Between spatial domain and grammatical meaning: The semantic content of English telic particles

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-163
Author(s):  
Ewa Konieczna
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Spatial Domain ◽  
Topological Properties ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Burning Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Aspectual Meaning

Abstract The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that English spatial particles which have grammaticalised into telic aspectualisers are not devoid of the image schematic content, which motivates their use in specific contexts. Because aspectual meaning, including telicity, is compositional in nature, which means that it frequently results from the interaction of several linguistic features, it is vital to single out those predicates in which the telicity effect can be attributed solely to the particle, not any other elements of the construction. This can be implemented by adopting the scalar approach, which shows that telicity is entailed by the particle exclusively in a predicate containing an incremental theme verb. Accordingly, the incremental theme verb burn and its five telic particles (up, down, out, off and away) constitute the subject of investigation. The analysis demonstrates that each particle encodes telicity in terms of reaching the GOAL in the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema. Conceptual differences in encoding the termination of the burning process result from topological properties of the path construed by each particle under study.

Two puzzles on the nominative particle ga in Japanese

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Noriko Kawasaki
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Semantic Account ◽  
The Subject

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.

scholarly journals Reproduction of Semantic Content of Subjects, Predicates, and Objects and Its Dependence on the Use Of Attributes and Adverbial Modifiers in Sentence Composition

2021 ◽  
pp. 30-47
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Malanov ◽  
◽  
Marina S. Polyakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Additional Research ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Adverbial Modifiers

In the article describes the influence of syntactic organization of speech utterances on peculiarities of actualization and reproduction of their subject-semantic content (meanings). There has been tested the hypotheses that the semantic content of subjects, predicates, and objects is reproduced more efficiently: 1) when attributes are used in the composition of statements with nouns (subjects and objects), and with verbs (predicates) – adverbial modifiers; 2) when there is a deliberate focus on highlighting the semantic content of nouns or verbs in the composition of statements. The methods of varying lexical and syntactic means in the text composition presented to respondents were used as independent variables. The language means respondents used to manifest fragments of semantic content were analyzed as dependent variables. The study involved 90 respondents (72 men, 18 women) aged 25-40. While the first hypothesis has been confirmed, the second still requires additional research. The results obtained indicate that in updating and reproducing the subject-semantic content of speech utterances it is the attribution of signs and properties to objects and processes that is of great importance.The experimental organization scheme used in the study reveals a wide range of patterns that can serve to confirm / refute various hypotheses and theoretical models in psycholinguistics.

scholarly journals Glagoljaška djelatnost na zapadnoj periferiji

2021 ◽  
pp. 371-397
Author(s):  
Sanja Zubčić
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

The Glagolitic space refers to the area where in the Middle Ages or the Early Modern Period the Glagolitic script was used in texts of different genres and on different surfaces, and/or where the liturgy was held in Croatian Church Slavonic, adopting a positive and affirmative attitude towards Glagolitism. In line with known historical and social circumstances, Glagolitism developed on Croatian soil, more intensely on its southern, especially south-western part (Istria, Northern Croatian Littoral, Lika, northern Dalmatia and adjacent islands). Glagolitism was also thriving in the western periphery of that space, in today’s Slovenia and Italy, leading to the discovery and description of different Glagolitic works. It is the latter, their structure and language, that will be the subject of this paper. Starting from the thesis that innovations in language develop radially, i.e. starting from the center and spreading towards the periphery, it is possible to assume that in the western Glagolitic periphery some more archaic dialectal features will be confirmed among the elements of the vernacular. It is important that these monuments were created and used in an area where the majority language is not Croatian, so the influence of foreign language elements or other ways of expressing multilingualism can be expected. The paper will outline the Glagolitic activity in the abovementioned space and the works preserved therein. In order to determine the differences between Glagolitic works originating from the peripheral and central Glagolitic space, the type and structure of Glagolitic inscriptions and manuscripts from Slovenia and Italy will also be analysed, especially with respect to potential periphery-specific linguistic features. Special attention is paid to the analysis of selected isoglosses in the Notebook or Register of the Brotherhood of St. Anthony the Abbot from San Dorligo della Valle.

A Wesleyan holiness theology and language world: a demonstration of holiness theology as a religious linguistic characteristic in the light of speech act theory

Theology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-266
Author(s):  
Anna Cho
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Linguistic Characteristic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Language Characteristic

Holiness as the subject of Wesleyan holiness theology is not only God’s divine language but also an experiential language of humans. Despite this fact, research that considers the religious linguistic features of holiness theology as they relate to its meaning and effects in the real lives of believers seems to have been neglected. Thus, this article proposes to examine the language of holiness in terms of Wesleyan holiness theory by means of speech act theory. First, this approach solves the problem of overcoming the proposition principle of holiness theology. Second, it shows an understanding of the linguistic hermeneutics of the work of the Holy Spirit in believers. And finally, it presents the ways in which the religious divine language of holiness can be described as an ethical language characteristic of human experiential language.

