, this dissertation shows that a cross-linguistically uniform phenomenon can be driven by various motivations. This is demonstrated for differential object marking, a cross-linguistically recurrent phenomenon in which direct objects are overtly case marked depending on their semantic features. Two factors appear to govern differential object marking cross-linguistically: prominence-based marking and recoverability of grammatical roles. For some languages only one of these factors can be identified to be of importance, but in other languages, they are simultaneously responsible for object marking. In order to accommodate the full pattern of differential object marking, a bidirectional optimality-theoretic model is developed in which speakers take into account the perspective of the hearer. By doing so, this study shows how typological and optimality theoretical insights can be combined in order to gain more insight in the interaction of the universal principles that guide the marking of direct objects in natural language.

Download or read book Diachrony of differential argument marking written by Ilja A. Seržant and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there are languages that code a particular grammatical role (e.g. subject or direct object) in one and the same way across the board, many more languages code the same grammatical roles differentially. The variables which condition the differential argument marking (or DAM) pertain to various properties of the NP (such as animacy or definiteness) or to event semantics or various properties of the clause. While the main line of current research on DAM is mainly synchronic the volume tackles the diachronic perspective. The tenet is that the emergence and the development of differential marking systems provide a different kind of evidence for the understanding of the phenomenon. The present volume consists of 18 chapters and primarily brings together diachronic case studies on particular languages or language groups including e.g. Finno-Ugric, Sino-Tibetan and Japonic languages. The volume also includes a position paper, which provides an overview of the typology of different subtypes of DAM systems, a chapter on computer simulation of the emergence of DAM and a chapter devoted to the cross-linguistic effects of referential hierarchies on DAM.

Download or read book Differential Subject Marking written by Helen de Hoop and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-12-04 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not all sentences encode their subjects in the same way. Some languages overtly mark some subjects depending on certain features of the subject argument or the sentence in which the subject figures. This is known as Differential Subject Marking (DSM). Containing illuminating discussions of DSM from languages all over the world, this book shows that DSM is often the result of interactions between conflicting constraints on language use.

Download or read book The Semantics of Case written by Olga Kagan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on data from a wide range of languages, the book discusses the ways in which case interacts with meaning.

Download or read book Case Agreement and their Interactions written by András Bárány and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-06-22 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Differential argument marking has been a hot topic in linguistics for several decades, both because it is cross-linguistically widespread and because it raises essential questions at multiple levels of grammar, including the relationship between abstract processes and overt morphological marking, between case and agreement, and between syntax and information structure. This volume provides an introduction into the current state of the art of research on differential case marking and chapters by leading linguists addressing theoretical questions in a wide range of typologically and geographically diverse languages from the Indo-European, Sinitic, Turkic, and Uralic families. The chapters engage with current theoretical issues in the morphology, syntax, semantics, and processing of differential argument marking. A central issue addressed by all the authors is the adequacy of various theoretical approaches in modelling (different varieties of) differential case marking, such as those determined by topicality, those driven by cumulative factors, and those that involve double marking. The volume will be of interest to students and researchers working on cross-linguistic variation in differential marking and its theoretical modelling.

Download or read book Differential Object Marking in Romance written by Monica Alexandrina Irimia and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2023-12-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Differential marking as applied to direct objects has long been discussed as one of the characterizing traits of many Romance languages. There is, however, wide consensus that a detailed investigation into the nature of this phenomenon raises numerous challenges both at the empirical and theoretical level. Many questions are still being raised regarding which precise morpho-syntactic strategies count as differential object marking, whether the data can be unified, and, subsequently, how they are to be unified formally and theoretically. Additionally, a thorough investigation of this phenomenon is still needed for many Romance languages and especially at the micro-variation level. This volume brings together original papers addressing various aspects of differential object marking in Romance languages, focusing on micro-variation, from both a descriptive and formal perspective, touching on diachrony, language contact, synchrony, and using a large set of methodologies.

Download or read book Differential Object Marking in Romance written by Johannes Kabatek and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Die im Jahre 1905 von Gustav Gröber ins Leben gerufene Reihe der Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie zählt zu den renommiertesten Fachpublikationen der Romanistik. Die Beihefte pflegen ein gesamtromanisches Profil, das neben den Nationalsprachen auch die weniger im Fokus stehenden romanischen Sprachen mit einschließt. Zur Begutachtung können eingereicht werden: Monographien und Sammelbände zur Sprachwissenschaft in ihrer ganzen Breite, zur mediävistischen Literaturwissenschaft und zur Editionsphilologie. Mögliche Publikationssprachen sind Französisch, Spanisch, Portugiesisch, Italienisch und Rumänisch sowie Deutsch und Englisch. Sammelbände sollten thematisch und sprachlich in sich möglichst einheitlich gehalten sein.

