DEGREES OF CONFIDENCE AND MODAL WORDS IN LITHUANIAN

Author(s): Aurelija Usonienė / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

Probability, an epistemic qualification of modality in language, is considered to be a gradable category. The paper will look at the qualitative and quantitative parameters of equivalence between the realizations of high and low degree of probability in English and Lithuanian. The focus of the contrast is on model words and particles in Lithuanian and their correspondences in English. The purpose of this parallel corpus-based pilot study is to see whether there is any language-specific conceptualization of probability in Lithuanian.

Upotreba sintagmi s posesivnim pridjevom i posesivnim genitivom u bosanskome jeziku (na primjerima književnoumjetničkog stila)

Author(s): Emira Mešanović / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 1-2/2004

In this paper there was an attempt to find the answer to the question which form- adjective or genitive case, and under which circumstances, Bosnian and Herzegovinian writers use to express the categories of possession in the belletristic style. The achieved results do not confirm the attitudes from the grammar literature which propose the usage of possessive adjective whenever possible, since very frequent examples of the genitive case are noted, even in the examples where the adjectival form is categorically prescribed. Therefore, we can not speak neither about the prevalence of the adjective, nor about the sporadic occurrence of the genitive case. It is obvious that the grammatical norm and the linguistical practice even do not agree upon the phenomenon.

Incantation in Hausa Culture: An Example of Syntactic Reduplication

Author(s): Hafizu Miko Yakasai / Language(s): English Issue: 44/2010

L’article porte sur la reduplication dans la langue haoussa, suivant une approche pragmatique. Il y est question de la reduplication de mots et de phrases dans les formules incantatoires magiques. Du point de vue linguistique, ce genre de reduplication est considéré comme un procédé syntactique. Or, les énoncés à caractère magique, dans lesquels on a souvent recours à la reduplication, ont un pouvoir performatif et doivent augmenter l'effectivité des procédés visant p.ex. à se protéger contre les moustiques, à rendre quelqu'un invisible, ou à faciliter l'accouchement. La répétition des mots et des phrases a généralement pour but d'augmenter l’effectivité de l’action ou la rendre immédiate, mais elle peut simplement exprimer l’impatience. L’article contient des exemples d’incantations en haoussa et en poular, accompagnés d'indications sur les fonctions pragmatiques des reduplications.

Timing is everything! On derivational complexity and multiple workspaces

Author(s): Marijana Marelj / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Under any derivational approach, syntactic computations proceed from more complex to less complex domains. Though such multiple workspaces get to be resolved into a single – matrix – workspace, the issue of timing– i.e. the point when multiple workspaces must resolve to a single derivational space has not been addressed in the literature. I argue that not only the direction, but also the timing of syntactic computations is guided by a more general requirement to reduce the computational complexity and I propose Multiple Workspaces Earliness Hypothesis to address this issue. On the empirical side, the technical apparatus and the analysis I propose allow me to capture the seemingly contradictory binding facts involving locative PPs as well as to treat adjuncts as relation, rather than absolute notions.

The Agreement of Structural Obliques Parameter. Pseudopartitives, DOM and Partitive Articles in Romance

Author(s): M. Rita Manzini / Language(s): English Issue: Special/2019

The core proposal of this contribution is that in [P DP] or [K DP] structures, where K, P are oblique prepositions or cases, either P/K or DP can label the resulting constituent. If PP/KP is the resulting label, the constituent does not provide a goal for Agree. If DP is the resulting label, the constituent behaves like any other DP, providing a goal for Agree. This is what we call the agreement parameter for structural obliques. Inherent obliques, i.e. those selected by a predicate, obligatorily project as PP/KP. In section 1 we use this hypothesis to explain variation in the agreement pattern of pseudopartitives, in section 2 we institue a parallelism with Differential Object Marking (DOM). In section 3, we illustrate a consequence of the same labelling algorithm independent of agreement, arguing that so-called Romance partitive articles include the partitive preposition di ‘of ’, but at the same time project as DPs.

