scholarly journals Three Types of Old English Adjectival Postposition: A Corpus-Based Construction Grammar Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-198
Author(s):  
Maciej Grabski

The present article looks at different patterns of adjectival postmodification in Old English. A detailed corpus analysis is performed, whose results are interpreted within the framework of Construction Grammar. This study contributes to previous research on the subject by using a large set of corpus data which pave the way for adopting a usage-based approach. The results indicate that the patterns analyzed fulfilled different functions, which in the framework adopted is grounds enough for assigning them to different conceptual categories, i.e., “constructions.” Further, I investigate the mutual relations between these constructions as well as the internal dynamics of their functions and development. The findings support the basic constructionist notion that language is most effectively described as a complex and dynamic network of interrelated constructions.

1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 15-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel F. Barley

Various attempts have been made by Anglo-Saxonists to deal with the Old English colour vocabulary but the subject remains far from clear. In the present article I shall try to show some of the reasons why this is so and offer a re-interpretation of the Old English colour words as a system, treating the Anglo-Saxons simply as a standard ethnographic corpus of anthropological data and therefore amenable to the techniques applied to those present-day communities that are the concern of the anthropologist.


2020 ◽  
pp. 301-323
Author(s):  
Natalya I. Kikilo ◽  

In the Macedonian literary language the analytic da-construction used in an independent clause has a wide range of possible modal meanings, the most common of which are imperative and optative. The present article offers a detailed analysis of the semantics and functions of the Macedonian optative da-construction based on fiction and journalistic texts. The first part of the article deals with the specificities of the optative as a category which primarily considers the subject of a wish. In accordance with the semantic characteristics of this category, optative constructions are used in those discourse text types where the speakers are explicitly designated (the most natural context for the optative is the dialogue). The analysis of the Macedonian material includes instances of atypical usage of the optative da-construction, in which the wish of the subject is not apparent and thereby produces new emotional tonalities perceptible to the reader of a fiction/journalistic text. The study describes Macedonian constructions involving two different verb forms: 1) present tense form (da + praes) and 2) imperfective form (da + impf). These constructions formally designate the hypothetical and counterfactual status of the optative situation, respectively. Thus, the examples in the analysis are ordered according to two types of constructions, which reflect the speaker’s view on the probability of the realisation of his/her wish. Unrealistic wishes can be communicated through the present da-construction, while the imperfective construction denotes situations in which the wish can be realised in the future. The second part of the article is devoted to performative optative da-constructions, which express formulas of speech etiquette, wishes and curses. The analysis demonstrates that these constructions lose their magical functions, when used outside of the ritual context, and begin to function as interjections.


Author(s):  
Iman Pal ◽  
Saibal Kar

Several strands of the static and dynamic theoretical constructs and the empirical applications in the subject of economics owe substantially to the well-known principles of physical sciences. The present article explores as to how the development of the popular gravity models in international trade can be traced back to Newton’s law of gravitation, and to both Ohm’s Law and Kirchhoff’s Law of current electricity, as well as to the pattern recognition techniques commonly deployed in scientific applications. In addition to surveying these theoretical analogies, the article also offers numerical applications for observed trade patterns between India and a set of countries. JEL Classifications: F41, F42, C61, F47


2018 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
pp. 1154-1176
Author(s):  
Alice Bodoc ◽  
Mihaela Gheorghe

Abstract The present paper aims to present an inventory of Romanian middle contructions (se‑verbal constructions), and to extend the analysis to other structures (with or without se) that were not previously investigated, but exhibit the same characteristics, and seem to allow middle reading (adjunct middles). Since Jespersen (1927), middles were attested cross-linguistically, and the focus on middles is justified if we consider the fact that this is an interesting testing ground for theories of syntax, semantics and their interaction (Fagan 1992). Starting from Grahek’s definition (2008, 44), in this paper, middles are a heterogeneous class of constructions that share formal properties of both active and passive structures: on the one hand, they have active verb forms, but, on the other hand, like passives, they have understood subjects and normally display promoted objects. The corpus analysis will focus on the particular contexts in which the middle reading is triggered: i) the adverbial modification; ii) the modal/procedural interpretation of the event; iii) the responsibility of the subject; iv) the arbitrary interpretation of the implicit argument which follows from the generic interpretation (Steinbach 2002).