Download or read book Competition and Variation in Natural Languages written by Mengistu Amberber and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2005-06-30 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume combines different perspectives on case-marking: (1) typological and descriptive approaches of various types and instances of case-marking in the languages of the world as well as comparison with languages that express similar types of relations without morphological case-marking; (2) formal analyses in different theoretical frameworks of the syntactic, semantic, and morphological properties of case-marking; (3) a historical approach of case-marking; (4) a psycholinguistic approach of case-marking. Although there are a number of publications on case related issues, there is no volume such as the present one, which exclusively looks at case marking, competition and variation from a cross-linguistic perspective and within the context of different contemporary theoretical approaches to the study of language. In addition to chapters with broad conceptual orientation, the volume offers detailed empirical studies of case in a number of diverse languages including: Amharic, Basque, Dutch, Hindi, Japanese, Kuuk Thaayorre, Malagasy and Yurakaré. The volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in the cognitive sciences, general linguistics, typology, historical linguistics, formal linguistics, and psycholinguistics. The book will interest scholars working within the context of formal syntactic and semantic theories as it provides insight into the properties of case from a cross-linguistic perspective. The book also will be of interest to cognitive scientists interested in the relationship between meaning and grammar, in particular, and the human mind's capacity in the mapping of meaning onto grammar, in general.

Download or read book The Diachrony of Differential Object Marking in Romanian written by Virginia Hill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the origins, development, and stabilization of differential object marking (DOM) in Romanian. DOM, a means by which a grammar distinguishes between objects based on semantic features such as animacy or definiteness, has been a fruitful area of research in syntax, historical linguistics, and typology. In this volume, Virginia Hill and Alexandru Mardale demonstrate that Romanian DOM reflects a typological mix of Balkan and Romance patterns, and is in fact composed of three distinct mechanisms. Their analysis of these mechanisms reveals that DOM triggers in Romanian are located in the nominal domain, in contrast to languages such as Spanish, where they are located in the verbal domain. The cross-linguistic perspective adopted in the volume sheds light on existing typologies of DOM, particularly in relation to the variation observed in the merging location of the DOM particle and of the doubling pronominal clitic.

Download or read book Indefinite Objects written by Luis Lopez and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel view of the syntax-semantics interface that analyzes the behavior of indefinite objects. In Indefinite Objects, Luis López presents a novel approach to the syntax-semantics interface using indefinite noun phrases as a database. Traditional approaches map structural configurations to semantic interpretations directly; López links configuration to a mode of semantic composition, with the latter yielding the interpretation. The polyvalent behavior of indefinites has long been explored by linguists who have been interested in their syntax, semantics, and case morphology, and López's contribution can be seen as a synthesis of findings from several traditions. He argues, first, that scrambled indefinite objects are composed by means of Function Application preceded by Choice Function while objects in situ are composed by means of Restrict. This difference yields the different interpretive possibilities of indefinite objects. López's more nuanced approach to the syntax-semantics interface turns out to be rich in empirical consequences. Second, he proposes that short scrambling also yields Differential Marking, provided that context conditions are fulfilled, while in situ objects remain unmarked. Thus, López contributes to the extensive literature on Differential Object Marking by showing that syntactic configuration is a crucial factor. López substantiates this approach with data from Spanish, Hindi-Urdu, Persian (Farsi), Kiswahili, Romanian, and German.

