scholarly journals Semantic Extension of the Verb of Breaking in Thai and Japanese

MANUSYA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Kingkarn Thepkanjana ◽  
Satoshi Uehara

The fact that a lexical item has semantic variations when combined with other linguistic elements is a central issue in lexical semantics. A number of researchers claim that a lexical item has one basic meaning, and that other extended meanings are triggered in context by a process whereby the semantic structure of the lexical item is adjusted in certain details so that it is semantically compatible with its neighboring lexical items. This paper aims to examine how this process actually works as it applies to a transitive verb occurring with subject and object arguments. A study of the Thai transitive verb HAK "break" and its corresponding verb ORU in Japanese is presented. Arguably, all seemingly discrete meanings of HAK are interrelated and so are those of ORU. The basic meaning of each verb corresponds to the most concrete event and is the most cognitively salient. It consists of a number of “facets”, which represent different physical resulting states of an entity undergoing an action denoted by either HAK or ORU. Two mechanisms are found to derive the extended meanings. First, only some facets of HAK and ORU are promoted. Second, HAK and ORU are figuratively interpreted. The other objective of this study is to show semantic differences between HAK and ORU. It is demonstrated in this paper that so-called "corresponding” words in different languages, especially verbs, hardly have exactly the same meaning.

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Laurindo Dias Minhoto

This article discusses some possibilities for a critical interpretation of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. On the one hand, this theory could provide a sophisticated new sociological account of well-known modern social pathologies, such as alienation and reification; on the other, it could be considered a crypto-normative model for the reciprocal mediation between system and environment in which neither blind tautologies nor colonizations would take place. I argue that as a normative model this theoretical matrix seems to resonate with aspects of Adorno’s negative dialectics between subject and object and that the involuntary promise it contains could be fully realized only under other social conditions. The article also presents a preliminary critique of neoliberalism reconceptualized in systems theoretical terms as a dedifferentiation machinery that aims at establishing the primacy of economic rationality and the formation of ‘industries’ in different social spheres.


2013 ◽  
pp. 115-135
Author(s):  
I.M. Boguslavskij

We consider Russian coordinative constructions with paired conjunctions, such as i?i ?both?and?, ili?ili ?either?or?, ni?ni ?neither?nor?, ne tol'ko?no i ?not only?but also?, ne?a ?not?but?, etc. The paper presents a class of syntactic constructions, so-called asymmetric constructions, which are interesting in several respects. They are closely related to coordinative constructions, although they do not share their principal property - the identity of syntactic functions of coordinated elements. They take up an intermediate position between standard syntax and ungrammaticality. On the one hand, the sentence is within the grammatical norm. On the other hand, its structure underwent a deformation that left a trace. We propose a description that accounts for their closeness to and difference from standard - symmetric - constructions. Symmetric constructions with paired conjunctions are convenient to describe as a result of two transformations occurring in the semantic structure: Deletion and Transfer. Asymmetric constructions are obtained when only one of these transformations is applied. Accordingly, two subclasses of asymmetric constructions can be distinguished - ?Deletion-Without-Transfer? constructions and ?Transfer-Without-Deletion? constructions. The latter class has a strong pragmatic marking. The core of this class are ?failed? symmetric constructions. The speaker begins to build a symmetric construction but faces an obstacle of syntactic nature, which prevents him from completing this plan. ?Transfer-Without-Deletion? constructions constitute a legalized way of overcoming syntactic conflicts.