Pragmatics of Focus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Scott Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Question Answering ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Natural Focus ◽  
True Answer ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Focus Marking ◽  
American Farmer ◽  
Minimal Information ◽  
Exhaustive Interpretation

Generally speaking, ‘focus’ refers to the portion of an utterance which is especially informative or important within the context, and which is marked as such via some linguistic means. It can be difficult to provide a single precise definition, as the term is used somewhat differently for different languages and in different research traditions. Most often, it refers to the linguistic marking of (i) contrast, (ii) question-answering status, (iii) exhaustivity, or (iv) discourse unexpectability. An illustration of each of these possibilities is given below. In English, the focus-marked elements (indicated below with brackets) are realized with additional prosodic prominence in the form of a strong pitch accent (indicated by capital letters). (i) An [AMERICAN] farmer met a [CANADIAN] farmer… (ii) Q: Who called last night? A: [BILL] called last night. (iii) Only [an ELEPHANT] could have made those tracks. (iv) I can’t believe it: The Ohioans are fighting [OHIOANS] ! The underlying intuition common to all these instantiations is that a focus represents the minimal information needed to convey an important semantic distinction. Focus can be signaled prosodically (e.g., in the form of a strong pitch accent), syntactically (e.g., by moving focused phrases to a special position in the sentence), or morphologically (e.g., by appending a special affix to focused elements), with different crosslinguistic focus marking strategies often carrying slightly different restrictions on their use. Example (i) evokes a set of two contrasting alternatives, {‘American farmer,’ ‘Canadian farmer’}, and the meaning ‘farmer’ is common to both members of the set. That is, within this evoked set of alternatives, ‘farmer’ is redundant, and it is the nationality of the farmers which differentiates the two people. Example (ii) exhibits a similar property. One of the standard theories of question semantics represents questions as sets of possible appropriate answers. For (ii), this would be a set of propositions like {‘Bill called last night, ‘Sue called last night,’ etc.}. As with (i), there is an evoked set of meanings whose members share some overlapping semantic material. Within this set, the verb phrase meaning ‘called last night’ is redundant, and it is the identity of the subject that serves to differentiate the true answer. Example (iii) demonstrates a relationship between focus and certain words like only. The sentence means something like ‘of all the animals who might have made these tracks, it must be an elephant.’ As with (i) and (ii), this involves a set of alternatives: the set of possible track makers. That the sentence serves to single out a unique member of this set as being the true track maker makes the subject an elephant a natural focus of the sentence. Finally, in (iv), we see that focus on ‘Ohioans’ is being used to contrast the semantic content of the sentence with some preconception, namely that Ohioans are unlikely fighters of Ohioans. Examples (iii) and (iv) point to more specific uses of focus in different languages. In Hungarian, so-called identificational focus, which is marked syntactically, requires an exhaustive interpretation, as if a silent only were present. And in some Chadic languages, a meaning of “discourse unexpectability,” as in (iv), is required to mark focus via syntactic or morphological means.

Modellierung sprachlicher Anforderungen in Testaufgaben verschiedener Unterrichtsfächer: Theoretische und empirische Grundlagen

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (69) ◽  
pp. 69-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Heine ◽  
Madeleine Domenech ◽  
Lisa Otto ◽  
Astrid Neumann ◽  
Michael Krelle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Education System ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
School Success ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractRecent years have witnessed a growing interest in the relationship between academic language registers and school success in the German-speaking education system. However, we still know very little about the actual effects that academic language has on the academic performance of students, for instance, in how far the extent to which academic language is used in subject tasks actually makes these tasks more difficult. It is therefore highly vital that any operationalization of difficulty-inducing linguistic features of tasks is made on solid theoretical and empirical grounds. The purpose of this article is thus to present the linguistic foundation used in an interdisciplinary empirical study in which 1.346 7th and 8th graders solved a set of subject-oriented tasks from Maths, Physics, German, PE and Music, while the degree of linguistic demands in the tasks was systematically varied. First, the theoretical and empirical research on linguistic difficulty from a range of research discourses is discussed. The findings are merged into a model of linguistic demands. Its operationalization is then illustrated in three linguistically varied versions of the subject-specific tasks. Finally, an outlook on preliminary results of the empirical study is given, which indicate that the categories used in the model actually do produce differences in subject-task difficulty, even though there are a number of effects that need further investigation.

scholarly journals Creation of female image in Soviet cinematography of the early XX century

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Tatiana Eduardovna Gribakina
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Special Contribution ◽  
Female Image ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Creation

This article explores the creation of the image of a Soviet woman within the Soviet cinematography. The subject of this research is the female image formed by the Russian cinematography at certain stages and its dynamics. The author suggest understanding of the image of woman as a combination of sensible images, which include representations on the place, role, functions, traits that are potentially common to her, but are yet to be formed and realized. Detailed analysis of the films of the early XX century allows examining creation of the female image, the expectations, moods, perceptions of the future presented in the films, as well as tracing the correlation between semantic content and its visualization. Due to the fact that the image was designed gradually, the author considered the key social and political factors that affected its creation and found reflection within it. Special contribution of the author into the research of this topic consists in demonstration of a relatively holistic image of a Soviet woman in cinematography, which was comprise bit by bit and transformed, meeting the challenges, demands and needs of society and the state.  