1976 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 23-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Dumville

This collection of Old English royal records is found in four manuscripts: London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian B. vi; London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. v, vol. 1; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 183; and Rochester, Cathedral Library, A. 3. 5. The present paper aims both to provide an accurate, accessible edition of the texts in the first three of these manuscripts and to discuss the development of the collection from its origin to the stages represented by the extant versions. We owe to Kenneth Sisam most of our knowledge of the history of the Anglo-Saxon genealogies. Although his closely argued discussion remains the basis for any approach to these sources, it lacks the essential aid to comprehension, the texts themselves. It is perhaps this omission, as much as the difficulty of the subject and the undoubted accuracy of many of his conclusions, that has occasioned the neglect from which the texts have suffered in recent years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Noriko Kawasaki

Abstract Back in the 1970s, Kazuko Inoue observed that some active sentences in Japanese allow a prepositional subject. Along with impersonal sentences pointed out by S.-Y. Kuroda, such examples suggest that the nominative subject is not an obligatory element in Japanese sentences. While this observation supports the hypothesis that important characteristics of the Japanese language follow from its lack of (forced-)agreement, Japanese potential sentences require the nominative ga on at least one argument. The present article argues that the nominative case particle ga is semantically vacuous even where a ga-marked phrase is indispensable or the ga-marked phrase is construed as exhaustively listing. Stative predicates require a ga-marked phrase because they can ascribe a property to an argument only by function application. The exhaustive listing reading arises by conversational implicature when the presence of a ga-marked phrase signals that a topic phrase is being avoided. The discussion leads to a semantic account of subject honorification whereby the honorification only concerns the semantic content of the predicate, and does not involve agreement with the subject. It is also shown that sentences with a prepositional subject allow zibun only as a long-distance anaphor, which indicates that they do lack a subject with the nominative Case.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 93-106
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dombrowski

The purpose of the present article is to explicate and criticize the most detailed philosophical appreciation of the ‘noble’ and other lies in Plato on a Straussian basis: Carl Page’s instructive 1991 article titled ‘The Truth about Lies in Plato’s Republic’. I carefully summarize and criticize Page’s sober, scholarly approach to the subject matter in question. Ultimately I reject his attempt to justify the ‘noble’ and other lies told by both Plato and contemporary government leaders.


PMLA ◽  
1919 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-129
Author(s):  
Karl Young

The more recent discussions of the dramatic manifestations within the liturgy of Easter-tide have given fair consideration to a type of play,—Peregrinus,—centering in a dramatization of the appearence of Christ to the two disciples at Emmaus, as recounted in the Gospel of Luke. Although the importance of this post-Resurrection play has been sufficiently evident, the limited number of the extant texts has suggested that it was closely restricted in its distribution and development. Recent researches, however, have given promise of substantial future additions to this branch of knowledge. Since the date of the last comprehensive surveys of the subject, one complete new text has been discovered, together with a mutilated fragment of another text. The purpose of the present article is the communication of an additional version, considerably more extended in dramatic content than any of the versions published hitherto.


Transport ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 699-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inesa Gailienė ◽  
Martynas Gedaminskas ◽  
Alfredas Laurinavičius

One of the technical possibilities to solve a gauge crossing is to install a dual gauge. This solution has several advantages and disadvantages discussed in this paper. Lack of experience of maintenance and lack of standards for the design of dual track are among the most important disadvantages. The wheel and rail interface on track curves is more difficult than in straight sections. Therefore, the subject of the present article is a geometrical parameter of dual gauge track, i.e., the rail superelevation, which has an impact on the wheel–rail interaction at curves and influences the value of uncompensated acceleration, occurring when a train passes a curve, and, consequently, the intensity of rail wear. The objective of the present article is to analyse the features of dual gauge track and the superelevation calculation methodology considered, to present the approach to rational calculation of superelevation for dual gauge track of Šeštokai–Mockava (Lithuania–Poland) using several calculation versions as well as to make recommendations for the calculation of superelevation.


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