On the interplay between tense marking, aspect and temporal continuity in Udora Komi

The Udora dialect of Zyrian Komi lacks the morphological opposition between the present and future tenses that is found in other Komi dialects and the written standard. The morphemes corresponding to these tenses are, however, found in this dialect, with individual verbs showing a strong tendency to choose one of the two. This study shows that the two morphemes are not in free variation but rather carry various grammatical meanings, and that the variants are strongly connected to the lexical aspect of individual verbs. Due to the rigidity of the system, the authors refer to the variants here as conjugation types. The -as- conjugation type, which corresponds to the Standard Komi future marker, occurs with all transitive verbs and a majority of intransitive verbs. However, the study also identifies a group of intransitive verbs occurring with the conjugation type -e̮-. The verbs in the latter group can be analysed as temporally continuous. Additionally, there are other subgroupings that can be postulated, including verbs that describe involuntary actions. The system interacts in a predictable manner with Komi derivational morphology. The study also corroborates the previously proposed historical connection between this characteristic of verbal morphology in the Udora dialect and Old Komi. The authors suggest that the verbal morphology seen in these Komi varieties must predate the contemporary tense system. The study provides a new direction for analysing the development of the tense system in the Permic languages, as it is shown that the factors underlying the variation extend beyond transitivity. As a previously undescribed phenomenon, the study describes the use of the Udora conjugation types in narrative tense structuring and demonstrate parallels with Standard Komi.

PENGUASAAN MURID TENTANG PENGGUNAAN IMBUHAN MeN-, di- DAN BeR- DALAM PENULISAN KARANGAN RESPONS TERBUKA

Kata berimbuhan mudah ditemui dalam mana-mana bentuk penulisan kerana morfem imbuhan yang diimbuhkan pada kata dasar akan membentuk kata kerja aktif transitif, tak transitif dan penanda pasif bagi ayat yang dibina. Walaupun sering digunakan dalam penulisan, pengimbuhan yang tidak tepat boleh mengganggu kegramatisan bahasa Melayu standard. Berdasarkan analisis kandungan terhadap 31 teks karangan respons terbuka murid-murid tingkatan empat daripada sebuah sekolah menengah di daerah Tuaran, Sabah, didapati 27 sampel karangan melakukan kesalahan penggunaan imbuhan awalan kata kerja meN- , di-, dan beR- . Kelemahan penguasaan varian imbuhan awalan menyebabkan kesalahan morfologi, ejaan dan ketidakgramatisan ayat yang dibina oleh murid. Pada masa yang sama, kesan daripada kelemahan penguasaan imbuhan murid, mereka telah mencipta istilah baharu yang jelas telah melanggar peraturan tatabahasa bahasa Melayu. Oleh itu, kesalahan yang didapati tidak wajar dipandang remeh kerana hal tersebut akan menyebabkan keterbiasaan murid untuk sewenang-wenangnya menggabungkan imbuhan dengan kata dasar bahasa Melayu yang lain tanpa merujuk sistem pengimbuhan yang betul. Malahan, dikhuatiri murid akan melakukan hal yang serupa dalam bentuk imbuhan yang lain. Akhirnya, murid sendiri tidak mengetahui fungsi sebenar proses pengimbuhan. Aspek pengimbuhan merupakan nahu bahasa Melayu yang wajib dikuasai oleh murid kerana agak sukar untuk membina ayat yang tidak melalui proses penerbitan. Bagi menangani masalah penguasaan imbuhan dalam kalangan murid, latih tubi yang berterusan dan pengajaran rumus pengimbuhan perlu didedahkan kepada murid. It is easy to spot affixes in students’ essays as they formed transitive active verbs, intransitive verbs and passive verbs in their sentences. However, wrong use of affixation could cause ungrammatical use of the standard Malay language. Based on a content analysis of 31 open response essays written by form four students from a secondary school in Tuaran, Sabah, there were errors of affixation with meN-, di-, and beR- found in 27 essays. Improper usage of affix variants has led to morphology error, misspelling and ungrammatical sentences. The lack of knowledge on using appropriate affixes has led students to create new terms which clearly do not follow the rules of Malay grammar. The findings suggest that it should not be taken for granted as it would trigger students to bind affixes with other Malay basic words according to their wish without referring to the proper affixation system. Moreover, they may do the same to other affixes. In the end, students themselves could not figure out the function of affixation.Affixation should be mastered by students as many sentences are built from the process of combining a morpheme with other words. In order to resolve this matter, students need to be taught affixation formula and given continuous exercises.

