Non-Finiteness

Non-Finiteness PDF Author: Bingjun Yang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316513416
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
As a gateway to central questions in linguistics, non-finiteness is unavoidable in both typological studies and aspects of natural language processing, such as text segmentation and annotation. This study presents a 'process relation framework' to explain the more complex, previously unaccounted for, instances of non-finiteness in clause structure.

Non-Finiteness

Non-Finiteness PDF Author: Bingjun Yang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316513416
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book

Book Description
As a gateway to central questions in linguistics, non-finiteness is unavoidable in both typological studies and aspects of natural language processing, such as text segmentation and annotation. This study presents a 'process relation framework' to explain the more complex, previously unaccounted for, instances of non-finiteness in clause structure.

Covert Modality in Non-finite Contexts

Covert Modality in Non-finite Contexts PDF Author: Rajesh Bhatt
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110197340
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This book investigates the distribution and interpretation of Covert Modality. Covert Modality is modality which we interpret but which is not associated with any lexical item in the structure that we are interpreting. This dissertation investigates a class of environments that involves covert modality. Examples of covert modality include wh-infinitival complements, infinitival relative clauses, purpose clauses, the 'have to' construction, and the 'is to' construction (cf. 1): 1a. Tim knows [how to solve the problem]. ("Tim knows how one/he could/should solve the problem.") 1b. Jane found [a book to draw cartoons in] for Sara. ("Jane found a book for Sara one could/should draw cartoons in.") 1c. [The man to fix the sink] is here. ("The man whose purpose is to fix the sink is here.") 1d. Sue went to Torino [to buy a violin]. ("Sue went to Torino so that she could buy a violin.") 1e. Bill has to reach Philadelphia before noon. ("Bill must reach Philadelphia before noon.") 1f. Will is to leave tomorrow. ("Will is scheduled/supposed to leave tomorrow.") The interpretation of (1a-f) involves modality; however, there is no lexical item that seems to be the source of the modality. What (1a-f) have in common is that they involve infinitivals. This book addresses the following questions about covert modality: what is the source of this modality, what are its semantic properties, why are some but not all infinitival relatives modal, and why are all infinitival questions modal? The infinitival [+wh] Complementizer is identified as the source of the covert modality. The apparent variability of the force of this modality is related to the particular semantics of this Complementizer. Infinitival relatives that receive a non-modal interpretation are analyzed as being reduced relatives and thus not involving the infinitival [+wh] Complementizer.

Functional Structure in Morphology and the Case of Nonfinite Verbs

Functional Structure in Morphology and the Case of Nonfinite Verbs PDF Author: Peter Juul Nielsen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004321837
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 535

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Book Description
In this book Peter Juul Nielsen examines the foundations of morphological theory from a structural-functional perspective on language as a sign system with the empirical challenge of describing the nonfinite verb forms in Danish as his point of departure.

Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax

Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax PDF Author: Artemis Alexiadou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255245
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 21st and 22nd Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop held at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Stuttgart. The contributions provide insightful discussions of several topics of current interest for syntactic theory on the basis of comparative data from a wide range of contemporary and historical Germanic languages. The theoretical issues explored include: the left periphery, with a number of contributions touching on the pros and contras of cartographic accounts; different aspects of word order and how it arises from movement and clause structure; the interplay of thematic relations and case theory with the realization of DPs; and the treatment of finiteness and modal structures. This book is of interest to syntacticians working in a comparative perspective and to advanced undergraduates.

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage PDF Author: Brian MacWhinney
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198709846
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
This volume examines the conflicting factors that shape the content and form of grammatical rules in language, which speakers and addressees need to contend with when expressing themselves and when trying to comprehend messages. Chapters examine adult language, first and second language acquisition, and the motivations behind historical change.

Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change

Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change PDF Author: D. Gary Miller
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198299608
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
This book seeks to answer the questions: why do grammars change, and why is the rate of such change so variable? A principal focus is on changes in English between the Anglo-Saxon and early modern periods. The author frames his analysis in a comparative framework with extended discussions of language change in a wide range of other Indo-European languages. He deploys Chomsky's minimalist framework in a fruitful marriage of comparative and theoretical linguistics within an argument that will be accessible to practitioners in both fields.

Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy

Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy PDF Author: Isabelle Bril
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027287589
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 642

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Book Description
This collective volume explores clause-linkage strategies in a cross-linguistic perspective with greater emphasis on subordination. Part I presents some theoretical reassessment of syntactic terminologies and distinctive criteria for subordination, as well as typological methods based on sets of variables and statistics allowing cross-linguistic comparability. Part II deals with strategies relating to clause-chaining, conjunctive conjugations, converbial constructions, masdars. Part III centers on the interaction between the syntax, pragmatics, and semantics of clause-linking and subordination, in relation to informa­tional structure, to referential hierarchy, and correlative constructions. Part IV presents insights in the clause-linking and subordinating functions of some T.A.M. markers, verbal inflectional morphology and conjugation systems, which may also interact with informa­tional hierarchy, via the backgrounding effects and lack of illocutionary force of some aspect and mood forms. The volume is of particular interest to linguists and typologists working on clause-linkage systems and on the interface between syntax, pragmatics, and semantics.

