Functional Structure in Morphology and the Case of Nonfinite Verbs

Functional Structure in Morphology and the Case of Nonfinite Verbs
Author: Peter Juul Nielsen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2016-06-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004321837

In this book, Peter Juul Nielsen examines the foundations of morphological theory from a structural-functional perspective on language as a sign system. He offers a framework for the analysis of morpheme relations based on a thorough discussion of syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure, indexical relations, zero as meaningful absence and morphological relations across grammatical categories. It is argued that when paradigmatically related morphological structures have different syntactic functions, the semantics of the paradigmatic opposition consists in the specification of functional potential. The framework is applied in three detailed studies of Danish nonfinite verbs presenting new accounts of their morphological structure, semantic coding and paradigmatic organisation.

Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change

Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change
Author: Lars Heltoft
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2019-06-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027262632

This volume centers on three important theoretical concepts for the study of language change and the ways in which language structure emerges and turns into new structure: reanalysis, actualization, and indexicality. Reanalysis is a part of ongoing everyday language use, a process through which language is reproduced and changed. Actualization refers to the processes through which a reanalyzed structure spreads throughout single communities and society. Indexicality covers the way in which parts of a linguistic system can point to other parts of the system, both syntagmatically and paradigmatically. The inclusion of indexicality leads to fine-grained analysis in morphology, word order, and constructional syntax.

Indexicality

Indexicality
Author: Peter Juul Nielsen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2024-06-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110791552

The book offers the first full-scale focused treatment of linguistic indexicality as a tool for analysis and explanation of the organization of linguistic structures. The book demonstrates the application of the concept of indexicality in the description of a broad range of linguistic phenomena, from the internal workings of morphology via relations within syntactic constructions to lexical and grammatical elements designed to hook on to features outside the clause in the interactional context. The book presents studies of the role of indexicality in synchrony and diachrony with descriptive cases from a number of languages from diverse language families. Part I focuses on the general nature of linguistic indexicality in the larger perspective of the semiotics of language, including examinations of domain-straddling indexical functions. Part II focuses on the role of indexicality in diachrony and the way it enters into the mechanisms of change, including examinations of semiotic shifts from indexical to symbolic function and vice versa. The book is relevant for researchers and students in historical and synchronic linguistics from a variety of linguistic frameworks with an interest in the role of semiotics in linguistic analysis.

Ditransitives in Germanic Languages

Ditransitives in Germanic Languages
Author: Eva Zehentner
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027249717

This volume brings together twelve empirical studies on ditransitive constructions in Germanic languages and their varieties, past and present. Specifically, the volume includes contributions on a wide variety of Germanic languages, including English, Dutch, and German, but also Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, as well as lesser-studied ones such as Faroese. While the first part of the volume focuses on diachronic aspects, the second part showcases a variety of synchronic aspects relating to ditransitive patterns. Methodologically, the volume covers both experimental and corpus-based studies. Questions addressed by the papers in the volume are, among others, issues like the cross-linguistic pervasiveness and cognitive reality of factors involved in the choice between different ditransitive constructions, or differences and similarities in the diachronic development of ditransitives. The volume’s broad scope and comparative perspective offers comprehensive insights into well-known phenomena and furthers our understanding of variation across languages of the same family.

Paradigms regained: Theoretical and empirical arguments for the reassessment of the notion of paradigm

Paradigms regained: Theoretical and empirical arguments for the reassessment of the notion of paradigm
Author: Gabriele Diewald
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 347
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961103267

The volume discusses the breadth of applications for an extended notion of paradigm. Paradigms in this sense are not only tools of morphological description but constitute the inherent structure of grammar. Grammatical paradigms are structural sets forming holistic, semiotic structures with an informational value of their own. We argue that as such, paradigms are a part of speaker knowledge and provide necessary structuring for grammaticalization processes. The papers discuss theoretical as well as conceptual questions and explore different domains of grammatical phenomena, ranging from grammaticalization, morphology, and cognitive semantics to modality, aiming to illustrate what the concept of grammatical paradigms can and cannot (yet) explain.

Semantic Syntax

Semantic Syntax
Author: Pieter Seuren
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2017-10-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004354298

This book is the first and so far only formally precise machinery converting well-motivated semantic sentence representations into actual sentences of English, French, German and Dutch. It focuses on the auxiliary and complementation systems of the languages concerned.

Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition

Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition
Author: Christine Dimroth
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2003-09-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902729643X

The papers in this volume focus on the impact of information structure on language acquisition, thereby taking different linguistic approaches into account. They start from an empirical point of view, and examine data from natural first and second language acquisition, which cover a wide range of varieties, from early learner language to native speaker production and from gesture to Creole prototypes. The central theme is the interplay between principles of information structure and linguistic structure and its impact on the functioning and development of the learner's system. The papers examine language-internal explanatory factors and in particular the communicative and structural forces that push and shape the acquisition process, and its outcome. On the theoretical level, the approach adopted appeals both to formal and communicative constraints on a learner’s language in use. Two empirical domains provide a 'testing ground' for the respective weight of grammatical versus functional determinants in the acquisition process: (1) the expression of finiteness and scope relations at the utterance level and (2) the expression of anaphoric relations at the discourse level.

Cognitive Processes and Economic Behaviour

Cognitive Processes and Economic Behaviour
Author: Marcello Basili
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134362285

In recent years the understanding of the cognitive foundations of economic behavior has become increasingly important. This volume contains contributions from such leading scholars as Adam Brandenburger, Michael Bacharach and Patrick Suppes. It will be of great interest to academics and researchers involved in the field of economics and psychology as well as those interested in political economy more generally.

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax
Author: Marcel den Dikken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1412
Release: 2013-07-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107354587

Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.

The Structure of CP and IP

The Structure of CP and IP
Author: Luigi Rizzi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2004-06-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0195159497

The purpose of this edited volume is to study the structure of the inflectional field and the left peripheral field of clauses, often described as the systems of IP (Inflection Phrase) and CP (Complementizer Phrase).