Hyvin edessä, ihan yläpuolella, melkein vierellä – Mitä astemääritteet kertovat akseligrammien semantiikasta

Abstrakti. Projektiiviset grammit (kieliopilliset sanat, esimerkiksi edessä, oikealla, yläpuolella) asemoivat muuttujan (Figure) kolmiulotteiseen koordinaatistoon, jonka suhteutuskohtana on kiintopiste (Ground). Grammeilla on lisäksi skalaarisia merkityksiä, joita voidaan korostaa astemääritteiden avulla. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan suomen projektiivisten grammien esiintymismahdollisuuksia astemääritteiden kanssa, jotka ilmaisevat joko avointa (melko, hyvin) tai sulkeista skaalaa (melkein, aivan). Tarkastelussa erottuu kolme astemääritteen ja grammin yhteisesiintymän päätyyppiä. Tyypissä (1) muuttuja sijaitsee säiliömäisen kiintopisteen (kuten rakennuksen) sisäpuolella. Skalaarinen merkitys perustuu tällöin muuttujan vähenevään etäisyyteen kiintopisteen yhdestä sisärajasta (esimerkiksi seinästä): mitä lähempänä muuttuja sijaitsee rajaa, sitä korkeampi skalaarisuus (Istuin teatterissa melko edessä ~ ihan vasemmalla). Tyypissä (1) esiintyy niin avoimen kuin sulkeisen skaalan astemääritteitä. Kahdessa muussa päätyypissä muuttuja sijaitsee kiintopisteen ulkopuolella, ja skalaarisuus perustuu joko (2) muuttujan ja kiintopisteen välisen etäisyyden vähenemiseen (Auto seisoi ihan ’välittömästi’ oven edessä) tai (3) muuttujan skalaarisesti vähenevään poikkeamaan koordinaatiston jostain akselista (Lamppu riippui melkein ~ täsmälleen ’suoraan’ pöydän yläpuolella). Tyypeissä (2) ja (3) esiintyy vain sulkeisen skaalan astemääritteitä. Abstract. Tuomas Huumo: What degree modifiers reveal about the meaning of Finnish spatial grams? Projective spatial grams (‘in front of’, ‘to the right of’, ‘above’) localize Figure (F) in a three-dimensional coordinate system with Ground (G) as its origin. This paper addresses the compatibility of Finnish projective grams with degree modifiers (DM). DMs comprise two types: a) open-scale DMs (‘somewhat’, ‘rather’, ‘very’) and b) closed-scale DMs (‘almost’, ‘quite’, ‘completely’). Three types of scalar meaning are observed. The first one (1) applies when F is inside G, and the scalar conceptualization is based on a decreasing distance between F and one extremity of the inside of G. In type (1), both open- and closed-scale DMs are felicitous. The two other types concern situations in which F is outside G and the scalar meaning is based on either (2) a decreasing distance between F and G or (3) an increasing preciseness of F’s alignment on an axis. In (2) and (3), only closed-scale DMs are felicitous. Kokkuvõte. Tuomas Huumo: Mida kõnelevad astmemäärused soome keele projektiivsete grammide tähenduse kohta? Projektiivsed grammid (‘ees’, ‘paremal’, ‘kohal’) lokaliseerivad kujundi (Figure) kolmemõõtmelises koordinaatsüsteemis, mille alguspunktiks on taust (Ground). Artiklis analüüsitakse soome keele projektiivsete grammide koosesinemise võimalusi kaht tüüpi astmemäärustega: a) avatud skaala astmemäärused (intensiivsusmäärused, nt ‘natuke’, ‘üsna’, ‘väga’) ja b) suletud skaala astmemäärused (täielikkusastme määrused, nt ‘peaaegu’, ‘täiesti’). Autor eristab kolme astmemääruse ja grammi koosesinemise põhitüüpi. Tüübis (1) asub kujund kolmemõõtmelise tausta seespool. Skalaarne tähendus põhineb kujundi ning tausta siseruumi ühe serva vahelise kauguse vähenemisel: mida lähemal paikneb kujund servale, seda kõrgem on skalaarsus (nt ‘Istusin teatris üsna ees ~ päris vasakul’). Tüübis (1) esinevad nii avatud kui suletud skaala astmemäärused. Ülejäänud kahes tüübis paikneb kujund väljaspool tausta, ning skalaarsus põhineb kas (2) kujundi ja tausta vahelise kauguse vähenemisel (nt ‘Auto seisis peaaegu ~ täitsa ukse ees’) või (3) kujundi asendi väheneval kõrvalekaldel koordinaatsüsteemi teatud teljest (nt ‘Lamp rippus peaaegu ~ täpselt laua kohal’). Tüüpides (2) ja (3) esinevad ainult suletud skaala astmemäärused.

