scholarly journals Redefining Constructio Praegnans: On the Variation between Allative and Locative Expressions in Ancient Greek

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nikitina ◽  
Boris Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Directional Argument ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Diachronic Development

In traditional Ancient Greek grammar, the term constructio praegnans refers to an apparent syntactic anomaly whereby the idea of motion is missing from either the verb or the prepositional phrase: a verb that does not express motion is combined with a directional prepositional phrase (e.g., ‘slaughter into a container’) or a motion verb combines with a static prepositional phrase describing a goal of motion (e.g., ‘throw in the fire’). This study explores such usages in the period from Archaic to Classical Greek and argues against treating constructio praegnans as a unitary phenomenon. The seemingly aberrant combinations of the verb’s meaning and the type of prepositional phrase are shown to be motivated by four independent factors: 1) lexical (some individual non-motion verbs select for a directional argument); 2) aspectual (static encoding of endpoints is allowed with perfect participles); 3) the encoding of results with change of state verbs; and 4) the archaic use of static prepositional phrases in directional contexts (the goal argument of a motion verb is described by a static prepositional phrase). The four types of “pregnant” use are paralleled by different phenomena in other languages. Based on statistical analysis, they are also argued to undergo different kinds of diachronic development. Some of these developments, nevertheless, fall into a more general pattern: Ancient Greek gradually moves toward a more consistent use of specialized directional expressions to mark goals of motion, conforming increasingly to the “satellite-framed” type of motion encoding.

scholarly journals The Notion of Argument in Prepositional Phrase Attachment

2006 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Merlo ◽  
Eva Esteve Ferrer
Keyword(s):  
Supervised Classification ◽  
Attachment Site ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Classification Task ◽  
Step Process ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Semantic Classes ◽  
Definition Of

In this article we refine the formulation of the problem of prepositional phrase (PP) attachment as a four-way disambiguation problem. We argue that, in interpreting PPs, both knowledge about the site of the attachment (the traditional noun-verb attachment distinction) and the nature of the attachment (the distinction of arguments from adjuncts) are needed. We introduce a method to learn arguments and adjuncts based on a definition of arguments as a vector of features. In a series of supervised classification experiments, first we explore the features that enable us to learn the distinction between arguments and adjuncts. We find that both linguistic diagnostics of argumenthood and lexical semantic classes are useful. Second, we investigate the best method to reach the four-way classification of potentially ambiguous prepositional phrases. We find that whereas it is overall better to solve the problem as a single four-way classification task, verb arguments are sometimes more precisely identified if the classification is done as a two-step process, first choosing the attachment site and then labeling it as argument or adjunct.

The development of locative expressions in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith R. Johnston ◽  
Dan I. Slobin
Keyword(s):  
General Pattern ◽  
Conceptual Ability ◽  
General Order ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Linguistic Means

ABSTRACTThe ability of children between the ages of 2; 0 and 4; 8 to produce locative pre- or postpositions was investigated in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Turkish. Across languages, there was a general order of development: (1) ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘under’, and ‘beside’, (2) ‘between’, ‘back’ and ‘front’ with featured objects, (3) ‘back’ and ‘front’ with non-featured objects. This order of development is discussed in terms of nonlinguistic growth in conceptual ability. Language-specific differences in the general pattern of development are discussed in terms of a number of linguistic factors which may facilitate or retard the child's discovery of the linguistic means for encoding concepts.

scholarly journals Experimental study of the construction o tom, čto as a clausal complement of verbs and nouns in non-standard Russian

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 650-671
Author(s):  
Mikhail Yu. Knyazev ◽  
◽  
Valeria S. Zarembo ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Status ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Clausal Complements ◽  
Judgment Data ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

