Backgrounding and suppression of reciprocal participants

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Relation ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Reciprocal Relations ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Argument Mapping ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Plural Subjects

According to traditional wisdom, reciprocal predicates can only occur with plural subjects. This is assumed either because the reciprocal predicates in question are constructed by means of a reciprocal anaphor, which is considered as being inherently plural and hence requiring a plural antecedent, or, if there is no binding requirement, the following principle of argument mapping is implicitly assumed: all participants of a reciprocal situation need an overt realization by the same highest syntactic argument. Since a reciprocal relation minimally involves the existence of two participants, and since (in the languages considered so far) the highest syntactic argument is the subject, this mapping principle leads to the idea that the subjects of reciprocal predicates should be confined to plural or conjoined phrases. In this paper, I will show that this principle turns out to be unrealistically strong, once real discourse data are considered, in particular from a cross-linguistic perspective. Under certain structural and pragmatic conditions, participants of reciprocal relations may be backgrounded and also suppressed, with the result that, in the second case, they will lack an overt realization altogether. It will be argued that there is a typological correlation between the following three phenomena: discontinuous reciprocals (where one participant is backgrounded and hence realized as an oblique phrase), “true” singular subject reciprocals (where only one participant is realized overtly, while the other is suppressed), and plural subject reciprocals, admitting the interpretation that each individual among the subject’s referents participates in a reciprocal relation with some other (unknown or arbitrary) individual that is, however, suppressed, i.e. not referred to by the subject phrase or any other phrase in the sentence. I will present data from four languages: Hungarian, German, (Modern) Greek and Serbian/Croatian. In general, a cross-linguistic approach will be favored which considers differences and similarities at all relevant levels of description, e.g. discourse pragmatics, verbal aspect, lexical-semantic fields, interfering effects of ambiguity, etc. in addition to structural constraints in marking reciprocity.

On Existential Bare Plural ‘Subjects’

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 29-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalina Kallulli
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Bare Plural ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Plural Subjects ◽  
Central Claim

Drawing on Strawson’s (1971) definition of the subject as performing the function of identifying the object of the speaker’s assertion and of the predicate as applying to this object without having to identify it, this article argues that being a predicate and being (part of) the focus are two ways of talking about one and the same thing, namely assertion, and not identification or presupposition. Assuming that syntax and semantics are isomorphic, the most far-reaching consequence of this view and the central claim that I make is that there are no existential bare plural subjects. What is generally and a priori taken to be an existential bare plural subject is a (wh-moved) predicate nominal. The genuine external argument in sentences with existential bare plurals in what appears to be the subject position is in fact the Davidsonian event argument. Consequently, the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) should be defined as a requirement on predication. The syntax-semantics isomorphism is emphasized as part of an attempt to show that syntactically, generic and existential bare plurals differ with respect to the D-feature: while generic bare plurals are DPs with a morphologically null D, existential bare plurals, like bare singulars, are NPs altogether lacking a D-projection.

PECULIARITIES OF LIGHT FUNCTIONING IN MODERN GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF UKRAINE

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-260
Author(s):  
Yatsiv M ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Space ◽  
Light Environment ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Lighting Systems ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
The Temple

In each historical period, light played an important mystical role in the creation of the sacred space of the temple, and was and is an integral part of religious ritual. Light is an architectural phenomenon, the formative and communicative element of the spatial structure of the temple, the most important factor in the perception of space and layout of the temple. The subject of the analysis contained in the article is the light environment in the space of modern churches of Ukraine. An analysis of the functions of light in churches is made on the example of recently built iconic Greek Catholic temples. The peculiarities of the distribution of natural and artificial light in the space of modern churches, the similarities and differences in the organization of the light environment, as compared to the historical temples, have been revealed. The influence of the light on the architectonics of temples and the visual perception of their object environment, on the formation of the corresponding mystical mood and sacred atmosphere is defined. The values and functions of electric lighting in the structure of the light environment of the temple, the directions of development of electric lighting systems due to the expansion of their utilitarian and decorative functions are determined.

Wolność albo śmierć. Polscy filhelleni i powstanie greckie 1821. Wydano w roku 200. rocznicy powstania greckiego

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Greek ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The Subject

The publication sets new directions in the research on Polish Philhellenism, in particular in two areas: gaining thorough knowledge of the Poles supporting Greek struggle for independence and the coverage it received in Polish press. The articles of the renowned experts on the subject are the introduction to the issue of Polish Philhellenism, they also concentrate on reconstructing biographies of the Polish participants in the Greek uprising and the interest in modern Greek songs the Poles have developed.

scholarly journals Perception and Text Comprehension. It’s a Matter of Perception!

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (07) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Aglaia Tourimpampa ◽  
Athanasios Drigas ◽  
Alexandra Economou ◽  
Petros Roussos
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Cognitive Skill ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Communicative Act ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Scientific Achievements

This study is a comprehensive attempt to assess the impact of the cognitive skill of perception in the ability to comprehend a text. More specifically, it investigates the function of perception as a primary structure of the human brain to contact the world and examines the certain cognitive processes of perception that affect text comprehension. It is also presented the relation between cognitive perception and the linguistic approach of pragmatics in order the subject to comprehend the text. Perception is the organization, identification and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment. Pragmatics is the linguistic field that studies how people comprehend and produce speech or a text as a communicative act. Furthermore, it features the current scientific achievements on the ICTs processes and tools, which exploit the assessment of perception in text comprehension.