Expletives in a Null Subject Language and Criteria for Expletiveness: Evidence from Russian

Author(s): Olga E. Pekelis / Language(s): English Issue: Special/2019

The paper presents an analysis of three pronouns used to refer to a right-peripheral complement clause in Russian. It is demonstrated that two of them exhibit properties associated with expletives, which is unexpected at first sight, Russian being a (partial) null subject language. However, these pronouns are shown to have a discourse-related function rather than a syntactic one. The third pronoun under discussion, though used in the same grammatical context, turns out to be referential. The paper offers an account for this fact and proposes that the parameters that have proved to be relevant for differentiating expletives and non-expletives in Russian should be regarded as general criteria for expletiveness.

SYNTACTIC FEATURES IN ORAL MEDICAL DISCOURSE

Author(s): Albena Dobreva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2020

The present article is devoted to the topic of the syntax of authentic medical consultations led in Bulgaria. The most prominent features typical of this type of communication were singled out. In particular, it is worth pointing out the use of reduced general questions, syntactic and dialogical repetitions. Patients often recourse to syntactic repetitions: in the majority of cases such a tool is used to influence the doctor and to emphasize the facts and symptoms that cause apprehension in patients. The subject of the present study are the syntactic characteristics of the speech production of the medical specialist. The object is the discourse of doctor-patient communication. The goal of the study is to identify the syntactical specificities of the interview between the doctor and the patient and the roles which they play from the point of view of functional stylistics. In order to achieve the goal of the study, the following objectives are fulfilled:  Recording the doctor-patient communication;  Analysis of the speech production of the medics;  Systematizing the conclusions. The study shows that from the point of view of syntax, the speech production of doctors exhibits incomplete (reduced) questions, syntactic repetitions and dialogical repetitions. The actuality of the topic ―doctor-patient communication‖ is determined by the social attitudes within modern society as well as by the professional need for medical specialists to discuss various health-related topics while communicating with patients and their relatives, in order to influence them through speaking to cooperate in the process of treatment. The medical interview is the most universal diagnostic and therapeutic instrument of the medical practitioner. However, interviewing is also one of the most difficult clinical skills to master. The requirements towards the doctor are intellectual as well as emotional. The analytical skills for diagnostic reasoning need to be balanced with personal skills necessary for the establishing of a connection with the patient and facilitating communication.

ПОНЯТТЯ ОСОБИ У ВИВЧЕННІ ПРОБЛЕМАТИКИ БЕЗОСОБОВИХ РЕЧЕНЬ

Author(s): Valentyna Nichyi / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 3/2019

Aim of investigation. The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of “person” in impersonal sentences. There is a comparison of the structure of impersonal sentences with indefinite personal and generalized-personal sentences. The forms of expression of the predicate in impersonal sentences are considered. The use of impersonal constructions is investigated on the example of works from fiction. The specificity of the topic is due to an integrated approach to the application of research methods, among which are: the descriptive-empirical method allowed us to establish the formal, genetic, semantic and functional characteristics of the concept of a person in the structure of impersonal sentences. Using the method of comparative historical analysis it was established the origin of impersonal sentences. Descriptive-analytical method made a qualitative analysis of the subject of study. Scientific novelty. For the first time, points of view regarding the incorrectness of the term “impersonal sentences” are being explored, and a hypothesis is put forward that the term “person” is ambiguous. The variety of predicates that can be used in impersonal constructions, once again proves that impersonality is a phenomenon that is constantly evolving and far from being extinct. Impersonal constructions with a nominal component, which include the personal verb in impersonal use, and the noun or integer name group, have become widely used in modern French and have repeatedly become the subject of the study of linguists. Despite the large number of personal non-transitive verbs that form impersonal structures with nominal expansion, their semantic diversity is rather insignificant. As almost all researchers point out, it is the verb of being, becoming, moving, moving from one state to another. Semantics of these verbs expresses information of a rather general order, since it is associated with a wide range of subjects, persons and concepts. Conclusions. It is proved that impersonality as a category may be conditioned semantically and grammatically. Semantically, it is conditioned when impersonal constructions designate a non-subject-free process, that is, natural, weather, meteorological phenomena in which the human consciousness does not define the subject.

