Adjectival Conversion of Unaccusatives in German

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helga Gese ◽  
Claudia Maienborn ◽  
Britta Stolterfoht

The paper presents an in-depth study of the conditions under which unaccusative verbs in German take part in the formation of so-called ADJECTIVAL PASSIVES. It provides corpus-linguistic as well as psycho-linguistic evidence arguing that combinations ofsein‘to be’ with the participle of an unaccusative verb are systematically ambiguous between a present perfect reading (withseinas auxiliary) and an adjectival reading (withseinas copula). The first part of the paper highlights the adjectival character of the construction in question. The second part presents the results of three rating studies that help unravel the pragmatic conditions that govern the adjectival conversion of unaccusatives. This leads to the conclusion that what has become known as the “adjectival passive” construction is a rather general, broadly available word formation process that is characteristically shaped and controlled by pragmatic factors.*

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian Shen ◽  
R. Harald Baayen

Abstract In structuralist linguistics, compounds are argued not to constitute morphological categories, due to the absence of systematic form-meaning correspondences. This study investigates subsets of compounds for which systematic form-meaning correspondences are present: adjective–noun compounds in Mandarin. We show that there are substantial differences in the productivity of these compounds. One set of productivity measures (the count of types, the count of hapax legomena, and the estimated count of unseen types) reflect compounds’ profitability. By contrast, the category-conditioned degree of productivity is found to correlate with the internal semantic transparency of the words belonging to a morphological category. Greater semantic transparency, gauged by distributional semantics, predicts greater category-conditioned productivity. This dovetails well with the hypothesis that semantic transparency is a prerequisite for a word formation process to be productive.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 556-595
Author(s):  
Wolf Peter Klein

Abstract The article starts with the etymology of the words Vorlesung („lecture“) and Hörsaal (“lecture hall”). On the one hand, it turns out that the two expressions are deeply anchored in the history of the old Latin scientific language. They transmit Latin structures and perspectives in German neologisms. On the other hand, the two words arose exactly at the time when the sciences were moving from Latin to German, thus distancing themselves from the traditional forms of Latin scholarship. In this light, they exemplify an epochal change in the history of the German language, but at the same time they represent a great European continuity. Against this background, the two words can be interpreted as symptomatic words associated with the Enlightenment’s confident outlook on the future relationship between science and society. Further corpus linguistic surveys also show how productively the two words appear in word formation processes. In particular, these surveys show by way of example that and how German standard language has benefited from the emergence of German academic language.


SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401774671
Author(s):  
Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh

This study investigates the phonological, semantic, and pragmatic features of acronyms in Arabic. Acronyms in Arabic have appeared quite recently as a result of globalization and exposure to or contact with, mainly, English via radio stations and TV channels, which are broadcasting in English and in some countries, for example, Morocco in both English and French. Through in-depth analysis, it has been observed that acronyms in Arabic are subject to different restrictions: (a) The phonological combinations are formed on the basis of Arabic templates; hence, should be compatible with Arabic phonotactics, for example, consonant clusters should be broken up by vowels; (b) the connotation of the acronyms should not be negative; and (c) in conformity with relevance theory, when the acronyms are homophonous to existing words, the former maximize contextual effects with minimum processing effort. The fact that they appear in certain contexts also reduces the processing effort. It has also become evident that the period between the establishment of the movement or party and the first use of the acronym decreases over time, provided that the acronyms are frequently mentioned in the media. The examination of acronyms in different languages shows that acronymization is quite pervasive cross-linguistically; this may suggest that not any word-formation process can easily spread; it needs to be prevalent and potentially universal.


IZUMI ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Nadya Inda Syartanti

This research aims to identify the types of vocabulary in Japanese, to explore the word-formation process, and to analyse the function of COVID-19 related terms conveyed by various content creators on YouTube channels, from Japan and Indonesia. The seven YouTube channel accounts are Aki no Sora (Indonesia), po.n.go_id or Pocket Nihongo (Indonesia), Sakura Pinku (Indonesia), Wagomu (Indonesia), Omoshiroi Nihongo (Japan), Japanese Ammo with Misa (Japan), and Coto Academy (Japan that used as the data source. Data were collected using the observation method and analysed by the distribution method. The results showed that the COVID-19 related terms are dominated by the type of vocabulary kango as the form or type of vocabulary that is most widely used in matching the COVID-19 related term. Among all word-formation processes, the COVID-19 terms in Japanese identified as borrowing, compounding, and multiple processes. However, the multiple word-formation processes are dominated on COVID-19 terms in Japanese. It related to the domination of the type of kango used. From that, there are multiple functions that are included in COVID-19 terms in Japanese, namely disease information, preventive action, symptom, and announcement. Therefore, this research can be contributed to data analysis, which used morphological analysis in Japanese terms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Syifa Dwi Mutiah ◽  
Didin Nuruddin Hidayat ◽  
Alek Alek