The spread of the complementation construction o tom, čto in non-standard Russian in recent decades has been attested in previous work. It has been established that the construction has a wide distribution and can replace not only ordinary complement clauses introduced by the complementizer čto (so-called čto-clauses), cf. podtverždat’ o tom, čto + p ‘confirm that p’ instead of podtverždat’, čto + p, but also so-called to, čto-clauses (čto-clauses preceded by a demonstrative), including those embedded in prepositional phrases introduced by a preposi- tion other than o, cf. ostanovit’sja o tom, čto + p ‘settle on the fact that p’ instead of ostanovit’sja na tom, čto + p. The construction can also appear as a clausal complement of nouns, cf. podtverždenie o tom, čto + p ‘confirmation that p’ instead of podtverždenie togo, čto + p. The latter uses have been reported to lead to a milder violation, compared to the uses of the con- struction with verbs. The present study tested the latter hypothesis experimentally by using acceptability judgment data. The experiment tested the effect of the subcategorization of the matrix predicate (in standard Russian), i. e., whether it takes a direct object/čto-clause or a prepositional phrase (embedding a to, čto-clause). The findings suggest that there is a contrast in the status of clausal complements of verbs and nouns, specifically, that the latter are not genuine complements as has been earlier suggested in literature.

scholarly journals A long birth

Diachronica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-539
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Birth Process ◽  
Cascading Effect ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
S Curve ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Gender Specific

Abstract This article investigates the diachronic development of Russian numeral constructions consisting of a paucal numeral (dva “two”, tri “three”, četyre “four”) followed by an adjective and a noun. Based on statistical analysis of more than 6,000 corpus examples, it is shown that a split took place in the second half of the twentieth century when feminine nouns developed a different agreement pattern from that of masculine and neuter nouns. This split is argued to represent the final step in a long “birth process” of gender-specific paucal constructions that started with the loss of the dual in the Middle Ages. It is suggested that we are witnessing a cascading effect, whereby the feminine pattern develops when the pattern for masculine and neuter nouns is approaching stabilization. The article furthermore includes a discussion of the hypothesis that “S-curves” represent a template for language change. While the documented changes resemble S-curves, the proposed analysis also addresses some general problems with testing the S-curve hypothesis empirically.

scholarly journals СЪС ИЛИ БЕЗ ПРЕДЛОЗИ: КОЕ Е ВЯРНОТО / WITH OR WITHOUT PREPOSITIONS: WHICH IS TRUE

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (PR) ◽  
pp. 257-275
Author(s):  
SVETLA KOEVA
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Semantic Dependency

The article focuses on the competition between noun phrases in which the head noun is modified by either a relative adjective, noun qualitative modifier or a prepositional phrase. Several tests are proposed to distinguish between phrases with noun qualitative modifier and compounds consisting of two nouns. The type of the prepositions that occur in the prepositional phrases is characterised, and the conclusion is drown that the semantic dependency in the three competing structures is the same, although it is overtly expressed only through the prepositions. Keywords: noun qualitative modifier, syntactic alternations with prepositional phrases, identification of compounds, Bulgarian language

scholarly journals Rzut oka na babę i łańcuszek wynikających przy tym zjawisk

2007 ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Zenon Leszczyński
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Punctuation Mark

On the basis of interestingly juxtaposed texts, mostly poetic, representing different epochs and styles, the author considers the ways of expressing predication in elliptical sentences in each text. The author is particularly interested in a predicative function of some prepositional phrases, including transformation from a prepositional phrase to a noun phrase within a text, as well as zero predication substituting verbs expressing speaking and its punctuation mark.

Deutsche Nominalkomposita und ihre Übersetzungsproblematik ins Arabische

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasser E. A. Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
German Language ◽  
Compound Words ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Accurate Knowledge ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
The Way

AbstractThough bilingual dictionaries (German-Arabic) contain a great number of compound words which help decode their meaning, a great number of these words are not listed in these dictionaries. This comes as a result of producing daily new constructions especially in the field of press and media, which causes a great difficulty in defining the meaning of these compound words.German Language Department students at the College of Languages and Translation find a great difficulty in translating compound words into Arabic, because they give literal translation of these words without doing any research for an Arabic equivalent. Since these words are composed of phrases or prepositional phrases, transference process to Arabic requires first to deconstruct these words into a phrase or a suitable prepositional phrase before starting the process of translation. The difficulty lies in the fact that there are no fixed deconstructing rules, which requires accurate knowledge of the characteristics of these words especially the way they are compound and deconstructed.The research attempts at finding a mechanism which students can practice in language classes. Later, in translation classes, this will help them to correctly transfer these words into Arabic

scholarly journals A multifactorial analysis of differential agent marking in Herodotus