Subject-verb agreement in Newfoundland French

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth King
Keyword(s):  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
The Third ◽  
Grammatical Variation ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
The Third Person

ABSTRACTIn Newfoundland French the verb does not agree in number with a plural subject in one particular construction–subject relative clauses–but rather displays default singular marking. Agreement is made with the subject relative pronoun, which does not have a morphological feature for number associated with it. This absence of a number feature results in a form consistently spelled out as homophonous with the third-person singular. Gender agreement transmitted in subject relatives containing a predicate adjective is evidence that number marking is at issue, not agreement in general. An exception to this pattern is the (variable) marking of plural agreement in the il y en a construction, explained in terms that are independent from the analysis of the default singular. Newfoundland French agreement is then compared with data from other French varieties, and the approach taken in this study is compared with those of other studies of grammatical variation.

scholarly journals A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-301
Author(s):  
Andrew Hardie ◽  
Isolde van Dorst
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Drama ◽  
Early Modern English Drama ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Quantitative Metrics ◽  
Search Patterns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Statistical Summary

Grammar is one of the levels within the language system at which authorial choices of one mode of expression over others must be examined to characterise in full the style of the author. Such choices must however be assessed in the context of an understanding of the extent of variability that exists generally in the language. This study investigates a set of grammatical features to understand their variability in Early Modern English drama, and the extent to which Shakespeare’s grammatical style is distinct from or similar to that of his contemporaries in so far as these features are concerned. A review of prior works on Shakespeare’s grammar establishes that the quantitatively informed corpus linguistic approach utilised in this study is innovative to this topic. Using two of the grammatically annotated corpora created by the Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language project, one made up of Shakespeare’s plays, one of plays by other playwrights of the period, we present a method which steers a course between the narrow focus of close reading and the naïvely quantitative metrics of authorship analysis. For a set of 15 grammatical features of stylistic interest, we retrieve all instances of each feature in each play via complex corpus search patterns and calculate its relative frequency. These results are then considered, in aggregate and at the text level, to assess the differences across plays, across dramatic genre, and between Shakespeare and the other dramatists, via both statistical summary and visual representation of variability. We find that Shakespeare’s grammatical style tends (especially in comedies and tragedies) to disprefer informationally dense noun phrases relative to the other playwrights; and, moreover, to prefer tense, aspect and pronoun features which suggest a greater degree of narrative focus in his style. Furthermore, we find Shakespeare to be highly distinct in his preferences regarding verb complement subordinate clause types. These findings point the way both to a novel methodology and to further as yet unconsidered questions on the subject of Shakespeare’s grammatical style.

The semantics of Greek names for plants

1936 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
General Point ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Wrong Direction ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The names given to plants in ancient and modern Greek are not only of interest in themselves but have some bearing upon a general point in the history of the meaning of words. Many of the names of plants in ancient authors can only be interpreted with a certain vagueness: of νάρκισσος we can only say that it is some sort of daffodil; κρίνον is pretty certain to be a lily of some kind; we can hardly go further. In these straits it is natural enough to enquire into the meaning of these words in Modern Greek, and here we certainly find no lack of information, but unless we scrutinise this modern evidence with some care we are apt, I think, to let it lead us too far, or even in some wrong direction. How this modern evidence ought, in my opinion, to be used is the subject of this present paper.

More on Diglossia in Arabic

1975 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan S. Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Classical Arabic

Diglossia has been the subject of attention of many linguists and philologists dealing with Arabic for many decades. The term itself was coined by W. Marçais (1930) and was brought to the attention of general linguists and ethnologists (socio-linguists in particular) by Ferguson in 1959. Diglossia is also a well-known phenomenon in Modern Greek, Swiss German, and Haitian Creole. Fishman (1967) and Valdman (1968) deal with it in terms of methodology and theory. Kaye (1970, 1972a) deals with it in the light of modern linguistic theory and is restricted (not entirely though) to a discussion of Arabic. The monograph under review is an attempt to survey the diglossia situation using Classical Arabic and colloquial Iraqi (almost entirely Baghdadi) data. Much of the work can already be found in Altoma (1957, 1966).

scholarly journals Compare Within and Between Groups: The Interpretation of Weak Generic Sentences

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiguo Xie
Keyword(s):  
Internal Standard ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Standard ◽  
Know How ◽  
Port Royal ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Alternative Set ◽  
Generic Sentences

AbstractThis paper explicates the precise meaning of weak generic sentences of the form Ks are P, best represented by the Port Royal Puzzle sentence Dutchmen are good sailors. The sentence is true even though the majority of Dutchmen do not know how to sail at all and a fortiori do not sail well. Two observations motivate my analysis. One is that weak generic sentences express a property that “distinguishes the subject referent from other entities that might belong to the same category” (Krifka et al. 1995). This leads to the use of alternative set in my analysis. The other observation is that the scale structure of the predicate P affects the availability of weak generic reading for sentences of the form Ks are P. I argue that the interpretation of weak generic sentences involves: (i) partitioning the set of entities denoted by the bare plural subject based on the property denoted by the predicate P; (ii) partitioning the set of entities alternative to the denotation of the subject in a similar fashion; and (iii) comparing an appropriate partition in (i) to its counterpart in (ii) with respect to the predicate P. The Port Royal Puzzle sentence is true if and only if: those Dutchmen who can sail and who are good at sailing in comparison with the Dutch-internal standard of being good at sailing and those international citizens who can sail and who are good at sailing in comparison to the international standard of being good at sailing are such that the former population generally have better sailing skills than the latter population.

Modern Greek in Asia Minor

1910 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Local Study ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Way

This paper is the result of some six weeks' local study of the dialects of the Greek-speaking villages of Cappadocia and of the village of Silli near Konia in the summer of 1909. The account below of the more important books shows that a good deal has already been written on the subject, but the material is very scattered and incomplete, and does not do more than suggest a great many unanswered questions, nor does it touch more than a few of the villages. Besides giving an account of the dialects, I have therefore tried to smooth the way for future workers by collecting and setting in order this already published material.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document