scholarly journals Change of state in Kinyarwanda: A study in root meaning

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Kyle Jerro
Keyword(s):  
Result State ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Verb Meaning

I investigate the paradigms of change of state verb roots in Kinyarwanda, comparing the simple state, inchoative, causative, and result state members of 81 root paradigms. I show that the morphological shape of the causative/inchoative members of the paradigm and whether there is a simple state term are both contingent upon root semantics. Certain change of state roots in Kinyarwanda lack simple state meanings and always give rise to change entailments; this correlates with the lack of the simple state in the paradigm. I further show that verb meaning also partially determines which of several derivational strategies are used by a given change of state paradigm. 

The locative alternation in verb-framed vs. satellite-framed languages

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 864-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Lewandowski
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
Locative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
Verb Meaning

I propose a comparative analysis of the locative alternation in Polish and Spanish. I adopt a constructional theory of argument structure (Goldberg (1995)), according to which the locative alternation is an epiphenomenon of the compatibility of a single verb meaning with two different constructions: the caused-motion construction and the causative + with adjunct construction. As claimed by Pinker (1989), a verb must specify a manner of motion from which a particular change of state can be obtained in order to be able to appear in both constructional schemas. However, I show through a corpus study that the compatibility between verbal and constructional meaning is further restricted by Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) distinction between verb-framed and satellite-framed languages. In particular, Talmy’s lexicalization patterns theory systematically explains why both the token frequency and the type frequency of the alternating verbs are considerably higher in Polish than in Spanish.

Reanalyzing Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions—A force-theoretic approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Peng (Benjamin) Han
Keyword(s):  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Result State ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Event Based

Abstract This study takes a force-theoretic approach to Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions. Unlike event-based analyses that hold a causing event accountable for a result state, this study attributes a result state to a specific entity involved in the relevant causing event. In this way, V1-V2 resultative construction (RC) sentences have the interpretation that through a causing action, one entity relevant to the action caused a change of state to another entity; this causal influence is reconceptualized as a force from the former entity, characterizing the situation change concerning the latter entity. Following Copley and Harley (2015), this conceptual reanalysis is represented structurally, successfully deriving V1-V2 RC sentences. V2 and the internal argument DP specify the property of a resultant situation and its holder, defining the force; the external argument DP tells about this force's source; V1 modifies this force, indicating the causing action through which this force is realized.

Change of state verbs and result state adjectives in Mandarin Chinese

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHIAO WEI THAM
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
State Change ◽  
Result State ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Degree Modification ◽  
Systematic Derivation

This paper investigates the derivational relationship between adjectives and verbs in Mandarin Chinese describing related state, change of state (COS) and caused COS meanings. Such paradigms have been observed in various languages to fall into two categories: One in which a word naming a property concept state constitutes the derivational base for the related COS verbs, and another in which a COS verb forms the basis from which the stative word – a ‘result state’ predicate – is derived. I show that in Mandarin, the distinction between morphological paradigms based on property-concept words versus eventive verbs is also found, but the actual derivational relations between verbs and adjectives are influenced by language-particular morphological properties of Mandarin. Specifically, I argue that a gradable property concept adjective systematically alternates to a related COS verb. This alternation, which can be tapped by degree modification and negation contexts, distinguishes adjectives from stative verbs, which do not have consistent COS counterparts, and from underived intransitive COS verbs, which do not have systematic stative counterparts. That is, I show that COS verbs do not lend themselves to the systematic derivation of result state adjectives. Rather, I argue that result state adjectives in Mandarin arise from conceptual-pragmatic factors: The nominal modified by such a result state adjective should be understood as describing a culturally or contextually salient class of entities.

Syntax and semantics in the acquisition of locative verbs

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jess Gropen ◽  
Steven Pinker ◽  
Michelle Hollander ◽  
Richard Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Verb Meaning

ABSTRACTChildren between the ages of three and seven occasionally make errors with locative verbs like pour and fill, such as * I filled water into the glass and * I poured the glass with water (Bowerman, 1982). To account for this pattern of errors, and for how they are eventually unlearned, we propose that children use a universal linking rule called OBJECT AFFECTEDNESS: the direct object corresponds to the argument that is specified as ‘affected’ in some particular way in the semantic representation of a verb. However, children must learn which verbs specify which of their arguments as being affected; specifically, whether it is the argument whose referent is undergoing a change of location, such as the content argument of pour, or the argument whose referent is undergoing a change of state, such as the container argument of fill. This predicts that syntactic errors should be associated with specific kinds of misinterpretations of verb meaning. Two experiments were performed on the ability of children and adults to understand and produce locative verbs. The results confirm that children tend to make syntactic errors with sentences containing fill and empty, encoding the content argument as direct object (e.g. fill the water). As predicted, children also misinterpreted the meanings of fill and empty as requiring not only that the container be brought into a full or empty state, but also that the content move in some specific manner (by pouring, or by dumping). Furthermore, children who misinterpreted the verbs' meanings were more likely to make syntactic errors with them. These findings support the hypothesis that verb meaning and syntax are linked in precise ways in the lexicons of language learners.

scholarly journals Listy o aspekcie

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 119-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucyna Gebert
Keyword(s):  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Verb Meaning