This study attempted to explore the process of word formation and its social function of slang words on Rich Brian's official music video, precisely in the comment section of the newest song of him, D.O.A that released on 25 August 2020. This study employed discourse and sociolinguistics aspects; hence, this study's research design was a descriptive qualitative. Additionally, this study's object was a one-month comment section of Rich Brian's newest song official music video. Furthermore, there were two sources of data, primary and secondary data sources. The primary data were a comment section of Rich Brian's newest official song music video, while the secondary source was from available works of literature and urban dictionary. Therefore, to collect the data, this study did the documentation from the D.O.A. official music video from one-month duration comments. As the data obtained, there were 49 slang words found. Then, they were analyzed through Yule (2010)�s theory as the basis of word formation process standard, while Zhou & Fan (2013)�s theory was used as the basis of word formation function standard. Data analysis is divided into several steps: reading, collecting, classifying, and analyzing the data. The result showed that derivation was the highest frequency of the word-formation process. It was 22%, the acronym was 18%, coinage was 16%, the conversion was 14%, blending was 12%, compounding was 8%, clipping was 6%, borrowing and multiple processes were 2% of each. Besides, the highest social function was to express emotive feeling with 49 % quantity of the frequency. The second higher was to pursue self-identity, achieving politeness was 8%. This study suggested a more in-depth analysis of non-standard languages, such as swear words or taboo words and emoticon that can be done through a social semiotic approach.


LingTera ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Mia Rahmannia ◽  
Pratomo Widodo

Generally, blending can be defined as combining two clipped words. Kvetko in Bednarova defines blending as a word formation process similar to shortening combined with merging two different words. There are many types of blending words both in Indonesian and English context. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the comparison between Indonesian blend words and English blend words in terms of its types, its similarities and differences and also how its formed. In this paper the researcher use descriptive qualitative method as the method of the research. The source of the data is taken from some journal articles that relevant with blend words both in Indonesian and English context. The result showed that Indonesian blend words and English blend words not only have similarities in the forming word, but also have their differences that make them unique to each other. The writer hopes that the reader of this article gets more information about both Indonesian and English blend words based on its types and the similarities and the difference between them.


This study aimed ro describe and determine the characteristic patterns and the word formation process of various language terms used in tourism advertisements on digital media during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several new terms that are widely used by people all over the globe, and tourism adevertisements are no excpetion. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The data were taken from advertisements found on social media Facebook and Instagram. The thoery used in this research is the theory of language style proposed by Chaer & Agustina (2010) and theory of word formation process by Chaer (2008). It can be concluded that: (1) the characteristic pattern of the variety of languages used in tourism advertisements on social media Facebook and Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic is a variety of non-formal languages, and (2) the variety of terms used tourism advertisements on social media Facebook and Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic are formed from blending, abbreviations and compounding. Keywords: Language Varieties, Terms, Advertisement, COVID-19


