Wa/Ga-Subjects in Japanese and Subdivisions of Tense

<p>WA/GA-SUBJECTS IN JAPANESE AND SUBDIVISIONS OF TENSE Shizuka Torii This thesis takes a semantically based tense/aspect approach to the long-standing problem of wa- and ga-markings of 'subjects' in Japanese. It argues for a correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and tense/aspect interpretations of clauses, as illustrated in (1) below, to shed light on a new dimension of the problem. (1) a. John-waki-ta. John come-Past 'John came.' b. John-ga ki-ta. John come-Past 'John has just come/arrived.' <'hot news' perfect> The two types of tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-marked subjects are pinned down in terms of (i) two types of 'evaluation time', which are distinguished as 'original' and 'new' (Enc 1987), (ii) two types of R[eference time] (Reichenbach 1947); one that coincides with S[peech time] but not with E[vent time] (R = S/ inequation E), and the other that coincides with E but not with S (R = E/ inequation S), and (iii) two types of 'viewpoint aspect' (Smith 1991); one that presents 'part' of a situation manifested at a precise temporal point (View part) and the other that presents 'all' of a situation without decomposing it (View all). In order to provide syntactic mechanisms to account for the correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and the two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations, I propose two subdivisions of Tense in line with Chomsky's (1995: 240) suggestion that Tense might have "further subdivisions and implications about event structure and perhaps other properties". I assume that the two subdivisions of Tense are functional categories making up an articulated tense structure (above VP) and contain distinct semantic features responsible for the distinct tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-markings of subjects in Japanese. Being tense categories, they both have T[ense]-features and D[eterminer]-features to be checked by predicates and subject DPs respectively. Due to the distinct semantic content of the two syntactic categories, depending on which T- and D-features predicates and subjects check, we get two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations of predicates and two distinct types of subjects (which are morphologically distinguished by wa- and ga-markings in Japanese). In this analysis, the T- and D-features of a tense category ensure that a subject and a predicate are necessarily of the same semantic type. The tense system I propose to account for the wa/ga-phenomena unifies tense and aspect to the extent that the wa/ga-phenomena relate to the interpretation of both tense and aspect. A notable consequence of my analysis is that the syntax and semantics of stage- and individual-level predicates (cf. Carlson 1977, Kratzer 1989 and Diesing 1992) fall under the syntax and semantics of tense. The analysis also exhibits some interesting parallelisms to Davis' (1998), in which person features of subjects are related to a temporal structure. In addition the proposed two subject positions within the articulated tense structure are demonstrated to be tenable across languages. Furthermore I show that the reanalysis is extendable to subordinate clause case markings and interpretations, with special attention to factors such as factivity and the distinctions among propositions, states of affairs, and situation-types.</p>

Wa/Ga-Subjects in Japanese and Subdivisions of Tense

<p>WA/GA-SUBJECTS IN JAPANESE AND SUBDIVISIONS OF TENSE Shizuka Torii This thesis takes a semantically based tense/aspect approach to the long-standing problem of wa- and ga-markings of 'subjects' in Japanese. It argues for a correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and tense/aspect interpretations of clauses, as illustrated in (1) below, to shed light on a new dimension of the problem. (1) a. John-waki-ta. John come-Past 'John came.' b. John-ga ki-ta. John come-Past 'John has just come/arrived.' <'hot news' perfect> The two types of tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-marked subjects are pinned down in terms of (i) two types of 'evaluation time', which are distinguished as 'original' and 'new' (Enc 1987), (ii) two types of R[eference time] (Reichenbach 1947); one that coincides with S[peech time] but not with E[vent time] (R = S/ inequation E), and the other that coincides with E but not with S (R = E/ inequation S), and (iii) two types of 'viewpoint aspect' (Smith 1991); one that presents 'part' of a situation manifested at a precise temporal point (View part) and the other that presents 'all' of a situation without decomposing it (View all). In order to provide syntactic mechanisms to account for the correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and the two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations, I propose two subdivisions of Tense in line with Chomsky's (1995: 240) suggestion that Tense might have "further subdivisions and implications about event structure and perhaps other properties". I assume that the two subdivisions of Tense are functional categories making up an articulated tense structure (above VP) and contain distinct semantic features responsible for the distinct tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-markings of subjects in Japanese. Being tense categories, they both have T[ense]-features and D[eterminer]-features to be checked by predicates and subject DPs respectively. Due to the distinct semantic content of the two syntactic categories, depending on which T- and D-features predicates and subjects check, we get two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations of predicates and two distinct types of subjects (which are morphologically distinguished by wa- and ga-markings in Japanese). In this analysis, the T- and D-features of a tense category ensure that a subject and a predicate are necessarily of the same semantic type. The tense system I propose to account for the wa/ga-phenomena unifies tense and aspect to the extent that the wa/ga-phenomena relate to the interpretation of both tense and aspect. A notable consequence of my analysis is that the syntax and semantics of stage- and individual-level predicates (cf. Carlson 1977, Kratzer 1989 and Diesing 1992) fall under the syntax and semantics of tense. The analysis also exhibits some interesting parallelisms to Davis' (1998), in which person features of subjects are related to a temporal structure. In addition the proposed two subject positions within the articulated tense structure are demonstrated to be tenable across languages. Furthermore I show that the reanalysis is extendable to subordinate clause case markings and interpretations, with special attention to factors such as factivity and the distinctions among propositions, states of affairs, and situation-types.</p>

