On the Grammaticality of Poetry: The Asyndetic Verb-Late Clause in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch

This article discusses asyndetic verb-late clauses in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch, which has long been considered a problematic text within the Old High German corpus in part because of clauses like these. Clauses with a dependent clause’s verbal syntax and no complementizer have been characterized as ungrammatical and/or rare (Behaghel 1932, Schrodt 2004, Axel 2007) and thus have not been included in accounts of early German syntax. I argue that asyndetic verb-late clauses are grammatical and that they can function as main or dependent clauses. Crucially, they demonstrate that main verb fronting was not obligatory in 9th-century German. Although Otfrid marked the main-subordinate asymmetry by various grammatical means, including verbal syntax, I demonstrate that verbal prosody also influenced syntax: Heavy verbs are more frequent in clause-late or -initial position and light verbs in clause-second position, regardless of the main–dependent distinction. I suggest that prosodically-sensitive verbal syntax is characteristic of Otfrid’s exclusively oral vernacular. In contrast, Otfrid imports the concept of differentiating main and dependent clauses grammatically from Latin. The Evangelienbuch, then, represents an attempt to transform an oral vernacular into a written language by imposing, however imperfectly, the norm of grammatically distinct main and dependent clauses onto a prosodically-sensitive verbal syntax.*

Causation in Classical Chinese During the Warring States Period and in the Han Dynasty

In this paper, I explore causation in Classical Chinese during the Warring States period and in the Han Dynasty. Whether causation is realised via causative use of words with covert causative verbs, or via overt causative verbs, causation structures can always be divided into Agentive and Causative constructions, which can be further categorised into lexical causatives and productive causatives. I also account for causation in Classical Chinese by means of Feng’s (1998, 2000, 2009) prosodic approach and show that both strategies to form causation structures are compatible with a prosodic theory. I discuss both VO and VV causation and state that Agentive and Causative constructions involving covert causative (light) verbs are prosodic words, whereas those involving overt causative verbs exhibit properties of phrases.

An Investigation into Lexical Aspect of Persian Light Verbs: zadan, dǎdan and xordan Based on Huddleston and Pullum (2002)

The verb and its complement have their specific contributions to the meaning of predicate. Sometimes, the verb takes a more modest share than the complement in expressing the predicate; such verbs are referred to as light verbs. However, the degree of the lightness of the verbs is neither systematic nor predictable in verb constructions. We aim to investigate the lexical aspects of the Persian light verbs “zadan” (to hit), “dǎdan” (to give), and “xordan” (to eat) based on Huddleston and Pullum’s Model (2002). There are many verbs that lend themselves to light verb constructions. The data are collected from the Updating Persian Corpus consisting of 48M words. To this end, we extracted all light verbs in the sentences stored on the Updating Persian Corpus using the AntConc software based on Mansouri’s approach (2013). The sampling was done using random sampling method that has scientific validity and is generalizable. In random sampling, every entity of the population enjoys equal chance of inclusion in the sample. Then we analyzed the sentences containing light verbs in terms of the state and activity lexical aspects. The results were plotted in tables and figures with annotations of the verb features. For similar patterns, only one pattern was selected for further analysis. The light verb patterns were listed and analyzed in an inventory one by one. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical method and a corpus-based survey design. Descriptive research has both applied and basic aspects so that it leads to the discovery of facts and bodies of knowledge in an inductive way. An important characteristic of descriptive studies is that the researcher may not manipulate or control the status and role of variables. The researcher merely tends to study and describe what already exists. In this study, we used library research and content analysis methods.

Classification of complex verbs and the evolution of the compound verb in Marathi

Starting with examination of the contentious issue in Marathi grammar concerning the classification of morphologically complex verbs including Noun + Verb, Adverb + Verb, and Verb1?(nonfinite) + Verb2?(desinence), this chapter first proposes a set of criteria for distinguishing vector verbs from auxiliary verbs and thereby identifies a functionally coherent subgroup of compound verbs consisting of a main verb (V1) and a vector verb (V2). Discussion then moves on to the ontogeny of vector verbs in this type of compound verb (CV). Statistical evidence shows a steady increase in the CV to non-CV ratio along with an increase in the number of vector verbs. The qualitative and quantitative changes the CV has undergone in a diachronic process spanning over 700 years demonstrate that vector verbs are not eternal but are subject to change,?pace?Miriam Butt and her colleagues, who contend that light verbs are stable through time.

Reir la risa de un niño, chorar lágrimas de crocodilo um revisitar dos objetos cognatos entre expressões lexicalizadas e construções com verbos leves

gnate objects (OC) (espirrar um espirro...) can be paraphrased by light verbs (dar um espirro). However, some paraphrases appear to be ungrammatical or generate several readings (brito & Choupina 2018; Gonçalves et al. 2010; Mirto 2007). Cognate objects are of various types (Choupina 2013a and b), with real cognates being more restrictive syntactically and semantically. There are more or less inflexible expressions that resemble structures with OC (reir la risa.., chorar lágrimas de crocodilo...) and that occur in certain languages, not being subject to the same morphosyntactic restrictions of good formation as the OC and distinguishing them for the conditions of use. It is the properties that OC, constructions with light verbs and lexicalized expressions share and those that individualize them that we will deal with in this article

Productivity, richness, and diversity of light verb constructions in the history of American English

This study provides an empirical analysis of productivity in Light Verb Constructions (LVCs) in the history of American English. LVCs contain a semantically light verb like make or take that may be paired with an abstract nominal object, as in make an assumption or take charge. Using a 406-million word corpus of texts written between 1810 and 2009, we track the frequency of LVCs and analyze the range of light verb + nominal object pairings. Using statistical measurements of biodiversity from the field of ecology, we evaluate the hypothesis that “the rich get richer” among light verbs: the most frequent verbs become more frequent and more diverse, occurring with an ever-growing variety of different NP complements. The results contribute to ongoing discussions in cross-linguistic, diachronic research on reasons for the growth of LVCs, the gradient nature of linguistic productivity, and the role of exemplars in the interaction between type and token frequencies during periods of linguistic change.