Download or read book The Diachrony of Definiteness in North Germanic written by Dominika Skrzypek and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an account of the rise of definite and indefinite articles in Danish, Swedish and Icelandic, as documented in a choice of extant texts from 1200-1550. These three North Germanic languages show different development patterns in the rise of articles, despite the common origin, but each reveals interdependencies between the two processes. The matter is approached from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. The statistical analysis provides an improved overview on article grammaticalization, focusing on the factors at the basis of such process. The in-depth qualitative analysis of longer text passages places the crucial stage of the definite article grammaticalization with the so-called indirect anaphoric reference.
Download or read book Variation in Nominal Possessive Expressions written by Alicja Piotrowska and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-11-27 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an account of the variation between two possessive constructions in Danish and Swedish: the s-genitive (husets tak ‘the house’s roof’), and the prepositional construction (taket på huset ‘the roof of the house’). Present-day corpus data, as well as historical data (texts from 1250–1550) are explored. Through statistical and qualitative analysis, various factors that influence the choice between the two constructions are identified. The book offers new data on the genitive variation in Danish and Swedish. The approach is also novel as two closely related Scandinavian languages are compared from both a historical and a contemporary perspective.
Download or read book Grammatical gaps definition typology and theory written by Thomas Strobel and published by Helmut Buske Verlag. This book was released on 2023-12-11 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grammatiken sind (metaphorisch gesprochen) Anweisungen zum richtigen Gebrauch einer Sprache. Interessanterweise zeigen Grammatiken offenbar Lücken, die dadurch entstehen, dass für bestimmte Bereiche Regeln (bzw. Formen) ganz fehlen oder dass sich einzelne Regeln widersprechen und der daraus resultierende Konflikt deren Anwendung verhindert. Grammatische Lücken, auf deren Relevanz für eine 'realistische' Grammatiktheorie wohl zuerst Marga Reis hingewiesen hat, sind in den letzten Jahren schon vereinzelt in den Fokus der Forschung geraten. Das Sonderheft versammelt Arbeiten zu verschiedenen Arten von Lücken und zeigt damit, wie ertragreich und wichtig die Erforschung grammatischer Lücken sein kann. Grammars are (metaphorically speaking) instructions for the correct use of languages. One might expect that grammars are complete, i.e., that they provide an appropriate solution for each utterance context. Interestingly, however, grammars seem to show gaps, which are caused by the fact that rules (or forms) in certain domains are missing completely or that individual rules contradict each other and that the resulting conflict prevents their application. Grammatical gaps, whose relevance for a 'realistic' theory of grammar was probably first pointed out by Marga Reis, have come into the focus of research in recent years. The present special issue collects papers on different kinds of gaps and shows how fruitful and important the investigation of grammatical gaps can prove to be. Inhalt: Introduction – Ralf Vogel: Grammatical gaps, grammatical invention and grammatical theory – André Meinunger: Unexpected finite verb forms in German – cases of grammatical illusion? – Patrick Mächler, Anja Hasse: Gaps of definiteness. Marking of (in)definiteness in Swiss German, Norwegian, Faroese and Elfdalian – Elisabeth Scherr: Attraction of the void. The lack of aspect in German and its effect on language change – Oliver Schallert: Morphological gaps in verbal diminutive formation: Some observations on Alemannic – Julia Bacskai-Atkari: Syntactic paradigms, markedness and similative markers in comparative and relative clauses – Fenna Bergsma: A typology of case competition in headless relatives – Ewa Trutkowski: How sex and gender shape agreement in German relative clauses – Tabea Reiner: What counts as a gap? The case of typological hierarchies
Download or read book Noun phrases in early Germanic languages written by Kristin Bech and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2024-03-01 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the premise that syntactic variation is constrained by factors that may not always be immediately obvious, this volume explores various perspectives on the nominal syntax in the early Germanic languages and the syntactic diversity they display. The fact that these languages are relatively well attested and documented allows for individual cases studies as well as comparative studies. Due to their well-observable common ancestry at the time of their earliest attestations, they moreover permit close-up comparative investigations into closely related languages. Besides the purely empirical aspects, the volume also explores the methodological side of diagnosing, classifying and documenting the details of syntactic diversity. The volume starts with a description by Alexander Pfaff and Gerlof Bouma of the principles underlying the Noun Phrases in Early Germanic Languages (NPEGL) database, before Alexander Pfaff presents the Patternization method for measuring syntactic diversity. Kristin Bech, Hannah Booth, Kersti Börjars, Tine Breban, Svetlana Petrova, and George Walkden carry out a pilot study of noun phrase variation in Old English, Old High German, Old Icelandic, and Old Saxon. Kristin Bech then considers the development of Old English noun phrases with quantifiers meaning ‘many’. Alexandra Rehn’s study is concerned with the inflection of stacked adjectives in Old High German and Alemannic. Old High German is also the topic of Svetlana Petrova’s study, which looks at inflectional patterns of attributive adjectives. With Hannah Booth’s contribution we move to Old Icelandic and the use of the proprial article as a topic management device. Juliane Tiemann investigates adjective position in Old Norwegian. Alexander Pfaff and George Walkden then take a broader view of adjectival articles in early Germanic, before Alexander Pfaff rounds off the volume with a study of a peculiar class of adjectives, the so-called positional predicates, which occur across the early Germanic languages.
Download or read book Reference in Discourse written by A. A. Kibrik and published by Oxford Studies in Typology and. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full study of how people refer to entities in natural discourse. It contributes to the understanding of both linguistic diversity and the cognitive underpinnings of language and it provides a framework for further research in both fields. Andrej Kibrik focuses on the way specific entities are mentioned in natural discourse, during which about every third word usually depends on referential choice. He considers reference as an overt representation of underlying cognitive processes and combines a theoretically-oriented cognitive approach with empirically-based cross-linguistic analysis. He begins by introducing the cognitive approach to discourse analysis and by examining the relationship between discourse studies and linguistic typology. He discusses reference as a linguistic phenomenon, in connection with the traditional notions of deixis, anaphora, givenness, and topicality, and describes the way his theoretical approach is centered on notions of referent activation in working memory. He argues that the speaker is responsible for the shape of discourse and that referential expressions should be understood as choices made by speakers rather than as puzzles to be solved by addressees. Kibrik examines the cross-linguistic aspects of reference and the typology of referential devices, including referring expressions per se, such as free and bound pronouns, and referential aids that help to tell apart the concurrently activated entities. This discussion is based on the data from about 200 languages from around the world. He then proposes a comprehensive model of referential choice, in which he draws on concepts from cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, and applies this to Russian and English. He also draws together his empirical analyses in order to examine what light his analysis of discourse can shed on the way information is processed in working memory. In the final part of the book Andrej Kibrik offers a wider perspective, including deixis, referential aspects of gesticulation and signed languages. This pioneering work will interest linguists and cognitive scientists interested in discourse, reference, typology, and the operations of working memory in linguistic communication.
Download or read book The Indo European Languages written by Mate Kapović and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Indo-European Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the individual languages and language subgroups within this language family. With over four hundred languages and dialects and almost three billion native speakers, the Indo-European language family is the largest of the recognized language groups and includes most of the major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau and the Indian subcontinent. Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive, single-volume tome presents in-depth discussions of the historical development and specialized linguistic features of the Indo-European languages. This unique resource remains the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Indo-European linguistics and languages, but also for more experienced researchers looking for an up-to-date survey of separate Indo-European branches. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology and language development.
Download or read book The Norse folk written by Charles Loring Brace and published by . This book was released on 1857 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics written by Michael T. Putnam and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 1176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive overview of the structure of modern Germanic languages. Written by a team of internationally-renowned experts, it is a vital resource for students and researchers investigating the Germanic family of languages and dialects, covering key topics such as phonology, morphology, syntax, heritage and minority languages.
Download or read book Nominal Determination written by Elisabeth Stark and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The following theoretical-empirical points on the DP are discussed: Article and its referential-anaphoric properties by Abraham (Determiners in Centering Theory); Bartra (On bare NPs in Old Spanish and Catalan); identification of all functional nominal categories by Stvan (Bare singular count nouns); Kupisch & Koops (Specificity and negation); Jäger (History of German indefinite determiners); typological comparison of the interaction of nominal and verbal determination by Abraham (Discourse-functional crystallization of the original demonstrative); Leiss (Covert (in)definiteness and aspect in Old Icelandic, Gothic, Old High German); Lohndal (Double definiteness during Old Norse); emergence of DP in ontogeny/phylogeny by Osawa (DP, TP and aspect in Old English and L1 acquisition); Bittner (Early functions of definites in L1 acquisition); Wood (Demonstratives and possessives emergent from Old English); Bauer ((in)definite articles in Indo-European) and Stark (Variation in nominal indefiniteness in Romance).