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-57
Author(s):  
David Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Multifactorial Analysis ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Dative Case ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Passive agents in ancient Greek exhibit a well-known alternation between dative case and prepositional phrase. It has long been recognized that grammatical aspect plays a crucial role in this alternation: dative agents preponderate among aspectually perfect predicates, prepositional phrase agents elsewhere. Although the importance of grammatical aspect is undeniable, it is not the only factor that determines the realization of passive agents. The identification of other factors has proven challenging, however, not least because previous researchers have lacked methods for assessing the relative importance of the determinants that influence the realization of agent phrases. In this paper, I use Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression to provide a multifactorial account of differential agent marking in Herodotus, according to which the realization of passive agent phrases is conditioned by the relationship between semantic role and referential prominence (Haspelmath 2021). Dative agents are favored in clauses where semantic role and referential prominence are aligned (i.e., the agent is referentially prominent or the patient is referentially non-prominent). By contrast, prepositional phrase agents are more likely when semantic role and referential prominence are at odds (i.e., the patient is referentially prominent or the agent is referentially non-prominent).

Analogy in suffix rivalry: the case of English -ityand -ness

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
SABINE ARNDT-LAPPE
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Computational Simulation ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
English Word ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Over Time

Rivalry between the two English nominalising suffixes -ityand -nesshas long been an issue in the literature on English word-formation (see esp. Marchand 1969; Aronoff 1976; Anshen & Aronoff 1981; Romaine 1983; Riddle 1985; Giegerich 1999; Plag 2003; Säily 2011; Baeskow 2012; Lindsay 2012; Baueret al. 2013: ch. 12). Both regularly attach to adjectival bases, producing nouns with (mostly) synonymous meanings. Most standard accounts assume that stronger restrictiveness of -ityis an effect of -itybeing less productive than -ness, and that the observed preferences are an effect of selectional restrictions imposed on bases and/or suffixes. The focus of the present study is on the productivity of the two suffixes in synchronic English and on the diachronic development of that productivity in the recent history of the language. The article presents a statistical analysis and a computational simulation with an analogical model (using the AM algorithm, Skousen & Stanford 2007) of the distribution of -ityand -nessin a corpus comprising some 2,700 neologisms from theOxford English Dictionaryfrom three different centuries (the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth). Statistical analysis of theOEDdata reveals that -itypreference for pertinent bases is far more widespread than hitherto thought. Furthermore, the earlier data show a consistent development of these preference patterns over time. Computational modelling shows that AM is highly successful in predicting the variation in synchronic English as well as in the diachronic data solely on the basis of the formal properties of the bases of nominalisation. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the AM model it is shown that, unlike many previous approaches, an analogical theory of word-formation provides a convincing account of the observed differences between the productivity profiles of the two nominalising suffixes and their emergence over time.

What Can Data Drawn from the Hansen-Nielsen Inventory Tell Us about Political Transitions in Ancient Greece?

2018 ◽  
pp. 213-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert K. Fleck ◽  
F. Andrew Hanssen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Human History ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Systematic Database

Most of the democratic transitions that have occurred in human history took place in ancient Greece. Thanks to Mogens Hansen’s and Thomas Nielsen’s monumental Inventory of Archaic and Classical Period Poleis (augmented by Josiah Ober and his Stanford colleagues), a fascinating data set documenting ancient Greek political transitions now exists. But the data present an extraordinary challenge to empirical research, because so much remains unknown about so many poleis. Furthermore, and very importantly, one cannot treat missing information as if it were caused by chance destruction of records. The objectives of this chapter are threefold: first, to illustrate the feasibility of useful statistical analysis, even when applied to data as uncertain in origin and/or interpretation as those from ancient Greece; second, to provide additional evidence of the value of a systematic database, such as that derived from Hansen and Nielsen’s work; third, to contribute to literature on political transition in ancient Greece.

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