The word as a unit of internal predictability

A long-standing problem in linguistics is how to define word. Recent research has focused on the incompatibility of diverse definitions, and the challenge of finding a definition that is crosslinguistically applicable. In this study I take a different approach, asking whether one structure is more word-like than another based on the concepts of predictability and information. I hypothesize that word constructions tend to be more “internally predictable” than phrase constructions, where internal predictability is the degree to which the entropy of one constructional element is reduced by mutual information with another element. I illustrate the method with case studies of complex verbs in German and Murrinhpatha, comparing verbs with selectionally restricted elements against those built from free elements. I propose that this method identifies an important mathematical property of many word-like structures, though I do not expect that it will solve all the problems of wordhood.

COMPOUND VERBS IN THE OSSETIAN AND PERSIAN LANGUAGES

Предметом настоящего исследования являются сложные глаголы осетинского и персидского языков в сравнительно-сопоставительном плане. Актуальность работы обусловлена несколькими факторами. Во-первых, это все возрастающий интерес отечественных и иранских лингвистов к современному состоянию двух языков разных ветвей иранской группы (осетинский язык является одним из двух живых представителей северо-восточной ветви, а персидский – относится к юго-западной подгруппе), один из которых в течение весьма длительного времени оторван от иранского мира, другой же в современном виде сложился в иранском языковом ареале; во-вторых, результаты сопоставления позволят по-новому подойти к некоторым нерешенным вопросам глагольных систем осетинского и персидского языков; в-третьих, выявление универсальных и уникальных характеристик осетинского и персидского глаголов актуально как для лингвистики данных языков, так и для методики их преподавания. В работе рассматриваются критерии выделения сложных глаголов в осетинском и персидском языках, их общие и уникальные структурно-семантические признаки. Детальному анализу подлежат именные компоненты сложных глаголов осетинского и персидского языков с точки зрения их морфологии, делается попытка уточнить границы осетинских сложных глаголов. В результате проведенного анализа автор пришел к выводу о том, что в осетинском языке именная компонента сложного глагола представлена большим числом частей речи, чем в персидском, хотя в большинстве случаев аналогичные значения выражены одинаковыми по составу конструкциями. В заключении намечаются вопросы, требующие дальнейшего и более тщательного рассмотрения. The subject of this research is complex verbs of the Ossetian and Persian languages in the comparative aspect. The relevance of the work is due to several factors. Firstly, it is the growing interest of domestic and Iranian linguists in the current state of the two languages of different branches of the Iranian group (Ossetian is one of the two living representatives of the northeastern branch, while Persian belongs to the southwestern subgroup), one of which has been for a long time divorced from the Iranian world, while another in its modern form has developed in the Iranian language area; secondly, the results of the comparison will allow to approach some unresolved issues of the verb systems of the Ossetian and Persian languages in a new way; thirdly, the identification of the universal and unique characteristics of the Ossetian and Persian verbs is relevant both for the linguistics of these languages and for the methods of teaching them. The work examines the criteria for identifying complex verbs in the Ossetian and Persian languages, their common and unique structural and semantic features; the nominal components of complex verbs of the Ossetian and Persian languages are the subject of a detailed analysis from the point of view of their morphology, an attempt to clarify the boundaries of the Ossetian complex verbs is also made. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that in the Ossetian language the nominal component of a complex verb is represented by a larger number of parts of speech than in Persian, although in most cases similar meanings are expressed by structures of the same composition. In the conclusion, issues that require further and more careful consideration are outlined.

The word as a unit of internal predictability

A long-standing problem in linguistics is how to define ‘word’. Recent research has focused on the incompatibility of diverse definitions, and the challenge of finding a definition that is cross-linguistically applicable (e.g. Haspelmath 2011; Gijn and Zúñiga 2014; Bickel and Zúñiga 2017; Tallman 2020). In this study I take a different approach, asking whether one structure is more word-like than another based on Shannon’s (1948) concepts of predictability and information. I hypothesise that word constructions tend to be more ‘internally predictable’ than phrase constructions, where internal predictability is the degree to which the entropy of one constructional element is reduced by mutual information with another element. I illustrate the method with case studies of complex verbs in German and Murrinhpatha, comparing verbs with selectionally restricted elements against those built from free elements. I propose that this method identifies an important mathematical property of many word-like structures, though I do not expect that it will solve all the problems of wordhood.

