Megrelian

2021 ◽  
pp. 528-569
Author(s):  
Alexander Rostovtsev-Popiel
Keyword(s):  
Informal Communication ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Case System ◽  
Spatial Deixis

This chapter addresses Megrelian, a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language spoken by Megrelians, a subethnic group compactly residing in one of the western provinces of Georgia, Samegrelo. A language of informal communication, Megrelian has been subject to linguistic research both in Georgia and beyond for more than two hundred years. Backed by the existing literature on the language, most of which has been published in Georgian, this sketch provides an account of essential features of Megrelian phonology, grammar, and lexicon, including such typologically renowned properties of Megrelian as the elaborate system of preverbs and innovative and extremely specific case-marking alignment that not only features ergative stimuli of affective verbs, but can also license this case to adverbs as well. Furthermore, new insights are proposed for such domains of linguistic structure as the language’s case system, grades of comparison, expression of spatial deixis by pronominal expressions, verbal aspect, and evidentiality; some of these statements are based on the data from the author’s long-term fieldwork and are now being introduced to linguistic discourse.

Low-level articulatory synthesis: A working text-to-speech solution and a linguistic tool

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Hill ◽  
Craig R. Taube-Schock ◽  
Leonard Manzara
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Current System ◽  
Text To Speech ◽  
Resonance Model ◽  
System Description ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Articulatory Synthesis ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Region Model

AbstractA complete text-to-speech system has been created by the authors, based on a tube resonance model of the vocal tract and a development of Carré’s “Distinctive Region Model”, which is in turn based on the formant-sensitivity findings of Fant and Pauli (1974), to control the tube. In order to achieve this goal, significant long-term linguistic research has been involved, including rhythm and intonation studies, as well as the development of low-level articulatory data and rules to drive the model, together with the necessary tools, parsers, dictionaries and so on. The tools and the current system are available under a General Public License, and are described here, with further references in the paper, including samples of the speech produced, and figures illustrating the system description.

Linguistic Aspects of Regression in German Case Marking

1989 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jordens ◽  
Kees De Bot ◽  
Henk Trapman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Basic Principle ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case System ◽  
Default Case ◽  
L2 Learners

The tenability of the regression hypothesis as a basic principle for language attrition within languages has not been really questioned until now. In order to find out to what extent attrition might be the reverse of the process of acquisition, phenomena of attrition in the use of the German case system were studied. Two hypotheses were tested: the Linguistic Hypothesis and the Cognitive Hypothesis. the Linguistic Hypothesis is based on the notion of regression. According to this notion, attrition is the reverse of the language acquisition process. The Cognitive Hypothesis is based on the assumption that in natural cases of language acquisition, there is a tendency to establish a one-to-one correspondence between cognitive function and morphological case assignment. The results from experiments on case marking in headline-type constructions showed differences between native (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners. In L1 speakers the relation between case marking and underlying semantic functioning becomes more prominent, whereas in L2 learners the nominative is used as a default case, indicating that morphological differentiations become reduced. This means that for L1 speakers the Cognitive Hypothesis provides a more adequate explanatory framework, whereas for L2 learners it is the Linguistic Hypothesis that is more appropriate.

scholarly journals Ergativity and the active-stative typology in Loma

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-284
Author(s):  
Noel Rude
Keyword(s):  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case System

Ergativity would seem to be non-existant or at least quite rare in Africa. This lack, however, may be related to another continent-wide areal phenomenon: there is a paucity of morphological NP case marking according to either ergative or accusative typologies. It is thus possible that other more subtle attributes of the ergative organization of syntax are what should be sought in Africa. For example, in the Mande languages, as also in Celtic, phonological decay has produced a series of word initial consonant alternations. In Celtic these have come to function as part of a nominative-accusative case marking strategy. The situation is quite similar in Mande, but as this paper details for Lorna, the noun case system is ergative-absolute. And, accordingly, the pronoun system has active-stative characteristics.

scholarly journals Lexical Aspect Classification for Unrelated Languages:

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Tina Čok
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Linguistic Research

The present paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the verbal aspect in general and with special emphasis on the comparison of Chinese and Slovenian lexical aspect. Recognised discrepancies between the conceptualisation and verbalisation of actions in unrelated languages indicate that deeper cognitive differences affect our perception of reality, which is something that should be more widely recognized when learning and teaching foreign languages. The contribution of this article is a comparative analysis of available studies by authoritative linguists, based on which we have formulated a new and more comprehensive proposal that will help classify verb types in unrelated languages, and can be further exploited in the field of applied linguistic research.

scholarly journals Common Ground in Demonstrative Reference: The Case of Mano (Mande)

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Khachaturyan
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Demonstrative Reference ◽  
Interactive Field ◽  
Cognitive Access ◽  
Spatial Deixis ◽  
Spatial Parameters ◽  
Short And Long Term

That demonstratives often have endophoric functions marking referents outside the physical space of interaction but accessible through cognition, especially memory, is well-known. These functions are often classified as independent from exophoric ones and are typically seen as secondary with respect to spatial deixis. However, data from multiple languages show that cognitive access to referents functions alongside of perceptual access, including vision. Cognitive access is enabled by prior interactions and prior familiarity with the referents. As a result of such interactions, the interlocutors share a great deal of knowledge about the referents, which facilitates reference to objects in the interactive field. The centrality of common ground in reference to an object at the interactive scene challenges the often assumed classification of demonstrative reference into exophoric and endophoric. I illustrate this idea throughout the paper by using first-hand data from Mano, a Mande language of Guinea. Adding another argument in favor of viewing demonstrative reference as a social, interactive process, the Mano data push the idea of salience of non-spatial parameters further and emphasizes the importance of short and long-term interactional history and cultural knowledge both for the choice of demonstratives in exophoric reference and for the structuring of the demonstrative paradigm.

