Intonation and Prosody in Creole Languages: An Evolving Ecology

Research on the prosody and intonation of creole languages has largely remained an untapped resource, yet it is important for enriching our understanding of how or if their phonological systems changed or developed under contact. Further, their hybrid histories and current linguistic ecologies present descriptive and analytical treasure troves. This has the potential to inform many areas of linguistic inquiry including contact effects on the typological classification of prosodic systems, socioprosodic variation (individual and community level), and the scope of diversity in prosodic systems among creole languages and across a variety of languages similarly influenced by language contact. Thus, this review highlights the importance of pushing beyond questions of creole language typology and genetic affiliation. I review the existing research on creole language prosody and intonation, provide some details on a few studies, and highlight some key challenges and opportunities for the subfield and for linguistics in general.

Key Noun + Noun Collocations in the Language of Tourism: A Corpus-Based Study of English and Serbian

In this paper, we investigate the main characteristics underlying noun + noun collocations in the English and Serbian language of tourism. Their morpho-syntactic, semantic and communicative features are contrasted and compared in the two languages. Firstly, we compiled two comparable corpora in English and Serbian from the tourism websites of Great Britain and Serbia. Based on their normalized frequencies per 10,000 words, key noun + noun collocations were extracted, using TermoStat Web 3.0 and AntConc. The results showed certain similarities in terms of the prevailing topics in the two corpora, based on the analysis of key noun + noun collocations. However, we found major differences in the two languages in terms of their morpho-syntactic features, communicative focus and the relationship of the collocates. The results of the study have implications for English for Tourism education, tourism discourse studies, language typology and lexicography.

Translating Prepositions from Russian Legal Texts Into English: An Analysis of the Corresponding Interference Zones for Teaching Purposes

Various aspects of prepositions translation have been primarily investigated in the framework of translation theory. Applied research is mostly focused on translating particular groups of prepositions against the background of plain language. Legal translation researchers have not yet comprehensively analysed peculiarities of translating Russian prepositions used in legal texts into English. The paper is an attempt to investigate the difficulties which Russian learners can encounter when translating prepositions from Russian commercial contracts into English. Methods employed include language typology comparison, continuous sampling technique, language corpus data analysis as applied to language error forecast and prevention. The material selected for analysis – Russian commercial contracts – is chosen in accordance with the principles of professionalism, globalization, specialisation as well as graduates’ employment opportunities. The author develops a classification of prepositions drawing upon their structural, grammar and semantic functions in the texts of Russian commercial contracts. The findings reveal negative interference zones that can potentially cause preposition errors. Feasibility of the forecast is confirmed by the analysis of real learners’ errors. The research concludes that modelling legal translation teaching which takes into account potential interference zones for students can contribute to shifting focus to problem zones while teaching, raising students’ awareness, and therefore acting as propedeutics of the corresponding errors.

Dative experiencers with nominal predicates in Romanian: a synchronic and diachronic study

This article investigates the evolution of the Romanian pattern [dative clitic + ‘be’ + N] (cf. Mi-e foame, lit. me.dat=is hunger, ‘I’m hungry’) from the 16th century until present-day Romanian. This pattern traces back to the Latin mihi est construction (lit. me.dat is), but is semantically more restricted than its Latin ancestor in that it can only express a physiological or psychological state. The aim of our study is to examine to what extent the dative experiencer behaves like a subject and the noun denoting a state like a predicate. We argue that, although certain subject diagnostics raise problems in Romanian, due to the obligatoriness of clitics and the scarcity of controlled infinitives, this pattern is clearly an instance of non-canonical subject marking with quirky dative case. The tendency toward expansion of this construction in present-day Romanian contradicts the hypothesis proposed in language typology according to which non-canonical subject marking tends to recede in favor of canonical marking in European languages.

English and Spanish

This volume compares the evolution and current status of two of the world's major languages, English and Spanish. Parallel chapters trace the emergence of Global English and Spanish and their current status, covering aspects such as language and dialect contact, language typology, norm development in pluricentric languages, and identity construction. Case studies look into the use of English and Spanish on the internet, investigate mixed and alternating lects, as well as ongoing change in Spanish-speaking minorities in the US. The volume thus contributes to current theoretical debates and provides fresh empirical data. While offering an in-depth treatment of the evolution of English and Spanish to the reader, this book introduces the driving factors and the effects of the emergence of world languages in general and is relevant for researchers and students of sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and typology alike.

ИНОВАЦИОННИ ПРОЦЕСИ В СЪВРЕМЕННАТА ГРАМАТИКА НА АНГЛИЙСКИЯ ЕЗИК (С ОГЛЕД НА ТЕХНИТЕ ВЪЗМОЖНИ ПАРАЛЕЛИ В БЪЛГАРСКИЯ ЕЗИК) / PROCESSES OF INNOVATION IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH GRAMMAR (IN VIEW OF THEIR POSSIBLE PARALLELS IN BULGARIAN)

The paper explores some processes of innovation in present-day English grammar in view of the typological features, the historical development and the present status of English as the language of global communication. Some innovations can be observed within the noun phrase and the verb phrase that have to do mostly with changes in the properties of nouns and verbs in relation to particular grammatical categories. The ana-lysis also focuses on a particular structural pattern of the English noun phrase consisting of a sequence of nouns joined without the use of prepositions. Within a longer time span, a number of innovations can be noticed that are related to the process of grammaticalization. Special emphasis is placed on the tendency towards implicitness and compression of the linguistic expression, which is typical of present-day English. The study also discusses innovations associated with the current status of English as a global language that have to do mostly with the expanded application of grammatical rules and the minimization of exceptions. The most general conclusion of the study highlights the continuous tendency towards the simplification of English grammar in the context of the historical development of the language as well as its present state. Keywords: language typology, innovations in language, present-day English gram-mar, noun phrase, verb phrase, grammaticalization, Global English, English-Bulgarian parallels

Mechanism of Valence Change in Mandailing Language: Linguistics Typology

This paper described the mechanism of valence change in Mandailing language. The concept of valence refers to the number of arguments a verb that serves as a predicate in a clause can present. Changing the valence of verbs in Mandailing through a causative process causes the verbs to experience an increase in valence. This study was included a qualitative descriptive study, in which the method is a study of language typology and the data analyzed based on the problems discussed using the method Agih. The results of the data analysis of this study are presented using an informal method in the form of explanation or exposure using ordinary words or verbal language. The determinants used by this method are the language elements in the Mandailing language. The purpose of this study was to find what types of verbs in the Mandailing language can experience changes in valence, symptoms, and their process of change, and the semantic role of these verbs. The data analysis from this study was obtained through the observation method and the proficient method with informants; based on the results of the analysis, it can be concluded that changes in the valence of the Mandailing language occur mainly in intransitive, transitive, transitive verbs, which are grouped into symptoms that cause valence reduction and valence expansion. This study is also expected to inspire some researchers interested in the mechanism of valence change in Mandailing language, either micro or macro.

Language typology and statistics

Statistical methods are presented to a linguistics audience. Statistical methods are then applied to the large WALS dataset to show that automated methods can identify patterns among language features. These results are shown to be more extreme than one would expect based on chance variation. Furthermore, it is shown numerically that language features exhibit spatial autocorrelation which needs to be taken into account when using numerical methods.