The Tense, Mood, and Aspect System of Haitian Creole and the Problem of Transmission of Grammar in Creole Genesis

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Phonological Form ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Semantic Properties

It is often assumed that creolization involves a break in the transmission of grammar. On the basis of data drawn from the TMA system of Haitian creole, as compared with those of its source languages — French, the superstratum language, and Fongbe, one of the substratum languages — this paper argues that creolization does not involve a break in transmission of grammar. The properties of the Haitian creole TMA system are shown to reflect in a systematic way those of its contributing languages. While the syntactic and the semantic properties of the TMA markers of the creole parallel those of Fongbe, the markers' phonological form appears to be derived from phonetic strings found in the superstratum language. This systematic division of properties is predicted by the hypothesis that relexification has played a major role in the formation of the creole. The fact that the lexical entries of the creole have phonological representations which are derived from phonetic strings found in the superstratum language is the visible signal that creolization involves the creation of a new language. The fact that the lexical entries of the creole show semantic and syntactic properties that parallel those of the languages of the substratum argues that there has been no break in the transmission of grammar in the formation of the creole.

Substratum Semantics in the Verbal Lexicon of Haitian Creole

1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Semantic Properties

The aim of this paper is to document the presence of substratum semantics in the verbal inventory of Haitian creole on the basis of a comparison of a sample of verbs in Haitian, French (its lexifier language) and Fongbe (one of its substratum languages). The paper begins with a comparison of the meanings of a sample of Haitian, French and Fongbe verbs. Although the phonological representations of the Haitian verbs are derived from the phonetic representations of French verbs, the details of their semantics do not correspond exactly to those of French, but rather to those of Fongbe. Idiomatic expressions in Haitian are often expressed with similar verbal phrases in Fongbe, whereas they are rendered by a simple verb in French. Aspectual properties of verbs (stative/non-stative) constitute another facet of verbal semantics, and I compare the aspectual properties of Haitian, French and Fongbe verbs. Haitian verbs, like Fongbe verbs, are often not specified for aspectual properties, in contrast to French verbs. Thematic properties constitute yet another topic in the semantics of verbs, addressed here from the point of view of the verbs' agentiveness. On the basis of these various types of data, it is argued that the bulk of Haitian verbs' semantic properties have been carried over into the creole from the substratum lexicons. This situation argues in favor of the claim that the process of relexification plays a central role in the formation of a Creole's lexicon. Some cases of acquisition of French verbs are also reported. Such cases have triggered a reorganization in the properties of the verbal lexical entries originally relexified from the Haitian substratum languages.

Il Y A ... Qui et C'est ... Qui

1986 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marcel Léard
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Features ◽  
Semantic Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Morphemes ◽  
Il Y A ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Semantic Compatibility ◽  
Semantic Properties

Il y a ... qui and c'est... qui: Syntax and compatibility between semantic operations In this paper, we show that il y a ... qui and c'est... qui have three meanings or values, that are suitable with only some operations of determination, modalization (like questions, negations) and with a number of syntactic categories and functions. Therefore, we use syntactic properties to point out semantic features, but we show, in return, that syntactic acceptability of sentences can be often explained by semantic compatibility between operations. That involves a basically semantic grammar. So we link syntactic and semantic properties, mainly the meaning of grammatical morphemes. In such a case, we consider that transformational hypotheses, which don't take into account these links, are not appropriate, and we propose a more realistic way (although theoretical) of doing syntax: syntax is also the compatibility between the meaning of morphemes.

Pronominal Non-Core Datives in Syrian Arabic

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36
Author(s):  
Nisrine Al-Zahre ◽  
Nora Boneh
Keyword(s):  
Conventional Implicature ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Element Bearing ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Syntactic Properties

In this paper we describe the pragmatic, lexical and syntactic properties of the Syrian Arabic Coreferential Dative Construction (CDC), featuring a dative element bearing agreement features which are identical to those of the subject in the clause, the Coreferential Dative (CD), and an obligatory expression of attenuative vague measure, described by us in Al-Zahre & Boneh (2010). We first show that the CD, which has no truth conditional meaning, contributes to the creation of a Conventional Implicature (Horn 2004, Potts 2005). Second, we propose a way to compositionally integrate the CD into the derivation of these constructions by arguing that the visible pronominal features are non-referential but rather the morphological reflex of checked uninterpretable phi-features on a defective applicative head. To couch the analysis in a wider context, we show how it can extend to other categories of non-core dative in Syrian Arabic.

scholarly journals A Case of Constructional Polysemy in Latin

1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Semantic Properties

In this paper, I will examine the syntactic and semantic properties of a Latin correlative construction, the so-called comparative conditional. I will investigate the extent to which this construction inherits its formal and interpretive features from constructions needed independently in the grammar. While the syntactic properties of the comparative conditional are highly motivated, the semantics of the construction is idiosyncratic: there is evidence to indicate that the construction is polysemous, having two related scalar interpretations.