Subjective evaluation of socio-economic situation of residents of the South Bohemian Region and factors impacting it

In our entry we focus on subjective evaluation of the socio-economic situation of residents of the South Bohemian Region. We explore and describe factors as well as contexts contributing to such subjective evaluations. The research was conducted via a survey, which made use of a self-designed questionnaire consisting of primarily closed scale questions focusing on areas including evaluating the socio-economic situation, the ability to manage own income. The sample consisted of 700 questionnaires. The results of the research show that 43.4% of respondents have average income management skills and that the ability to manage income is statistically independent from age, education level, or sex of the respondent. Employment also does not statistically influence the ability. As part of subjective evaluation of poverty/wealth, the respondents feel to be middle class (29.1%), the extremes were selected seldomly. Only one percent evaluated their situation as poverty; 0.1% saw perceived themselves as wealthy.

Copulas in Spanish: Scalar structure and interpretive economy

This article analyzes the distribution of the copulas ser and estar in Spanish, based on a scalar theoretical framework. The main proposal is that their distribution can be captured in terms of the scalar structure of the predicates involved and the presence of cognitive salient points on those scales. The proposed framework centers around ser predicates involving a single degree on the scale, while those with estar involve an interval, which additionally must involve an onset, or salient point. This analysis has two advantages. First, it accounts for subjects and closed-scale adjective pairs not being able to alternate between ser or estar. The endpoints present on closed-scales act as strong salient points that, based on the Principle of Interpretive Economy, require that the copula estar is used if it can. Second, this analysis also accounts for the distribution of estar with open-scale predicates and explains why adjectives like famoso ‘famous’ or rico ‘rich’ are virtually absent from estar predications, despite having the appropriate temporal reading. Cognitive salient points are also responsible for generating the appropriate scalar interval required for estar predications, although their being weaker than endpoints on closed-scales does not require estar be the only copula available. The article also accounts for the nature of these onsets on open-scale adjectives and provides a diagnostic tool to determine which adjectives have them, and consequently can appear in estar predications.

On degree minimizers in Spanish

The goal of this paper is to provide both a description and an explanation of the combination of minimizers (ligeramente 'slightly') with gradable adjectives in Spanish. According to Kennedy & McNally (2005) these elements are degree items that are sensitive to the scalar structure of adjectives and are combined with closed scale, minimum standard adjectives. Unexpected combinations, according to this semantics, are considered as cases of coercion. In this paper we propose that minimizers create derived adjectives. They are modifiers of the adjective's granularity, which allow the selection of the standard of comparison to take into account a greater number of degree distinctions. From this proposal, this article shows that unexpected combinations of ligeramente with gradable adjectives, such as un cine ligeramente lleno ‘a slightly crowded cinema’, can be explained without the need to propose that a coercion process takes place.

Semantic constraint on preposition incorporation of postverbal locative PPs in Mandarin Chinese

Other than subcategorized argument locative PPs (e.g. 放在桌子上 fàng zài zhuōzi-shàng ‘put on the table’), the postverbal position in Modern Mandarin Chinese can only be filled by limited types of adjunct locative prepositional phrases (e.g. 跳在桌子上 tiào zài zhuōzi-shàng ‘jump onto the table’). Among these postverbal adjunct locative PPs, only a small set of PPs permits the incorporation of the preposition into the preceding verb to form a V-P compound (“preposition incorporation”), yielding their previous prepositional object to surface as the object of the compound verb V-P. Previous studies claim that adjunct phrases which quantize an event, such as event delimiters, may behave like arguments (“the delimiter hypothesis”). Yet, our observations find that adjunct locative PPs that are not event delimiters (e.g. directional 向 xiàng/往 wǎng ‘toward’ PPs or non-directional 在 zài ‘at’ PPs) can also allow their prepositional object to appear as the verbal object. This thus calls for a modification of the widely-accepted delimiter hypothesis. We argue that the semantic characterization of the postverbal locative PPs permitting PI can be generalized as being associated with the denotation of a scalar result. Specifically, we understand result from the perspective of scale structure proposed in recent studies and argue that in addition to delimiting an event (that is, introducing a closed scale to the event from the scalar perspective), such PPs can also either add directional information (an open scale) to the event that they modify, or further specify scalar information for the event denoted by the VP. This work not only provides a unified analysis of most types of preposition incorporation that involve the postverbal locative PPs in Mandarin Chinese, but is also the first study that provides a comprehensive analysis of the scalar properties and functions of Chinese locative PPs. Our findings from the Chinese data will also contribute to the cross-linguistic semantic generalization of internal adjuncts and the domain of extended direct case assignment.

