A comparative study of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Zhiqun Xing
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Numerous Case ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Germanic Languages

This study explores the typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages. Earlier studies, mostly done on Indo-European languages (e.g. Heine et al. 1991, Traugott & Dasher 2002), suggest that semantic change follows the cline A>A, B>B. Based on numerous case studies of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese, this paper provides evidence that semantic change in Chinese follows a somewhat different pattern: A>A, B>A,B,C. The key factors responsible for this, as it will be argued, are twofold: Chinese grammar is typologically structured without inflections and Chinese words have become increasingly disyllabic. Indo-European languages, which exhibit quite different grammatical and morphological structures and diachronic evolution, therefore show a different tendency.

Comparing Post-communist Authoritarianism in Russia and China

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Elite Politics ◽  
Significant Divergence

The studies of post-communist Russia and China have traditionally been dominated by single-case studies and within-region comparisons. This chapter explores why the CAS of post-communist Russia and China is difficult, why it is rare, and how it could yield significant and unique intellectual payoffs. The cross-regional comparative study of anti-corruption campaigns in contemporary Russia and China is used as an example in this chapter to argue that a well-matched and context-sensitive comparison could reveal significant divergence in the elite politics and institutional capacities of these regimes that would otherwise likely be obscured by single-case studies or studies restricted to one single geographical area such as “Eastern Europe” or “East Asia.” By breaking Russia and China out of their respective “regions,” the CAS perspective thus enables us to better capture the full range of existing diversity of post-communist authoritarianism.

scholarly journals A comparative study: use of a Brain-computer Interface (BCI) device by people with cerebral palsy in interaction with computers

2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1929-1937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina O. Heidrich ◽  
Emely Jensen ◽  
Francisco Rebelo ◽  
Tiago Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Palsy ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Brain Computer Interface ◽  
Product Evaluation ◽  
Computer Interface ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACT This article presents a comparative study among people with cerebral palsy and healthy controls, of various ages, using a Brain-computer Interface (BCI) device. The research is qualitative in its approach. Researchers worked with Observational Case Studies. People with cerebral palsy and healthy controls were evaluated in Portugal and in Brazil. The study aimed to develop a study for product evaluation in order to perceive whether people with cerebral palsy could interact with the computer and compare whether their performance is similar to that of healthy controls when using the Brain-computer Interface. Ultimately, it was found that there are no significant differences between people with cerebral palsy in the two countries, as well as between populations without cerebral palsy (healthy controls).

scholarly journals The development of Germanic analytical tenses

2020 ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Andriy Botsman ◽  
Olga Dmytruk ◽  
Tamara Kozlovska
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Germanic Languages

The stages that encompass the future tense development are singled out as discrete phenomena within the process of the Germanic language development. The Gothic verb system can serve as the background for the investigation of the tense transformations in question. The difficulties of tense examination in the Old Germanic languages were connected with some conceptions about the Indo-Iranian and Greek languages that used to dominate in the scientific circles for a long time. Those conceptions were based on Latin and Greek patterns and postulated the use of present, past and future tenses in all Indo-European languages. The above conceptions were ruined when the study of Tokharian and Hittite demonstrated the use of the present tense for the description of future actions. The idea of losing “the protolanguage inheritance” was proved wrong, and it was incorrect to transfer the complex tense system of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to other Proto-Indo-European languages. The examination of the tense differentiation in Gothic (as the main source of the Old Germanic language) demonstrates that the Gothic infinitive functioned as a no-particular-time unit, while personal verb forms were involved in performing tense functions. The Gothic present tense verbs represented present and future tenses and no-particular-time phenomena. Some periphrastic forms containing preterite-present verbs with the infinitive occurred sporadically. The periphrastic forms correlated with Greek and Latin patterns of the same future tense meaning. The periphrastic future forms in Gothic often contained some modal shades of meaning. The Gothic present tense functioned as a colony-forming archi-unit and a pluripotential (temporal) precursor. The periphrastic Gothic future forms are recognised as a monopotential (temporal) precursor with some modal meaning. The key research method used in the present article is the comparative historical method. The authors viewed it as the most reliable and appropriate for the study of tense forms.

scholarly journals Germanic Preterite-Present Verbs and their Morphological and Semantic Peculiarities

2019 ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Andriy Botsman ◽  
Olga Dmytruk
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
The West ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Semantic Aspect

The purpose of this article is to give detailed description to all possible semantic and morphological features of Germanic preterite-present verbs. Some research has dealt with the problem of preterite-present present verbs; however, semantic and morphological functions of these verbs were studied only by singling out verb characteristics, peculiarities, potential possibilities in different Germanic languages without any alignment of the obtained results. There is little information available on preterite-present verbs within the west Germanic and North Germanic (Scandinavian) subgroups. Semantic aspect of these verbs was analysed by some scholars, but it is still unknown how these verbs were formed in other Indo-European languages (Baltic, Slavonic, Romantic). The contradicting point of the available research is how those verbs are reflected in Latin and Greek. In spite of the fact that preterite-present verbs were studied in detail in terms of phonological characteristics, their morphological and semantic peculiarities were not taken into account and compared. Special attention should be given to the functioning and correlation of phonological and morphological peculiarities of those verbs. This paper offers the results of a detailed and consistent analysis of phonological and morphological peculiarities of preterite-present verbs. The paper aims at determining the morphological characteristics of preterite-present verbs, which were formed under the influence of phonological processes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection of Germanic preterite-present verbs with possible sources in other Indo-European languages. The authors define a set of characteristics peculiar of preterite-present verbs semantics. The functions of these verbs are analysed in detail. The authors attempt to analyse the nature of these verbs. The attention is paid to the functions of preterite- present verbs not only in the Germanic languages, but in other Indo-European languages, too. The comparative historical method is used here as the main one. The authors see this valid way of investigation as reliable and appropriate for the preterite-present verb analysis.