scholarly journals Análisis del discurso y ensayo literario: El sujeto enunciador en El laberinto de la soledad

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
Karina Alanís Flores
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

In this paper we use the discourse analysis as theoretical framework to discuss the renowned Octavio Paz’s essay, The labyrinth of solitude. Although there are many studies that have been made about this theme which are mainly based on the history of ideas and the philosophy of the culture, in this case we propose a different perspective which focuses on the linguistic features that are used to construct the subject of enunciation in the literary essay. We consider Émile Benveniste’s concepts of his theory of enunciative operations in order to reveal the different positions that the author takes in the text, as well as how he constructs his reader.

scholarly journals PECULIAR FEATURES OF THE KRYMCHAK DZHONK SCRIPT AND THE KRYMCHAK WRITTEN LANGUAGE TRADITION

Movoznavstvo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 315 (6) ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
O. O. TYSHCHENKO-MONASTYRSKA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Turkish Origin ◽  
Special Value ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Crimean Tatar

The subject of the present publication is to bring to the light some orthographic features of the Yosyf Gabai’s Krymchak manuscript, called jonk, from Crimean Ethnographic Museum (Simferopol). Fragments of the manuscript were first transcribed, translated into Russian and published by David Rebi, who was a teacher of Krymchak and native speaker. However, the jonk has never been edited before. A special value of this manuscript lies in its language (or even languages), as well as styles represented. The manuscript is multilingual, contains folklore texts (poetry and narrative) of the Crimean and Turkish origin, written in Hebrew script, diary notes both in Krymchak and Russian, prayers and religion texts in Hebrew partially translated into Turkic written in the early XX century in Feodosia. This research is dedicated to Turkic linguistic features and their orthography. Despite of using Hebrew script Krymchak writing system developed in close relation to pre-reform Crimean Tatar writing tradition, both variants in their turn connected to Ottoman and pre-Ottoman orthographic traditions. Several orthographic features point to that, for instance principles of writing some vowels, consonants ( in initial, central, final positions), grammatical and word-formation suffixes (connected or separate writing), morphonological change, ways of transcription and adopting loanwords. Language of Yosyf Gabai’s jonk reflects orthographic and colloquial features of Krymchak and shares them with other Crimean Turkic manuscripts of this period. Schematically marked suffixes, together with some archaic morphonological changes, graphically reflected in the text, such as disrupted vowel harmony, alternations in labial harmony, syncope, epenthesis, protheses, disrupted consonant change between morphemes characterize orthography of the Krymchak manuscript.

scholarly journals Place names in the southwest border counties of Missouri

1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Margaret Ellen Bell
Keyword(s):  
Economic Structure ◽  
Early History ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Pioneer Settlement

Counties: Webster, Wright, Christian, Douglas, Ozark, Taney, Stone, Barry, and McDonald||"If, by chance, all the written evidence of the history of a region, the character of its people, its economic structure, and its physical qualities were swept away, the story of that region could be reconstructed with an astounding degree of accuracy, from the place-names of the section alone. The place-names of these counties of the Ozarks remarkably mirror its early history, its people, and their interests and tastes. To enable the reader to grasp the subject more easily and trace its course more methodically, a table of classification has been presented and discussed in the first chapter. All the names have been grouped under five heads: 1) Borrowed Names, 2) Historical Names, 3) Personal Names, 4) Environmental Names, and 5) Subjective Names. These five heads will cover practically all the place-names found in any locality, except for the unsolved and doubtful ones. These unsolved names have been listed at the end of Chapter One for the benefit of future investigators and students. Besides these five groups of classification there remain five additional ways in which almost all the names will repay study. They are: 1) The Composition of Names, 2) The Linguistic Features, such as spelling, pronunciation, and dialect words, 3) Non-English Names, 4) and 6) Folkways and Folklore. Chapter Two comprises a brief survey and discussion of the names with regard to these five special features. Chapter Three, embracing by far the greater part of the thesis in bulk, consists of a dictionary of all the place-names studied. In an Appendix I have discussed separately the school names of the section. Last of all I have placed my Bibliography."--Pages 18-19.||"This thesis is the record of careful research into the origin of the place-names of the lower southwest counties of Missouri. Nine counties, Webster, Wright, Christian, Douglas, Ozark, Taney, Stone, Barry, and McDonald have been studied, and the origin of place-names of counties, towns, post offices, streams, "hollows", hills, springs, "knobs", rivers, prairies, townships, mountains, valleys, ridges, gaps, and "balds" have been recorded, in so far as it was possible. These nine counties constitute a large part of what is known as the Ozark Region. It is only in the last few decades that the possibilities and the resources of this region have been fully realized. However, it is in the early history of this section that the romance of pioneer settlement and the character and qualities of these people are most clearly seen."--Page 1.

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