Gjymtyrët e veçuara, fjalitë e ndërmjetme dhe fjalitë e ndërkallura të shqipes – tri kategori, një funksion

Author(s): Zana Prekazi / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 38.1/2019

This theoretical paper discusses supplements in Albanian on the basis of structural linguistic views. Structural features of supplements, in particular their syntactic non-integration from the main clause and the syntactic differences with dependent clauses are described syntactically. In order to draw scientific evidence and arguments in favor of the approach of structural linguistics, examples extracted from Academic Grammar (2002), as a representative of the prescriptive traditional grammars, have been analyzed. Then, on the basis of the qualitative analysis done to these examples, the paper raises the need to re-categorize supplements taking into account first their structure and function and not what they express. Such a re-categorization would approximate the grammatical analysis of Albanian with that of European languages.

EINE SEMANTISCHE KLASSIFIZIERUNG VON WEIL-SÄTZEN

Author(s): Sibilla Cantarini,Chiara De Bastiani / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2021

A Semantic Classification of Weil-clauses. In the present study, we will elaborate a classification of clauses introduced by weil ‘because’; this classification combines different views on the concepts of cause and motive and their respective linguistic realization. In this paper, the three-dimensional model proposed by Sweetser (1990) will be combined with the distinction between cause and motive made in Prandi/De Santis (2011) and Prandi (2013), with the purpose of formulating a taxonomy of linguistic causality. Corpus research aimed at testing the afore-mentioned classification shows that the subordinating conjunction weil, which is usually defined as the prototypical causal subordinator in traditional grammars, introduces different conceptual relations, which would be difficult to identify without a comprehensive classification of the semantic relations introduced by this subordinator. Finally, further applications of the proposed classification involving the opposition between clauses headed by weil with verb-end and verb-second syntax will be proposed. It will be argued that the verb-second syntax serves a particular function in the encoding of semantic relations.

TRUMPOJO TEKSTO ŽANRO SPECIFIKA: NAUJIENŲ PORTALŲ ANTRAŠČIŲ TYRIMAS

Author(s): Danguolė Kalinauskaitė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 62/2014

An analysis of text genres is essential for a better understanding of texts, as well as for a better understanding of language through them. This paper concentrates on a specific group, vast and miscellaneous, of text genres – on short text genres. They are specific in their greater or lesser constraint on the size, and therefore it is assumed that the influence of the genre should one way or another be particularly evident in such texts – both in their linguistic structure and in their contents. One of the text genres of this group – headlines in the news portals – is the subject of this study. The study is aimed at exploring the structure and contents of headlines in news portals and identifying their peculiarities that could be generalized precisely as under the influence of the particularity of the genre. Ten Lithuanian news portals are the sources of this study: 15min.lt, alfa.lt, balsas.lt, bernardinai. lt, delfi.lt, kauno.diena.lt, lrytas.lt, lzinios.lt, respublika.lt, and zebra.lt. A total of 3073 headlines were collected. After the analysis of collected headlines it can be stated that headlines in the news portals is an emerging autonomous text genre, typical of the short text genre. The peculiarities of headlines in news portals provide the evidence for that, and in particular for their functions. Headlines as texts perform a variety of functions: they report, inform, analyze, comment, express attitudes as well as emotions, try to convince, evaluate, and even appeal to something. This functional autonomy of headlines can be treated as the outcome of a shift in the structure of news portal headlines, i.e., the shift from one-word headlines and headlines taking the form of word combinations towards sentence-type headlines. The last-mentioned are dominant in present-day news portals, as the study revealed; while headlines of the other two types amount to only a small part of the total. Sentence-type headlines reflect not only the subjects of texts in the news portals, but also specific theses of those texts, the latter occurring more often. The majority of sentence-type headlines analyzed are original, i.e., made for the texts, and formulated as statements, but not only as factual but also as evaluative statements. Contentwise evaluative elements are one of the impact measures applied in the headlines. Questions in the headlines in the news portals play a significant role too. They are more rhetorical than requiring answers, which suggests that they are intended to draw the attention of news portal visitors. Another group of sentence-type headlines consist of headlines-quotes. Most of these headlines incorporate exact quotes. Exact quotes in the headlines as often as not reflect subjective attitudes of the authors of those quotes towards the topic of speech.