2020 ◽  
pp. 333-355
Author(s):  
Joanna Szerszunowicz ◽  

The aim of this paper is to discuss the usefulness and reliability of the onomasiological approach in the cross-linguistic analysis of fixed multiword expressions based on the example of Polish phrases coined according to the model: ADJECTIVENOM FEM SING + GŁOWA ‘HEAD’ and their English and Italian counterparts. The three corpora are constituted by expressions registered in general and phraseological dictionaries of the respective languages to ensure that the units belong to the canon of Polish, English and Italian phraseological stock. The analysis of units collected for the purpose of the study clearly shows that in order to determine the true picture of cross-linguistic equivalence, the study should be focused on semantics of analysed phrases. Furthermore, the formal aspectmay be of minor significance in some cases due to the similarity of imagery of a source language idiom and the target language lexical item. On the other hand, stylistic value may have a great impact on the relation of cross-linguistic correspondence of the analysed units.


2014 ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Violetta Koseska

Semantics, contrastive linguistics and parallel corporaIn view of the ambiguity of the term “semantics”, the author shows the differences between the traditional lexical semantics and the contemporary semantics in the light of various semantic schools. She examines semantics differently in connection with contrastive studies where the description must necessary go from the meaning towards the linguistic form, whereas in traditional contrastive studies the description proceeded from the form towards the meaning. This requirement regarding theoretical contrastive studies necessitates construction of a semantic interlanguage, rather than only singling out universal semantic categories expressed with various language means. Such studies can be strongly supported by parallel corpora. However, in order to make them useful for linguists in manual and computer translations, as well as in the development of dictionaries, including online ones, we need not only formal, often automatic, annotation of texts, but also semantic annotation - which is unfortunately manual. In the article we focus on semantic annotation concerning time, aspect and quantification of names and predicates in the whole semantic structure of the sentence on the example of the “Polish-Bulgarian-Russian parallel corpus”.


Author(s):  
Айгуль Наилевна Закирова ◽  
Никита Алексеевич Муравьев

В статье рассматриваются две пассивные конструкции в горномарийском языке. В обеих из них используется причастная форма на -mə̑; основное различие между конструкциями состоит в падежном оформлении пациентивного участника. В одной из конструкций сохраняется исходное аккузативное маркирование пациенса, тогда как в другой конструкции пациентивный участник получает номинативное оформление. Цель исследования — сравнительный анализ двух разновидностей пассива и выявление закономерностей, лежащих в основе выбора падежного оформления пациенса. В литературе по пассивным конструкциям во многих языках отмечается наличие двух пассивных конструкций: адъективного пассива со стативной семантикой и глагольного пассива с динамической семантикой. Это же различие ожидалось увидеть и применительно к горномарийскому причастному пассиву. Для проверки этого предположения были изучены: а) синтаксические особенности конструкций, соотношение в них именных и глагольных свойств, б) аспектуальная семантика конструкций, а именно противопоставление стативной и динамической семантики, в) особенности кодирования участников и контексты с различным референциальным статусом пациенса. Было установлено, что пассив с номинативным кодированием пациенса в целом характеризуется именным синтаксисом, стативной семантикой и обязательной определенностью пациенса, тогда как пассив с аккузативным кодированием имеет глагольный синтаксис, динамическую семантику и не ограничен с точки зрения референциальных свойств пациенса. Единственным наблюдаемым отклонением от данных закономерностей является одинаковая допустимость обеих разновидностей пассива в хабитуальных контекстах, что подлежит дальнейшему выяснению. На основе выявленных закономерностей было сделано обобщение, что пассив с номинативным кодированием пациенса описывает состояние, возникшее в результате некоторого события, тогда как пассив с аккузативным кодированием описывает само событие. В качестве итога исследования предложена интерпретация семантического различия между конструкциями в теоретической парадигме синтаксиса первой фазы Дж. Рэмчанд: аккузативную конструкцию можно рассматривать как конструкцию с озвучиванием каузирующего и процессуального подсобытия, а номинативную — как конструкцию с озвучиванием результирующего подсобытия. The article provides an account of two participial passive constructions employing the -mə̑- participle in Hill Mari. The data was collected in 2017 and 2019 in the villages of Kuznetsovo and Mikryakovo of the Gornomarijskij district, Republic of Mari El. The two constructions with the -mə̑- participle differ in the first place in how the patient is marked: in one of them the patient is marked for nominative, whereas in the other construction the accusative marking is inherited from the transitive verb. The aim of this study is to compare the two constructions in terms of their syntax and semantics and explore the rules that govern the choice between them. In the existing literature two kinds of passive constructions are described: adjectival passive constructions with stative interpretation and verbal passive constructions with dynamic interpretation. The two Hill Mari -mə̑- constructions were expected to demonstrate the same distinction. In order to test this hypothesis, we considered a) the syntactic properties of the constructions, and the nominal or verbal behavior of the -mə̑- form in both cases; b) the aspectual semantics of the two constructions, i.e. the possibility of stative and dynamic interpretation in both constructions; c) the marking of the arguments in the constrictions, i.e. the possibility of overt expression of the agent and the referential properties of the patient. Syntactically, the passive construction with the nominative marking of the patient turned out to be an adjectival predication. This construction is stative, and the nominative patient NP is always definite. The construction with accusative patient marking is a verbal clause with a dynamic interpretation. The accusative patient NP may have any referential properties. However, both constructions can refer to habitual events, which needs further investigation. The observed properties of the two constructions lead to the following generalization: the construction with nominative patient marking denotes a resultant state of an event, whereas the construction with accusative patient marking denotes the event itself. This difference may be interpreted in the first phase syntax framework developed by G. Ramchand: in the nominative construction the patient is the Resultee, whereas in the accusative construction the patient is the Undergoer.


