The challenge of a “lacking” language

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Literacy Education ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Complex Morphology ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Grammatical Tradition

Abstract In the eyes of early modern European scholars, Chinese was commonly regarded as a “lacking” language: lacking its own grammatical tradition or “grammatics”; lacking the complex morphology of the classical European languages; even lacking its own “parts of speech” or word classes. In the late 19th century Ma Jianzhong created a grammatics for Chinese by adapting the categories of Latin grammar - and with a good understanding of the similarities and differences between the two languages - but the Chinese grammarians who followed him have struggled with the question of what might be common to all languages and what might be distinctive to Chinese. Ma saw a Chinese grammatics as a way to fill a gap in the country's literacy education, and this applied focus has been shared by most Chinese grammarians since, something which has tended to put restrictions on their description and theorising. A historical perspective is thus absolutely essential for understanding the practical and ideological problems Chinese grammatics continues to face, and can also throw light on the general challenge of extending “European grammar” to non-European languages.

Проблемы значимости морфологических процессов в русском и арабском языках

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Т. Нестеренко
Keyword(s):  
Arabic Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Current State ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Lexical Composition

Аннотация: Сопоставление грамматических категорий русского и арабского языков, выявление сходства и различий грамматического строя данных языков. Анализ именных грамматических категорий: числа, рода, одушевленности, степень их соответствия новому мировоззрению. В данном исследовании мы попытаемся рассмотреть проблемы развития двух языков через формирование их грамматического строя и выберем для сопоставления русский и арабский языки. Сопоставление данных двух языков вызывает огромный интерес еще и потому, что они принадлежат к разным языковым семьям: русский относится к индоевропейским языкам, а арабский – к семье афразийских языков, которые мы помним под устаревшим названием – группа семито-хамитских языков. Известно, что очень мало можно обнаружить сходства в грамматическом и лексическом составе, у языков, состоящих в разных языковых семьях. Анализ нынешнего состояния сопоставляемых языков, описанных в официальной науке, доказывает данную закономерность, в лексической и грамматической традициях. В нашем исследовании проанализируем состояния выбранных нами грамматических категорий современного русского и литературного арабского языков в современной мире и в процессе их зарождения. Ключевые слова: арабский язык, русский язык, грамматическая категория, части речи, род, число, одушевленность, анализ, сходство и различия. Аннотация: Бул макалада биз тилдердин өнүгүүсүнүн маселесине, алардын грамматикалык категориясынын өнүгүүсүнө көңүл бурганга аракет кылабыз. Изилдөөгө эки тилди тандайбыз: орус тилдин жана араб тилдин. Бул эки тилдин салыштыруусу абдан кызык нерсе болуп эсептелет, анткени алар эки башка макро-тайпага киришет: орус тили индоевропалык тил тайпасына, ал эми араб тили Азия-Африка тилдеринин семит тобуна кирет. Эки тилдин айырмалоочу белгилери көп болсо, алардын лексикалык курамынын жана грамматикалык түзүлүшүнүн окшоштугу аз болот. Азыркы замандагы эки тилдин абалынын анализи бул сөздөрдү тууралыгын аныктайт. Бул макалада биз эки тилди грамматикалык категорияларынын абалын талдоо жүргүзөбүз. Түйүндүү сөздөр: Араб тили, орус тили, грамматикалык категория, сөз түркүмдөрдүн бөлүнүшү, сан, талдоо, окшоштугу, айырмалыгы, жөндөмөлөр-падеж. Annotation: In this article we will try to look at the problems of language develop- ment through the development of their grammatical categories and choose two languages for research: Russian and Arabic. The comparison of these two languages is also of some interest because they belong to different macro-families: Russian belongs to the Indo-European languages, and Arabic – to the Afrasian languages, which until recently were called the group of Semitic languages. It is known that the further the two languages are separated from each other by the known classification, the less we will find similarities between them in the lexical composition and grammatical structure. Analysis of the current state of these two languages, available in official science, confirms this pattern, both at the level of vocabulary and at the level of gram- matical tradition. In this article we will analyze the state of some grammatical categories of these two languages not only at this stage, but also in the process of their development. Key words: Arabic language, Russian language, grammatical category, grammati- cal parts of speech, category of gender, category of number, animacy, review, similarities and differences.

scholarly journals ‘ACCEPTABLE TRUTHS’ DURING THE FRENCH RELIGIOUS WARS

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Penny Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Religious Wars ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Intense Debate

AbstractThis paper seeks to provide some historical perspective on contemporary preoccupations with competing versions of the truth. Truth has always been contested and subject to scrutiny, particularly during troubled times. It can take many forms – judicial truth, religious truth, personal truth – and is bound up with the context of time and place. This paper sets out the multidisciplinary approaches to truth and examines its role in a specific context, that of early modern Europe and, in particular, the French religious wars of the sixteenth century. Truth was a subject of intense debate among both Renaissance and Reformation scholars, it was upheld as an absolute by judges, theologians and rulers. Yet, it also needed to be concealed by those who maintained a different truth to that of the authorities. In the case of France, in order to advance their cause, the Huguenots used subterfuge of various kinds, including the illicit carrying of messages. In this instance, truth was dependent on the integrity of its carrier, whether the messenger could be trusted and, therefore, their truth accepted. Both sides also sought to defend the truth by countering what they presented as the deceit of their opponents. Then, as now, acceptance of what is true depends on which side we are on and who we are prepared to believe.