The directionality of grammaticalization in Spanish

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concepción Company Company
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Meaning ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Semantic Properties

The paper examines three directions of grammaticalization by subjectification. Using the general cline Grammar > Discourse and Discourse > Grammar or Grammar ↔ Discourse, Spanish shows three types of diachronic subjectification, going in three different directions: (1) Grammar > Grammar; (2) Grammar > Discourse; (3) Grammar > Discourse > and again Grammar. Directions 1 and 2 are well known; direction 3, as far as I know, is unknown in the literature about grammaticalization. (1) Initiates in the Grammar, at the textual-syntactic level, and continues to function in the Grammar, with a different distribution and different syntactic-semantic properties as regards its etymon. (2) Begins in the Grammar, cancels the syntactic and morphological capacities of the etymon, produces syntactic isolation and widening of scope and results in the creation of autonomous forms which work at the discourse level. (3) Begins in the Grammar, goes to the Discourse via the cancellation of the morphological and syntactic capacities of the objective form, widens its scope and results in an autonomous form. Once it has operated in the Discourse, it returns to the Grammar, narrowing its scope, taking a new grammatical role again, and paradigmatizing with other forms. The form preserves the subjective meaning of the second stage. The process in all cases is semantically the same: the speaker’s appraisals, points of view and attitudes about the event and his/her interaction with regard to the hearer find explicit codification in grammar, becoming a coded and highly-conventionalized meaning in the grammar of a language (Traugott 1995b, 1999), but the direction of the change is different in each case. Subjectification looks like a multi-dimensional process, not a unidirectional one.

scholarly journals Topic chains and the interpretation of null subjects. The acquisition of discourse-related strategies in Italian children

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Frascarelli ◽  
Giorgio Carella
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Original Experiment ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Italian Children ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractBased on the theory proposed in Frascarelli (2007), according to which the interpretation of null subjects depends on an Agree relation betweenproand a specific type of Topic (i.e. the A-Topic, cf. Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl 2007), the first objective of this paper is to evaluate this theory from an acquisitional perspective on children from 3 to 9 years old. Furthermore, since the A-Topic is argued to be systematically associated to specific discourse, prosodic and syntactic properties, a second objective of this paper is to check whether the relevant acquisition correlates with information-structural and interface-related competences. Based on an original experiment designed to examine Topic chains in children’s narrative, evidence is provided that this productive ability is not fully acquired at the age of 9 and that its progress proceeds in three steps, involving different levels of grammar. Specifically, in a first phase children tend to assume their personal experience and discourse intentions as familiar to their interlocutors. Hence, they start their narration linking null subjects to silent A-Topics, without overt links for their interpretation (‘Emperor Strategy’). Then, at the age of 6 the creation of Topic chains seems to be part of children’s competence at a discourse-syntactic level and overt copies are progressively produced in the chains. Nevertheless, since children still assume their ‘hero’ to be a familiar entity, G[iven]-Topics are frequently realised as first link for null subjects. Finally, at around 7–7.11 the adult-like association between discourse-syntactic and prosodic properties is attested.

Evolution of Negative Dependencies

2020 ◽  
pp. 545-562
Author(s):  
Chiara Gianollo
Keyword(s):  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Positive Elements ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Syntactic Dependencies ◽  
Semantic Properties

This chapter reviews the diachronic processes affecting indefinites in the scope of negation and other nominal elements that enter the negation system as strengtheners of the sentential negative marker. Changes involving indefinites interweave with Jespersen’s Cycle because changes in the syntactic nature of the negative marker may lead to the creation of syntactic dependencies between negative items in the clause. In turn, indefinites themselves are subject to diachronic clines and cyclical processes of change modifying their pragmatic and semantic properties and renewing their form and their featural content. A particularly intriguing systematic phenomenon leads originally positive elements to become more ‘negative’, in ways that will be explored in this chapter by means of examples from the diachrony of various languages.