2030 ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rutger van Santen ◽  
Djan Khoe ◽  
Bram Vermeer

Our lives seem to revolve around schedules. If we don’t honor them with second-to-second precision, we miss our trains and our workplace rosters fall apart. We’re reliant on one another, and we constantly have to coordinate our schedules with those of others. Planning is crucial to our industry, too. If you unexpectedly run out of nuts and bolts, you can’t make any more cars, and the entire production process grinds to a halt. No manufacturer can afford that, so industrial companies employ large teams of specialists whose job is to ensure there are never any shortages of key parts. A worldwide logistic network has become our industry’s lifeblood. The central issue facing logistics is that of reliability. How do you keep your supply network intact? And how do you limit the consequences if it fails? These are questions that go far beyond the supply of nuts and bolts for new cars. Reliable logistics touches equally on the web of interactions that determine food production and the optimization of the Internet. It also extends to power supply, telecommunications, and workforce. Reliable networks make our society tick. But they face uncertainties of various kinds. That lends a broader significance to insights gained from industrial logistics, which offer us tools we can use to optimize networks and account for uncertainties in other areas as well. The reliability of a supply network is intimately bound up with the inventories you need to maintain. Businesses hold millions of dollars’ worth of supplies in their warehouses to make absolutely certain they never cease production due to a failure in the supply chain. So the key question is how large a stock do you need to hold of each component? Smart planning to hold down inventory levels in your warehouse generates immediate savings. On the other hand, you need enough stock to ensure continuity should anything go wrong. Optimizing storage is a common problem in supply networks. There is always a trade-off between the reliability of the network and the need for it to be profitable in an economic sense.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu Li ◽  
Yuncheng Jiang ◽  
Ju Wang ◽  
Zhilei Yin

With the advent of Big Data Era, users prefer to get knowledge rather than pages from Web. Linked Data, a new form of knowledge representation and publishing described by RDF, can provide a more precise and comprehensible semantic structure to satisfy the aforementioned requirement. Further, the SPARQL query language for RDF is the foundation of many current researches about Linked Data querying. However, these SPARQL-based methods cannot fully express the semantics of the query, so they cannot unleash the potential of Linked Data. To fill this gap, this paper designs a new querying method which extends the SPARQL pattern. Firstly, the authors present some new semantic properties for predicates in RDF triples and design a Semantic Matrix for Predicates (SMP). They then establish a well-defined framework for the notion of Semantically-Extended Query Model for the Linked Data (SEQMLD). Moreover, the authors propose some novel algorithms for executing queries by integrating semantic extension into SPARQL pattern. Lastly, experimental results show that the authors' proposal has a good generality and performs better than some of the most representative similarity search methods.


Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-126
Author(s):  
Wei-wen Roger Liao ◽  
Tzong-hong Jonah Lin

Abstract This paper investigates three constructions in Mandarin, all of which convey a purposive/teleological meaning, including the lai purposive, the hao purposive, and the bare purposive. Despite the fact that each type of purposive clause in Mandarin occurs at the right edge of a sentence, it is argued that none of the purposive clause is a genuine right adjunct in the underlying syntactic structure. On the other hand, our analysis shows that the lai purposive employs complementation of a secondary predicate, the hao purposive involves conjunction of two clauses, and the bare purposive should be analyzed as left adjunction that is stranded in the right edge after verb movement. The evidence for our analysis is drawn from subject and object gaps, the ba-construction in Mandarin, agentivity, and linear ordering of multiple purposive clauses. This work thus demonstrates representative cases where a structure that appears to involve right adjunction may in fact employ no right adjunction at all. The conclusion is thus consistent with the prediction of Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA).


Author(s):  
David Pharies

A lexical item is described as “playful” or “ludic” when it shows evidence of manipulation of the relation that inheres between its form (signifier) and its meaning (signified). The playful lexicon of any given language, therefore, is the sum total of its lexical items that show signs of such manipulation. Linguists have long recognized that the only necessary link between a word’s form and its meaning is the arbitrary social convention that binds them. However, nothing prevents speakers from creating additional, unnecessary and therefore essentially “playful” links, associating forms with meanings in a symbolic, hence non-arbitrary way. This semantic effect is most evident in the case of onomatopoeia, through which the phonetic form of words that designate sounds is designed to be conventionally imitative of the sound. A second group of playful words combines repeated sequences of sounds with meanings that are themselves suggestive of repetition or related concepts such as collectivity, continuity, or actions in sequence, as well as repeated, back-and-forth, or uncontrolled movements, or even, more abstractly, intensity and hesitation. The playfulness of truncated forms such as clips and blends is based on a still more abstract connection between forms and meanings. In the case of clipping, the truncation of the full form of a word triggers a corresponding connotative truncation or diminution of the meaning, that is, a suggestion that the referent is small—either endearingly, humorously, or contemptuously so. In blending, truncation is often accompanied by overlapping, which symbolically highlights the interrelatedness or juxtaposition of the constituents’ individual meanings. Prosodic templates do not constitute a separate category per se; instead, they may play a part in the formation or alteration of words in any of the other categories discussed here.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (104) ◽  
pp. 396-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. O’Grady

The issue of citizenship played a major role in the negotiations that led to the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921; but that point was overshadowed by the tendency of those who negotiated the treaty (and the authors who have written about it) to see the issue of ‘common citizenship’ as only one point under the heading of allegiance to the crown and membership of the British Empire. That it was a central issue is clear, however, for at one point in the 1921 negotiations Lloyd George asked, ‘to put it bluntly will you be British subjects or foreigners? You must be either one or the other.’ Arthur Griffith, the leader of the Irish delegation, answered: ‘in our proposal we have agreed to “reciprocity of civic rights”. We should be Irish and you would be British and each would have equal rights as citizens in the country of the other.’ That exchange caused the British to ask the Irish for a direct answer to the question, would they ‘acknowledge this common citizenship?’. The Irish, however, only responded with the words, ‘Ireland would undertake such obligations as are compatible with the status of a free partner’ in ‘the community of nations known as the British Commonwealth’. Those words did not satisfy the English negotiators, but in the end the Irish accepted an agreement in which the words ‘common citizenship’ appeared in the oath to the king which all members of Dáil Éireann would have to take. That satisfied the British demands on allegiance to the crown.


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