Synchronic variation and diachronic change in the expression of indefinite reference: evidence from historical German

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Diachronic Change

AbstractThe present article discusses the semantic and discourse-pragmatic properties of different competing types of indefinite noun phrases in Old High German, the earliest attested period of German. In particular, it investigates the behavior of indefinites marked by

Case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka

Linguistics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
The State ◽  
State Information ◽  
Lexical Tones

AbstractDinka, a Nilo-Saharan language, is largely monosyllabic, nevertheless it has a fairly rich morphology. Thus, most of its morphology is expressed by alternations in phonological material of the root. The inflectional categories of nouns manifested in this way include state and case in addition to number. The state category consists of an “absolute” state and two “construct” states. The case category includes a nominative, a genitive, an allative, and an essive/ablative. The present article shows how case inflection is manifested in complex noun phrases consisting of a noun in a construct state and a following modifier. It is demonstrated that the case inflection of such noun phrases is manifested almost exclusively by tonal overlays on the nominative (lexical) tones, and that such overlays may occur either in the head or in the modifier or in both the head and the modifier. In this way, a head noun may simultaneously carry state information and case information. Thus, the case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka adds yet another layer of nonlinear morphology to nouns in this language.

Diachronic change of object markers in Mandarin Chinese

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Zhiqun Xing
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThis article is a quantitative diachronic study of the object markers ba˘ and jiāng in Chinese. Traditionally, it has been claimed (Chao, 1968; Li & Thompson, 1981; Lü, 1955; Wang, 1943–44; among others) that ba˘ and Ji¯ng have undergone the same process of grammaticalization and have acquired the same function over time, so that they have become interchangeable. The present article challenges this view and provides evidence showing that, in the texts where both are used, each has its own distinctive functions. In the early stage of their grammaticalization, the major difference between them is the direction of motion relative to the agent: ba˘ tends to express motion toward the agent, whereas Jiāng tends to express motion away from the agent. Later, when both ba˘ and Jiāng become object markers, ba˘ is more likely to be used in informal texts, whereas Jiāng is more likely to be used in formal texts. I argue that it is this difference that led to the disappearance of Jiāng in written texts of modern times.

Fake Glosses? BStK-no. 837 revisited Gefälschte Glossen?: Zu BStK-Nr. 837

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Rolf Bergmann ◽  
Christina Beer ◽  
Michaela Pölzl ◽  
Stefanie Stricker
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Old High German ◽  
German Research

In 1894 the private scholar F.W.E. Roth published 14 Old High German glosses, which he claimed he had discovered in a manuscript in his own possession. Although the whereabouts of the manuscript have been unknown ever since, the glosses have been accepted as genuine by the Old High German research community. Recently the archivist Klaus Graf raised the suspicion that Roth had forged the 14 glosses mentioned above. The present article picks up Graf's request to review Roth's publication by taking his specifications regarding the manuscript into account and by investigating possible sources for the forgery. Der Privatgelehrte F. W. E. Roth veröffentlichte 1894 aus einer als in seinem Besitz befindlich bezeichneten, aber bis heute nicht auffindbaren Handschrift 14 althochdeutsche Glossen. Der Archivar Klaus Graf hat diese Glossenpublikation unter Fälschungsverdacht gestellt. Der damit verbundene Prüfungsauftrag an die Glossenforschung wird mit diesem Beitrag eingelöst.

On the Acquisition of the Indefinite Article

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Martine Coene
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Present Article ◽  
First Language ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Functional Domain ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Feature Values

The present article argues that the idea of morphology-driven syntax carries over to first-language acquisition. Morphology encodes properties of functional categories, i.e. particular features and feature values that must be set according to the target (adult) language during the acquisition process. In agreement with previous findings concerning the acquisition of functional categories in the verbal domain, we discuss here some cross-linguistic data with respect to the nominal functional domain. In this respect, specificity can be said to develop stepwise, as the result of the valuation of the /number/ before the /person/ feature of noun phrases, which finds its reflection in the emergence of indefinite articles before definite articles.

scholarly journals Comparing the effectiveness of phrase-focused exercises: A partial replication of Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, and Webb (2014)

