On the morphophonology of domains in Somali verbs and nouns

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-237
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Green ◽  
Michelle E. Morrison

Abstract Morphemes involved in the formation of Somali verbs and nouns are, in most instances, clearly individuated into categories corresponding to their role in word formation. Verbs contain a base, derivational extensions, inflectional affixes, and clitics that attach in a fixed order. Nouns also contain a base and derivational affixes, but little inflectional morphology. Indeed, both parts of speech have similar morphological templates in Somali, but the relationship between the language’s morphological domains and prosodic domains has only recently become a subject of detailed inquiry. We add to this ongoing trend by illustrating in this paper that there are close correlations between these domains in the language’s verbal and nominal systems that can be elucidated by morphophonological processes; certain processes occur only in a particular prosodic domain, and these process/domain combinations are similar in both the nominal and verbal systems. By establishing diagnostic phenomena attributable to phrase-level domains, this paper fills a gap between recent works focused only on defining prosodic characteristics of Somali words (Downing & Nilsson 2017; Green & Morrison 2016) and the accentual behavior of Somali clauses (Le Gac 2002, 2003a, b).

Author(s):  
Geert E. Booij

This chapter presents a whole range of arguments for a Construction Grammar approach to morphology. It shows that the lexicon contains both (simplex and complex) words and word formation schemas of various degrees of abstraction, and provides evidence supporting the view that morphological construcitons have holistic properties. The chapter considers both word formation and inflectional morphology and discusses the relationship between morphological and syntactic constructions. The findings confirm that the lexicon is to be reinterpreted as the "constructicon," a structured and hierarchically ordered array of constructions and constructs with phrasal or word status.


1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSÉ M. GOÑI ◽  
JOSÉ C. GONZÁLEZ ◽  
ANTONIO MORENO

We present a lexical platform that has been developed for the Spanish language. It achieves portability between different computer systems and efficiency, in terms of speed and lexical coverage. A model for the full treatment of Spanish inflectional morphology for verbs, nouns and adjectives is presented. This model permits word formation based solely on morpheme concatenation, driven by a feature-based unification grammar. The run-time lexicon is a collection of allomorphs for both stems and endings. Although not tested, it should be suitable also for other Romance and highly inflected languages. A formalism is also described for encoding a lemma-based lexical source, well suited for expressing linguistic generalizations: inheritance classes, lemma encoding, morpho-graphemic allomorphy rules and limited type-checking. From this source base, we can automatically generate an allomorph indexed dictionary adequate for efficient retrieval and processing. A set of software tools has been implemented around this formalism: lexical base augmenting aids, lexical compilers to build run-time dictionaries and access libraries for them, feature manipulation libraries, unification and pseudo-unification modules, morphological processors, a parsing system, etc. Software interfaces among the different modules and tools are cleanly defined to ease software integration and tool combination in a flexible way. Directions for accessing our e-mail and web demonstration prototypes are also provided. Some figures are given, showing the lexical coverage of our platform compared to some popular spelling checkers.


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.


enadakultura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Makharoblidze

The question of derivates has been repeatedly raised in the teaching processes of language grammar and general linguistics. This circumstance became the basis for creating this short article. It is well known that a word-form can be changeable or unchangeable, and this fact is determined by the parts of speech. Form-changing words can undergo two types of change: inflectional and derivative. During the inflectional change, the form of the word changes, but the lexical and semantic aspects of the word do not change, i.e. its semantic and content data do not change. A classic example of this type of change is flexion of nouns.Derivation is the formation of a word from another word by the addition of non-inflectional affixes. Derivation can be of two types. The first is lexical derivation, in which the derivative affix produces a word with a different lexical content. A word-form can be another part of speech or the same part of speech but with a different lexical content. The second type of derivation is, first of all, grammatical derivation, when grammatical categories are produced. The grammatical category in general (and a word-form in general as well) includes the unity of morphological and semantical aspects. There is no separate semantics without morphology. Any semantic category and/or content must be conveyed in a specific form, so only a specific form has a specific morphosemantics, which can be produced by the grammatical derivatives. The main difference between the two types of derivation mentioned above (and therefore between the two types of derivatives) is the levels of the language hierarchy. The first type of affixes works at the lexical level of the language, while the second type derivatives produce forms at the morphological and semantic levels. The second type derivatives are inter-level affixes, because they act on two hierarchical levels. Any grammatical category includes specific morphosemantic oppositional forms. Thus, unlike inflectional affixes, the rest of the morphological affixes are all other types of inter-level derivatives. It should be noted that the preverb in Kartvelian languages ​​is the only linguistic unit with all possible functions of affix. DOWNLOADS


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.


Author(s):  
Howard Jones ◽  
Martin H. Jones

This chapter has four sections, ‘Sounds and spelling’ (i.e. phonology and orthography), ‘Inflectional morphology’, ‘Syntax’, and ‘Lexis’ (the last of these covers word formation, borrowing, and vocabulary with meanings peculiar to the period such as dienest, êre, minne, ritter, vrouwe). In each section there is a summary of the main points, followed by detailed advanced paragraphs. The summaries serve as a stand-alone introductory grammar designed to help readers gain a reading knowledge of MHG as quickly as possible, which they can try out on the two introductory texts in Chapter 5. The detailed paragraphs can be used for reference or to gain an overview of particular areas of the language, and include extensive cross references to and from the texts in Chapter 5. The chapter concludes with an overview of the MHG dictionaries that are available on the Internet, in print, and on CD-ROM.


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