Locative inversion in Germanic and Romance

This chapter investigates locative inversion (LI) in Germanic and Romance, a subject inversion involving a preposed locative expression. LI appears in two primary types: overt LI and covert LI, where a locative reading obtains without a preposed locative. Covert LI occurs in null-subject languages, where a covert locative argument satisfies formal subject requirements. English LI is always overt, yet French only allows covert LI with verbs of appearance. Furthermore, Romance permits embedded and matrix LI, but English prohibits the former. This chapter proposes that cross-linguistic variation follows from varying conspiracies of syntactic and pragmatico-semantic factors. Firstly, verbs of appearance select a locative covert experiencer, which satisfies the French EPP. Secondly, multiple formal ingredients interact in different distributions to produce various instantiations of LI: an EPP in TP, and the ability of locatives to check: the EPP (Dutch), Subject of Predication (Italian), EPP and SoP (French), and EPP and Topichood (English).

Point of View in Narrative

Point of view in narrative is a focal angle of seeing, hearing, smelling, and sensing the story’s settings, characters, and events. Researchers within the fields of language, linguistics and literature, assert that there are three main types of narrator: first-person, second-person, and third-person. The current paper depicts the three types, highlighting each in terms of aim, use, and potential for narrative effectiveness. Linking the paper to narrative stylistics, aspects and markers of point of view such as locative expression, thought and speech presentation, mind style, dis-narration, and modality are discussed. To examine point of view in narrative through discussing areas of relevance to the topic, the paper sheds light on socio-pragmatic and cognitive dimensions within narrative contexts. Finally, the paper concludes with a number of essential factors for shaping the construct of effective point of view in narrative.

The Divine Image and Human Destiny

This chapter explores Hilary of Poitiers’s use of “divine image” language. Through this investigation, this chapter demonstrates how Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology takes on a particular Christological form. For Hilary, Christ is the locative expression of normative divine-human relations, and this is uniquely articulated by Hilary within the context of Christ’s suffering and human experience, the most controversial aspect of his thought. This chapter also discusses Hilary’s view of the relationship of the body and soul. In these interrelated concepts of the divine-human image, the body and soul, and Christ’s suffering, Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology carries its prime polemical weight and yields perhaps its most creative theological constructs. Here Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology is both expressed and lived out in the human condition, so that the “image of the invisible God” not only reveals divinity to humanity, but humanity to itself. This chapter also provides an extensive discussion of Hilary’s appropriation of Stoic philosophy.

Nominal mismatches in Swahili locatives

According to Carstens (2008), Bantu locatives in general project double DPs. However, recent works have presented convincing evidence for a reduction in nominal size for Bantu locatives (Fuchs & van der Wal 2017, 2018). We argue that the actual size of nominals in Swahili, a language of the Bantu family, depends on the type of locative expression. In this regard, a mismatch in terms of nominal size is observed for Swahili. By means of analyzing such mismatches, we adopt the PP analysis as well as the stacked-n analysis suggested by Kramer (2015). In doing so, we demonstrate that there are two distinct ways of forming Swahili locatives. The first is to utilize a prepositional head, P (e.g., kwa), projected above a full nominal whereas the other is to make use of the head, n (e.g., -ni), projected within a reduced nominal. Such dissimilarity in constructing locatives, in turn, gives rise to mismatches in Swahili nominals.

Cechy składniowe i semantyczne 'dotąd'

Syntactic and Semantic Features of dotądThe paper discusses the expression dotąd. The author makes a distinction between contextual (endophoric) and consituational (exophoric) uses. The analysis is limited to the latter because exophoric uses allow for a locative and temporal interpretation. The author distinguishes two units of language: a pronoun which replaces a temporal or locative expression, and the relator dotąd, aż which indicates a temporal relation between the events described in component sentences.

Classifiers

Classifiers and noun classes are basic kinds of noun categorization devices. They fall into several subtypes depending on the morphosyntactic context of their realization; for instance, numeral classifiers appear in numerical expressions, possessive classifiers in possessive constructions, noun classifiers within a noun phrase, verbal classifiers on a verb or a predicate, and locative classifiers within a locative expression. They are restricted to constructions that require the presence of a particular kind of classifier morpheme whose choice is dictated by the semantic characteristics of the referent. The continuum of noun categorization devices is broad: from large sets of lexical numeral classifiers in the languages of Southeast Asia to the highly grammaticalized systems of noun classes in Bantu languages and of genders in Indo-European languages (see Genders and Noun Classes). They have a similar semantic basis, and one can develop from the other. A considerable amount of literature has appeared over the years on individual classifier types, especially numeral classifiers, with a focus on languages of Southeast Asia, and on noun classes, with less attention paid to other types.

On relative clauses and locative expressions in English existential sentences

In an influential paper, Fox & Thompson (1990) argue that the grammar of relative clauses in spoken American English is affected by interactive and cognitive factors pertaining to the communication situation. Existential sentences containing a relative clause as well as an overt locative expression figure prominently in their analysis. The present paper examines Fox & Thompson’s analysis of such sentences in the light of a wide range of data. It is shown that the generalizations they make on the basis of their limited corpus (25 tokens) rest on false premises. Their analysis fails to take account of some of the most salient properties inherent in existential sentences in all varieties of English; it also disregards relevant cross-linguistic data. An alternative analysis is offered.