The pronoun sto and its semantic and syntactic derivatives in the vernacular of the Sirinic county

This paper analyzes the pronoun sto and its semantic and syntactic derivatives in the Prizren - South Morava dialect in the Sirinic county (Sirinicka Zupa), in the northern part of the Sar Mountains. The paper focuses primarily on the syntactic use of sto, while its semantic derivatives are outlined mainly in terms of references to the previous research on the subject. The dialect corpus shows that this lexeme has a wide range of syntactic realizations - it can be used as a relativizer in defining and non-defining relative clauses, as a conjunction in the clauses of reason and declarative clauses, and it can also be used as a pronoun and adverb. Moreover, the research includes the cases in which sto was found to be a part of multi-word conjunctions in hypotactic or paratactic structures. This paper primarily aims to determine and examine the syntactic positions in which sto is realized and the environment in which it is used. In the majority of the observed cases, there were also other corresponding syntactic devices, so that the focus was also placed on determining the frequency of the lexeme sto in these positions in relation to its synonymous syntactic counterparts. The fact that the form sto is widely used in the Sirinic vernacular as a conjunction in relative clauses points to its provenance in a wider Serbian-Macedonian area as well as to its not being included in the standard Serbian language, in lieu of which the form koji is predominantly used. In the vernacular of Sirinic county, the lexeme sto is used as a conjunction in declarative object clauses, and it is also the principal conjunction in the clauses of reason.

Lexical homonymy as a problem of linguistic textology (Based on Njegos’s Epic Stephen the Little)

The author of this paper explains the interpretation of types of homonyms (homophones and homographs), based on the epic Stephen the Little by the Serbian poet Petar II Petrovic Njegos, dating from the epoch of Romanticism. The analysis includes grammatical homonyms, where homonymy is established by individual word forms created through the motion of nouns and their base forms, and paradigmatic homonyms, where homonymy is established by a whole system of word forms created by semantic formation. The analysis also encompasses material from the epics The Mountain Wreath and The Ray of the Microcosm, and certain poems by Njegos.

Some thoughts on the Slavic verbal system (a typological approach)

This paper deals with the essential verb categories - the grammatical categories of tense, aspect and mode, as well as with actionality as a lexical and functional category. These categories coexist in the Slavic languages in manifold correlations, determined by the type of language. The paper is focused on tense as the central verb category. In the first part, there is a typological approach to the Slavic verbal system proposed, as a base for its systematic functional description and interpretation. Two prototypes of the verbal system in Slavia can be postulated - a southern and a northern one. The Slavic languages of the Balkan linguistic area (Sprachbund) - Bulgarian and Macedonian - belong to the southern prototype, while the East Slavic languages and Polish belong to the northern prototype. The remaining Slavic languages represent various transitional phases from one prototype to the other. The actual version of the model offered in this paper is synchronically based, but the diachronic approach is considered indispensable for an adequate modelling of the Slavic verbal system. In this context, the paper presents some critical remarks on the modern Slavic grammaticography, with key focus on its methodological and theoretical basis. The last part of the paper presents some approaches to and interpretations of the tense category in some selected recent works.

The conceptualisation of primary emotions in the Serbian language (The case of verbs expressing joy, sadness, fear and anger)

The paper analyses the conceptual mechanisms underlying the development of secondary emotional meanings of ?non-emotional? verbs (in relation to their primary meaning). Being abstract, psychological entities, emotions are formalised and expressed by linguistic means using emotional lexis. Emotional verbs represent a type of this lexis: they denote emotions, emotional relationships and processes, emotional expression and an emotional situation as a whole. The research material consists of 92 verbs which are classified according to two criteria: a. the semantic role of the experiencer, i.e. whether the verbs denote experiencing or provoking an emotion (emotionally-active and emotionally-passive verbs) and b. the criterion of the primary emotion, i.e. whether the verbs belong to the emotional domain of joy, sorrow, fear or anger. The analysis showed that emotions are conceptualised by specific emotional metaphors, based on the pleasure: discomfort distinction. The primary metaphor MAN IS THE CONTAINER FOR EMOTIONS and the general metonymic rule PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTIONS ARE THE EMOTION ITSELF, represent general mechanisms for the conceptualisation of secondary emotional meanings of verbs. It has also been shown that a certain type of a verb?s primary meaning potentially develops a certain secondary emotional meaning; in other words, each primary emotion has an intrinsic source domain which concretises its abstract meanings.

A linguistic investigation of disyllabic or feminine rhymes in Serbian poetry

This paper focuses on the prosodic properties of disyllabic, that is to say, feminine rhymes in Serbian poetry. On the basis of a quantitatively analyzed poetic database, which includes eight poets, four from the Romantic and four from the Post-Romantic period, we have identified word stress as a highly relevant prosodic property. The investigation of its role in creating rhyming pairs resulted in a classification of feminine rhymes into three types: resonant, semi-resonant, and non-resonant. This classification is based on the presence or absence of stress in the domain of rhyme, which begins with the rightmost strong metrical position in a line, followed by a weak final syllable. In resonant rhymes both lines that form a rhyming pair contain stress in their domains, in semi-resonant rhymes only one of the lines contains stress, while in non-resonant rhymes, stress is absent from both. The role of stress is demarcative: it signals the beginning of the domain of rhyme, thereby considerably promoting its effectiveness. The most effective are resonant rhymes, with demarcated domains in both lines, next in effectiveness are semi-resonant rhymes, with demarcation in only one of the lines, while non-resonant rhymes, which lack demarcation, are the least effective. Based on this classification, clear differences can be established not only among individual poets, but also among poetic eras. Moreover, the classification of feminine rhymes into resonant, semi-resonant and non-resonant allows for a detailed insight into their lexical composition, that is, into the prosodic profiles of words that constitute them.