Trinocular views of register

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
Keyword(s):  
Register Variation ◽  
Linguistic Research

Abstract Michael Halliday’s argument for the value of ‘trinocular vision’ in linguistic research has particular relevance to the observation, exploration and description of register. Taking each semiotic dimension relevant to the characterisation of register by turn, I begin by discussing Halliday’s proposition. I then proceed, using the metaphor of cartography, to examine register variation via the intersection of three semiotic dimensions: stratification, instantiation and metafunction. I discuss how such examinations enable us to create description maps of register variation. From this basis, I discuss a long-term programme of systematically producing descriptive maps of registers, which I and colleagues have begun. Finally, I suggest that by using such maps we can better understand such important phenomena as aggregates of registers and personal register repertoires.

Grammatical Relations in Tariana

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Keyword(s):  
Unusual Case ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Case System ◽  
Case Marker

This article deals with the marking of grammatical relations in Tariana, North-Arawakan, and how this marking interrelates with topicality, definiteness and other discourse characteristics of nominal constituents. The following four case-marking systems are distinguished in Tariana: (i) a subject vs object case system, used with personal pronouns with animate reference; (ii) a case system characterized by an enclitic -nuku for marking topicalized and referential non-subjects, used with all types of nominal constituents; (iii) an ergative case-marking used with all types of nominal constituents under emphasis in A function, the ergative case marker being the same as instrumental; (iv) a system of peripheral cases – locative and instrumental, used with all types of nominal constituents, but obligatory only with pronouns. The overt case-marking in Tariana is related to such parameters as topicality, definiteness and emphasis, and consequently is dependent on the structure of discourse. I will argue that the unusual case-marking patterns in Tariana corroborate cross-linguistic generalizations on a dependency between case-marking and topical properties of NPs in languages with an opposition between marked and unmarked case forms.

Underlying and Superficial Linguistic Structure

1964 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Postal
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Informal Discussion

The following remarks based on examples from English are a rather informal discussion of some of the kinds of results and implications of linguistic research being done in the conceptual framework which has come to be called'generative grammar.'

Nominal aspect, quantity, and time: The case of the Finnish object

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
TUOMAS HUUMO
Keyword(s):  
Waste Water ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Time Axis ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Over Time

It is well known that the quantity indicated by an NP affects clausal aspect if the referent of the NP participates in the event incrementally, i.e. in a part-by-part manner (e.g.She was mowingthe lawn). In general, an incremental NP that indicates a closed quantity makes the overall aspect of the sentence telic and thus bounded, whereas one indicating an open quantity results in unbounded aspect (e.g.Waterwas dripping from the ceiling). In this paper the interplay between quantity and aspect will be called nominal aspect. It is argued that quantity may relate with time in two different ways: first, as overall quantity (which, if incremental, cumulates over time), and second, as transient quantity. The latter term refers to the quantity involved in the situation at a given point in time. It is argued that the interpretation of certain NPs evokes both kinds of quantity; e.g. inThis machine pumpsthe waste water of the factoryinto the drainthe object indicates a quantity that is open in the overall sense (there is no end to the waste water entering the event of pumping) but closed in the transient sense (at any point, all [relevant] waste water gets pumped into the drain). A corresponding distinction is drawn in the domain of verbal aspect, which can also be bounded or unbounded in two different ways. Overall aspect unfolds over time and, if telic, ultimately reaches its endpoint, as inShe took the letter to the post office. Transient aspect is the aspectual nature of an event at any given point in time. It is understood as orthogonal to the time axis and gives a cross-section of the ongoing event. InThis brush cleans the conveyor belt before it enters the machinerythe overall aspect (of the ‘cleaning’) is unbounded, but the transient aspect is bounded, assuming that the brush continuously keeps the conveyor belt in a state of total cleanliness. In this paper, such oppositions are used in explaining the case marking of the Finnish object (partitive vs. ‘total object’ case marking), which reflects both quantificational and aspectual factors. It is argued that the total object can indicate a closed quantity and a bounded aspect not only in the overall sense but also in the transient sense. This distinction is then used to account for many hitherto unexplained uses of the cases.

scholarly journals LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF A RHETORICAL QESTION (BASED ON GERMAN-LANGUAGE MATERIAL)

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2(36)) ◽  
pp. 29-31
Author(s):  
Irina Tamazievna Sanishvili
Keyword(s):  
German Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Language Communication ◽  
Lexical Composition ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

This article presents an overview of linguistic research of rhetorical question and describes its linguistic features. Different situations of use of rhetorical questions and their connection with syntactic structures and lexical composition of the statements are identified in this article. They are supported by examples from written and spoken German-language communication. It was found out in the research that linguistic structure of rhetorical questions is very diverse and not always is an indicator of the question being rhetorical.

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