Grammaticalization and inflectionalization in Iranian

2018 ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Haig
Keyword(s):  
Rich Source ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Progressive Aspect ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Indexing ◽  
Person Marking

The oldest attested Iranian languages underwent erosion and loss (or at least simplification) of much of their inherited inflectional morphology. These processes, echoing similar developments elsewhere in Indo-European, affected the categories of gender, case, aspect, person, and modality. The modern languages have since restored the old categories to varying degrees, providing a rich source for observing the mechanisms of grammaticalization. This chapter focuses on the innovation of inflectional person marking, based on erstwhile clitic pronouns. While person indexing for subjects may adhere to the predicted pathway for the grammaticalization of agreement, yielding obligatory verb-bound agreement markers in some languages, the grammaticalization of object indexing does not progress beyond the stage of clitic pronouns, despite the same etymological origin as the subject pronouns, and an even longer time-depth. The chapter also discusses the grammaticalization of a new accusative case marker in Persian, and of an innovated progressive aspect.

Turkish children use morphosyntactic bootstrapping in interpreting verb meaning

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
TILBE GÖKSUN ◽  
AYLIN C. KÜNTAY ◽  
LETITIA R. NAIGLES
Keyword(s):  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Turkish Children ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Syntactic Bootstrapping ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
Syntactic Cues

ABSTRACTHow might syntactic bootstrapping apply in Turkish, which employs inflectional morphology to indicate grammatical relations and allows argument ellipsis? We investigated whether Turkish speakers interpret constructions differently depending on the number of NPs in the sentence, the presence of accusative case marking and the causative morpheme. Data were collected from 60 child speakers and 16 adults. In an adaptation of Naigles, Gleitman & Gleitman (1993), the participants acted out sentences (6 transitive and 6 intransitive verbs in four different frames). The enactments were coded for causativity. Causative enactments increased in two-argument frames and decreased in one-argument frames, albeit to a lesser extent than previously found in English. This effect was generally stronger in children than in adults. Causative enactments increased when the accusative case marker was present. The causative morpheme yielded no increase in causative enactments. These findings highlight roles for morphological and syntactic cues in verb learning by Turkish children.

The emergence of functional case marking in initial varieties of Polish L2

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacopo Saturno ◽  
Marzena Watorek
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Target Sentence ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Case Markings

Abstract This paper addresses the acquisition of L2 inflectional morphology after only a few hours of exposure. Eighty-nine participants with five different L1s and no experience of the L2 took part in a specially designed 14-hour L2 Polish course, during which they were tested on their developing morphosyntactic skills at various times. The present paper uses a Comprehension task and an Elicited Imitation task to probe learners’ ability to use nominative and accusative case markings to infer and express the subject and object. The study is designed to isolate variables such as the task employed to elicit L2 data, target sentence word order, time of exposure to the L2 input, and learners’ L1. The results show that while the majority of learners stick to a word order principle, some managed to identify and systematically apply the target-like use of inflectional morphology. Various intermediate strategies make it possible to identify a hierarchy of task difficulty. Both time of exposure and the learner’s L1 proved to be significant predictors of performance.

Patterns of 1st and 3rd person marking in Oïl-Galloromance

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-110
Author(s):  
Benjamin Massot
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Detailed Survey ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Clitics ◽  
Person Marking

Summary This article is a contribution to the long-standing discussion of subject marking in Romance. Its originality lies in its systematically considering data from Oïl-Galloromance dialects, i.e. non-pro-drop varieties, which had been ignored because they were thought to pattern like French. On the contrary, a detailed survey of the means of 1sg and 3sg.m. Marking in these dialects reveals that the obligatoriness of the subject clitics in all grammatical persons does not guarantee the absence of ambiguous marks, since cases of syncretism between these two persons were found, besides cases of marking even more redundant than in French. I then conclude that it is yet another refutation of the now generally abandoned wisdom according to which the subject pronouns exactly compensate the loss of verb endings. Moreover, the results make the pro-drop parameter and parametric theory hard to maintain, as has been observed from other microvariational studies. I also argue against a functionalist interpretation of the correlation between the different means of subject marking based on the assumption of avoidance and repair strategies underlying language change/dialectal fragmentation. My own analysis then relies on the assumption of a strong and stable typological property of accusative languages like Romance, called here the principle of recovery of the subject. The surface microvariation within (Oïl)-(Gallo)romance is simply seen as the result of non-deterministic properties of language change/dialectal fragmentation.

scholarly journals Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ibikunle Abiodun Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Morphological Effect ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKAan Edoid language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.  

