Morpho-Semantic of Predicate in Indonesian

Semantically, a predicate is not always filled in by verbs. This study aims to discover and describe the predicate category and the number of arguments each predicate has in the Indonesian language. This study's data were taken from informants and the daily newspaper 'Bali Post'. The collected data were analyzed by applying deductive and inductive approaches. The result shows that Indonesian's predicate can be filled in by verb and non-verb categories: noun, adjective, preposition, and numeral. The predicate of the Indonesian sentences can be classified into the valency-one predicate, valency-two predicate, and valency-three predicate. Besides, there are several intransitive and transitive predicates in the Indonesian language, followed by a clause. Each of those finding is explained in detail in this article.

The Acquisition of Noun and Verb Categories by Bootstrapping From a Few Known Words: A Computational Model

While many studies have shown that toddlers are able to detect syntactic regularities in speech, the learning mechanism allowing them to do this is still largely unclear. In this article, we use computational modeling to assess the plausibility of a context-based learning mechanism for the acquisition of nouns and verbs. We hypothesize that infants can assign basic semantic features, such as “is-an-object” and/or “is-an-action,” to the very first words they learn, then use these words, the semantic seed, to ground proto-categories of nouns and verbs. The contexts in which these words occur, would then be exploited to bootstrap the noun and verb categories: unknown words are attributed to the class that has been observed most frequently in the corresponding context. To test our hypothesis, we designed a series of computational experiments which used French corpora of child-directed speech and different sizes of semantic seed. We partitioned these corpora in training and test sets: the model extracted the two-word contexts of the seed from the training sets, then used them to predict the syntactic category of content words from the test sets. This very simple algorithm demonstrated to be highly efficient in a categorization task: even the smallest semantic seed (only 8 nouns and 1 verb known) yields a very high precision (~90% of new nouns; ~80% of new verbs). Recall, in contrast, was low for small seeds, and increased with the seed size. Interestingly, we observed that the contexts used most often by the model featured function words, which is in line with what we know about infants' language development. Crucially, for the learning method we evaluated here, all initialization hypotheses are plausible and fit the developmental literature (semantic seed and ability to analyse contexts). While this experiment cannot prove that this learning mechanism is indeed used by infants, it demonstrates the feasibility of a realistic learning hypothesis, by using an algorithm that relies on very little computational and memory resources. Altogether, this supports the idea that a probabilistic, context-based mechanism can be very efficient for the acquisition of syntactic categories in infants.

Remapping variable subject position in Spanish intransitives

In Spanish, a SVO language with variable word order, post-verbal subjects have been proposed to be favored for particular verb categories. For instance, based on agentivity, unaccusatives are proposed to favor VS as a whole. Motion verbs are regarded as unaccusatives generally favoring VS order. An alternative analysis is presented here, using data from two conversational corpora. Motion verbs are recategorized based on their predicted tendency to include adverbials in the sentence and compared with other unaccusatives. Motion verbs are divided according to their Deictic Function (Talmy 2000) into “come” verbs (i.e., “motion-toward-the-center,” that is, the speaker), and “go” verbs. “Come” verbs do not often require target specification through an adverbial, whereas “go” verbs do. Adverbials were found to appear as post-verbal path specification in “go” verbs; due to weight factors, such specifiers favor pre-verbal subjects. Importantly, even when no modifier is present, trends persist, suggesting entrenchment of usage patterns.

Verb-Verb Complexes in Asian Languages

This volume presents a detailed survey of the systems of verb-verb complexes in Asian languages from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. Many Asian languages share, to a greater or lesser extent, a unique class of compound verbs each consisting of a main verb and a quasi-auxiliary verb known as a ‘vector’ or ‘explicator’. These quasi-auxiliary verbs exhibit unique grammatical behavior that suggests that they have an intermediate status between full lexical verbs and wholly reduced auxiliaries. They are also semantically unique, in that when they are combined with main verbs, they can convey a rich variety of functional meanings beyond the traditional notions of tense, aspect, and modality, such as manner and intensity of action, benefaction for speaker or hearer, and polite or derogatory styles in speech. In this book, leading specialists in a range of Asian languages offer an in-depth analysis of the longstanding questions relating to the diachrony and geographical distribution of verb-verb complexes. The findings have implications for the general understanding of the grammaticalization of verb categories, complex predicate formation, aktionsart and event semantics, the morphology-syntax-semantics interface, areal linguistics, and typology.

