scholarly journals Cross-linguistic constraints and lineage-specific developments in the semantics of cutting and breaking in Japonic and Germanic

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. A. Huisman ◽  
Roeland van Hout ◽  
Asifa Majid
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Change ◽  
Semantic Variation ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Linguistic Constraints ◽  
Germanic Languages

Abstract Semantic variation in the cutting and breaking domain has been shown to be constrained across languages in a previous typological study, but it was unclear whether Japanese was an outlier in this domain. Here we revisit cutting and breaking in the Japonic language area by collecting new naming data for 40 videoclips depicting cutting and breaking events in Standard Japanese, the highly divergent Tohoku dialects, as well as four related Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama). We find that the Japonic languages recapitulate the same semantic dimensions attested in the previous typological study, confirming that semantic variation in the domain of cutting and breaking is indeed cross-linguistically constrained. We then compare our new Japonic data to previously collected Germanic data and find that, in general, related languages resemble each other more than unrelated languages, and that the Japonic languages resemble each other more than the Germanic languages do. Nevertheless, English resembles all of the Japonic languages more than it resembles Swedish. Together, these findings show that the rate and extent of semantic change can differ between language families, indicating the existence of lineage-specific developments on top of universal cross-linguistic constraints.

Lexical change often begins and ends in semantic peripheries

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Vejdemo
Keyword(s):  
Color Naming ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Semantic Domains

Abstract The article discusses semantic change and lexical replacement processes in the color domain, based on color naming studies in seven Germanic languages (where diachronic intra-linguistic development is inferred from cross-linguistic synchronic studies) and from different generations of speakers in a single language (Swedish). Change in the color domain often begins and ends in conceptual peripheries, and I argue that this perspective is suitable for other semantic domains as well.

Les conjonctions concessives à valeur réelle

Revue Romane ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-277
Author(s):  
Mari Mossberg
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Change ◽  
Evolutionary Path ◽  
Semantic Variation ◽  
Non Fiction

The aim of this study is to compare the function and use of French and Swedish concessive conjunctions (bien que / quoique / encore que vs. trots att / fast / fastän). The analysis is based on a translation corpus, comprising French and Swedish fiction and non-fiction texts, and their translations into Swedish and French, respectively. It is argued that the semantic variation observed in the data is the result of a general diachronic semantic change including the following steps: nonsubjective > subjective > intersubjective. This reconstructive approach makes it possible to suggest a probable evolutionary path of the French and Swedish conjunctions and to determine their degree of grammaticalisation. The study also investigates differences in the use of the concessive conjunctions in fiction and non-fiction texts.

A comparative study of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Zhiqun Xing
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Numerous Case ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Germanic Languages

This study explores the typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages. Earlier studies, mostly done on Indo-European languages (e.g. Heine et al. 1991, Traugott & Dasher 2002), suggest that semantic change follows the cline A>A, B>B. Based on numerous case studies of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese, this paper provides evidence that semantic change in Chinese follows a somewhat different pattern: A>A, B>A,B,C. The key factors responsible for this, as it will be argued, are twofold: Chinese grammar is typologically structured without inflections and Chinese words have become increasingly disyllabic. Indo-European languages, which exhibit quite different grammatical and morphological structures and diachronic evolution, therefore show a different tendency.

scholarly journals Linguistic and extra-linguistic predictors of mutual intelligibility between Germanic languages

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Gooskens ◽  
Femke Swarte
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Linguistic Distance ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Test Languages ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
First Time

We report on a large-scale investigation of the mutual intelligibility between five Germanic languages: Danish, Dutch, English, German and Swedish. We tested twenty language combinations using the same uniform methodology, making the results commensurable for the first time. We first tested both written and spoken language by means of cloze tests. Next we calculated linguistic distance at the levels of lexicon, orthography, phonology, morphology and syntax. We also quantified exposure and attitudes towards the test languages. Finally, we carried out a regression analysis to determine the relative importance of these linguistic and extra-linguistic predictors for the mutual intelligibility between Germanic languages. The extra-linguistic predictor exposure was the most significant factor in predicting intelligibility in the Germanic language area. The effect of attitude was very small. Lexical distance, orthographic and phonetic distances were the most important linguistic predictors of intelligibility.

Regularity in Semantic Change

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott ◽  
Richard B. Dasher
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Change

THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF EMOTIONS AND AXIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN SLAVONIC PROVERBS AND IDIOMS: FROM CONSCIENCE TO ENVY

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (29) ◽  
pp. 248-271
Author(s):  
Oleh Tyshchenko
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Legal Aspect ◽  
English Text ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Psychic Disorders ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Better Than

The presented research reveals imagery-metaphoric and phraseological objectivities of the conceptual spheres Soul, Consciousness, Envy, Jealousy and Greed in Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech and Slovak languages and conceptual picture of the world (first of all in proverbs and sayings, idioms, imagery means of secondary nomination both in standard language and its regional or dialectal variants) according to the indication of holistic characteristic and semantic intersection of these concepts. It describes the spheres of their typological coincidence and differences from the point of imagery motivation. It defines the symbolic functions of these ethno cultural concepts (object sphere) with respect to the specificity of manifestation of Envy in archaic texts, believes, in the language of traditional folk culture and archaic expressions with religious sense that reach Christian ideology, ideas of moral purity and dirt, Body and Soul. It has been defined the collocations with the components envy and jealousy in some thesauri and dictionaries in terms of the specificity of interlingual equivalence and expressions of envy and similar negative emotions and their functioning in the Ukrainian and English text corpora. The analysis demonstrated that practically in all compared languages and linguistic cultures Envy is associated with greed and jealousy, psychic disorders with a corresponding complex of feelings, expressed by metaphoric predicates of destruction and remorse that encode the moral and legal aspect of conscience (conscience is a judge, witness and executioner). Metaphor of Envy containing nominations of colours differ in the Slavonic and Germanic languages whereas those denoting spatial, gustatory, odour, acoustic and parametrical meaning are similar. Many imagery contexts of Envy correlate with such conceptual oppositions as richness and poverty, light and darkness; success is associated with the frames “foreign is better than domestic” where Envy encodes the meaning of encroachment upon another's property, “envy is better than sympathy”, “envy dominates where there are richness, success, welfare, happiness” which confirms the ideas of representatives in the field of psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology and sociology. In some languages the motives of black magic, evil eye (in Polish, Ukrainian and Russian) are rooted in the sphere of folk believes and invocations, as well as cultural anthroponyms.

Theoretical Approaches to the Functions of Indefinite Pronouns

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Haspelmath
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Features ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Logical Semantics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Indefinite Pronouns

This chapter focuses on various theoretical approaches to the semantic and syntactic functions of indefinite pronouns. It begins with a discussion of structuralist semantics, which suggests that language is a system whose parts must be defined and described on the basis of their place in the system and their relation to each other, rather than on the basis of their own intrinsic properties. It then considers some of the problems associated with structuralist semantics, including the unclear status of the semantic features; significant overlap of the functions of grammatical items in many areas, including indefinite pronouns; and structuralist semantics makes wrong predictions about semantic change. The chapter proceeds by analysing logical semantics and the issues raised by this approach, along with syntactic approaches, the theory of mental spaces, pragmatic scales and scale reversal. Finally, it explains the relationship between focusing and sentence accent.

The OV/VO alternation in early German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Fuß
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Germanic Languages

This chapter discusses a set of theoretical approaches to the OV/VO alternation in Early German (with an emphasis on OHG), focusing on the question of whether it is possible to identify a basic serialization pattern that underlies the ‘mixed’ word order properties found at the syntactic surface. Based on a review of a set of OV/VO diagnostics, including for example the placement of elements that resist extraposition, properties of verbal complexes, and the significance of deviations from the source text in translations, it is argued that—despite some notable exceptions—OHG exhibits a more consistent verb-final nature than other Early Germanic languages (OE, in particular). This conclusion is supported by the observation that OV qualifies as the unmarked surface word order, which is compatible with a larger set of pragmatic contexts.

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