Verbs and Grammatical Idioms of Turkish Origin in the Epic Song the Wedding of Smailagić Meho by Avdo Međedović

This paper examines Turcisms, specifically verbs and grammatical idioms, in the epic “The wedding of Smailagić Meho” by Avdo Međedović. The analysis is aimed at identifying and exploring Turkish loan verbs and grammatical idioms in the epic, as well as establishing whether there are some examples of these Turcisms characteristics of the poetic voice-poet Međedović himself to be noted. In this paper, the analytic-synthetic and comparative methods of analysis were employed as the analytic tools. The verbs were categorized into two categories, based on their formation. The first group comprises the verbs with a Turkish infinitival or perfective root and the suffix -isati, while the second group comprises the verbs formed from Turkish nouns and the suffix -ati, -ovati, -iti. The structures treated as grammatical idioms in this paper contain either a Turkish noun or (rarely) an adjective and some Bosnian verb. Based on their formation, these structures correspond to Turkish complex verbs. The analysis results indicate that there is an abundance of grammatical idioms in the examined epic, many of which, however, are characteristics of the author himself.

УПОТРЕБЛЕНИЕ, ВСТРЕЧАЮЩЕЕСЯ В ВИДЕ СЛОВОСОЧЕТАНИЯ В ОБРАЗЦАХ ЗАПИСИ

Аталмыш мақалада ХV-ХVІІ ғасырларда түркі халықтары тілдеріне енген араб, парсы сөздерінің түркі жазба ескерткіштерінде сөз тіркесі түрінде қолданылу мәселесі қарастырылады. Сонымен қатар, бұл кезеңдегі түркі жазба тілдеріне тән белгілердің бірі – халық тіліне енбеген, көбінесе дерексіз ұғым атаулары болып келетін араб және парсы сөздерін де актив қолдану, бұл ретте әсіресе, араб-парсы сөздерінің түркі тілінің көмекші етістіктерімен тіркесуі арқылы күрделі етістік жасап пайдалану өте көп кездеседі. Мақалада,Өтеміс қажының «Шыңғыснамасы», «Әділ сұлтан» эпикалық жыры, Қадырғали Жалайыридің «Жамиғат-Тауарихы» және Әбілғазы Бахадүр ханның «Түркі Шежіресі» атты шығармалары талданады. Түйінді сөздер: түркі халықтары, сөз тіркесі, тұрақты тіркестер, жазба ескерткіштер. В данной статье рассматривается вопрос использования арабских и персидских слов, вошедших в языки тюркских народов в ХV-ХVІІ веках, в виде словосочетаний в тюркских письменных памятниках. Кроме того, одной из характерных особенностей тюркских письменных языков этого периода является активное употребление арабских и персидских слов, которые не вошли в народный язык, часто являются абстрактными понятиями, при этом особенно распространено использование сложных глаголов путем сочетания арабско–персидских слов с вспомогательными глаголами тюркского языка. В статье анализируются произведения отемиса кажы «Чингиснама», эпическая поэма «Адиль султан», «Жамигат-Тауарихи» Кадыргали Жалаири и «тюркская шежире» Абельгазы Бахадур хана. This article discusses the use of Arabic and Persian words that entered the languages of the Turkic peoples in the XV-XVII centuries, in the form of phrases in the Turkic written monuments. In addition, one of the characteristic features of the Turkic written languages of this period is the active use of Arabic and Persian words, which are not included in the popular language, are often abstract concepts, and the use of complex verbs by combining Arabic – Persian words with auxiliary verbs of the Turkic language is especially common. The article analyzes the works of Otemis kazha "Genghisnam", the epic poem "Adil Sultan"," Zhamigat-Tauarihi "by Kadyrgali Zhalairi and "Turkic shezhire" by Abelgazy Bahadur Khan.

Mediating functions and the semantics of noun incorporation

Noun incorporation is commonly thought to avoid the weak compositionality of compounds because it involves conjunction of an argument noun with the incorporating verb. However, it is weakly compositional in two ways. First, the noun’s entity argument needs to be bound or saturated, but previous accounts fail to adequately ensure that it is. Second, non-arguments are often incorporated in many languages, and their thematic role is available for contextual selection.We show that these two weaknesses are actually linked. We focus on the Kiowa language, which generally bars objects from incorporation but allows non-arguments. We show that a mediating relation is required to semantically link the noun to the verb. Absent a relation, the noun’s entity argument is not saturated, and the entire expression is uninterpretable. The mediating relation for non-objects also assigns it a thematic role instead of a postposition. Speakers can choose this role freely, subject to independent constraints from the pragmatics, syntax, and semantics.Objects in Kiowa are in fact allowed to incorporate in certain environments, but we show that these all independently involve a mediating relation. The mediating relation for objects quantifies over the noun and links the noun+verb construction to the rest of the clause. The head that introduces this relation re-categorizes the verb in the syntactic derivation. Essentially, we demonstrate two distinct mechanisms for noun incorporation.Having derived the distribution of Kiowa, we apply the same relations to derive constraints on English complex verbs and synthetic compounds, which exhibit most of the same constraints as Kiowa noun incorporation. We also look at languages with routine object incorporation, and show how the transitivity of the verb depends on whether the "Equation missing" head introducing the external argument assigns case to the re-categorized verb.