Analyzing the Phenomenon of English-Chinese Intransitive Verbs with Objects

Academics have paid close attention to intransitive verbs with objects as a unique language phenomenon. This article aims to examine the phenomenon of intransitive verbs carrying objects in Chinese from the standpoints of syntactic structure and cognitive linguistic theory. The object of intransitive verbs is categorized, as well as the syntactic structure of intransitive verbs with objects. Additionally, a comparison of English and Chinese intransitive verbs with objects is made, and the structure of intransitive verbs with objects is analyzed for rationality. The analysis of 38 international students' actual learning situations, as well as valid questionnaires and corpora, is used to determine whether second language learners from various language systems can comprehend and master the structure of "intransitive verbs with object" in Chinese despite significant language system differences. Finally, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the project survey, we discovered that students whose first language was not Chinese had varying levels of bias in their perception and acquisition of intransitive verbs with objects, owing to the negative effects of their mother tongue and different teaching methods. Most notably, the versatility of the syntactic structure of "intransitive verbs with objects" complicates learning Chinese syntax, which is already difficult in comparison to English. This leads us to believe that more study is required to further our understanding of the peculiar grammatical phenomenon known as "intransitive verbs with objects" and to apply our findings to the study of contemporary Chinese and language learning.

The Morpho-Phonology-Semantics Interface in Modern Standard Arabic

The issue of the interface between linguistic components has got much interest in contemporary linguistics especially after the advancements that took place in the discipline of Conceptual Semantics. In essence, linguistics components have all been considered to be equal in terms of deriving meaning. In this article, the researcher scrutinized how the component of morpho-phonology interfaces with semantics. This aim was achieved through the analysis of intransitive verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, henceforth). It was found that intransitive verbs serve well in terms of demonstrating the interface between morpho-phonology and semantics. The morphological and phonological alternations of intransitive verbs result in changes in meaning. Cognition has a central role in generating causative verbs from intransitive ones.

ITERATIVENESS AS ONE OF THE TYPES OF PREDICATE PLURALITY OF SITUATIONS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE FOREST YUKAGHIRS

Актуальность данного исследования обусловлена тем, что в юкагирском языкознании глагол языка лесных юкагиров не был изучен с точки выражения функционально-семантической категории аспектуальности. Теоретико-методологической основой явились труды известных отечественных ученых в области аспектологии: Ю. С. Маслова, А. В. Бондарко, В. С. Храковского и др. Известно, что аспектуальность — функционально-семантическая категория, которая включает в себя взаимодействующие языковые средства (морфологические, словообразовательные, лексические и др.), служащих для передачи характера и распределения действия во времени. В настоящей статье впервые дается описание основных морфологических и лексических способов выражения одного из типов количественной аспектуальности в языке лесных юкагиров – итеративности. На основе фактического языкового материала делаются выводы, что для реализации итеративного значения используются специализированные морфологические (грамматические) и лексические средства. Определен основной грамматический инвентарь средств передачи итеративного значения в языке лесных юкагиров. Так, аффиксы -и-, -йи, -ийи-, -уйи- с итеративной семантикой являются универсальными, т. е. присоединяются к основам как переходных, так и непереходных глаголов. Показателями итеративности для непереходных глаголов являются аффиксы -й-, -сьии-, -(н)дьи-, -дьаа-, для переходных — -т-, -сь-. Итеративное значение передается и хабитуальными показателями. В языке лесных юкагиров при помощи суффиксов -ну-, -нун-, -нуну- выражается хабитуальное значение, т. е. регулярная или постоянная повторяемость действия, являющегося способностью, склонностью либо характерной чертой участника того или иного события. К лексическим средствам выражения идеи итеративности могут быть отнесены наречия времени типа пугэмэ ʽлетомʼ, йоулэмэ ʽвечеромʼ, идэй-нэдэ ʽиногдаʼ, послелоги типа чичкин ʽв течениеʼ, обозначающие повторяющиеся периоды времени; образа действия типа ускуом ʽобычноʼ, чуотэ ʽвсегдаʼ, обозначающие относительно регулярное повторение действия; наречия меры и степени типа атахлидьэ ʽдваждыʼ, ньингэльи-дьэ ʽмного раз, многождыʼ, обозначающие количество проявления действия. The relevance of this research is due to the fact that in Yukaghir linguistics the verb of the forest Yukaghir language has not been studied from the point of expression of the functional-semantic category of aspectuality. The theoretical and methodological basis was the works of famous Russian scientists in the field of aspectology: Yu. S. Maslova, A. V. Bondarko, V. S. Khrakovsky and others. It is known that aspectuality is a functional-semantic category that includes interacting linguistic means (morphological, word-formation, lexical, etc.) that serve to convey character and distribution actions in time. This article is the first to describe the main morphological and lexical ways of expressing one of the types of quantitative aspectuality in the language of the forest Yukaghirs — iteration. On the basis of the actual linguistic material, it is concluded that specialized morphological (grammatical) and lexical means are used to implement the iterative meaning. The main grammatical inventory of means of conveying iterative meaning in the language of the forest Yukaghirs has been determined. So, the affixes -yi, -ii-, -ui- with iterative semantics are universal, i.e. join the stems of both transitive and intransitive verbs. Indicators of iteration for intransitive verbs are the affixes -y-, -sii-, — (n) dy-, -dya-, for transitive — -t-, -s-. The iterative value is also conveyed by the habitual metrics. In the language of the forest Yukaghirs, the suffixes -nu-, -nun-, -nunu- are used to express the habitual meaning, i. e. regular or constant repetition of an action that is an ability, inclination, or a characteristic feature of a participant in an event. The lexical means of expressing the idea of iteration can include adverbs of time such as pugame ʽin summerʼ, youleme ʽeveningʼ, ideinede ʽsometimesʼ, postpositions such as chichkin ʽduringʼ, designating repeating periods of time; actions such as uskuom ʽusuallyʼ, chuote ʽalwaysʼ, denoting a relatively regular repetition of an action; adverbs of the measure and degree type as atahlid'e ʽtwiceʼ, n'ingel'id'e ʽmany timesʼ, denoting the number of manifestations of the action.