Author(s):  
Айгуль Наилевна Закирова ◽  
Никита Алексеевич Муравьев

В статье рассматриваются две пассивные конструкции в горномарийском языке. В обеих из них используется причастная форма на -mə̑; основное различие между конструкциями состоит в падежном оформлении пациентивного участника. В одной из конструкций сохраняется исходное аккузативное маркирование пациенса, тогда как в другой конструкции пациентивный участник получает номинативное оформление. Цель исследования — сравнительный анализ двух разновидностей пассива и выявление закономерностей, лежащих в основе выбора падежного оформления пациенса. В литературе по пассивным конструкциям во многих языках отмечается наличие двух пассивных конструкций: адъективного пассива со стативной семантикой и глагольного пассива с динамической семантикой. Это же различие ожидалось увидеть и применительно к горномарийскому причастному пассиву. Для проверки этого предположения были изучены: а) синтаксические особенности конструкций, соотношение в них именных и глагольных свойств, б) аспектуальная семантика конструкций, а именно противопоставление стативной и динамической семантики, в) особенности кодирования участников и контексты с различным референциальным статусом пациенса. Было установлено, что пассив с номинативным кодированием пациенса в целом характеризуется именным синтаксисом, стативной семантикой и обязательной определенностью пациенса, тогда как пассив с аккузативным кодированием имеет глагольный синтаксис, динамическую семантику и не ограничен с точки зрения референциальных свойств пациенса. Единственным наблюдаемым отклонением от данных закономерностей является одинаковая допустимость обеих разновидностей пассива в хабитуальных контекстах, что подлежит дальнейшему выяснению. На основе выявленных закономерностей было сделано обобщение, что пассив с номинативным кодированием пациенса описывает состояние, возникшее в результате некоторого события, тогда как пассив с аккузативным кодированием описывает само событие. В качестве итога исследования предложена интерпретация семантического различия между конструкциями в теоретической парадигме синтаксиса первой фазы Дж. Рэмчанд: аккузативную конструкцию можно рассматривать как конструкцию с озвучиванием каузирующего и процессуального подсобытия, а номинативную — как конструкцию с озвучиванием результирующего подсобытия. The article provides an account of two participial passive constructions employing the -mə̑- participle in Hill Mari. The data was collected in 2017 and 2019 in the villages of Kuznetsovo and Mikryakovo of the Gornomarijskij district, Republic of Mari El. The two constructions with the -mə̑- participle differ in the first place in how the patient is marked: in one of them the patient is marked for nominative, whereas in the other construction the accusative marking is inherited from the transitive verb. The aim of this study is to compare the two constructions in terms of their syntax and semantics and explore the rules that govern the choice between them. In the existing literature two kinds of passive constructions are described: adjectival passive constructions with stative interpretation and verbal passive constructions with dynamic interpretation. The two Hill Mari -mə̑- constructions were expected to demonstrate the same distinction. In order to test this hypothesis, we considered a) the syntactic properties of the constructions, and the nominal or verbal behavior of the -mə̑- form in both cases; b) the aspectual semantics of the two constructions, i.e. the possibility of stative and dynamic interpretation in both constructions; c) the marking of the arguments in the constrictions, i.e. the possibility of overt expression of the agent and the referential properties of the patient. Syntactically, the passive construction with the nominative marking of the patient turned out to be an adjectival predication. This construction is stative, and the nominative patient NP is always definite. The construction with accusative patient marking is a verbal clause with a dynamic interpretation. The accusative patient NP may have any referential properties. However, both constructions can refer to habitual events, which needs further investigation. The observed properties of the two constructions lead to the following generalization: the construction with nominative patient marking denotes a resultant state of an event, whereas the construction with accusative patient marking denotes the event itself. This difference may be interpreted in the first phase syntax framework developed by G. Ramchand: in the nominative construction the patient is the Resultee, whereas in the accusative construction the patient is the Undergoer.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 163-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Th. Gries ◽  
Stefanie Wulff

In Construction Grammar, highly frequent syntactic configurations are assumed to be stored as symbolic units in the mental lexicon alongside words. Considering the example of gerund and infinitival complement constructions in English (She tried rocking the baby vs. She tried to rock the baby), this study combines corpus-linguistic and experimental evidence to investigate the question whether these patterns are also stored as constructions by German foreign language learners of English. In a corpus analysis based on 3,343 instances of the two constructions from the British component of the International Corpus of English, a distinctive collexeme analysis was computed to identify the verbs that distinguish best between the two constructions; these verbs were used as experimental stimuli in a sentence completion experiment and a sentence acceptability rating experiment. Two kinds of short-distance priming effects were investigated in the completion data: we checked how often subjects produced an ing-/to-/’other’-construction after having rated an ing- or to-construction (rating-to-production priming), and how often they produced an ing-/to-/’other’-construction when they had produced and ing- or to-construction in the directly preceding completion (production-to-production priming). Furthermore, we considered the proportion of to-completions before a completion in the questionnaire as a measure of a within-subject accumulative priming effect. We found no rating-to-production priming effects in the expected direction, but a weak effect in the opposite direction; short-distance production-to-production priming effects from ing to ing and from ‘other’ and to to to, and, on the whole at least, a suggestive accumulative production-to-production priming effect for both constructions. In the rating task, we found that subjects rate sentences better when the sentential structure is compatible with the main verb’s collexemic distinctiveness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-173
Author(s):  
Daniel Kjellander

Abstract The complex characteristics of lexical blending have long troubled mainstream word formation research to the extent that it has typically been considered a peripheral issue in linguistics. In recent years this has begun to change, and there is currently a growing body of evidence uncovering the intriguing nature of this word formation process. In the present study, underlying principles and usage-based aspects of lexical blends were examined. Analyses of derivatives of three matrix words, republican, liberal, and vegetarian, revealed the impact of three cognitive constraints on the use of lexical blends: schema transfer effects, neighborhood effects, and effects of the influence from morphological lexicalization. The first constraint fueled blend formation, while the other two displayed a hampering effect on the use of lexical blending. Furthermore, a study of the word class distribution in the datasets showed that there were significant differences in the grammar of lexical blending and compounding, respectively.


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