Some thoughts on the Slavic verbal system (a typological approach)

This paper deals with the essential verb categories - the grammatical categories of tense, aspect and mode, as well as with actionality as a lexical and functional category. These categories coexist in the Slavic languages in manifold correlations, determined by the type of language. The paper is focused on tense as the central verb category. In the first part, there is a typological approach to the Slavic verbal system proposed, as a base for its systematic functional description and interpretation. Two prototypes of the verbal system in Slavia can be postulated - a southern and a northern one. The Slavic languages of the Balkan linguistic area (Sprachbund) - Bulgarian and Macedonian - belong to the southern prototype, while the East Slavic languages and Polish belong to the northern prototype. The remaining Slavic languages represent various transitional phases from one prototype to the other. The actual version of the model offered in this paper is synchronically based, but the diachronic approach is considered indispensable for an adequate modelling of the Slavic verbal system. In this context, the paper presents some critical remarks on the modern Slavic grammaticography, with key focus on its methodological and theoretical basis. The last part of the paper presents some approaches to and interpretations of the tense category in some selected recent works.

The translation of reporting verbs in Italian

This paper reports on a study of reporting verbs in the Harry Potter series and their translation in Italian. It offers quantitative and qualitative perspectives on how the English verbs have been translated by two Italian translators, who worked on different books of the series. This study first analyses verb usage across the three protagonists of the series (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) in English and Italian; then, it employs Caldas-Coulthard’s (1987) taxonomy of reporting verbs and compares verb categories between source and target texts to identify tendencies in the translation of this textual feature. It finally discusses the stylistic implications of translation alterations and their potential effect on character development. As such, this paper contributes not only to the limited literature on reporting verbs in translation (especially in Italian), but it also furthers the understanding of the role of reporting verbs as a characterisation device.

Paradigm of actional sentences in Khanty and Nenets

Actional sentences describe certain ways in which the subjects affect the objects while the object's position in space does not change. The plane of content is the actional proposition, which contains the three necessary components, namely the subject, the object, and the predicate; the plane of expression is the model of the elementary simple sentence where the object position is prototypically expressed by a name in accusative. In the Khanty and Nenets languages, the actional elementary simple sentences tend to express the same types of relations but differ in their potential for paradigmatic variation. In Tundra Nenets, the communicative variants are related to variation in the choice of accusative, nominative, dative, or instrumental cases in order to express the thematic or rhematic objects and instruments/addressees. In the Kazym dialect of the Khanty language, the accusative form is only used in the system of pronominal declination; in the object position, nouns in nominative case are used. Therefore, to express the thematic-rhematic articulation, verb categories of conjugation (opposition of subject and object conjugation types) are used, as well as genus, because the case system is contracted. In the Nenets language, the communicative paradigm is related to the variation in name categories, whereas in Khanty, it is related to variation in verb categories.

VOICE PROBLEMS: VOICE AS A GRAMMATICAL ABSTRACTION (A RUSSIANBULGARIAN JUXTAPOSITION)

It is well-known that voice as a grammatical abstraction is one of the oldest verb categories that can be found in languages around the globe. Even in Egyptian (from 3200 BC) and Akkadian (from 3000 BC) one can find grammatical expressions of this abstract notion which signifies its coming before the separation of tense from aspect. One could also observe a reflection of classical models over time on Russian and Bulgarian grammatical systems in the 19th century. Closely related to the category of voice in Russian and Bulgarian is the division of verbs into transitive and intransitive. The presented opposition is inherent to many language families but it can function and be expressed differently in various languages. In this study the opposition is not understood as a phenomenon of categorical nature – they are not categories but oppositions based on different signs or properties. Additionally, a mention is made of the opinion held by some linguists that the opposition transitivity ~ intransitivity is justified by certain lexico-semantic word-forming and grammatical peculiarities of verbs. Voice as a grammatical category in Russian, just like case, occupies an intermediate position between morphology and syntax which makes it necessary for a wider investigation.

COMPARING VOICE AND ASPECT CATEGORIES IN OROCHON AND EVENKI

Comparing voice and aspect categories in Orochon and EvenkiThe current article presents the results of examining the Orochon voice and aspect verb categories, their meaning and forming patterns. First, The dataresulting from the comparison of Orochon and Evenki verb categories reveal considerable similarity of the grammatical systems of the two closely related languages. First, voice category analysis demonstrates its general similarity. The reflexive voice not previously registered in the Orochon language, according to our field materials, is present there. The grammatical category of voice in the compared languages is formed by means of affixes; the affix forms mostly correlate with the exception of the imperative and cooperative voice where interchange of sounds is found within the affixes. Secondly, aspect types do not correspond in the two languages. Five aspect types demonstrate the correlation in meaning and formation. Nevertheless, each language has aspects which are notpresented in the other. The affixes of the same aspect types are generally equivalent. However, some aspect forms demonstrate vowel or consonant alternations within the affixes. Finally, larger spectrum of affixes characteristic for the corresponding verb patterns should be noted in Evenki compared to Orochon.