Download or read book Pseudo Noun Incorporation and Differential Object Marking written by Imke Driemel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a detailed cross-linguistic study of pseudo-noun incorporation, a phenomenon whereby an argument forms a 'closer than usual' relation with the verb. Imke Driemel draws on data from Tamil, Mongolian, Korean, Turkish, and German, and applies diagnostic tests across eleven noun types in each of the languages under consideration. What emerges is a coherent effect of pseudo-incorporated arguments that maps loss of case marking to obligatory narrow scope, lack of binding and control relations, and a potentially restricted movement pattern. The book provides a unifying theory that is able to capture all properties with a single assumption: pseudo-incorporation effects result from noun phrases that are made up of a nominal and a verbal category feature; implemented in a derivational framework, the nominal feature is active early in the derivation, being responsible for c-selection and nominal modification, while the verbal feature is active late and crucially derives the effects we have come to recognize as pseudo-noun incorporation. One important empirical contribution of this study stems from the observation that pseudo-incorporation does not have to be the only reason for optional case marking. Tamil and Korean provide evidence that only a subset of optionally case-marked noun types also show a correlation with scope, binding, control, and movement constraints. This insight enforces the conclusion that the same language can make use of both pseudo-noun incorporation and differential object marking.

Download or read book Diachrony of differential argument marking written by Ilja A. Seržant and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there are languages that code a particular grammatical role (e.g. subject or direct object) in one and the same way across the board, many more languages code the same grammatical roles differentially. The variables which condition the differential argument marking (or DAM) pertain to various properties of the NP (such as animacy or definiteness) or to event semantics or various properties of the clause. While the main line of current research on DAM is mainly synchronic the volume tackles the diachronic perspective. The tenet is that the emergence and the development of differential marking systems provide a different kind of evidence for the understanding of the phenomenon. The present volume consists of 18 chapters and primarily brings together diachronic case studies on particular languages or language groups including e.g. Finno-Ugric, Sino-Tibetan and Japonic languages. The volume also includes a position paper, which provides an overview of the typology of different subtypes of DAM systems, a chapter on computer simulation of the emergence of DAM and a chapter devoted to the cross-linguistic effects of referential hierarchies on DAM.

Download or read book Tool Intelligence as an Explanation of Cross Linguistic Variation and Family Resemblance written by Anneliese Kuhle and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-11-28 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tool Intelligence taps field-primatological and field-linguistic research to draw an analogy between prelinguistic material cultures of nonhuman primates and natural human languages. Linguistics and Cognitive Science are given new incentives to search for cognitive homology in areas of extended problem awareness and manipulative intentionality.

Download or read book Events of Putting and Taking written by Anetta Kopecka and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Events of putting things in places, and removing them from places, are fundamental activities of human experience. But do speakers of different languages construe such events in the same way when describing them? This volume investigates placement and removal event descriptions from 18 areally, genetically, and typologically diverse languages. Each chapter describes the lexical and grammatical means used to describe such events, and further investigates one of the following themes: syntax-semantics mappings, lexical semantics, and asymmetries in the encoding of placement versus removal events. The chapters demonstrate considerable crosslinguistic variation in the encoding of this domain, as well as commonalities, e.g. in the semantic distinctions that recur across languages, and in the asymmetric treatment of placement versus removal events. This volume provides a significant contribution within the emerging field of semantic typology, and will be of interest to researchers interested in the language-cognition interface, including linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, and philosophers.

Download or read book Explanation in typology written by Karsten Schmidtke-Bode and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an up-to-date discussion of a foundational issue that has recently taken centre stage in linguistic typology and which is relevant to the language sciences more generally: To what extent can cross-linguistic generalizations, i.e. statistical universals of linguistic structure, be explained by the diachronic sources of these structures? Everyone agrees that typological distributions are the result of complex histories, as “languages evolve into the variation states to which synchronic universals pertain” (Hawkins 1988). However, an increasingly popular line of argumentation holds that many, perhaps most, typological regularities are long-term reflections of their diachronic sources, rather than being ‘target-driven’ by overarching functional-adaptive motivations. On this view, recurrent pathways of reanalysis and grammaticalization can lead to uniform synchronic results, obviating the need to postulate global forces like ambiguity avoidance, processing efficiency or iconicity, especially if there is no evidence for such motivations in the genesis of the respective constructions. On the other hand, the recent typological literature is equally ripe with talk of "complex adaptive systems", "attractor states" and "cross-linguistic convergence". One may wonder, therefore, how much room is left for traditional functional-adaptive forces and how exactly they influence the diachronic trajectories that shape universal distributions. The papers in the present volume are intended to provide an accessible introduction to this debate. Covering theoretical, methodological and empirical facets of the issue at hand, they represent current ways of thinking about the role of diachronic sources in explaining grammatical universals, articulated by seasoned and budding linguists alike.

Download or read book The Semantics of Case written by Olga Kagan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on data from a wide range of languages, the book discusses the ways in which case interacts with meaning.