Download or read book Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change written by Lars Heltoft and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume centers on three important theoretical concepts for the study of language change and the ways in which language structure emerges and turns into new structure: reanalysis, actualization, and indexicality. Reanalysis is a part of ongoing everyday language use, a process through which language is reproduced and changed. Actualization refers to the processes through which a reanalyzed structure spreads throughout single communities and society. Indexicality covers the way in which parts of a linguistic system can point to other parts of the system, both syntagmatically and paradigmatically. The inclusion of indexicality leads to fine-grained analysis in morphology, word order, and constructional syntax.
Download or read book Variation in Nominal Possessive Expressions written by Alicja Piotrowska and published by Empirical Approaches to Lingui. This book was released on 2023-12-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an account of the variation between two possessive constructions in Danish and Swedish: the s-genitive and the prepositional construction. Present-day corpus data, as well as historical data (corpus texts from 1250-1550) are explored.
Download or read book Historical Linguistics 2015 written by Michela Cennamo and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collection of articles presented in this volume addresses a number of general theoretical, methodological and empirical issues in the field of Historical Linguistics, in different levels of analysis and on different themes: (i) phonology, (ii) morphology, (iii) morphosyntax, (iv) syntax, (v) diachronic typology, (vi) semantics and pragmatics, and (vii) language contact, variation and diffusion. The topics discussed, often in a comparative perspective, feature a variety of languages and language families and cover a wide range of research areas. Novel analyses and often new diachronic data — also from less known and under-investigated languages — are provided to the debate on the principles, mechanisms, paths and models of language change, as well as the relationship between synchronic variation and diachrony. The volume is of interest to scholars of different persuasions working on all aspects of language change.
Download or read book Adjective attribution written by Michael Rießler and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first typological study of adjective attribution marking. Its focus lies on Northern Eurasia, although it covers many more languages and presents an ontology of morphosyntactic categories relevant to noun phrase structure in general. Beside treating synchronic data, the study contributes to historical linguistics by reconstructing the origin of new types specifically in the language contact area between the Indo-European and Uralic families.
Download or read book Definiteness and Indefiniteness written by John Hawkins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-03 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1988, this book is concerned with the definite and indefinite articles in English. It provides an integrated pragmatic-semantic theory of definite and indefinite reference, on the basis of which, many co-occurance restrictions between articles and non-modifiers are explained. At the general theoretical level, this book looks at the role of semantics in the prediction of all and only the grammatical sentences of a language. A generalisation is proposed uniting semantic oppositions underlying ungrammaticality with syntactic oppositions between conditions of application on transformational generative rules. A procedure is suggested for distinguishing semantic from syntactic causes of ungrammaticality. At a more particular level, the book explores the nature of reference. It examines an important selection of subjects such as the contrast between definiteness and indefiniteness, the relationship between definite and demonstrative reference, and the relationship between pragmatic and logical aspects of determining meaning.
Download or read book Split Possession written by Thomas Stolz and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2008-05-21 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a functional-typological study of possession splits in European languages. It shows that genetically and structurally diverse languages such as Icelandic, Welsh, and Maltese display possessive systems which are sensitive to semantically based distinctions reminiscent of the alienability correlation. These distinctions are grammatically relevant in many European languages because they require dedicated constructions. What makes these split possessive systems interesting for the linguist is the interaction of semantic criteria with pragmatics and syntax. Neutralisation of distinctions occurs under focus. The same happens if one of the constituents of a possessive construction is syntactically heavy. These effects can be observed in the majority of the 50 sample languages. Possessive splits are strong in those languages which are outside the Standard Average European group. The bulk of the European languages do not behave much differently from those non-European languages for which possession splits are reported. The book reveals interesting new facts about European languages and possession to typologists, universals researchers, and areal linguists.
Download or read book The Syntax of R pronouns in German and Dutch written by Kimberly Ann Miller and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Final Over Final Condition written by Michelle Sheehan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the evidence for and the theoretical implications of a universal word order constraint, with data from a wide range of languages. This book presents evidence for a universal word order constraint, the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC), and discusses the theoretical implications of this phenomenon. FOFC is a syntactic condition that disallows structures where a head-initial phrase is contained in a head-final phrase in the same extended projection/domain. The authors argue that FOFC is a linguistic universal, not just a strong tendency, and not a constraint on processing. They discuss the effects of the universal in various domains, including the noun phrase, the adjective phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. The book draws on data from a wide range of languages, including Hindi, Turkish, Basque, Finnish, Afrikaans, German, Hungarian, French, English, Italian, Romanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin, Pontic Greek, Bagirmi, Dholuo, and Thai. FOFC, the authors argue, is important because it is the only known example of a word order asymmetry pertaining to the order of heads. As such, it has significant repercussions for theories connecting the narrow syntax to linear order.