Phase plane quantification of single-joint smoothness

We report a metric of single joint movement smoothness based on phase plane analysis of trajectories of the wrist about the elbow. Overall smoothness was quantified as the Phase Area Ratio (PAR), comparing the total area circumscribed by the acceleration-velocity (A-V) curve, to the area of its convex hull; PAR ranges from 0 (perfectly smooth) to 1 (gross motor impairment). Elbow flexion records obtained from a cohort study showed that PAR was significantly different in intact (PAR = 9.4x10-4 ± 6.6x10-4, group average, N = 18) versus chronic stroke patients (0.11 ± 0.15, N = 9; Wilcoxon rank-sum on group means: P < .0001). Separate simulations showed that PAR was appropriately insensitive to velocity asymmetry and to scale factors, e.g. range of motion, peak- and average velocity, and movement duration. We conclude that PAR is an attractive smoothness measure, as it accomplishes four objectives: 1) insensitivity to scale factors unrelated to trajectory shape, 2) discrimination of an intact versus impaired cohort, 3) reporting a near-zero impairment for healthy actors, responding appropriately to asymmetries commonly observed in human movement, and 4) operation on a fixed, closed scale.

Revisit adjective distribution in Chinese

This study re-classifies Chinese monosyllabic adjectives and verbs in light of ‘scale structure’. It examines how various adjectives are associated with different scalar layers of verbs. The investigation focuses upon direct perception expressions and resultatives. The finding reveals that the closed-scale perceptual verb jiàn ‘see’ does not tolerate open-scale APs. This is because, (a) syntactically, Chinese perception verb complements do not represent a result state as the AP-complement is encoded into the perception verb root; (b) semantically, jiàn ‘see’ not only represent an accomplishment predication but contributes to a potential indirect perception, describing the observer’s evaluation of the perceived event.kàn ‘look’ is open-scale and is likely to render a direct perception report. The degree of kàn’s associations with different APs runs from ‘Totally open-scale AP’, down to ‘Upper closed-scale AP’, ‘Lower closed-scale AP’, ‘Totally closed-scale AP’. Resultatives seem to welcome all layers of adjectives. Various APs may match with a transitive verb, an unergative verb, a light verb or an unaccusative verb. This is down to the fact that, resultative complements are framed outside the verb roots and thus, do not receive restriction from the verb.

Adjective distribution in Modern Mongolian

This paper discusses adjective distribution in Mongolian based upon the mereological framework: scale structure. It investigates how adjectival complements are sensitive to the scalar structure of adjectival predicates (APs) in resultative constructions as well as direct perception expressions. The findings reveal that Mongolian only tolerates inherent resultatives; derived resultatives are ruled out. The acceptability of adjectival complements in inherent resultatives runs from 'Totally open-scale/Totally closed-scale' down to 'Lower closed/Upper closed-scale'. On the other hand, adjectival complements in direct perception expressions are of no diverse acceptability, i.e. all layers of APs are licensed. Furthermore, durative verbs are likely to yield open-scale APs whilst punctual verbs seem to favour closed-scale APs.

Direct Perception Expression in Japanese and Chinese

<p>This paper tackles the adjective distribution in two different languages, Altaic language: Japanese and Sino-Tibetan language: Chinese. The findings bring us to the point that Japanese direct perception expression tolerates both open-scale and closed-scale adjectives. Chinese direct perception expression only licenses ‘totally open-scale adjectives’ and rule out ‘upper closed-scale adjectives’, ‘totally closed-scale adjectives’, ‘lower closed-scale adjectives’. The failure of Chinese closed-scale AP in direct perception expression lies in that the perception verb <em>jian </em>‘to see’ is subjective. Open-scale adjectival perception verb complements in German and Chinese may invite temporary predications only by the addition of syntactic context, thus enabling the German/Chinese perception verb <em>sehen</em>, <em>kanjian /</em><em>jian</em> to make a conceptualisation of the perceived event, offering an ‘evaluation’ or ‘interpretation’. </p>

A Scale Structure View of Resultatives in Japanese, Chinese and German

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">This paper provides a scale-based semantics for resultatives in Japanese, Chinese and German, in an effort to arrive at: how adjectival complements and verbs in resultative constructions show sensitivity to the scalar structure. The findings reveal that Japanese accepts both open and closed-scale adjectives but disallows atelic verbs in resultatives. It appears that both telic and atelic verbs are welcome by Chinese resultatives. Adjectival complements in German resultatives are of no diverse distribution, i.e. both open and closed-scale APs are allowed to indicate a result in inherent resultatives and derived resultatives. </span><span lang="X-NONE">However, German verbs show sensitivity to the scalar property. The conclusion that one can draw here is that Japanese tends to be a </span><span lang="X-NONE">‘BECOME-focused’ language, with the encoding of resutlatives arriving at morph-syntactic level. </span><span lang="X-NONE">German, on the other hand, is likely to be a ‘BE AT-focused’ language. There is no restriction towards adjectives, but verbs show sensitivity to the scalar structure. Chinese is also a ‘BE AT-focused’ language, with resultatives mainly facilitated via syntax. Moreover, neither verbs nor adjectives are sensitive to the scalar structure. </span></p>