Mis juhtus ja kes tegi? Põhjustamisahela eestikeelsed väljendusvahendid

Kokkuvõte. Artikkel käsitleb kausatiivsuse väljendusvahendeid suulises eesti keeles. 14 eesti keelt emakeelena kõnelejat kirjeldasid 43 videoklipis kujutatud põhjustamisahelat. Uurimuse esimene eesmärk oli saada ülevaade kasutatud väljendusvahenditest. Materjalis esinesid täielikult põhjuslikkust väljendavad vahendid (põhjustamis- ja tulemussündmust sisaldavad) ja põhjustamisahela osade sidujad. Põhjustamissituatsiooni osasündmuste seos võidi jätta eksplitsiitselt väljendamata, osi ühendati ka sõnaga ja või ning, sidesõnadega (nt sest) ja konnektiividega (nt mille peale). Põhjustamisahela väljendusvahenditena kasutati ka relatiivlauseid, des-konverbi, v-kesksõna, elatiivi, komitatiivi, kaassõnu, erinevaid konstruktsioone (nt analüütilisi kausatiivikonstruktsioone) ja derivatiivseid ning leksikaalseid kausatiive. Teine eesmärk oli vaadata väljendusvahendite jagunemist erinevate situatsioonitüüpide vahel. Kõigis kirjeldustes esines näiteid, milles põhjustamissituatsiooni osi eksplitsiitse väljendusvahendiga ei seotud, seoti sõnadega ja või ning või kasutati mõnda muud siduvat sõna. Kõikide situatsioonitüüpide kirjeldamiseks kasutati ka põhjuslikkust väljendavaid muutuskonstruktsioone, relatiivlauseid, derivatiivseid ja leksikaalseid kausatiive. Abstract. Kairit Tomson, Ilona Tragel: What happened and who did it? Means of expressing causality in Estonian. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the means of causal chain in Estonian and to describe how those means are distributed between causal situation types. The results of this research are based on the experiment with 14 Estonian speakers who described 43 video clips by answering the question “What happened?”. The video clips originate from the project “Causality across Languages”. Participants described causal situations by using 1) constructions (e.g rebib pooleks ‘tears apart’, ajab naerma ‘makes laugh’, palub visata ‘asks to throw’), 2) morphological causatives, 3) lexical causatives, 4) linking words between subevents (e.g ja ‘and’, nii et ‘so that’, sest ‘because’ and relative pronouns), 5) other morphosyntactic means (des-converb, case suffixes, postpositions). In addition, subevents were mentioned without adding any linking word in between.

Learning of weather-type transitions for risk assessment

&lt;p&gt;Persistence or sequences of critical weather patterns over Europe can trigger seasonally extreme hydroclimatic conditions in certain regions. In order to better estimate return periods of extremes across Europe, existing time series of sequences of weather-types over Europe were used to train monthly rules for the transition from one situation to another and their duration behaviour. This can be efficiently realized and tested by setting up decision trees and generating up to 10,000 year time series of weather-type sequences.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In an experiment carried out, large-scale weather situation types according to Hess/Brezowsky available from 1961 to 2020 were divided into two time periods and rules for the transition were derived for both by training decision trees. Based on the trained rules of transistions for the periods 1961-1990 and 1991-2020, 10,000-year weather-type sequences were then generated and analysed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The comparison of the probability density functions of persistence for the 30 different large-scale weather situation types show that omega-like circultion patterns over Europe have a higher tendency to persist in the present time period. In connection with this, the risks of prolonged dry phases in Central Europe have increased. For the translation of different weather-types into local weather-type characteristics, long-term monthly mean daily precipitation values per weather-type was assigned from ERA5 reanalysis data and rearranged in a post-processing step according to the generated weather-type sequences. The analysis of the maximum duration of consecutive dry and wet months in Europe was the main focus and the identified long-term changes in hydroclimatic quantities can be thus exclusively attributed to dynamic factors.&lt;/p&gt;

Situation types in complementation: Oromo attitude predication

Though languages show rich variation in the clausal embedding strategies employed in attitude reports, most mainstream formal semantic theories of attitudes assume that the clausal complement of an attitude verb contributes at least a proposition to the semantics. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the growing cross-linguistic perspective of attitudes by providing semantic analyses for the two embedding strategies found with attitude verbs in Oromo (Cushitic): verbal nominalization, and embedding under akka 'as'. We argue that Oromo exemplifies a system in which non-speech attitudes uniformly embed situations rather than propositions, thereby expanding the empirical landscape of attitude reports in two ways: (i) situations and propositions are both ontological primitives used by languages in the construction of attitude reports, and (ii) attitude verbs in languages like Oromo do the semantic heavy lifting, contributing the "proposition" to propositional attitudes.