scholarly journals Limb apraxia in aphasic patients

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 767-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Zazo Ortiz ◽  
Joana Mantovani-Nagaoka
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Good Predictor ◽  
Cerebral Hemisphere ◽  
Left Cerebral Hemisphere ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Numerous Case ◽  
Limb Apraxia ◽  
Motor Movements ◽  
Motor Difficulties

ABSTRACT Limb apraxia is usually associated with left cerebral hemisphere damage, with numerous case studies involving aphasic patients. The aim of this study was to verify the occurrence of limb apraxia in aphasic patients and analyze its nature. This study involved 44 healthy volunteers and 28 aphasic patients matched for age and education. AH participants were assessed using a limb apraxia battery comprising subtests evaluating lexical-semantic aspects related to the comprehension/production of gestures as well as motor movements. Aphasics had worse performances on many tasks related to conceptual components of gestures. The difficulty found on the imitation of dynamic gesture tasks also indicated that there were specific motor difficulties in gesture planning. These results reinforce the importance of conducting limb apraxia assessment in aphasic patients and also highlight pantomime difficulties as a good predictor for semantic disturbances.

scholarly journals Mapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafa Shanneik ◽  
Chris Heinhold ◽  
Zahra Ali
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
First Time

AbstractThis article provides an introduction to the special issue onMapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe.1 With six empirically rich case studies on Shia Muslim communities in various European countries, this issue intends: first, to illustrate the historical developments and emergence of the Shia presence in Europe; second, to highlight the local particularities of the various Shia communities within each nation state and demonstrate their transnational links; and third, to provide for the first time an empirical comparative study on the increasingly visible presence of Shia communities in Europe that fills an important gap in research on Muslims in Europe.

Cultural and organizational integration in cross-border M&A deals

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1109-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei Panibratov
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Organizational Integration

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify key factors that influence the integration process in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals of emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs). The research questions are: how national and organizational culture coupled with other organizational characteristics influence M&A deals of EMNEs? Which factors influence the process of cultural and organizational integration in cross-border M&A deals, initiated by EMNEs? What is the effect and consequences that different integration factors have on cross-border M&A deals by EMNEs? Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a multiple case study research, considering cross-border deals of Chinese and Russian firms separately. Each block consists of two cases, describing M&A integration of companies operating in two sectors: high technology and finance. The authors obtained the data for case studies from companies’ official websites, annual reports, press releases, other official documents where companies were mentioned, business-media sources (newspapers and magazines), published interviews, documented speeches, letters, laws, as well as through blogs and social networks. The authors have also used the published information from articles, books, databases, and previously conducted case studies. Findings The authors have identified the factors influencing deals’ results of Chinese and Russian MNEs, with explanation based on case studies’ analysis. The full list of factors is presented in Table IV in the manuscript. The authors have also identified the set of elements that were derived from the case studies’ analysis only, without having any strong support in the literature, such as changes at a senior management level, educational and business exchanges, CSR policy, and the government involvement. Originality/value The authors have identified the key factors that influence integration of emerging market firms in cross-border M&A deal. The list of factors was adjusted and actualized in accordance with the results of four cases of cross-border M&A deals of Chinese or Russian companies. As a result, the authors founded the combination of characteristics of cultural and organizational integration process of firms from China and Russia.

Adjectival Suffixes: From Latin to Romance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Rainer
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
European Languages

All languages seem to have nouns and verbs, while the dimension of the class of adjectives varies considerably cross-linguistically. In some languages, verbs or, to a lesser extent, nouns take over the functions that adjectives fulfill in Indo-European languages. Like other such languages, Latin and the Romance languages have a rich category of adjectives, with a well-developed inventory of patterns of word formation that can be used to enrich it. There are about 100 patterns in Romance standard languages. The semantic categories expressed by adjectival derivation in Latin have remained remarkably stable in Romance, despite important changes at the level of single patterns. To some extent, this stability is certainly due to the profound process of relatinization that especially the Romance standard languages have undergone over the last 1,000 years; however, we may assume that it also reflects the cognitive importance of the semantic categories involved. Losses were mainly due to phonological attrition (Latin unstressed suffixes were generally doomed) and to the fact that many derived adjectives became nouns via ellipsis, thereby often reducing the stock of adjectives. At the same time, new adjectival patterns arose as a consequence of language contact and through semantic change, processes of noun–adjective conversion, and the transformation of evaluative suffixes into ethnic suffixes. Overall, the inventory of adjectival patterns of word formation is richer in present-day Romance languages than it was in Latin.

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