Mapping Verb Retrieval With nTMS: The Role of Transitivity

Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) is used to understand the cortical organization of language in preparation for the surgical removal of a brain tumor. Action naming with finite verbs can be employed for that purpose, providing additional information to object naming. However, little research has focused on the properties of the verbs that are used in action naming tasks, such as their status as transitive (taking an object; e.g., to read) or intransitive (not taking an object; e.g., to wink). Previous neuroimaging data show higher activation for transitive compared to intransitive verbs in posterior perisylvian regions bilaterally. In the present study, we employed nTMS and production of finite verbs to investigate the cortical underpinnings of transitivity. Twenty neurologically healthy native speakers of German participated in the study. They underwent language mapping in both hemispheres with nTMS. The action naming task with finite verbs consisted of transitive (e.g., The man reads the book) and intransitive verbs (e.g., The woman winks) and was controlled for relevant psycholinguistic variables. Errors were classified in four different error categories (i.e., non-linguistic errors, grammatical errors, lexico-semantic errors and, errors at the sound level) and were analyzed quantitatively. We found more nTMS-positive points in the left hemisphere, particularly in the left parietal lobe for the production of transitive compared to intransitive verbs. These positive points most commonly corresponded to lexico-semantic errors. Our findings are in line with previous aphasia and neuroimaging studies, suggesting that a more widespread network is used for the production of verbs with a larger number of arguments (i.e., transitives). The higher number of lexico-semantic errors with transitive compared to intransitive verbs in the left parietal lobe supports previous claims for the role of left posterior areas in the retrieval of argument structure information.

Reaffirming Māori negatives as verbs

Generative syntacticians often assume that sentential negatives in all languages are the content of a functional head Neg. Although negatives in many languages are amenable to such an analysis, negatives in certain Polynesian languages are not. This chapter first reviews the evidence presented by Hohepa (1969) and others that sentential negatives in Māori are lexical heads, either intransitive verbs or adjectives, which are the main predicate of a clause that excludes the negated clause. It then explores the question of why Māori negatives should differ from the crosslinguistic norm. The answer that is proposed appeals to syntactic-semantic typology and Māori prosody, and engages with the larger issue of how lexical and functional heads are realized in Polynesian languages.

On the nature of adjectives: evidence from Dinka

This paper presents a description of the adjective class in Dinka, and an exploration of its typological relevance to the existence of adjectives cross-linguistically. In Dinka, a subset of intransitive verbs can be defined by several morphophonological characteristics. The overwhelming majority of these are property concepts, despite the fact that the defining characteristics are unrelated to semantic properties. This suggests that property concepts provide a useful semantic context in the investigation of adjectives, even in languages where the adjective class is clearly a sub-class of another lexical category. While the analysis is based primarily on the Bor South dialect, it has been corroborated using evidence from other dialects. Therefore, it is likely that this characterization holds across the language.

Brain Regions Involved in Underlying Syntactic Processing of Mandarin Chinese Intransitive Verbs: An fMRI Study

According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis, intransitive verbs are divided into unaccusative and unergative ones based on the distinction of their syntactic properties, which has been proved by previous theoretical and empirical evidence. However, debate has been raised regarding whether intransitive verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be split into unaccusative and unergative ones syntactically. To analyze this theoretical controversy, the present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural processing of deep unaccusative, unergative sentences, and passive sentences (derived structures undergoing a syntactic movement) in Mandarin Chinese. The results revealed no significant difference in the neural processing of deep unaccusative and unergative sentences, and the comparisons between passive sentences and the other sentence types revealed activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG). These findings indicate that the syntactic processing of unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese is highly similar but different from that of passive verbs, which suggests that deep unaccusative and unergative sentences in Mandarin Chinese are both base-generated structures and that there is no syntactic distinction between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese.