scholarly journals Gemination in Bangla: An optimality Theoretic Analysis

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somdev Kar
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Lexical Items

This paper attempts to identify and analyze different types of gemination processes in Bangla. The focus is mainly on the phonological representation of sound combinations which forms a set of valid geminates in this language. I argue for three major types of gemination processes present in modern Bangla and a stratification strategy for the relavant lexical items based on their origin (SB, NB and OB, depending on the native vs. two type of borrowings). An analysis of these gemination processes are given in the framework of optimality theory (OT). Therefore, the constraint-based analysis of OT is organized in a threefold argument structure for each stratum. The conclusion is drawn towards an understanding of gemination processes of Bangla for different categories of lexical items and their phonological formuations.DOI: 10.3329/dujl.v1i2.3718 The Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics: Vol. 1 No.2 August, 2008 Page: 87-114

scholarly journals Verbs of falling and their argument structure in Circassian languages

2020 ◽  
Vol XVI (1) ◽  
pp. 723-756
Author(s):  
I. Bagirokova ◽  
◽  
D. Ryzhova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
Surface Expression ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Vertical Orientation ◽  
Caucasian Family ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Initial Source

This paper describes the semantics of falling in Adyghe and Kuban Kabardian from a typological perspective. The analysis is based on corpus data, accompanied by the results of elicitation. Although they represent the same Circassian branch of the Northwest Caucasian family, Adyghe and Kabardian still demonstrate some differences in the way their predicates of falling are lexicalized: while in Adyghe we have a distributive system which includes special lexical means for different types of falling (verbal root -fe- for falling from above, wəḳʷerejə- for losing vertical orientation, -zǝfor detachment, and verbs from adjacent semantic domains such as -we- ‘beat’ for destruction), there is only one dominant (-xwe-) and several peripheral predicates in the Kabardian language. What is peculiar about these languages, when compared to the available typological data, is that the parameter of orientation to the initial (Source) vs. final point (Goal) of movement is of special importance in lexicalizing cases of falling. In Circassian languages, simultaneous surface expression of Source and Goal of movement within a clause is prohibited for morphosyntactic reasons, and the lexemes denoting falling are divided into Source- vs. Goal-oriented ones. For some verbal roots, this orientation is an intrinsic semantic property (cf. -zǝ- which is always Source-oriented); in other cases, it is marked with specifi c affi xes (cf. a locative combination je-…-xǝ ‘down’ which marks re-orientation to the Source of falling of the initially Goal-oriented Adyghe verb -fe-). Thus, our analysis of the material may not only help to contribute to the general typology of falling but may throw light on such a phenomenon in cognitive linguistics as the emphasis on the fi nal point of movement in opposition to the initial point, also known as goal bias

scholarly journals Exceptional Arabic Diminutive Forms of Nouns with [aa]: An Optimality-Theoretic Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Albatool Mohammed Abalkheel
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Syllable Weight ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Arabic Dialects

Most diminutive forms in Arabic adhere in their derivation to certain simple phonological and morphological processes without any complications. However, there are exceptions to be found, including diminutive forms of nouns with [aa] in which the segment [w] surfaces. Using Optimality Theory (OT) as a framework and using syllable weight as a base of analysis, this study aims to provide an accurate explanation of such phenomena. This work will show that the root of words with [w] is not simply biconsonantal with an emphatic segment (i.e., [w]) inserted to fill the empty onset. Instead, the root is triconsonantal in which [w] is an essential segment. It also reveals that syllable-weight constraint is inviolable in Arabic dialects.

Mapping meaning to argument structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-60
Author(s):  
James N. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Nominal Arguments

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of morphological case in so-called ‘ergative-absolutive aligned’ languages, with a detailed case study of the Polynesian language Samoan. The focus is on the interaction of morphological case marking and the lexical semantics of verbs, proposing that the case marking pattern on a verb’s arguments are closely linked to the verb’s entailments, especially those relating to how the participants denoted by the verb’s nominal arguments participate in the event being described. Through empirical investigation of novel Samoan data, the chapter argues that ergative morphological case marking is linked to the agent argument’s status as a ‘self directed initiator’ of the event. In providing an analysis of this phenomenon, this chapter proposes a formal model of how a verb’s lexical semantics interacts with the morphological case component of grammar, employing insights from Optimality Theory.

scholarly journals Constructional tolerance

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florent Perek ◽  
Martin Hilpert
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Way

The present paper investigates the question whether different languages can be categorized into ‘constructionally tolerant’ languages, which grant speakers considerable freedom to combine syntactic constructions with lexical items in non-conventional ways, and ‘valency-driven’ languages, which impose stronger restrictions on the way in which constructions and lexical items can be combined. The idea of such a typological distinction is sketched for instance by Rostila (2014). In order to explore possible effects of constructional tolerance, a grammaticality judgment task is administered to speakers of English and French, which are two languages that differ with regard to this phenomenon: English verbs can be used across different argument structure constructions with relative ease, French verbs are more constrained. Both populations of speakers are exposed to stimuli sentences of varying creativity in a second language, namely German. The paper advances the constructional tolerance hypothesis, which states that speakers of a constructionally tolerant language should judge non-conventional examples in an L2 with more lenience than speakers of a valency-driven language. The experimental results are in line with this hypothesis, but they also suggest that grammaticality judgments are influenced by the availability of a productive L1 construction that shows functional overlap.

Inconsistency in Technical Terminology

Babel ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Saraireh
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Stylistic Variation ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Technical Translation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Language Text

Standardization is one of the basic elements of technical translation for proper communication among the users of the target language text. Consistency in signifier-signified correspondence is vital to maintain proper tandardization. However, there are many instances (in translation) in which stylistic variation and inconsistency in using lexical items are confused. The problem arises and becomes serious when inconsistency is mistakenly considered as stylistic variation. Stylistic variation is a very well known literary device to avoid repetition in texts by employing synonyms. Inconsistency arises when a signifier which has been employed in the target language to signify a new borrowed concept is alternately used with any of its synonyms. The translator may create a kind of confusion when he uses a synonym to signify the same concept rather than the assigned lexical item. Therefore, the reader may not be able to follow the progress of the text assuming that there is a different meaning for each synonym. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different types of this phenomenon in English-Arabic translation.

scholarly journals Revisiting Phonotactic Generalizations in Australian Languages

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Gasser ◽  
Claire Bowern
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Lexical Data ◽  
Australian Languages

Australian languages are famous for their uniform phonological systems. Cross-linguistic surveys of (or including) Australian languages have reinforced this view of Australian inventories and phonotactics. Such uniformity is surprising and unusual given the phylogenetic diversity in the country (28 phylic families). Moreover, although Australianists have assumed that uniformity in phonemic inventory is coupled with unity in phonotactics, this has not been tested.  Here we statistically test the generalizations current in the literature on Australian languages by deriving inventory information from lexical data (rather than grammatical descriptions).  We utilize a comparative database of lexical items from predominantly Pama-Nyungan languages in order to test published generalizations about phoneme inventories, phonotactics, and other phenomena (such as root internal vowel harmony patterns). By using lexical materials to derive inventories and segment frequencies, we are able to assemble a nuanced picture of the diversity of systems present among the languages. Inventory studies confirm, to some degree, the impression of uniformity. However, phoneme frequencies vary substantially across the sample even among languages with similar inventory types. This work is of particular importance to phonological typologies of Australian languages, but it has implications for wider phonological theory as well. The survey used here is the largest comparative database of a single language family. Rarely do we have the opportunity to conduct a large-scale typological investigation of related languages in this way. We also make a contribution to the role of typology in Optimality Theory. A large-scale survey of markedness patterns (in related languages) allows us to study occurring and non-occurring grammars. Finally, we can investigate the predictions of competing theories.

Lexical approaches to argument structure

2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Müller ◽  
Stephen Wechsler
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Lexical Items

AbstractIn lexical approaches to argument structure, lexical items include argument structures. The argument structure represents essential information about potential argument selection and expression, but abstracts away from the actual local phrasal structure. In contrast,

scholarly journals /dˤ/-Variation in Saudi Newscasting and Phonological Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Yasser A. Al-Tamimi
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Saudi Arabian ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Articulatory Phonology ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Trace Model ◽  
Lexical Diffusion ◽  
Explanatory Adequacy ◽  
Lexical Items

In his analysis of /dˤ/-variation in Saudi Arabian newscasting, Al-Tamimi (2020) finds unpredicatble variability between the standard variant [dˤ] and the non-standard variant [ðˤ] in different in-words positions, in different phonetic environments, and in semantically ‘content’ and suprasegmentally ‘stressed’ lexical itmes assumed to favor the standard variant. He even finds in many of these lexical items an unusual realizational flucatuation between the two variants. The present exploratory and ‘theory-testing’ study aims to find a reasonable account for these findings through examining the explanatory adequacy of a number of available phonological theories, notions, models and proposals that have made different attempts to accommodate variation, and this includes Coexistent Phonemic Systems, Standard Generative Phonology, Lexical Diffusion, Variable Rules, Poly-Lectal Grammar, Articulatory Phonology, different versions of the Optimality Theory, in addition to the Multiple-Trace-Model, as represented by Al-Tamimi’s (2005) Multiple-Trace-Based Proposal. The study reveals the strengths and weaknesses of these theories in embracing the variability in the data, and concludes that the Multiple-Trace-Based Proposal can relatively offer the best insight as its allows variation to be directly encoded in the underlying representations of lexical items, a status strictly prohibited by the rest of the theories that adopt invariant lexical representations in consonance with the ‘Homogeneity Doctrine’.

scholarly journals Acquisition of English Argument Patterns By Russian EFL Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SPE3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mikhailovich Amatov ◽  
Arkadiy Petrovich Sedykh ◽  
Tatyana Alexandrovna Sidorova ◽  
Elena Evgenjevna Kotsova ◽  
Elvira Nikolajevna Akimova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
English Language ◽  
Institutional Discourse ◽  
Current Period ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Foreign (especially English) language learning has witnessed growing popularity in Russia over the last decades due to the enormous change in economic, political, legal, and cultural domains in the current period. The increasing need for good English speaking and writing skills put forward a demand for the accurate use of lexical items and grammatical structures by those who study English as a foreign language (EFL). Lexical and grammatical accuracy acquires a crucial importance in reasoning and argumentation. A slapdash word or syntactic construction in the argument structure may submit the listener to a conclusion, which is completely different from what the speaker implied. Such issues may be particularly frustrating in academic, legal, business, medical, and other types of institutional discourse. The rules of Aristotelian logic, underlying the good majority of reasoning structures, are generic. Therefore, it is a certain difference between the two languages, native (Russian) and foreign (English), that makes Russian students of English misinterprete logical chains and use irrelevant lexical items and grammatical constructions.

scholarly journals Indications of lexical-semantic changes in the Arabisms of the Kingdom of Granada (1493-1612): the lexical competition between almádena and martillo

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Inmaculada González Sopeña ◽  
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
Building Construction ◽  
Lexical Competition ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Arab Origin ◽  
Lexical Items

The objective of the present study is to analyze a couple of lexical items formed by an Arabism and a Romance voice (almádena and martillo) through a corpus of documents linked to the ancient Kingdom of Granada (i.e. the current provinces of Málaga, Almería and Granada) in the late 15th century to 17th century. That documentation includes different types of texts as the correspondence of Hernando de Zafra or texts linked to the building construction at that time. Due to the historical, political, social and religious peculiarities of the Kingdom of Granada there is a persistence of lexicon of Arab origin over the above two centuries with regard to other Spanish-speaking territories. However, Arabic loanwords in Spanish lexicon are subjected to specialization processes or semantic restrictions, as exemplified in the case of almádena. This voice lexically competed with the Romance voice martillo, but, finally, the first one suffered a process of semantic restriction and it is actually cornered in some dialectal areas.

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