Complex simplex numerals

Author(s): Marcin Wągiel,Pavel Caha / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

It is commonly assumed that basic cardinal numerals such as English three are simplex expressions whose primary function is to quantify over entities denoted by the modified NP (e.g., Kennedy 2015; Rothstein 2017; Ionin & Matushansky 2018). In this paper, we explore cross-linguistic marking patterns suggesting that cardinals in fact lexicalize complex syntactic and semantic structures derived from the primitive notion of the number scale. The evidence we will investigate comes from various morphological shapes of cardinal numerals when used to count objects and when used for abstract arithmetical counting.

The Kashubian Indefinite Marker Jeden ‘One’ and Its Grammaticalisation

Author(s): Motoki Nomachi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

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.

Ordinea constituenților în grupul nominal din istroromână. Analiză de corpus

Author(s): Ionuț Geană / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2 (34)/2021

This article deals with the syntactic configurations of noun phrases (NPs) and determiner phrases (DPs) in Istro-Romanian (hereinafter IR), a severely endangered Eastern Romance variety, with approximately one hundred active speakers left. Building upon what we believe to be a representative corpus – Pușcariu (1906, 1926), Cantemir (1959), Kovačec (1984), Sârbu, Frățilă (1998), added by examples obtained directly pursuant to our field work with the IR communities in Croatia and New York, USA – we will emphasize the main aspects on the word order of the constituents in IR NPs and DPs: (definite) articles, noun+adjective or adjective+noun word order, the position of the genitive against its head, the position of the possessives, the position of prepositional phrases against their (pro)nominal head, as well as a series of predominantly syntactic phenomena (with more focus on interpolation), alongside some notes on the IR information structure, focus/topic, etc. The fact that IR has never been standardized is a challenge, as linguistic data obtained from the informants is very fluid, and IR looks more like a collection of idiolects than a language per se. This work is part of a larger project, called Istro-Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage, where the author to this article serves as principal investigator. The general objective of the project is to offer a description of the Istro-Romanian variety as spoken in Croatia and in diaspora, focusing on such key elements as: linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, languages and contact, and multiculturalism. The specific objectives are to make new recordings and create new IR corpora or data banks, to develop a tool with all lexical entries that have not been registered by previous literature, to describe IR word order, as well as to apply a series of linguistics questionnaires (on notions and morphosyntax). These questionnaires will be used to check, for example, to what degree certain Romance syntactic archaisms have been preserved in Istro-Romanian (but are no longer in use on other Romance languages and/or varieties). We believe that new field work will shed more and better light on this disappearing Romance variety. At the same time, the current situation of IR is not to be ignored: it is spoken less and less, the community no longer uses it for day to day conversation, there are no institutions, there is no official status or standardization, with a minor exception, it is not taught in school to children, and, despite the best efforts of local authorities and linguists, little can be actually done to ensure IR a brighter future.

