Bare singulars and singularity in Turkish

This paper explores the semantics of bare singulars in Turkish, which are unmarked for number in form, as in English, but can behave like both singular and plural terms, unlike in English. While they behave like singular terms as case-marked arguments, they are interpreted number neutrally in non-case-marked argument positions, the existential copular construction, and the predicate position. Previous accounts (Bliss, in Calgary Papers in Linguistics 25:1–65, 2004; Bale et al. in Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 20:1–15, 2010; Görgülü, in: Semantics of nouns and the specification of number in Turkish, Ph.d. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2012) propose that Turkish bare singulars denote number neutral sets and that morphologically plural marked nouns denote sets of pluralities only. This approach leads to a symmetric correlation of morphological and semantic (un)markedness. However, in this paper, I defend a strict singular view for bare singulars and show that Turkish actually patterns with English where this correlation is exhibited asymmetrically. I claim that bare singulars in Turkish denote atomic properties and that bare plurals have a number neutral semantics as standardly assumed for English. I argue that the apparent number neutrality of bare singulars in the three cases arises via singular kind reference, which I show to extend to the phenomenon called pseudo-incorporation and a construction that I call kind specification. I argue that pseudo-incorporation occurs in non-case-marked argument positions following Öztürk (Case, referentiality, and phrase structure, Amsterdam, Benjamins, Publishing Company, 2005) and the existential copular construction, whereas kind specification is realized in the predicate position. The different behaviors of bare singulars in Turkish and English stem from the fact that singular kind reference is used more extensively in Turkish than in English. Furthermore, while there are well-known asymmetries between singular and plural kind reference cross-linguistically, Turkish manifests a more restricted distribution for bare plurals than English in the positions where pseudo-incorporation and kind specification are in evidence. I explain this as a blocking effect, specific to Turkish, by singular kind terms on plural kind terms.

Definiteness without determiners

The paper investigates conditions for the bare occurrence of noun phrases in the topic position of specificational copula clauses. It is shown that this is a predicate position for non-referential NPs. Specificational clauses in German are special because of the unusual alignment of the predicative position and the topic position. I show that the condition for the bare occurrence of NPs in this position is that the head noun denotes a functional concept. According to the theory of concept types by Löbner (2011), nouns denoting functional concepts are inherently relational and unique. I argue that relationality ensures the anchoring of bare NPs in the discourse via an anaphoric link to a bridging antecedent in previous discourse and qualifies them for being a topic in the sense of discourse-familiarity. The inherent uniqueness of functional concepts is the key to understanding why nouns denoting such concepts can occur bare without a definite article: Since the article in predicate NPs merely conveys uniqueness without referentiality as argued by Coppock & Beaver (2015) and functional nouns in predicate position are unique and non-referential, the definite article is redundant and can be omitted.

Clefting and nominal predication: Two focus-marking constructions in Movima

Movima (isolate, Bolivia) has two focus constructions that superficially look very similar. One is a simple clause with a noun in predicate position and a verb placed inside the argument phrase. Its pragmatically marked status stems from the inversion of the prototypical association of lexical and pragmatic categories. In the other construction, the predicative noun is additionally preceded by a free pronoun. This construction is a cleft, the pronoun and noun together constituting an equational matrix clause. The two constructions also differ in function: the simple clause with a nominal predicate is a simple predication, while the cleft is a specificational sentence.

Postposition-like constructions

There are a relatively small number of linguistic structures that seemingly consists of a noun expanded by a possessive suffix third-person singular and a locative, ablative, or instrumental case marker. They are used as adverbial phrases. The possessive element, however, has no antecedent, and that is why these constructions bear the semblance of postpositions more than that of real nouns. In particular, temporal constructions based on a noun denoting some moment, period, or duration behave like real postpositions in that they allow for indefinite and finite complements. Various postposition-like structures can also be used in predicate position and thus take a person marker. These constructions are typical for the description of mental states and mental content and of instances of intention, decision, and obligation.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES TEACHING METHODS: TEMPORAL VERB FORMS AND ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS OF TIME

The article deals with temporal verb forms in the predicate position identified in functional syntax as syntaxemes. The aim of the article is to analyze temporal verb forms in their correlation with adverbial modifiers of time, the latter forming another group of syntaxemes with a particular syntactic meaning. The tasks of classifying temporal syntaxemes, establishing their oppositional series and studying their distribution characteristics are performed by using the comparative analysis and the method of experiment. According to the authors, the approach to study verb forms in their immediate syntactic environment results in arousing students' considerable interest and contributes to their better translation skills.

THE SYNTAX OF NOVEL FIGURATIVE NAMES IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH: TYPOLOGICAL ASPECT

The study reveals the syntactic features of novel figurative names and nominal constructions in texts in application to typologically different Russian and English languages. The data obtained helped to clarify the role of predication in salience enhancement, which encompasses novel figurative names construal. We conducted the two-staged contrastive analysis, which allowed to detect several specific parameters and synchronization means demonstrating the typological diversity of the two languages. As it is the salience that serves as one of the basic factors of successful reference identification in terms of implicitness and figurativeness, the research results will play a role in explaining why indirect names are interpreted differently. At the first stage we applied the statistical analysis to detect typologically relevant characteristics of syntactic positioning in terms of novel figurative names and nominal constructions. At the second stage we developed the procedure of 54 and 56 parameter correlation analysis to synchronize the lexical, syntactic and narrative parameters with figurative names in subject and predicate positions. These correlations revealed a group of parameters activated in the English language and restricted in Russian. The subject salience parameters involve the use of substantiated attribute in pre-position, sentence final position with predicate in pre-position. The predicate salience parameters were hybrid morphological character of predicate indirect names, explicit exteroception in pre-position or in the name itself, characterizing focus of indirect names (metaphoric transfer). At the same type due to syntactically salient predicate position such indirect names could allow non-agentive event role and orthographic non-markedness.

Romance in Contact With Basque

The convergence between Basque and Romance is now largely unidirectional, with Basque becoming more like Romance, but shared features suggest that Basque had historically a considerable influence on the emerging Romance varieties in southern France and northern Iberia. Similar phonemic distinctions and phonetic realizations are found in adjacent Basque and Romance varieties, and sometimes beyond. The phoneme inventories of Basque and Castilian Spanish are largely identical. The Romance influence on Basque is most visible in the lexicon, as over half of the words used in everyday speech are of Latin or Romance origin. While the Basque contribution to the Romance lexicon of common nouns has been much more modest, some Basque anthroponyms have become very popular beyond the Basque Country. The integration of Latin verbs into the Basque lexicon triggered and then accelerated the switch to a tense-aspect system modeled on that of Romance. Like Spanish, the Basque varieties in Spain distinguish between two ‘be’-copulas, and two ‘have’-verbs. Certain types of relative clauses and passive constructions replicate Romance models, and a Basque mediopassive can be systematically translated into a Spanish clause with the pronoun se. The default constituent order of Basque is verb-final, but dependent clauses are often found in post-predicate position, matching the order found in Romance. While sharing many features with Romance varieties across southwestern Europe, Basque is closest to Castilian and Gascon, the two languages with which it has a long history of bilingualism and localized language shift.