Construction- Based Historical-Comparative Reconstruction

Author(s):  
Jóhanna Barðdal

This chapter examines the application of the constructional approach to syntactic reconstruction. It argues that a constructional approach to language is an optimal theoretical framework for reconstructing syntax, and explains that a constructional approach overcomes some of the alleged difficulties with syntactic reconstruction. The chapter outlines the basic premises of historical-comparative reconstruction and how the comparative method works in practice. It also shows how Construction Grammar may contribute to historical-comparative syntactic reconstruction by reconstructing one particular argument structure construction for Proto-Indo-European language.

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zev HANDEL

Abstract In a recent article, Fellner & Hill (this volume) level a strong critique against what they view as the misguided prevailing methodology of historical-comparative reconstruction in the Sino-Tibetan (aka Trans-Himalayan) language family. The central focus of their criticism is the assembling of “word families” and the reconstruction of ST proto-forms exhibiting variation to account for those word families. In this response, I argue that the methodology is basically sound and is appropriate to the current state of our knowledge. At the same time, I dispute some of the assertions made by Fellner & Hill, which I believe are mischaracterizations of the methods and assumptions underlying the work of Sino-Tibetan scholars.


Author(s):  
Judith Huber

Chapter 2 provides an introduction to the motion encoding typology as proposed by Talmy, Slobin, and others (manner- and path-conflating languages, different types of framing and their concomitant characteristics). It argues that this typology is highly compatible with a construction grammar framework, points out the differences, and shows that particularly from the diachronic perspective taken in this study, the constructionist approach has advantages over the originally lexicalist approach of the motion typology. The chapter also provides a discussion of the different categories of motion verbs used in this study (manner verbs, path verbs, neutral motion verbs, and verbs that do not evoke a motion event on their own, but can receive a contextual motion reading).


ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Prytz

AbstractThis paper concerns the relationship between research and governance policy in three Swedish major development projects in mathematics education: the New Math project (1960–1975), the PUMP project (1970–1980), and the Boost for Mathematics project in (2012–2016). All three projects were driven or financed by the Swedish central school authorities. Using a historical comparative method, this study deepens the understanding of how research co-exists with governance policy when preparing innovations in mathematics education. The main historical sources are official reports and governmental decisions concerning the three projects. The analysis is focused on the nature of the innovations of each project and the role of researchers in the process of creating the innovations. The analysis highlights the theories and the methods involved in those processes. The three projects are also positioned in a context of school governance policy. In Sweden, the prevailing school governing policy changed from a highly centralised governance in the 1960s to a highly decentralised governance in the 2010s. The paper concludes by discussing to what degree the researchers adhered to principles of research or school governance; in particular, the Boost for Mathematics project is considered in this regard. The relevance of the paper in relation to the emerging field of implementation research in mathematics education concerns how historical studies can give new insights about contemporary development projects in mathematics education.


Author(s):  
K.A. Ushmaeva ◽  
◽  
A.S. Goncharov

This study is devoted to the study of relevant works on the history of the Stavropol Cossacks, works in the field of education of the Stavropol Cossacks as an independent Cossack group, trade, cultural and economic ties in the Stavropol Territory, spiritual life, language, culture, traditions and customs of the Stavropol Cossacks. Among modern studies in the history of the Stavropol Cossacks, the following topics stand out: military life and everyday life, folklore and song traditions, the movement for the revival of the Cossacks, as well as the current state and prospects for the development of Cossack organizations. The prospect of the development of pedagogical technologies based on the Cossack traditions of educating young people in Stavropol is highlighted as a separate topical topic. The relevance of the study lies in the need for a private study of the historiography of the regional Cossack group of Stavropol Cossacks in order to expand the scientific and pedagogical tools in the field of «Cossack studies». The practical significance of the study is expressed in the possibility of using the data of the article in the search for supporting material for teaching the "History of the Cossacks" in a higher educational institution (taking into account the regional specifics). The scientific novelty of the research is expressed in a new view of the Stavropol Cossacks as an independent Cossack group formed at the end of the XVIII century. The source base is represented mainly by archival data from the State Archives of the Stavropol Territory, data banks on archaeological, cultural and linguistic expeditions, sources of personal origin, the works of contemporary historians and directly the works of historians, whose studies formed the basis of the historiography of the history of the Stavropol Cossacks. The research methodology is based on the principles of historiographic comparative studies and comparative analysis of sources. Within the framework of the sociocultural approach, we rely on the following methods. Special-historical: the narrative method, the historical-comparative method, the historical-systemic method, the retrospective method. Sociological: document analysis, method of generalizing characteristics, method of ideal types. Culturological: comparative method, cultural-systemic method. Pedagogical: pedagogical interviewing, a method of studying and generalizing pedagogical experience.