Синтакса падежа Горње Пчиње (одредбене функције)

Author(s): Marina Jurišić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2014

Система склонения говора верхней пчини (Горня пчиня), расположенной к юго-востоку от г. вране и принадлежащей к призренско-тимочской диалектной области, значительно упрощена, и сводится к независимому падежу (номинативу), общему падежу (оп), вместо косвенных падежей, и к редким остаткам форм детельного падежа, которые последними покидают языковую систему данного говора, охваченного аналитизмом. вокатив представляет живую грамматическую категорию (незначительным является количество примеров употребления номинатива вместо вокатива). Форма аккузатива как основного падежа объекта приобрела статус формы casus oblicus, при которой семантические нюансы уточняются с помощью предлога и семантики управляемого глагола. предлоги в большинстве случаев обладают той же формой и значением, что и в других сербских говорах, однако, имеются также и отступления (например: предлог по имеет и другие значения - ʻдуж (вдоль), уз (при), поред (рядом)ʼ и ʻиза (за, позади, сзади)ʼ; предлог од употребляется и там, где имел место старый аблативный предлог са; предлог поза занимает место стандартного предлога иза; вместо према часто слышится спрема, а вместо насупрот – спротив; соположенные крај/кра/крə и при встречаются и в адлативном значении; встречаются также новые сложные предлоги: аблативное откуде и адлативные накуде и докуде, затем предлог врз и предлог куде ʻкодʼ). номинатив воспринял, наряду с имевшимися функциями (субъекта и именной части предиката) некоторые значения, характерные в стандартном языке обычно для генитива. подлинные формы дательного падежа сохранились только в ограниченном количестве именных местоимений (однако все чаще заменяются конструкцией на + ОП) и в энклитиках дательного падежа, в то врема как в существительных общий падеж полностью вытеснил формы дательного падежа. в большинстве родственных говоров сохранается свободный дательный падеж или же по крайней мере может иметь место при конструкции на + ОП; однако в говоре верхней пчини он полностью вытеснен на-конструкцией. Свободный общий падеж в функции дательного отсутствует (редкие исключения представляют некоторые местоименные формы). что касается предлогов, употребляемых в данном падеже, сохранились только према и спрема ʻпрема (к, по направлению), наспрам (напротив), насупрот (напротив), уочи (накануне)ʼ. предлоги ка/к отсутствуют, однако есть новый предлог накуде. Центральная часть данной работы – Общий падеж, представляет анализ детерминативных функций. диалектный материал распределен по семантическим категориям, и каждая представляет особое целое; при этом самыми богатыми являются две семантические категории – спациальность (пространственность) и темпоральность. общий падеж рассматривается как падеж в функции спациального, темпорального, квалификативного, каузального, интенционального, кондиционального, концессивного, поссессивного и спецификативного детерминатора. для того чтобы добиться предельной ясности, следует иметь в виду, что в рамках определенных семантических категорий (поссессивных, спациальных, темпоральных и квалификативных) встречаются, наряду с общим падежом, и редкие формы дательного падежа. Семантика представляет отправной пункт при изучении синтаксиса падежей верхнепчинского говора. при исследовании данного говора применялась актуальная методология синтаксических исследований, базировавшаяся на корпусе современного сербского языка и древнесербских памятников. данный способ исследования может обеспечить унифицированный подход ко всем сербским говорам (в которых иногда отсутствуют одни и те же морфосинтаксические формы) при изучении синтаксиса.

Јасмина Московљевић Поповић. Корелативне конструкције – теоријске основе анализе. Београд: Филолошки факултет, 2018, 204 стр.

Author(s): Borko Kovačević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2019

ИМПЕРАТИВ У ГОВОРУ СЕВЕРНОШАРПЛАНИНСКЕ ЖУПЕ СИРИНИЋ

Author(s): Bojana M. Veljović,Radivoje Mladenović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2019

This paper analyzes the use of the imperative in the vernacular of the Sirinić Župa in the north Šar Mountains. The corpus of this dialect indicates that the imperative functions as a syntactic unit with a broad syntactic and semantic range. Syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of the imperative are determined on the basis of its primary modal meaning, but also on the basis of its secondary meaning when it refers to single or habitual actions in the past, which are typically repetitive. It turned out that the imperative is stable in all three functional domains of the same vernacular and that it is not suppressed by isofunctional units, i.e. those with similar syntactic or semantic features. Finally, it was found that the imperative has an expressive value when it undergoes temporal transposition, which makes it a stylogenic unit.

