scholarly journals The facilitative middle in Baltic and North Slavonic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Holvoet ◽  
Anna Daugavet
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Generic Agent ◽  
Western European ◽  
Adverbial Modifiers ◽  
The Baltic

The article deals with the facilitative middle, a gram often simply referred to (especially in literature of the formal persuasion) as ‘the middle’ (e.g., The bread cuts easily). While in the Western European languages this gram is nearly exclusively generic or individual-level (kind-level) and has no explicit agent (these features are correspondingly often regarded as definitional for ‘middles’), the Baltic and Slavonic languages have constructions that arguably belong to the same gram-type but often represent stage-level predications, with a non-generic agent that is optionally expressed by an oblique noun phrase or prepositional phrase, or is contextually retrievable. The article gives an overview of the parameters of variation in the facilitative constructions of a number of Baltic and Slavonic languages (individual- or kind-level and stage-level readings, aspect, transitivity, expression of the agent, presence or absence of adverbial modifiers etc.). The semantics of the different varieties is discussed, as well as their lexical input. Attention is given to the grammaticalisation path and to what made the Balto-Slavonic type of facilitatives so markedly different from their counterparts in Western European languages.

Norns and Norms

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haun Saussy
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Western European ◽  
Foreign Text

We often hear that certain words or texts are “untranslatable.” At the root of this judgment lies an exaggerated respect for the native language, which must not be altered by contact with other languages. Against this superstition, it is here argued that translation is one of the great movers of change in language, and accomplishes this precisely through the rendering of difficult and unidiomatic texts. At another level, a purported ethics of translation urges that translations should be “foreignizing” rather than domesticating: this too evidences a normative idea of the integrity of the language and culture of the foreign text. Against such defences of purity, a sense of both language and translation as inherently hybrid, and literary language in particular as macaronic, should open to examination the historical individuality of encounters that every translation records. Examples from Western European languages indicate how this hybridity is to be understood.

scholarly journals The Post-Modification of Noun Phrase: Types and Distributions on Abstracts of Local and International Journals

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Shanty A.Y.P.S Duwila
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Post Modification

Focusing on single and multiple post-modification of noun phrase complexity in academic writing, this study adopted Berlage’s (2014) types of single and multiple post-modification of noun phrase to investigate the types and distributionof noun phrase on 15 abstracts of accredited local journal and 15 international journal indexed by Scopus. Subjects, objects, and complements are coded manually and then extracted for noun phrases. The findings revealed that both groups of writers heavily relied on noun phrase involving prepositional phrase in single-post modification and noun phrase involving prepositional phrase(s) and coordination(s) in multiple-post modification. This finding may give contribution to EFL teachers and material developers in order to provide information and materials about NP post modifiers that can be used in academic writing.  

Baltu un albāņu valodas seno kontaktu liecinieki Lejaskurzemē: Grobiņas dižskābarži un citi

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-185
Author(s):  
Agris Timuška
Keyword(s):  
Fagus Sylvatica ◽  
Young Tree ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Beech Tree ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Obscure Origin

The article deals with the semantic motivation of names denoting beech-tree (Fagus sylvatica), basing on the material recorded in subdialects of European languages as answers to the questionnaire of the Atlas Linguarum Europae and presented in a geolinguistic map. In general, ten motivational groups of names have been established, most important of them being: 1) names based on IE. *bhāg-i̯o-, cf. Engl. beech, Gm. Buche, Sp. haya, Port. faia, It. faggio, Russ., Ukr., Pol., Cz., Bulg. buk, Lith. bùkas, Latv. skābardis / guoba etc.; 2) forms derived from Latin vespices ‘shrub’, cf. Friul.Lad. vespol(a); 3) forms derived from Latin pertica ‘long perch’, cf. Fr. epache; 4) forms derived from Latin cerrus ‘oak’, cf. Rum. terş; 5) names based on Frank. *haistr- ‘young tree or bush’, cf. Fr. hêtre; 6) Hung. bükkfa, a name composed by bükk of obscure origin and meaning and fa ‘tree’; 7) forms derived from IE. *ask ‘ash-tree’, cf. Gr. όζυά, Alb. ah. Having examined the attested forms regarding their origin and semantics, the author concludes that the names to denote a beech-tree or its cognates, elm or box-tree, are rich in variants in the Baltic languages, mostly due to the influence of Standard Latvian or Lithuanian. However, beech-trees growing near Grobiņa are witnesses of ancient contacts between the Baltic and Albanian languages. Some names to denote a beech-tree can be found in Lithuanian phraseology. They frequently appear among both Latvian and Lithuanian toponyms as well as anthroponyms.