Towards a Historical Treebank of Middle and Early Modern Welsh, Part I: Workflow and POS Tagging

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-154
Author(s):  
Marieke Meelen ◽  
David Willis
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Pos Tagging ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Welsh Language ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
Exhaustive Extraction ◽  
Grammatical Structures

This article introduces the working methods of the Parsed Historical Corpus of the Welsh Language (PARSHCWL). The corpus is designed to provide researchers with a tool for automatic exhaustive extraction of instances of grammatical structures from Middle and Modern Welsh texts in a way comparable to similar tools that already exist for various European languages. The major features of the corpus are outlined, along with the overall architecture of the workflow needed for a team of researchers to produce it. In this paper, the two first stages of the process, namely pre-processing of texts and automated part-of-speech (POS) tagging are discussed in some detail, focusing in particular on major issues involved in defining word boundaries and in defining a robust and useful tagset.

scholarly journals Achievements of the academic grammar school

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Kateryna Horodensʹka ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Functional Syntax ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Ukrainian Society ◽  
Formation System

This study aims at investigating the development of grammatical theory at the Institute of the Ukrainian Language for the last 30 years. The paper summarizes achievements in grammar theory from applying the functional, i.e., semantic and grammatical, approach developed by I.R. Vykhovanetsʹ to differentiating units into word and nonword classes and distinguishing morphological categories of major word classes. This facilitated the establishment of the theoretical basis of functional and categorical morphology. The author analyses studies in formal grammatical, semantic, functional, categorical, deri vational, and anthropocentric syntax that attest to the multidimensional growth of a syntactic theory and main aspects of the Ukrainian word formation on the basis of semantic and categorical syntax and a formant- and stem-based derivatology. Some of the latest multi-pronged processes in word formation reflect dynamics of word formation rules, the replenishment of word formation resources, and the development of the word-formation system of Standard Ukrainian. The solving of a complex set of theoretical issues in the modern Ukrainian word-formation introduced the methodological foundations for the recent normative description of the word formation system of Standard Ukrainian. The article addresses issues in studies on applied grammar determined by the process of glo balization and democratization of the Ukrainian society and the needs of Modern Ukrainian language practice to be met. Particular importance is attached to the grammatical prescriptive norms in the professional use, the actualization of case forms appearing in the passive vocabulary, and the dynamics of morphological and syntactic norms in various functional and stylistic dimensions of Standard Ukrainian. Keywords: functional grammar, functional morphology, functional syntax, categorical grammar, categorical syntax, categorical word formation, classification of parts of speech, morphological categories.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF SUBSTANTIVISATION IN THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE IN COMPARISON WITH RUSSIAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-213
Author(s):  
Antonina Petrovna Guskova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Russian Linguistics ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Semantic Models ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
First Time

Recently transposition became the issue of many research papers for being a complicated and sophisticated language phenomenon, and its definition has been broadened. The issue of transposition and the degrees of verb transitivity are the most controversial and difficult ones both in Hungarian and Russian linguistics. This issue may be investigated on different language levels: lexical, syntactic, morphological and on the level of word formation. Taking into account the mobility of parts of speech boundaries in the compared languages we attempt to find the cause of words transitioning from one lexico-grammatical class into another, investigate transposition as a natural phenomenon both for the Hungarian and Russian languages, differentiate transition in parts of the speech system from other language phenomena, solve some contentious issues regarding parts of speech, for example ‘noun-adjective’ relations, and others. Despite having extensive literature concerning nominalization in Russian linguistics and some works in Hungarian linguistics, some aspects are not comprehensively covered in them. For example, different types of transitions from other parts of speech into nouns, thorough semantic and thematic categorization of substantivized words, characteristics of their functioning in texts of different functional styles, principles of creating lexicography, etc. In this article we compare the process of substantivation amidst the system of parts of speech in languages of such different structure as Hungarian and Russian. Comprehensive and comparative study of the process of transition of other parts of speech into nouns allows us to conduct a deeper investigation of each of these languages’ structure and also to reveal typological similarities and differences between them. These languages have not been explored this way so it provides scientific novelty to the research. For the first time we define the main conditions of a systematic process of transposition in Hungarian and Russian and reveal both specific and universal opportunities for transition in the compared languages. We use comparative analysis for researching semantic models of substantivized words, distinguish different types of transitions into nouns and describe structural and stylistic features. Thus, the topic of the research is the grammatical, semantic, structural and stylistic features of substantivized words in Hungarian and Russian. The objective of the study is to discover linguistic nature of substantivation of adjectives, verbs and verbal formations, numerals and pronouns, to find out specific and universal features caused by typological differences of the researched languages. To achieve this goal we need to solve the following problems: determining the place of substantivation in the system of word formation in Hungarian and Russian, discovering how much substantivation and conversion being productive ways of word formation are identical in Russian and Hungarian, distinguishing semantic models of substantivized words and compare them, comparing models of usual and occasional substantivation and determine its productivity, studying their structure which means showing peculiarities of substantivized words’ grammatical structure in Hungarian and Russian, discovering similarities and differences between them and finding adequate models. The research is based on data of dictionaries of Russian and Hungarian languages, examples of fictional texts, live speech and not the least on the idioms. Theoretical importance lies in the following: 1) the research develops the theory of transitivity as we study transposition in two languages of different structures using comparative analysis of substantivized words and taking into account grammatical, semantic and functional aspects; 2) using the materials of two languages of different structures we discover the main conditions of systematic transposition and distinguish its universal and specific features; 3) for the first time the problem of transposition is studied on the basis of Russian and Hungarian from a theoretical point of view (on the example of transition of other parts of speech into nouns); 4) we develop the methodology of a comprehensive approach to study substantivation in Hungarian and Russian which can be used when describing this phenomenon in other languages of different structures.

Introduction

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Aldenderfer
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Spatial Thinking ◽  
Perceived Utility ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Natural Tendency ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Although spatial thinking has long been a part of anthropological inquiry, it has waxed and waned in its perceived utility and centrality to the field. Although the papers in this volume attest to a vigorous tradition of spatial thinking in anthropology and further suggest that, for at least some branches of the field, spatial thinking and analysis are truly central to their definition and mission, it is nevertheless clear that this has not always been the case. Further, despite differences in historical trajectories of development between the two major subfields of anthropology—cultural anthropology and archaeology— in terms of the way space has been used, it is also clear that the two subfields share a number of common interests and themes that deserve discussion and exploration. This exploration is not only interesting from a purely historical perspective, but also has a very practical, down-to-earth dimension. The literature on the history of science is replete with cases of communication failures both within and between scientific disciplines. While in many cases this is merely annoying (different terms used to describe the same procedure, for instance), there are occasions when these failures lead to the creation of a highly idiosyncratic jargon used by small cliques of investigators, which clearly offers the opportunity to inhibit scholarly communication. This, in turn, can lead to redundancy of effort, failure to learn from the mistakes of others, and wasted time and money. By providing a forum in which similarities and differences can be examined, the natural tendency of scientific disciplines to form these cliques can be overcome. I intend this paper to be such a forum for an exploration of the ways in which geographic information systems (GIS) have been employed by anthropologists and archaeologists as represented by the authors of the papers presented in this volume. I will briefly describe the GIS for those readers unfamiliar with it and then turn to a review of the history of spatial thinking and the kinds of tools used to implement this thinking for each of the subdisciplines.

Patterns of Food Consumption in Early Modern Iran

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolph Matthee
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Fruit And Vegetables ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Global Context ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1960S

This article examines patterns of food consumption in early modern Iran from a historical perspective and in a global context. The discussion focuses on the period of the Safavid and the Qajar dynasties, or the early sixteenth to early twentieth centuries. The article first considers Iran’s cultural linkage to the world between the seventh-century Arab invasion and the advent of modern communications in relatively recent times. It then looks at the origins and movement of food in Iran before analyzing the diet of Iranians, especially fresh fruit and vegetables. It also explores regional variations in food consumption patterns in Iran and concludes with an overview of the changes that have occurred in food consumption patterns in the country since the 1960s.

De Ontwikkeling van Schrijfvaardigheid in het Fins als Vreemde Taal

2009 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 121-132
Author(s):  
Marianne Spoelman ◽  
Marjolijn Verspoor
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Dynamic Systems Theory ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Complex Morphology ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Insight Into

Within Dynamic Systems Theory (DST), it is assumed that differences in the degree of variability can provide insight into the process of L2 development. This longitudinal case study investigates intra-individual variability in Finnish learner language, focusing on the development of accuracy and complexity. The study involves 54 writing samples, written by a Dutch student who learned Finnish as a foreign language. Finnish, a synthetic language of the agglutinating type, is very different from Indo-European languages and well known for its complex morphology. This complex morphology was investigated for accuracy in form and use. Word-, Noun Phrase-, clause- and sentence constructions were examined for complexity. The purpose of the study was to explain the fluctuations of intra-individual variability and complex relations between variables and to detect both supportive and competitive relationships between growers in order to provide valuable insights into the dynamic processes involved in L2 development.

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