Associative relations of Serbian adjectives in the free association verbal test

Previous research on the associative relations of adjectives is not unanimous in terms of whether participants more often respond by using nouns or adjectives in free association tests. On the other hand, when it comes to paradigmatic associative relationships, researchers agree that native speakers respond to adjective stimuli mostly by associations of opposite meaning, but generally do not state the percentage, since conclusions are often made on the basis of the dominant associate, and not upon the entire associative field. Therefore, 45 associative fields of adjectives of the Serbian language are analyzed based on the material obtained from two associative dictionaries, prepared on the basis of the responses of 800 participants (ranging from 18 to 25 years of age) and 1,200 participants of different ages (groups of 5, 9, 13 and 17 years of age, each of which comprised 300 participants). The aim of this study is to examine the ratio of syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations of adjectives, as well as the paradigmatic type of relation between the adjective-type stimuli and their associates (the closeness and the oppositeness of meaning and other types of associative relations). The material was annotated according to parts of speech, as well as according to the types of associative relations. The quantitative results showed that the associations of examined adjectives are slightly more frequently syntagmatic (52%) than paradigmatic (44%), while the oppositeness of meaning proved to be the most common as well as the strongest associative relation of commonly used adjectives of the Serbian language.

On spatial fragmentisers as temporal localisation markers

The paper discusses the subsystem of spatial fragmentisers (PF) as temporal localisation markers in Russian and Serbian. PF have been defined by previous research as inseparable intangible parts of spatial units and considered in concrete-spatial frameworks based on the theory of semantic localisations; according to this theory, PF perform the function of a concretising orienteer in the situation of intralocalisation. In this paper, we analyse their temporal function and refer to them as temporal fragmentisers. The structure of PF, essentially spatial and formed of equipollent and privative semantic oppositions, and the inventory of PF units are modified in terms of temporality, in accordance with the conceptualisation and linguistic representation of the category of time. According to their function, PF are conditionally classified into three groups: the first one - equally represented in the categories of space and time (do nacala / pre pocetka, do konca / do kraja); the second - typically temporal with a clear spatial etymology (po okoncaniju / po zavrsetku) and the third - specifically temporal, but structurally similar to PF in characterisation (za vremja / za vreme, v tecenie / u toku). From the aspect of the structure of semantic oppositions, PF appear within the lexicon of the functional-semantic field of temporality mainly within the anthropocentric range ?centre - periphery? (nacalo, seredina, konec / pocetak, sredina, kraj). The meanings of the oppositions ?up - down?, ?in front of - behind? and ?far - near? are realised in conceptual metaphors of time by units of isofunctional spatial subsystems (adverbial, adjectival, etc.). The PF subsystem, which is partially reduced in this sense (compared to the spatial one) due to the conceptualisation of time, on the other hand, becomes enriched with the instruments expressing the sense of durability. In addition, there is wide field of overlap with other isofunctional grammatical-syntactic categories, e.g., prepositions and conjunctions (v tecenie / u toku, tokom; vo vremja / u vreme; do teh por poka; s teh por kak; v to vremja kak etc.). Bilingual examples illustrate the isomorphism of the categories of time and space in both languages and reveal a well-developed PF subsystem, whose intricate intrasystemic and intersystemic links become distinctly noticeable through interlingual comparison.

Hierarchy in derivatological description - selected problems

This article presents the selected problems to do with the description of hierarchical relations in the area of word-formation. Hierarchy as a form of categorizing the linguistic reality, reduced to the word-formation framework, delimits two larger thematic areas related to the polysemy of the very term of word-formation in Polish. The first concerns the selection of topics and their respective ordering of the individual word-formation mechanisms described in derivatological research, while the second involves the implementation of hierarchies and hierarchical meanings in the investigated language. This paper mainly focuses on the first aspect that concerns the issue of hierarchy in Polish word-formation descriptions.

On Jovan Sterija Popovic‘s conception of the language of pseudoscience propounded in the play Sudbina jednog razuma [The Destiny of One’s Reason]

In this article, the play Sudbina jednog razuma [The Destiny of One?s Reason] by Jovan Sterija Popovic is analysed as displaying a specific continuation and climax of the debates about Milovan Spasic?s textbook titled Zemljeopisanije celog svjeta [The Geography of the Whole World] (1845). More specifically, the focus of the investigation is placed upon those aspects of the debates in question which concern the tendencies in building the scientific register of the Serbian literary language. In this context, I reach the conclusion that Sterija?s unique sense of humour is adopted as a means of revealing one complex conception of pseudoscience and science, as representing two types of thinking activity which are mutually exclusive. In turn, the article also analyses Jovan Sterija Popovic?s views about the functional differentiation of language regarding its objectives and use, as well as the particularities of the scientific style of the national literary language concerning its intellectualisation on the syntactic and terminological levels.

The Kashubian indefinite marker jeden ‘one’ and its grammaticalisation

This article analyses the use of the indefinite marker jeden ?one? in contemporary Kashubian, which has often been treated simply as an indefinite article in previous studies. A synchronic description has been presented in the first part of this paper, comparing the use of the indefinite marker in Kashubian with that in Polish, Upper Sorbian and German. The second part deals with the diachronic change in Kashubian in this respect. The main conclusion of this paper is that Kashubian has never developed the indefinite article per se, while its usage was far more frequent in the past, which could be explained by the emergence of the German influence.