Paradīzes ābols un tā līdzinieki Eiropas valodās: ģeolingvistisks pārskats

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-161
Author(s):  
Agris Timuška ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solanum Lycopersicum ◽  
Tomato Plant ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Egg Plant ◽  
The Baltic

The article deals with the semantic motivation of names denoting tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum). It is based on the material recorded in subdialects of European languages as answers to the questionnaire of the Atlas Linguarum Europae and presented in a geolinguistic map. In general, 6motivational groups of names have been established: 1) names based on Nahuatl tomatl, cf. Fr. tomate, Gm. Tomate, Port., It. tomata, Engl., Welsh, Irish, Scots, Manx tomato, Latv. t(u)omāts / t(u)omats / tumāts, Lith. tumãtas, etc.; 2) names based on Nahuatl tomatl with voiced anlaut, cf. Gr., Turk. domata, Alb. domate, Mac. domat, Serb. domatija; 3a) ‘apple of paradise’, cf. Gm. Paradeisapfel, Cr. paradajske, Hung. paradiscom, Cz. paradajka / rajče; 3b) ‘love-apple’, cf. Engl. love-apple / apple of love, Gm. Liebesapfel, Fr. pomme d'amour, It. pomodamore; 3c) ‘small apple’, cf. Cors. pumata, Sard. bomata; 3d) ‘golden apple’, cf. It. pomodoro, Russ., Bruss., Ukr., Pol., Cr. pomidor, Lith. pomidoras / pamidoras / pamidoris, Latv. pamidòrs, etc.; 3e) ‘Frankish apple’, cf. Gr. frango¬milo, Bulg. frenki; 3f) ‘swine-apple’, cf. Kalm. haxan aľmn; 4a) ‘egg-plant’, cf. Bulg. patladžan, Russ., Ukr. baklažan; 4b) ‘Frankish egg-plant’, cf. Gr. frangomɛlindzána; 4c) ‘red(dish) egg-plant’, cf. Bosn. crveni patlidžan; 5a) ‘red tomato’, cf. Bulg. črveno domate; 5b) ‘red cucumber’, cf. Kum. k՚՚yzylbadirdzag; 6) ‘sth. red / pink’, cf. Rum. roşie / roşă. Having examined the attested forms regarding their origin and semantics, the author concludes that the names denoting a tomato plant or its fruit are rich in variants in the Baltic languages. But in some European languages, the tomato has been named after another fruit or vegetable (preferably apple, eggplant, and cucumber). Some phraseological units using the name of tomato are met in colloquial German. Only a few toponyms with the names of tomato have been attested in Latvian toponymy; there are no anthroponyms derived from them.

Address pronouns in French

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 16.1-16.17
Author(s):  
Jane Warren
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Family ◽  
Western European ◽  
The University ◽  
Work Domain

This article examines speakers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards address pronoun usage in Paris and Toulouse. The data on which this article is based come from a comparative project based at the University of Melbourne,Address in some western European languages, and were generated in focus groups in both Paris and Toulouse, as well as interviews in Paris. It is generally accepted that in France the informal pronominal address formtuis used within the family, with close friends and with youngsters, and that the formal address formvousis used by adults when addressing strangers. The findings presented here indicate that, outside these general tendencies, individual preferences and negotiation can inform the choice of address pronoun in different ways both within and outside the workplace, with individual variation more common outside the work domain.

Do contact languages influence the distribution of prepositions in Estonian dialects?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-384
Author(s):  
Mirjam Ruutma
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Gradual Decrease ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Regular Distribution ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
New Findings

AbstractThe origins of prepositional phrase structure in Finnic languages shows little evidence of being contact-induced. However, whether language contact has influenced the structure at a later stage is debatable. The current paper provides new findings on the topic of contact-induced change by comparing the distribution of prepositions in Estonian dialects with the respective contact languages. The purpose is to determine whether the usage frequency of prepositions is higher in areas mainly in contact with prepositional Indo-European languages. The topic is approached from a corpus-based, frequency-driven viewpoint. The results show a small, gradual decrease in the use of prepositions from the northeastern to the western dialect areas. Thus, the uneven but regular distribution of prepositions in Estonian dialects cannot be explained with language contact. This evidence supports the general understanding that adpositions are an unlikely class to be influenced by contact.

scholarly journals Digital divide at individual level: Evidence for Eastern and Western European countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 460-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petya Chipeva ◽  
Frederico Cruz-Jesus ◽  
Tiago Oliveira ◽  
Zahir Irani
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Western European
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