Korean verb-verb sequences

This chapter examines Korean V-V sequences where V1 ends with the infinitive suffix -e/a. These complexes correspond in part to Japanese V-V compounds and in part to Japanese Type 4 complex verbs. Like the former, Korean V1-e/a V2 sequences divide up into thematic and nonthematic subtypes, but it is shown that neither are compounds with single-word status, in contrast to a pattern of bare root V-V compounds attested but no longer productive in Modern Korean. It is argued that the thematic V1-e/a V2 pattern, widely analyzed as a serial-verb construction, is subject to a condition similar to Kageyama’s (1993) Transitivity Harmony Principle. However the condition is even stronger in Korean: not only must the two verbs agree with respect to presence or absence of an external argument, they must also match in lexical aspect or aktionsart.

Classification of complex verbs and the evolution of the compound verb in Marathi

Starting with examination of the contentious issue in Marathi grammar concerning the classification of morphologically complex verbs including Noun + Verb, Adverb + Verb, and Verb1?(nonfinite) + Verb2?(desinence), this chapter first proposes a set of criteria for distinguishing vector verbs from auxiliary verbs and thereby identifies a functionally coherent subgroup of compound verbs consisting of a main verb (V1) and a vector verb (V2). Discussion then moves on to the ontogeny of vector verbs in this type of compound verb (CV). Statistical evidence shows a steady increase in the CV to non-CV ratio along with an increase in the number of vector verbs. The qualitative and quantitative changes the CV has undergone in a diachronic process spanning over 700 years demonstrate that vector verbs are not eternal but are subject to change,?pace?Miriam Butt and her colleagues, who contend that light verbs are stable through time.

Lexical and semantic correlations of verbs with figurative-characterizing meaning in the Khakas and Altai languages (in Contrast with the Kipchak languages)

We study the correlations between figurative-characterizing verbs in Turkic languages of Siberia (Altai, Khakas) and Kipchak languages (Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Bashkir). In these languages, we distinguish a small ancient group of figurative stems common for all Turkic, and sometimes also Mongolian and Tungusic languages. In the Altai and Khakass languages, there are commonalities and differences in the formation of complex words from figurative bases both between these languages themselves and with Kipchak. One common trait of these languages is the simultaneous formation of figurative-characterizing verbs and their Aktionsart meaning defined by an auxiliary verb (in analytic word formation) or certain affixes: =y characterizes a state while =ŋda ~ =ŋna ~ =ŋnaa denotes an evenly distributed meaning of action. The =(а)y affix is also found in the Mongolian language while =ŋda ~ =ŋna ~ =ŋnaa is typical for the Siberian and Kipchak languages. The difference in the formation of complex verbs with figurative-characterizing meaning lies in the usage of different verb components: Alt. et= ‘to do’; Khak. tüs= ‘to go down’, pol= ‘to be’, it= ‘to do’ (rarely); Kyrg., Kaz. et= ‘to do’, ber= ‘to take’, qaq= ‘to knock’, etc. The analysis of correlations has shown their small number among complex words and greater number among synthetic words, with a high number of Mongolian loanwords common for Siberian and Kipchak languages. In figurative-characterizing verbs, most correlations found in Siberian languages (without those in Kipchak) are derived from all-Turkic stems. No Altai-Kipchak correlations without their presence in the Khakass language were found, while there are a few correlations with Kyrgyz language. Also, no Khakas-Kipchak correlations were detected.

On the encoding of negation by Source prefixes and the satellite-/verb-framed distinction

This paper deals with Talmy’s (2000) typological distinction between satellite- and verb-framed systems by comparing the expression of negative meaning through Source prefixes in Latin and Spanish complex verbs. In particular, the claim is made that the different scope relations established between the Source prefixes and the verb root in each language are the reflection of their different typological nature. The core proposal is that Latin Source prefixes lexicalize a Path head that defines a phase, whereas the Path head lexicalized by the Spanish Source prefix is not phase-defining. This has consequences on the timing of Spell-Out as well as on the position in which roots are merged, which naturally accounts for the distinct lexicalization patterns shown by these prefixed constructions in both languages. The negative meaning of Source prefixes, in turn, is derived from the context in which they are embedded.