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Boers ◽  
Tu Cam Thi Dang ◽  
Brian Strong
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Partial Replication ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Experimental Trials

In a recent article, Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, and Webb (2014) deplored the lack of effectiveness for the learning of verb–noun collocations of a number of exercise formats which they sampled from EFL textbooks and put to the test in a series of quasi-experimental trials. The authors called for further investigations into possible improvements to such exercise formats. The present article is a response to that call. It also addresses methodological issues that may have affected Boers et al.’s (2014) findings and that rendered their conclusions tentative. In the quasi-experiment reported here, EFL learners were given fill-in-the-blank exercises on verb–noun phrases in one of three formats: (1) choose the appropriate verb, (2) complete the verb by using a first-letter cue, and (3) choose the appropriate intact phrase. A delayed post-test gauged the learners’ ability to recall the meaning of the phrases as well as their verb–noun partnership. In both regards the exercise where learners worked with intact phrases generated the best results. We then evaluate the extent to which exercises for phrase learning in 10 recent EFL textbooks accord with recommendations that follow from the quasi-experimental findings.

Sprachkontakte des portugiesischen im Spätmittelalter und ihre Auswirkungen auf das Anredesystem

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-260
Author(s):  
Aurelia Merlan
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
The Middle Ages

Language Contact of Portuguese During the Late Middle Ages and Its Effect on the Portuguese System of Address Forms. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, various noun phrases for reverential address (like Vossa Mercê) appear in Portuguese and enter into competition with the pronoun vos, finally leading to a restructuring of the system of address forms. Regarding these noun phrases, the present article tries to determine to which degree their appearance may be explained by linguistic contact between Portuguese and Spanish/Italian. For that purpose, the article describes, in the first part, the nature and intensity of these contacts. The second part analyses the reverential noun phrases in three 15th century chronicles which contain (some of) the oldest documented cases of this new strategy of address.

scholarly journals A Multivariate Analysis of Diachronic Variation in A Bunch of noun: A Construction Grammar Account

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Shao ◽  
Yingying Cai ◽  
Graeme Trousdale
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Present Article ◽  
American English ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Dominant Meaning ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Modern

On the basis of data retrieved from the Corpus of Historical American English, this paper provides a multivariate analysis of diachronic change in collocations of the sequence a bunch of followed by a noun in the Late Modern and contemporary English periods. Our results show that (1) the partitive semantics shifts in the period from the 1910s to the 1960s from the original dominant meaning ‘bundle’ to ‘group,’ while the quantifier function/‘large quantity’ meaning of bunch becomes more entrenched from the 1970s onwards, though the three meanings continue to co-exist in the contemporary language; and (2) there exist statistically significant correlations between semantic, pragmatic, and discourse properties of the noun collocates in the partitive and quantifier constructions. While much work on diachronic construction grammar is concerned with the question of how new constructions come into being, the present article complements such research by providing a detailed account of the nature of persistence of the earlier partitive construction and the embedding and gradual entrenchment of the newer quantifier construction. It therefore addresses the consequences of “constructionalization” on a source construction, and the nature of frequency effects in “post-constructionalization” changes.

The German Post-Critical Belief Scale: Internal and External Validity

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Duriez ◽  
Claudia Appel ◽  
Dirk Hutsebaut
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Present Article ◽  
External Validity ◽  
German Version ◽  
Dutch Version ◽  
German Sample ◽  
Belief Scale ◽  
Internal And External Validity

Abstract: Recently, Duriez, Fontaine and Hutsebaut (2000) and Fontaine, Duriez, Luyten and Hutsebaut (2003) constructed the Post-Critical Belief Scale in order to measure the two religiosity dimensions along which Wulff (1991 , 1997 ) summarized the various possible approaches to religion: Exclusion vs. Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs. Symbolic. In the present article, the German version of this scale is presented. Results obtained in a heterogeneous German sample (N = 216) suggest that the internal structure of the German version fits the internal structure of the original Dutch version. Moreover, the observed relation between the Literal vs. Symbolic dimension and racism, which was in line with previous studies ( Duriez, in press ), supports the external validity of the German version.

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