Morphological Units: Words

Author(s):  
Paolo Ramat

This chapter deals with the discussion that has concerned and concerns the very concept of ‘word’. It considers different definitions which have been advanced according different theoretical positions. Thereafter, it examines various phenomena which are strictly bound to ‘word’: word compounds and multi-word expressions, word formation rules, word classes (or Parts-of-Speech), splinters, univerbation and, finally, word blendings

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Kateryna Horodensʹka ◽  

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.


Author(s):  
Ольга Вячеславовна Орлова ◽  
Юаньин Ван

Введение. Изучены ксенонимы-интерпретативы в сетевом дискурсе русскоязычной диаспоры Китая как репрезентанте русской лингвокультуры, ориентированной в область китайской культуры. Ксенонимы-интерпретативы имеют полноценные лексические соответствия в языке-реципиенте, не отмечены этнокультурной маркированностью в матричном языке и служат восприятию, пониманию и интерпретации иностранной языковой и социокультурной реальности диаспоральным сообществом. Цель. На основе рассмотрения одного из наиболее распространенных в изучаемом дискурсе китаизмов – ксенонима мафань – проследить механизмы лингводискурсивной адаптации, а также особенности функционирования ксенонима-интерпретатива в публичной интернет-коммуникации русскоязычного сообщества Китая. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили более 500 текстов сетевой коммуникации русскоязычной диаспоры Китая, включающие ксеноним-интерпретатив мафань. Вместе с методологическим инструментарием интерлингвокультурологии, теории заимствования и лексической семантики используются приемы контекстологического и дискурс-анализа, а также корпусной и квантитативной лингвистики. Результаты и обсуждение. Ксеноним-интерпретатив мафань при вхождении в сетевой диаспоральный дискурс и адаптации в нем, в том числе графической, претерпевает значительные семантические, деривационные, стилистические, морфолого-синтаксические трансформации, демонстрируя на всех этих уровнях крайне высокую степень подвижности и вариативности. Анализ вариантов письменной фиксации показал доминирование написания китаизма в соответствии с нормативной транскрипционной системой записи кириллицей китайских имен, наряду со значимым количеством некодифицированных и иероглифических написаний. При приспособлении ксенонима к специфике морфолого-синтаксического строя русского языка также наблюдаются его значительная грамматическая вариативность и факты включения в процесс окказионального словообразования. В ходе анализа данных словарей, а также корпусных и иных данных об употреблении лексемы в аутентичной речевой среде выявлено большое количество различных по честеречной принадлежности и семантике эквивалентов лексемы при ее переводе, а также наличие книжной и этикетной стилистической окраски в китайском языке, не сохраняющейся при вхождении в русскоязычное неформальное общение. Анализ фактов метаязыковой рефлексии по поводу ксенонима, а также совокупности контекстов его употребления в гипертексте диаспорального дискурса обнаружил наличие в русском языке семантической и стилистической лакуны, которую восполняет ксеноним мафань как универсальное понятие, обозначающее неприятную, доставляющую дискомфорт деятельность или ситуацию. Заключение. В результате проведенного анализа составлен нуждающийся в дальнейшей доработке проспект методики комплексного анализа ксенонима-интерпретатива в сетевом диаспоральном дискурсе. Introduction. This research is devoted to the study of xenonyms-interpretatives in the network discourse of the Russian-speaking diaspora of China as a representative of the Russian linguistic culture, which is focused in the area of Chinese culture. Xenonyms-interpretatives have full-fledged lexical correspondences in the recipient language, are not marked by ethno-cultural marking in the matrix language and serve the perception, understanding and interpretation of foreign language and socio-cultural reality by the diaspora community. Aim and objectives. The purpose of the study, based on the consideration of one of the most common in the analyzed discourse xenonym мафань, is to trace the mechanisms of linguistic and discursive adaptation, as well as the peculiarities of functioning of xenonym-interpretative in public Internet communication of the Russian-speaking community in China. Material and methods. The material of the research is more than 500 texts of network communication of the Russian-speaking diaspora community of China, including xenonym-interpretative мафань. Together with the methodological tools of interlinguoculturology, borrowing theory and lexical semantics, the methods of contextual and discourse analysis, corpus and quantitative linguistics are used. Results and discussion. Xenonym-interpretative мафань when entering and adapting in the network diaspora discourse, including graphic adaptation, undergoes large semantic, derivative, stylistic, morphological-syntactic transformations, demonstrating at all these levels an extremely high degree of mobility and variability. The analysis of written fixation variants showed a substantial dominance of spelling according to the normative transcription system of Chinese names written in Cyrillic alphabet, along with a significant number of and hieroglyphic writings. When the xenonym is adapted to the specifics of the morphological and syntactic structure of the Russian language, its significant grammatical variability and facts of inclusion in the process of occasional word formation are also observed. The analysis of dictionaries data, as well as corpus and other data about the use of the word in the authentic speech environment revealed a large number of different in semantics and parts of speech affiliation equivalents of translation, but also the presence of book and etiquette stylistic coloring in the Chinese language, not preserved in the Russian-speaking informal communication. Analysis of the facts of metalanguage reflection on the xenonym, as well as the totality of contexts of its use in the hypertext of diaspora discourse revealed the presence of a semantic and stylistic lacuna in the Russian language, which is filled by the xenonym мафань as a universal concept that denotes unpleasant, discomforting activity or situation. Conclusion. As a result of the research, a project of the methodology of complex analysis of the xenonyminterpretative in the network diaspora discourse has been compiled.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-213
Author(s):  
Antonina Petrovna Guskova

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H Sydoruk ◽  

Abstract. The article summarizes the theoretical experience of studying the structural and semantic characteristics of scientific and technical terms and agricultural terms in particular. It has substantiated the fact that the agrarian sphere is experiencing a rapid emergence of terms-innovations that are quickly passing all stages of structural-semantic assimilation. A significant percentage of terms are formed as a result of rethinking their previous meanings, which leads to the emergence of so-called semantic terms. Analysis of structural and semantic features of agricultural terms showed that their formation occurs through derivation, terminologization of common vocabulary and assimilation of borrowings. The paper also analyzes examples of the functioning of English-language multicomponent clusters and the peculiarities of their translation. The purpose of research is to clarify the structural and semantic features of agricultural terminology, to identify and describe the processes of formation of one- and multi-component agricultural terms, to determine the main word-forming types of agricultural terminology. Results of research. Agrarian terminology, which is a set of words and stable phrases corresponding to the concepts functioning in this area (objects, phenomena and actions), is a mobile and flexible part of common vocabulary, and therefore requires systematization. The main carriers of these concepts are nouns, a certain number of verbs and adjectives which most serve as definitions in multicomponent clusters and are not independent. Word-forming means are mainly Latin-Greek morphemes, word stems and phrases. Depending on the participation of language in term formation, the terms of the agricultural sector are divided into three types: simple terms or word-terms; complex terms; terms-phrases or multicomponent clusters Agrarian terminology uses such ways of word formation as lexical-semantic, lexical-syntactic, morphological, abbreviation, and morphological-syntactic. Many commonly used lexical items acquire meanings inherent in the agricultural sector, becoming terms with a narrower meaning. Modern scientific literature on agricultural topics contains terms that have two or more meanings in this area, the clarification of which is only disclosed by the context. In translation, such ambiguity causes blurring of meaning, vagueness, substitution of terms and ultimately distortion of the content as a whole. It is important to consider the lexical and grammatical environment of the term. Due to the context, the following translation issues can be addressed: a) the word is used in its common or special narrow meaning; b) the choice of one of several meanings of a polysemous term in a particular context. From agrarian vocabulary, terminological units move into colloquial language, sometimes becoming jargons or terminoids that function in limited areas of engineering and technology, forming a layer of stylized new scientific and technical terms. Professional slang is usually short, expressive and to some extent stylistically colored. The most successful of them are fixed in the terminology system over time and receive official recognition in a certain subject area, being fixed in dictionaries, and some pass to other areas and into the common language. Specifics of functioning the terminological combinations require appropriate methods of their translation, among which there are a few main ones: literal translation of lexical units is carried out with the help of calque; replacement of parts of speech; explanatory translation of terms; translation with word order changes, primarily in attributive group. Conclusions. Agro-biological terminology tends to be poly-variant in translation, polysemy and homonymy. In order to overcome the difficulties in translating professional texts, it is necessary to work more actively with special vocabulary, thoroughly study the issues of ambiguity, synonyms and antonyms, word formation and methods of translation. The above considerations open opportunities for the practical application of these methods of translation of agro-biological terminology, and for further creative search for the correct perception of professionally oriented texts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 142-161
Author(s):  
Ilze Auziņa ◽  
◽  
Kristīne Levāne-Petrova ◽  
Roberts Darģis ◽  
Kristīne Pokratniece ◽  
...  

The Latvian Language Learners Corpus (LaVA) developed at the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Latvia, includes more than 1000 texts created by foreign Latvian language learners studying at Latvian higher education institutions for the first or second semester reaching A1 (possibly A2) Latvian language proficiency level. The size of the corpus is more than 180 000 words. The morphologically annotated texts have been checked manually; the language learners' errors have been manually annotated. In addition, each text is accompanied by information about the author of the text (metadata): gender, age, native language, knowledge of other languages. When analysing the data, this information can be used to determine how the learner's mother tongue and language skills, in general, affect the acquisition of the Latvian language. Users of the corpus can analyse the data both on the LaVA website (see http://lava.korpuss.lv/search) and in the SketchEngine tool, where the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data can be performed. The quantitative approach makes it possible to find out the tendencies of the use of a word, word form, or construction and allows to determine the frequency of mistakes made by language learners. In addition, the objectivity of the research is ensured by looking at the data of language learners from different aspects and performing repeated analysis. For example, by statistically analysing the nouns used in learners' texts, it can be concluded that declension 4 nouns are most often used. The next in terms of frequency of use are declension 1, 5 and 2 nouns, while declension 3 and 6 nouns and indeclinable nouns are used very rarely. Qualitative analysis reveals certain features of morphology and word formation, including aspects of syntax, based on empirical data. It is possible to qualitatively analyse the erroneous use of nouns, verbs, or other parts of speech, trying to understand what rules determine this. For example, consider using non-reflexive verbs instead of reflexive verbs, using infinitives instead of finite forms (person forms), using a suffix that does not fit the noun paradigm, etc. According to LaVA data analysis, including learners error analysis, exercises and tests are generated. The exercises are intended to help the language learner to strengthen the linguistic competence of the Latvian language, for example, the use of verb forms in the indicative mood, both in indefinite and perfect tense forms. Exercise creation consists of three stages: (1) analysis of LaVA errors and identification of typical errors, (2) Collecting of sample sentences from various corpora of the Latvian language, for example, LVK2018, Saeima, with word forms and constructions in which language learners most often make mistakes in LaVA texts, (3) generation of different exercises using the selected sample sentences.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Brdar ◽  
Rita Brdar-Szabó

AbstractIn a recent paper published in this journal, Laura Janda makes a number of claims about metonymy, specifically about metonymy in word-formation as part of grammar. In a nutshell, what she says is that suffixed nouns such as Russian saxarnica (from saxar ‘sugar’) ‘sugar bowl’, Czech břicháč (from břicho ‘belly’) ‘person with a large belly’, or Norwegian baker ‘baker’, are metonymic extensions from saxar ‘sugar’, břicho ‘belly’, and bake ‘bake’, respectively. It is our contention that this claim about metonymy being involved in word-formation phenomena such as suffixation is misconceived and leads to an overuse of the term ‘metonymy’. We first comment on Janda's views on cognitive linguistic research on metonymy in grammar and word-formation, and then evaluate the evidence that she provides to support her central claim – from some general claims about metonymy and grammar to the way she identifies metonymy in word-formation. Finally, we point out a series of problems ensuing from the concept of word-formation metonymy. The analytical parts of Janda's article are in our view a more or less traditional cross-linguistic inventory of suffixation patterns that do not exhibit metonymy as such. However, some genuine metonymies that crop up among her examples are glossed over. In other words, we claim that her analysis ignores metonymies where they appear and postulates metonymies where they do not exist.


2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES HENGEVELD ◽  
JAN RIJKHOFF ◽  
ANNA SIEWIERSKA

This paper argues that the word order possibilities of a language are partly determined by the parts-of-speech system of that language. In languages in which lexical items are specialized for certain functionally defined syntactic slots (e.g. the modifier slot within a noun phrase), the identifiability of these slots is ensured by the nature of the lexical items (e.g. adjectives) themselves. As a result, word order possibilities are relatively unrestricted in these languages. In languages in which lexical items are not specialized for certain syntactic slots, in that these items combine the functions of two or more of the traditional word classes, other strategies have to be invoked to enhance identifiability. In these languages word order constraints are used to make syntactic slots identifiable on the basis of their position within the clause or phrase. Hence the word order possibilities are rather restricted in these languages. Counterexamples to the latter claim all involve cases in which identifiability is ensured by morphological rather than syntactic means. This shows that there is a balanced trade-off between the syntactic, morphological, and lexical structure of a language.


1989 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegmund Brauner

SummaryThe article is a revised version of the author’s concept of word classes in Bambara first published in Lehrbuch den Bambara (Leipzig 1974). The problem is also discussed in modern Mande linguistic studies of various authors (Dumestre, Ebermann etc.). Trying to further develop Fries’ concept (The Structure of English, London 1963) of analysing word classes from their grammatical-syntactical distribution, four form classes and seven classes of functional words are recognised in Bambara. In addition to these two groups a third one is postulated: communicative-pragmatic words, which do not have any syntactic function nor do they serve to realise them, they only modify the speech intention and the communication process.


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