scholarly journals Prepositional phrases in German in Austria – identifying patterns of variation

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 476-510
Author(s):  
Agnes Kim ◽  
Katharina Korecky-Kröll
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Regional Effects ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Natural Production ◽  
German Standard ◽  
Motion Constructions

Abstract German in Austria is claimed to be shaped by wide-spread dialect use and historical language contact. In this context, variation in prepositional phrases (PPs) is frequently cited, but still underresearched. Three linguistic variables are particularly interesting: (1) preposition choice (p-choice), (2) case marking in PPs and (3) preposition–determiner contractions. The present study aims at identifying linguistic and sociolinguistic – including regional – patterns of variation in the realization of PPs with two-way prepositions in German in Austria on the basis of natural production data including formal and informal registers from urban and rural adults of different age groups and different socioeconomic backgrounds living in Bavarian regions of Austria. The data were compared against the German standard variety from Germany to identify all constructions (possibly) specific for German in Austria. Results indicate that p-choice (particularly in directed motion constructions) shows mostly regional effects: South Bavarian varieties are characterized by preposition drop, whereas in the other regions, the preposition auf ‘on(to)’ seems overrepresented. However, case marking is more dependent on sociodemographic variables and accusative–dative syncretism appears more frequently in plural than in singular contexts. Finally, specific preposition–determiner contractions are widespread across all regions and groups investigated, even in (close-to-)standard registers.

Grammaticalization of Ergative Case Marking

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Case Markers

This chapter overviews some of the patterns of emergence and development of ergative case markers in the world’s languages. What shines through most clearly is diversity: the range of possible source morphemes, constructions, and developmental pathways is much broader than might be expected. Rarely, it is possible to identify lexical sources for ergative case markers. More common sources are other case markers (notably instrumental, genitive, oblique, and ablative), and indexical items (such as demonstratives and pronominals); other possible sources include directional elements and focus markers. Ergative case markers can also be the sources of further grammatical developments, and can develop into markers of other grammatical categories, including other cases and verbal categories such as tense and aspect. Some observations are also included on the emergence and development of ergative case marking in language contact situations.

scholarly journals Verbal Valency and Japhug / Tibetan Language Contact

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-140
Author(s):  
Guillaume Jacques
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Comprehensive Survey

This paper presents the case of a language with rich indexation and limited case marking (Japhug) extensively borrowing verbs from a language without indexation but with case marking (an unattested Tibetic language close to the ancestor of Amdo Tibetan). It provides a comprehensive survey of the argument structure and transitivity categories of Japhug verbs of Tibetic origin in comparison with those of the corresponding verbs in Amdo Tibetan, the attested Tibetic language closest to the donor of loanwords into Japhug. This survey shows that verbs of Tibetic origin are fully integrated morphosyntactically into Japhug, and that with a few exceptions, the argument structure of the original verb is predictable from that of the Japhug verb.

scholarly journals Directionality and Resultativity: The Cross-linguistic Correlation Revisited

Nordlyd ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minjeong Son
Keyword(s):  
Careful Examination ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
Tight Correlation

Recent approaches to the cross-linguistic variation in the expressions of directed motion assume a tight correlation between adjectival resultative and directed motion constructions (e.g., Beck and Snyder 2001, Mateu and Rigau 2001; 2002, McIntyre 2004, Beavers et al. 2004). Beck and Snyder (2001), in particular, argue that languages that allow adjectival resultatives also allow directed motion with goal PP (or telic Path PP) based on the compounding parameter proposed by Snyder (1995; 2001). This paper, however, shows that such ‘macro’-parametric approaches to the cross-linguistic variation (in directed motion) fail when individual languages are investigated in detail. Based on Korean, Japanese, Hebrew, Czech, and Indonesian, I show that there is no necessary correlation between directed motion (i.e., goal PP) constructions and the availability of resultative phrases, and that the previous parameter approaches face challenges in explaining the facts drawn from these languages. I further show that the variation in directed motion is better explained by careful examination of individual adpositions that differ from one language (e.g., English) to another (e.g., Korean).

Alignment change in Chukotkan

Diachronica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-261
Author(s):  
Jessica Kantarovich
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Substrate Effects ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Internal Change ◽  
Historical Accounts

Abstract This paper examines current approaches to studying alignment change and the role of language contact in the spread of ergativity, using the Chukotkan languages as a case study. Chukotkan is exceptional in that there does not appear to be a single reanalysis pathway that can account for the development of ergative case. Rather, the system appears to be the product of several changes that operated in different domains. This paper provides an alternative to an earlier account that claims that Chukotkan ergativity developed due to Yupik substrate effects, which is not supported by the historical accounts of the contact between these groups. This explanation is consistent with a problematic tendency of treating ergativity as a special phenomenon, even though ergative alignment regularly arises via internal change. Instead, I propose that the loss of split ergative case marking occurred due to the reanalysis of a passive participle, which was motivated by the tendency to encode animacy distinctions in these languages.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 474-478
Author(s):  
Martin Maiden ◽  
Adina Dragomirescu ◽  
Gabriela Pană Dindelegan ◽  
Oana Uță Bărbulescu ◽  
Rodica Zafiu
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Pronominal System

This chapter offers a concluding overview of some of the major characteristics of Romanian historical morphology. Among these are allomorphy, gender marking, case marking, the inflexional marking of definiteness, auxiliaries, and derivational affixes. Particularly interesting and distinctive in Romanian are the vocative, the supine, and the unusually rich pronominal system. Attention is also paid to the effects of language contact. The chapter reflects on the sensitivity of Romanian morphology to the feature of animacy.

Changes and explanations

2019 ◽  
pp. 199-228
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Dative Case ◽  
Syntactic Change

This chapter evaluates proposals that have been put forward to explain the loss of dative external possessors in English. The leading explanation using internal developments as a trigger links the syntactic change with a morphological one, namely the loss of the dative as a separate case. This explanation cannot explain the early decline of the construction and offers no explanation for why internal possessors should have become the rule in dialects retaining rich case marking at the same time as ones which had lost the dative case. Of the explanations based on language contact, the Celtic Hypothesis is the only one with any serious plausibility. The evidence suggests that Celtic learners of English did not fail to learn the dative external possessor construction, but they may have been instrumental in its initial decline by narrowing the range of the construction.

scholarly journals Asimetrías gramaticales asociadas a la animacidad en la lengua vasca: una perspectiva tipológica / Animacy-based grammatical asymmetries in Basque: a typological perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Igartua ◽  
Ekaitz Santazilia
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
The Other ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The One

This study provides a typological analysis of two phenomena related to case-marking in Basque. In both of them, animacy —or the distinction between what is animate and what is not— turns out to be determinant: we discuss case assignment to direct objects, on the one hand, and marking of locative cases, on the other hand. We have compared the two phenomena with diverse typological parallels in order to account for the variety of possible morphological strategies and identify particular conditions and restrictions. Furthermore, we have argued that differential object marking in Basque is a recent phenomenon, induced by language contact, whereas differential locative marking has an intralinguistic nature. Finally, we have defended that the role of animacy in both types of differential marking is different: in the first example it conditions case assignment and in the second it operates as a grammatical gender.

scholarly journals From the Borderland of the Lithuanian Southern Aukštaitians: Changes in the Syntactic Constructions

Kalbotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Nijolė Tuomienė
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Local Variant ◽  
Peripheral Area ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Russian Language

The dialectological and sociolinguistic material from the Southern Aukštaitian borderland is under the investigation in this article. The most recent records of the speaker of the Lithuanian Southern Aukštaitian in Šalčininkai district are analyzed in order to study the changes in the syntax. The peripheral area of the Southern Aukštaitian located in Šalčininkai district is surrounded or, speaking more precisely, in contact with languages other than Lithuanian, i. e. Belarusian and Polish, and relatively recently with the Russian language as well. The purpose of this article is to reveal the process of interception and convergence of syntactic compounds in the Lithuanian dialect of Šalčininkai district. The paper is based on ideas by Vytautas Ambrazas (2006) on this topic.Because of continuous language contact a lot of variants in the present Lithuanian dialect of Šalčininkai region have developed. For example, very frequently the prepositions ant ‘on’, dėl ‘for’, į ‘to’, po ‘after’ used in combination with case tend to acquire more specific meanings. A lot of them become analogous to those found in the neighbouring Slavic languages and thus are often alien for Lithuanian. The impact of standard Lithuanian cannot be totally disregarded either.The Lithuanian and Slavic languages are in active contact in these neighbourhoods, that is’ why they tend to develop the same patterns and constructions. In many cases the local Belarusian dialect, known as the poprostu (‘plain language’ – a local variant of the Belarusian northwestern dialect), plays a stimulating role here. Relatively recently all three contact languages, i.e. Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish, have acquired numerous lexical and grammatical borrowings in the dialects of Šalčininkai neighborhoods. This is one of the conditions for accelerating the incorporation and adoption of alien syntactic patterns in the Lithuanian language.In intense contact, borrowing is not limited to several different patterns because syntactic rules could be adopted as well. Surely, the archaic constructions could acquire entirely new semantic content. The prepositional phrases have been adopted and used not instead of pure cases, but rather alongside with them.

Development of Phonetic Contrasts in Cantonese Tone Acquisition

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Peggy Pik Ki Mok ◽  
Vivian Guo Li ◽  
Holly Sze Ho Fung
Keyword(s):  
Inflection Point ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Tone Production ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Natural Production ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Phonetic Contrasts ◽  
Transcription Data ◽  
Production Accuracy

Purpose Previous studies showed both early and late acquisition of Cantonese tones based on transcription data using different criteria, but very little acoustic data were reported. Our study examined Cantonese tone acquisition using both transcription and acoustic data, illustrating the early and protracted aspects of Cantonese tone acquisition. Method One hundred fifty-nine Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;1 and 6;0 (years;months) and 10 reference speakers participated in a tone production experiment based on picture naming. Natural production materials with 30 monosyllabic words were transcribed by two native judges. Acoustic measurements included overall tonal dispersion and specific contrasts between similar tone pairs: ratios of average fundamental frequency height for the level tones (T1, T3, T6), magnitude of rise and inflection point for the rising tones (T2, T5), magnitude of fall, H1*–H2*, and harmonic-to-noise ratio for the low tones (T4, T6). Auditory assessment of creakiness for T4 was also included. Results Children in the eldest group (aged 5;7–6;0) were still not completely adultlike in production accuracy, although two thirds of them had production accuracy over 90%. Children in all age groups had production accuracy significantly higher than chance level, and they could produce the major acoustic contrasts between specific tone pairs similarly as reference speakers. Fine phonetic detail of the inflection point and creakiness was more challenging for children. Conclusion Our findings illustrated the multifaceted aspects (both early and late) of Cantonese tone acquisition and called for a wider perspective on how to define successful phonological acquisition. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11594853

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document