Indirect object in Manchu-Tungus languages: structural and semantic aspect (in the Orok language)

2020 ◽  
pp. 243-260
Author(s):  
L. V. Ozolinya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Direct Object ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Object Composition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
Semantic Aspect ◽  
Trivalent Verbs

For the first time, the paper provides the analysis of the Oroc language object as a syntactic unit combining the semantic and functional aspects of transitive or non-transitive verbs. In the Manchu-Tungus languages, the object is found to be expressed in the morphological forms of the case: direct – in the accusative case and the possessive forms of the designative case, indirect – in the forms of oblique cases. Constructions with indirect objects, the positions of which are filled with case forms of nouns, designate the objects on which the action is aimed, objects from which the action is sent or evaded, objects-addresses, objectsinstruments, etc. Both transitive or non-transitive verbs can take the position of the predicate. The necessary (direct object) and permissible (indirect object) composition of objects in the verb is determined by its valences: bivalent verbs open subjective (subject) and objective (direct object) valences; trivalent verbs reveal subjective, subjective-objective (part of the subject or indirect subject) and objective (indirect object) valences.

scholarly journals Ailanthus Quassinoids and Their Biological Activity

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 1934578X0700200
Author(s):  
Bipin Chandra Joshi ◽  
Ram Prakash Sharma ◽  
Anakshi Khare
Keyword(s):  
Biological Activity ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Rich Source ◽  
Chemical Examination ◽  
Therapeutic Applications ◽  
The Subject

Ailanthus is an important genus of the Simaroubaceae family that is widely distributed in Asia and north Australia, and which is used in folk medicines. The plants of this genus have numerous therapeutic applications and have, therefore, been the subject of extensive chemical examination. The genus is a rich source of quassinoids, and more than 60 have been identified so far from this genus. Those reported to date have been compiled in this review, together with bioactivity data in an effort to show the rapid development in the phytochemistry and therapeutic applications of the Ailanthus species.

How the accusative became the relative

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-92
Author(s):  
Michael Fortescue
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Firm Conclusion ◽  
Genetic Link ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Relative Case

Abstract The Eskimo-Uralic hypothesis of a genetic link between Eskimo-Aleut and the Uralic languages is now reaching its second centenary. Two major problems with its advancement since Bergsland’s (1959) summary of its status are addressed in this article. The first of these is the lack of an obvious correlate of the ubiquitous Eskimo-Aleut (EA) relative case marker -m in Uralic; the other is the lack of an m-initial first person singular morpheme in EA to correlate with that of the Uralic languages. That the EA singular genitive/relative marker -m — as well as the instrumental/accusative singular -mək based on it — might be cognate with Uralic singular accusative -m was suggested already by Sauvageot (1953), but no firm conclusion on the matter has since been reached. This has remained a tantalizing possibility, despite the conflicting semantics. However, the remarkable morphosyntactic parallels between Eskimo-Aleut and Samoyedic in particular have grown more apparent with recent publications. A solution is proposed, linking the emergence of ergativity in the Eskimo-Aleut family with a reanalysis of the original nominative-accusative case marking system.

Putting some order into morphology: reflections on Rice (2000) and Stump (2001) Keren Rice, Morpheme order and semantic scope: word formation in the Athapaskan verb (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xiii+453. Gregory T. Stump, Inflectional morphology: a theory of paradigm structure (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 93). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xvi+308.

2003 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW SPENCER
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Semantic Scope

This article reviews two important recent contributions to the theory of morphology, which take significantly different approaches to the subject. Both are centrally concerned with questions of morphotactics. Rice argues that morpheme order in Athapaskan is largely the consequence of universal principles of semantic scope (coded as syntactic structure). Stump argues for a conception of inflection based on the paradigm. There is virtually no overlap between the two books, yet each raises questions that are of great significance for the other. In this review I briefly evaluate each book and then sketch the possibility of a synthesis.

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