A comparative and diachronic analysis of film title translations and appellative effect transfer into Croatian and German

Studies of film title translations remain scant to this day. The existing studies mainly focus on investigating the sources of difficulties during the translation process. Although the studies employ different analytical approaches, the conclusion in almost all investigations is that the decisive objective during the translation process is the transfer or production of the appellative effect. This study investigates which strategies are employed during translation into Croatian and German and why, as well as possible diachronic changes in the choice of translation strategies. We created a corpus of 935 film titles from 1923 to 2017 and their translations into Croatian and German, which we first classified as either direct translations, free translations, transcreations or transcriptions, and finally we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed the data. Our results show significant differences between the two subcorpora in the choice of translation strategies and motivation, as well as in the patterns of diachronic change. Furthermore, correlations with specific cultural-historical processes are observed.

A semantic typology of location, existence, possession and copular verbs: areal patterns of polysemy in Mainland East and Southeast Asia

This study is based on a sample of 116 languages from the Mainland East and Southeast Asian linguistic area. Its first objective is to examine four distinct synchronic patterns of areal polysemy, created by the semantic domains of copular, locative, existential and possessive verbs and the constructions they form. As a consequence, its second objective is to model the diachronic change underlying four language types identified on this basis from the data. We argue that there are three grammaticalization pathways which motivate the four synchronic patterns: Type III languages are distinguished by the grammaticalization chain: (Postural verb) > (Dwell) > Locative > Existential > Possessive, while the other two types, Type II and Type IV, show an opposing pathway: (Grasp) > Possessive > Existential. Type I and Type II languages additionally reveal a recurrent polysemy between Locative and Copular verbs. On this basis, an implicational universal is adduced to the effect that no diachronic adjacency exists between locative and possessive constructions. Crucially, the intervening stage of an existential construction provides the necessary bridging context for possessive reanalysis in this first pathway, while possessive verbs are formally distinct from locatives in the second, bearing no diachronic relationship to them. The findings on the patterns of polysemy sharing reinforce the notion of a clear typological split between Tibeto-Burman languages on the one hand, and Sinitic, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic on the other.

Multispecies Pasts and the Possibilities of Multispecies Futures in the Age of the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene emerges as an aftermath of the long-held, pervasive belief in human exceptionalism, and a wake-up call to reconsider our being in the world as entangled with a plethora of other living selves. Along with ecological and social challenges facing all life on Earth, the very boundaries between Nature and Culture, biological and social, human and nonhuman are being destabilized. From an archaeological perspective, particularly relevant is the understanding of diachronic change through shifting webs of interspecies relations (sensu Tsing). By engaging with various strands of thought within archaeology, anthropology, ecology and ethology, this paper aims to offer a more inclusive, multispecies view of the past. Ultimately, a consideration of human and nonhuman histories as entangled, bears important implications for multispecies futures.

Introduction to Part I

This introductory chapter give an overview of dress objects from the Roman and late antique periods in Egypt and provides insights into their social function and meaning. It first surveys the site provenances of the dress objects in the Petrie Museum collection, and discusses particular issues that arise in their study (for instance, the use of material from grave assemblages to study dress). The wider range of dress objects in the Petrie museum collection is then surveyed, drawing out examples of notable artefacts that provide insights into important social phenomena in Egypt across the period studied. A strong relationship between dress objects and various stages of the life course is demonstrated, further explored elsewhere in Part I. Other notable insights relate to diachronic change in the construction of life course identities, the embodiment of identities through jewellery that was worn permanently, and the Roman discourse of beauty and adornment as represented in objects like hairdressing equipment. Questions of value, including jewellery as a store of wealth, and the different types of value demonstrated through evidence of wear and repair, are also discussed. Evidence of cosmopolitan societies is presented, especially resulting from the posting of military troops to Egypt. This comprises not only military brooches but also dress objects of Germanic origin such as dress pins and bucket pendants. The changing, context-dependent meaning of jewellery from Egypt with Christian themes and motifs is the final topic, discussing its multiple significance as material embodiment of faith, protective amulet, and expression of religious identity.

Language history on fast forward: Innovations in heritage languages and diachronic change

There has been a substantial amount of research on heritage language acquisition and diachronic change. Although recent work has increasingly pointed to parallels between those two areas, it remains unclear how systematic these are. In this paper, we provide a bird's eye view, illustrating how patterns of diachronic change are mirrored in heritage language grammars. In doing so, we focus on one of the best-described grammaticalization processes – namely, the formation of articles from demonstratives and numerals, reviewing studies on heritage varieties which mirror those processes. Based on this review, we make two main points: that change in heritage language can be predicted based on established diachronic scenarios, and that heritage languages often amplify incipient changes in the baseline. After discussing a number of attested changes in a bilingual context, we identify directions for future research in the domain of determiners in heritage languages.

What does solid spelling reveal about cognition? Evidence from Middle Low German

This paper investigates the diachronic evolution of lexically complex graphemic units in Middle Low German – sequences that once occurred written as one word, but from today’s perspective are considered separate linguistic units. Examples are enwolde ‘did not want’ or isset ‘is it’. This phenomenon has received little attention, although it gives direct insight into the word concept of German and its diachronic change. The central question is what favors the perception of multiple words as a unit. Data from the Reference Corpus Middle Low German/Low Rhenish (1200–1650) show that it is mainly function words that occur in lexically complex graphemic units. Moreover, this study shows that besides from prosodic patterns, agreement and government relations reinforce lexical sequences to be perceived as linguistic units.

Loss of intersective gradience as the lifeboat of a dying construction. An analysis of the diachronic change of causative bring

This paper focusses on diachronic processes which lead to the disambiguation between different constructions involving the same verb. It follows the development of bring as a periphrastic causative over the course of the Early Modern and Late Modern English periods and compares it to the development of other bring constructions. In a corpus-based analysis, it utilizes measures of cue strength as well as collostructional analysis to determine whether reflexive objects, negation, modals or the passive are cues strongly associated with the dying periphrastic causative X bring cause Y to-inf. Results indicate that the construction indeed increasingly attracts reflexive objects in combination with a modal or negation. This finding is interpreted as an indication that non-prototypical verbal properties developing into strong cues for a construction may serve to make a rare construction more salient and thus easier to recognize and process. Furthermore, the construction’s restriction to reflexive patients vastly reduces variability in the object slot.

Greek and Roman Slaving in Comparative Ancient Perspective

This chapter surveys the evidence for dependent labour in the Ancient Near East, particularly in the state or institutional sector of the economy, comparing the findings to pertinent institutions and structures known from the Graeco-Roman world. There is a focus on diachronic change within the Ancient Near East, where the role of dependent labour evolved significantly over time. The chapter highlights similarities as well as differences and points to some pathways for causation. The ‘traditional’ image (often associated with views expressed by Moses Finley) of the Ancient Near East as being characterized by a labour regime relying nearly exclusively on compelled dependent (but not slave) labour and thus being fundamentally different from ‘the’ Graeco-Roman world is nuanced considerably.