The Minimality Condition in phonology

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monik Charette
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
The Other ◽  
Minimality Condition ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Phonological Form ◽  
Principles And Parameters

With a few honourable exceptions, phonologists have, until recently, generally assumed the phonological component to be organized along completely different lines from the other components of the grammar. Phonological phenomena were mainly viewed as accidental, language specific, and unprincipled. Whereas some theoretical parallels between syntax and phonology have been drawn (cf. the role of the cycle in both domains and the extensive literature on ordering), there have been few attempts to see if principles of Universal Grammar could be found in phonology as well as in syntax and semantics. Increasingly, however, phonology is now being regarded as a system of principles along with parameters defining the class of human phonological Systems. In such a framework there are no rules of the sort: A → B/C→D. Phonological phenomena result from principles and parameters governing phonological representations and structures present in a particular language. Along these lines, recent work in phonology has suggested that Phonological Form (PF), like the other components of the grammar, is subject to certain fundamental principles. For example, it was proposed by Andersen and Jones in the early 1970s (and pursued by Ewen, Durand and others) that the relations of dependency that determine how syntactic constituents are organized, also determine how segments are grouped together in a given structure. For their part Lowenstamm & Kaye (1982) proposed that a theory of government could account for certain phonological processes such as vowel shortening in closed syllables. Stephen Anderson (1982) and Levin (1985) have proposed that X-bar principles govern the representation of syllables. Specifically, they have proposed that the Rhyme and the syllable as a whole are projections of the syllabic head, the Nucleus.

scholarly journals PERANAN MODAL KULTURAL DAN STRUKTURAL DALAM MENCIPTAKAN KERUKUNAN ANTARUMAT BERAGAMA DI BALI

Harmoni ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Halimatusa’diah Halimatusa’diah
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Text To Speech ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Structural Capital ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
Diverse Community ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Historical Model

Ahmadiyah events in Cikeusik, Shia in Sampang, until the case of Tanjung Balai, are various events of intolerance that often color the reality of our plural society. However, in some other areas with its diverse community, as in Bali, we can find a society that is able to maintain harmony among its diverse peoples and live side by side. This study aims to describe various factors that support inter-religious harmony in Bali. This review is important to overcome the various religious conflicts that occurred in Indonesia, as well as how to create harmony among religious followers. Using a qualitative approach, this study found that the creation of tolerance and harmony among religious believers in Bali, in addition influenced by historical model, also because Bali has a strong cultural capital and structural capital. Cultural capital in the form of local wisdom that is still maintained and also the harmony agents such as guardians of tradition and FKUB also play a major role in maintaining and creating harmony among religious followers in Bali         G M T   Detect language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Korean Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Sesotho Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish Yoruba Zulu   Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Korean Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Sesotho Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish Yoruba Zulu                 Text-to-speech function is limited to 200 characters     Options : History : Feedback : Donate Close

scholarly journals Disambiguierung deutschsprachiger Diskursmarker: Eine Pilot-Studie

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabienne H. Baider ◽  
Henriette Gezundhajt
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Human Dimension ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Typical Property ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
The People ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Semantic Properties

Framed within Antoine Culioli's Enunciative Model of language, this article suggests a new analysis regarding the semantic properties of the suffix -esque and argues that this suffix refers to an alterity expressed within a typical property. Moreover this article reassesses earlier findings made about the suffix -esque, namely its low productivity in creation of neologisms and its apparent usage limited to literary and journalistic styles. The alleged constraint for all its bases to be referring to a human being is also reconsidered and our semantic analysis questions the value of "extreme" supposedly added by -esque to the nominal basis. Indeed, its usage in French shows that if this suffix is no longer typically associated to a nominal basis referring to the people of a country (see mauresque or arabesque), the human dimension associated to the nominal basis such as in la soldatesque, is not always found either (see TV-esque). Rather, this suffix seems to have lost its role as a simple identifier towards a referential domain as found in expressions such as une oeuvre molièresque which could be glossed over as "une oeuvre typique de Molière". This identification is most of the time linked to a laudatory or negative appreciation on the part of the enunciator, as found in examples such as gargantuesque. Besides, the contemporary dynamism of the -esque flexion enables the creation of neologisms. These neologisms are derived from proper nouns (mitterrandesque) or from acronyms (rmiesque) that do not exhibit standard properties. This begs the question of whether the value which seemed to be added to the composite [noun + esque] is determined by the suffix itself or whether it is partially connected to the atypical notional value of the root's semantic value.

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