Author(s):  
Vladimir T. Tepkeev ◽  

Introduction. The paper examines an understudied period in the history of the Kalmyk Khanate — beginnings of a military confrontation between joint Kazakh-Karakalpak forces and Kalmyk units in 1723–1724. Goals. The article aims at introducing newly discovered archival data about the reign of Khan Tseren-Donduk (1724–1735). Materials and Methods. The source materials are related records stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia (Coll. И-36). The Register of Kalmyk Affairs contains dispatches and reports by the Governor of Astrakhan, A. Volynsky, clustered under the title ‘About Actual Disagreements and Feuds of Kalmyk Landlords’. The employed historical comparative method makes it possible to specify a chronicle of events on the basis of coinciding events described by all or most of the investigated sources. Results. The 1723 feuds between young Kalmyk princely heirs, Khan Ayuka’s death in 1724, and the unsettled order of succession paved the path for Kazakh and Karakalpak invasions of eastern Kalmyk-inhabited territories between the Volga and the Yaik (Ural) Rivers. Conclusions. Despite the actual political factionalism across the Kalmyk Khanate, eastern landlords headed by Dorji Nazarov were able to repel the aggression of hostile groups. The 1724 battle of the Uzen which ended in a defeat of a small Kazakh-Karakalpak unit had important military and political consequences conveying the message that even amidst the lack of solidarity between Kalmyk noblemen any invasion of their lands should turn an essentially arduous task. However, the successful local engagement of the Volga Kalmyks could not stop the subsequent eastward expansion of Kazakhs.


Author(s):  
G.Zh. Sultangazy

Cities of the northern part of Kazakhstan at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries had played the role of administrative units for a long period; however, the gradual development of the urban environment and the integration of the cities of the national outskirts into the system of socio-economic relations of the empire led to the formation cooperation of a citizen not only in the economic aspect, but also, in the political aspects. The research attempted to analyze the processes associated with the formation of a political space in a colonial city, where representatives of the national intelligentsia were the subjects, and the emerging media and public spaces were the tools. The author insists that the political component of the city had developed in the context of the all-Russian political situation. The systemic crisis in all spheres of the state's life demanded new formats of their rights struggle. Under these conditions, the intelligentsia takes the initiative and develops its own style of struggle, expressed in the creation of newspapers, which will later become the print organs of the parties. For example, the newspaper "Kazakh" will become the official organ of the Alash party. Thus, the author argues that the formation of the political space in the colonial city is the result of the activities of the intelligentsia. The article uses the data of the regional archives of Kostanay, Petropavlovsk and NurSultan cities. One of the methods of this research was the historical and genetic one, which allows considering the problems in its development and identifying patterns. The use of the historical-comparative method revealed differences in the development of Kazakhstan historiography.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
YURI YERASTOV

This article offers a syntactic analysis of the construction [be doneNP], e.g.I am done dinner, I am finished my homework, as found in Canadian English and some US dialects. After situating this construction in the context of a productive transitivebeperfect in Scots/English dialects, [be doneNP] will be distinguished from a set of its conceptual and structural relatives, and ultimately be shown not to be reducible to a surface realization of another underlying structure. From the perspective of syntactic theory, the article problematizes the parsimony of the mainstream generative approach (most recently in MacFadden & Alexiadou 2010) in accounting for the facts of [be doneNP] on strictly compositional grounds, as well as the mainstream view of lexical items as projecting theta grids and subcategorization frames (as e.g. in Grimshaw 1979; Emonds 2000). Following Fillmoreet al.(1988), Goldberg (1995, 2005) and others, what will be suggested instead is a construction grammar approach to [be doneNP], under which a construction holistically licenses its argument structure. Along these lines [be doneNP] will be characterized as an abstract construction with some fixed material.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiko Fujii ◽  
Russell Lee-Goldman

Abstract This paper presents a frame-based constructional approach to argument structure satisfaction via unselected adjuncts, by focusing on one such case in Japanese. It points out an intriguing constructional phenomenon whereby causal adjunct clauses marked with node ‘because’, as used with main-clause predicates that evoke communication frames (such as Telling and Warning), serve to satisfy main-clause argument structure. The node clause precedes the main-clause speech act of telling/warning, and can be interpreted as a speech-act causal (Sweetser 1990). The node clause at the same time conveys the content of informing or warning, i.e., the core Frame Element message, which is absent as a main-clause complement. This analysis of argument structure satisfaction via unselected adjuncts provides evidence for a Frame Semantic approach to argument structure that incorporates Construction Grammar.


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