THE TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH TENSES AND ASPECTS IN NARRATIVE MODE INTO VIETNAMESE

Confusion due to ambiguity in tenses and aspects while translating from English into Vietnamese is still a common problem to translators. There are several causes to this problem, but the main cause is the difference in viewing tense and aspect notions in the two languages by researchers or scholars. The existence of tense and aspect identities in English clauses or sentences is a matter of fact whereas in Vietnamese they are the topic of controversy among linguists and educators. This article investigates some of the linguistic means that were employed to translate English tenses and aspects in narrative mode into Vietnamese by three well-known translators, namely Mặc Đỗ, Hoàng Cường and Trịnh Lữ. The results of the study prove the fact that though tenses and aspects are not always recognized in the Vietnamese language, they can be translated from the English language via the use of temporal adverbials, aspectual markers or situation types of Vietnamese verbs.

Quasi-passive reflexive constructions: Bridging autonomous and passive situations

It is common for languages crosslinguistically to employ the same verb form in several diathetic constructions distinguished by a different degree of agent suppression. In South Slavic languages the so called ‘quasi-passive reflexive se-constructions’ (QRCs) encode a number of non-factual situations, expressing an array of semantically close meanings unified by modal semantics. The paper argues that QRCs in South Slavic languages represent a gradient category comprising potential, normative and generalizing situation types. The difference between these subclasses depends on the degree of implication of the agent in the construction: the agent is indirectly evoked in the potential, its presence can be felt in the normative, and a non-referring agent is present in the generalizing constructions. The intended interpretation of QRCs is obtained through the predicate-participant relation and pragmatic factors. In shaping the setting the latter may trigger overlapping between the subclasses. The goal of the paper is to prove that QRCs supply the cognitive link between anticausative reflexive (coding autonomous events) and passive reflexive constructions (coding agent defocusing situations): the potential type is closer to anticausatives, while the generalizing type shows affinity with passives. Such scalar analysis of QRCs may contribute to a better understanding of the typology of reflexive constructions.

A two-dimensional semantic analysis of falling in Modern Greek: A typological and corpus-based approach

This paper investigates the semantic domain of FALLING in Modern Greek as it is reflected in its system of FALLING terms. Drawing from the frame-based methodology for lexical typology and based on a corpus-based analysis, it offers a description that covers two dimensions: an onomasiological and a semasiological. This two-dimensional analysis shows that the Modern Greek system should be classified as dominant, since the same lexeme, i.e. the Modern Greek equivalent of fall, is used to encode all four frames within this domain. It further reveals that the Modern Greek FALLING system, albeit dominant, gives space to other encoding strategies to emerge. As a matter of fact, 13 additional motion verbs can be used to describe the various situation types. However, these verbs are confined within the boundaries of each frame. The very fact that each verb belongs to only one frame supports indirectly the existence of the four different frames. The analysis also indicates that the use of the basic lexeme is ruled out only in a few cases that involve the motion of a substance out of a container under the effect of gravity (parameter of fluidity) as well as the collapse of a floor or of an ice layer. Additionally, the study establishes the prototypical sense of the basic lexeme and allows the identification of certain collocation patterns associated with it. Finally, it offers the opportunity to cluster the senses of this basic verb into groups on the basis of their distributional (dis)similarity. To provide visual representations of the results, the current paper uses semantic maps, whereby nodes stand for both frames and micro-frames, as well as cluster hierarchies displayed as a dendrogram. Overall, the paper contributes to the typological analysis of the expression of FALLING. It offers insights on how the whole domain is carved up by the FALLING terms in a particular language and its results add to the body of typological literature investigating this domain.

The three agent demoting prefixes (ki-, m-u-, kur-) in Katripul Puyuma

This paper discusses the origins and possible grammaticalization pathways of three agent demoting prefixes in Katripul Puyuma, ki-, m-u- and kur-. All three morphemes can attach to both nominal and verbal stems. When they attach to nominal stems, they denote the meaning of ‘get’, ‘go’, and ‘reflexive’, respectively, and when they attach to verbal stems, they express situation types that are often associated with the middle domain (Kemmer 1993). Working from the perspective of grammaticalization, this paper traces the origins and possible development of the three named morphemes, with supporting evidence drawn from cognates of other Formosan languages.