ФУТУР ПРВИ У СЛУЖБИ ОБЕЛЕЖАВАЊА ХАБИТУАЛНИХ РАДЊИ У ГОВОРУ СЕВЕРНОШАРПЛАНИНСКЕ ЖУПЕ СИРИНИЋ

Author(s): Bojana M. Veljović,Radivoje Mladenović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2018

This paper analyzes the use of Future I to denote habitual actions in the vernacular of Sirinić. The analysis shows that Future I is a high-frequency unit when it refers to effects of what happened in the past as a custom, habit or part of a sequence. The use of Future with this meaning developed as its secondary trait, but this form was eventually suppressed from other domains of use and it was narrowed down to denoting a habitual action. The basic syntactic and semantic features of this future form with this time reference are its reference to a repeated action or a succession of events and its ability to denote the timeline of the effects of the action and its reference to wishes and commands more clearly. Furthermore, a future referring to the past is stylistically marked and thus appears as an expressive unit within the system, which is why it is typical of emotional discourse. In the Shtokavian area, Future I for habitual actions is only known in the Sirinić vernacular and in a few neighboring ones concentrated around the Šar Mountains. On the other hand, this unit is also frequent in Macedonian and Bulgarian and in some non-Slavic languages spoken in the Balkans, which is why the authors also investigate the presence of this feature in those languages.

О ОСНОВНОМ ЗНАЧЕЊУ СРПСКОГ ПЕРФЕКТА АКТИВНЕ ДИЈАТЕЗЕ И ЊЕГОВОЈ ТИПОЛОШКОЈ КЛАСИФИКАЦИЈИ

Author(s): Stefan Stojanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2018

This paper is an attempt to typologically classify the Serbian perfect, i.e. to determine to what extent the perfect in Serbian can still be considered a perfect. The basic meaning of the Serbian perfect is indeed the one of perfect; however, the perfect can be used in narrative as well. The aorist and the truncated perfect also express the perfect meaning; this meaning, however, is not their basic meaning; in fact, these two past forms are unspecified for temporal perspective. The perfect expresses the whole spectrum of perfect subtypes, whereas the aorist and the truncated perfect are more specialized forms, more limited in expressing perfect semantics. The perfect in Serbian was classified as the general expanded perfect, whereas the aorist and the truncated perfect were classified as the specialized expanded preterite, and the specialized expanded perfect, respectively.

УНИВЕРБИЗАЦИЈА ИЗ УГЛА СРПСКЕ ДЕРИВАТОЛОГИЈЕ

Author(s): Goran Milašin / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2018

This paper analyzes different meanings of the term univerbation in the Serbian word-formation processes. The main goals were to investigate different perspectives on univerbation in Serbian derivational morphology, to compare it with the views in the Slavic, English and German papers and dictionaries, and then to offer some potential solutions. In derivational morphology, univerbation is usually defined as the process of transformation of a syntactic construction as a motivator into a new single word. However, when we consider examples of univerbation from Serbian word-formation processes, we get an impression that it is not yet completely clear what this process actually is, and what distinguishes it from the other word-formation processes. One of the problems is the term univerbation (from Latin unus – ‘one’ and verbum– ‘word’), because it can be understood in several ways – as a name of the process of combining two or more words into a new single word: it can also include compounding, blending and syntactic word-formation, not only one type of the processes as it is often the case in Serbian derivational morphology. That is why we need to find some better term to name the process in which the motivator is a syntactic structure adjective + noun, and a new word is made by adding some suffix on the base of an adjective (саобраћајна несрећа → саобраћајка). We propose that this term can be deradixation, which suggests that a new word is made by eliminating some free morphemes (radices) from a motivator.