Letters on aspectThe paper presents the correspondence between the author and professor Stanisław Karolak concerning the role of pragmatic factors such as illocutionary force (i.e. an assertion, a negation, an order, a promise ecc.) in perfective/imperfective aspect choice in Russian and Polish.According to the author’s aspect theory, the occurrence of the perfective verb form is determined by illocutionary force that bears on the part of the verb meaning that consists of the change-of-state and its result. That is why, when illocutionary force is focused on other parts of verb meaning, the accomplished facts are expressed by the imperfective.In his letters Stanisław Karolak expresses a different view: for him assertion is a part of semantics, and he disagrees with taking into consideration pragmatic mechanisms in order to account for aspect variation.

scholarly journals The Roots of Verbal Meaning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Beavers ◽  
Andrew Koontz-Garboden
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Result State ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Common View ◽  
Event Structures ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Ditransitive Verbs ◽  
Verbal Meaning

This book explores possible and impossible word meanings, with a specific focus on the meanings of verbs. It adopts the now common view that verb meanings consist at least partly of an event structure, made up of an event template describing the verb’s broad temporal and causal contours that occurs across lots of verbs and groups them into semantic and grammatical classes, plus an idiosyncratic root describing specific, real world states and actions that distinguish verbs with the same template. While much work has focused on templates, less work has addressed the truth conditional contributions of roots, despite the importance of a theory of root meaning in fully defining the predictions event structural approaches make. This book addresses this lacuna, exploring two previously proposed constraints on root meaning: The Bifurcation Thesis of Roots, whereby roots never introduce the meanings introduced by templates, and Manner/Result Complementarity, which has as a component that roots can describe either a manner or a result state but never both at the same time. Two extended case studies, on change-of-state verbs and ditransitive verbs of caused possession, show that neither hypothesis holds, and that ultimately there may be no constraints on what a root can mean. Nonetheless, the book argues that event structures still have predictive value, and it presents a new theory of possible root meanings and how they interact with event templates that produces a new typology of possible verbs, albeit one where not just templates but also roots determine systematic semantic and grammatical properties.

Intentionality, scalar change, and non-culmination in Korean caused change-of-state predicates

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1233-1283 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Beavers ◽  
Juwon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Partial Result ◽  
Result State ◽  
Active Voice ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Direct Causation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Agent Control ◽  
Control Hypothesis

AbstractThis paper investigates the interpretations of caused change-of-state predicates in Korean, and in particular non-culmination readings in which the result state inherent to the meaning of the predicate fails to obtain either fully (zero result) or partially. We argue that zero result readings require that the subject intended the coming about of the result state, while readings in which some result obtains (partially or completely) lack this entailment. Yet zero result interpretations are not reducible to ‘try’-constructions since the former but not the latter require the direct causation. Furthermore, zero result readings arise only in active voice, a grammatical constraint not explicitly discussed for other languages. We argue that the full suite of possible readings arises from two factors: a sublexical modality over worlds conforming to the agent’s intentions for zero result readings that arises from a special active voice inflection in Korean and a scalar semantics for change-of-state verbs that derives partial result readings as a type of degree achievement interpretation. An interaction of these two factors produce the range of possible readings for Korean change-of-state predicates. Finally, we discuss our account in relation to the Agent Control Hypothesis of Demirdache and Martin (2015) that agentivity properties of the subject are necessary for certain non-culmination readings, and suggest that Korean exemplifies the ACH provided that what counts as “control” includes intentionality.

Change of state of generalized trusses

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 215-224
Author(s):  
Zsolt Gáspár
Keyword(s):  
Change Of State

The N-pattern

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Maiden
Keyword(s):  
Special Role ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Verb Meaning

The chapter presents the role of stress and stress-related vocalic differentiation in creating a pattern of root allomorphy (the N-pattern), which distinguishes the singular and third-person forms of the present indicative and subjunctive, and of the imperative, from the rest of the paradigm. It is shown how numerous innovatory patterns (including suppletion, defectiveness, heteroclisis, and periphrases) replicate this pattern in diachrony. The possible role of markedness or of residual phonological conditioning is critically considered. It is suggested that the verb meaning ‘go’ may have played a special role. The independence of the N-pattern from extramorphological conditioning is reaffirmed.

scholarly journals Yemeni Inscriptions, Iraqi Chronicles, Hijazi Poetry: A Reconstruction of the Meaning of Isrāʾ in Qur'an 17:1

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-158
Author(s):  
NATHANIEL MILLER
Keyword(s):  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Poetic Texts ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
Early Islamic

AbstractThe term isrāʾ, based on the first verse of sūra 17, is typically rendered as ‘Night Journey’. There is little compelling evidence that this was the original meaning of the Qur'anic text, and medieval lexicographers and exegetes preserved a number of alternative meanings, such as that asrā was a denominal verb meaning ‘to travel through the uplands (al-sarāh)’. Another explanation is that asrā is a denominal verb of the noun sariyya (pl. sarāyā), a military expedition. By drawing on early historiographical descriptions of sarāyā and South Arabian inscriptions, which give evidence that the word sariyya is of Sabaic origin, the Qur'anic meaning of asrā was evidently something like ‘to send on a royal expedition’. Early Islamic Arabic poetic texts also offer extremely compelling evidence that the first Muslims were familiar with some of the key concepts of South Arabian royal authority as they appear in Sabaic inscriptions.

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