Recent Trends and Findings in Latin Linguistics

Recent Trends and Findings in Latin Linguistics PDF Author: Concepción Cabrillana
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110722194
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 718

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Book Description
These volumes contain a selection of contributions first presented at the 21st International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, held in Santiago de Compostela (2022). They cover essential topics in Latin linguistics from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. The first volume includes papers on Latin Syntax and Semantics, Latin Syntax and Pragmatics, Greek-Latin language, and Digital Linguistics. The contributions report on the latest research into very relevant issues in specific areas such as definiteness, casual syntax, sentence structure, word order, etc.; in addition, the most recent methodological advances using a variety of databases, a key tool in contemporary research, are presented. The second volume includes papers on Semantics and Lexicography, Etymology, Discourse strategies, and a special section devoted to the analysis of Conversation and Dialogue. The contributions report on the latest research into highly relevant issues in specific areas such as nominal and adjectival lexicology from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspectives, the use of Greek words as a vehicle for the expression of philosophical concepts, the choice and rendering of various linguistic strategies in direct and indirect discourse, etc. A particularly innovative section deals with various aspects of conversational language in a number of text types, as well as the use of different devices that contribute to the expression of (im)politeness by participants in the speech act. A knowledge of the work collected in these volumes is essential for all those involved in research in the field of Latin linguistics.

SignGram Blueprint

SignGram Blueprint PDF Author: Josep Quer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501516086
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 896

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Book Description
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. Current grammatical knowledge about particular sign languages is fragmentary and of varying reliability, and it appears scattered in scientific publications where the description is often intertwined with the analysis. In general, comprehensive grammars are a rarity. The SignGram Blueprint is an innovative tool for the grammar writer: a full-fledged guide to describing all components of the grammars of sign languages in a thorough and systematic way, and with the highest scientific standards. The work builds on the existing knowledge in Descriptive Linguistics, but also on the insights from Theoretical Linguistics. It consists of two main parts running in parallel: the Checklist with all the grammatical features and phenomena the grammar writer can address, and the accompanying Manual with the relevant background information (definitions, methodological caveats, representative examples, tests, pointers to elicitation materials and bibliographical references). The areas covered are Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax and Meaning. The Manual is endowed with hyperlinks that connect information across the work and with a pop-up glossary. The SignGram Blueprint will be a landmark for the description of sign language grammars in terms of quality and quantity.

Language Typology and Language Universals

Language Typology and Language Universals PDF Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110114232
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 873

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Book Description
This series of HANDBOOKS OF LINGUISTICS AND COMMUNICATION SCIENCE is designed to illuminate a field which not only includes general linguistics and the study of linguistics as applied to specific languages, but also covers those more recent areas which have developed from the increasing body of research into the manifold forms of communicative action and interaction. For "classic" linguistics there appears to be a need for a review of the state of the art which will provide a reference base for the rapid advances in research undertaken from a variety of theoretical standpoints, while in the more recent branches of communication science the handbooks will give researchers both an verview and orientation. To attain these objectives, the series will aim for a standard comparable to that of the leading handbooks in other disciplines, and to this end will strive for comprehensiveness, theoretical explicitness, reliable documentation of data and findings, and up-to-date methodology. The editors, both of the series and of the individual volumes, and the individual contributors, are committed to this aim. The languages of publication are English, German, and French. The main aim of the series is to provide an appropriate account of the state of the art in the various areas of linguistics and communication science covered by each of the various handbooks; however no inflexible pre-set limits will be imposed on the scope of each volume. The series is open-ended, and can thus take account of further developments in the field. This conception, coupled with the necessity of allowing adequate time for each volume to be prepared with the necessary care, means that there is no set time-table for the publication of the whole series. Each volume will be a self-contained work, complete in itself. The order in which the handbooks are published does not imply any rank ordering, but is determined by the way in which the series is organized; the editor of the whole series enlist a competent editor for each individual volume. Once the principal editor for a volume has been found, he or she then has a completely free hand in the choice of co-editors and contributors. The editors plan each volume independently of the others, being governed only by general formal principles. The series editor only intervene where questions of delineation between individual volumes are concerned. It is felt that this (modus operandi) is best suited to achieving the objectives of the series, namely to give a competent account of the present state of knowledge and of the perception of the problems in the area covered by each volume.