Further investigations into the nature of phrasal compounding


Book Description

This collection of papers on phrasal compounding is part of a bigger project whose aims are twofold: First, it seeks to broaden the typological perspective by providing data for as many different languages as possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon itself. Second, based on these data which clearly show interaction between syntax and morphology it aims to discuss theoretical models which deal with this kind of interaction in different ways. Models like Generative Grammar, assume components of grammar and a clear-cut distinction between the lexicon (often including morphology) and grammar. Other models like construction grammar do not assume such components and are rather based on a lexicon including constructs. A comparison of these models on the basis of this phenomenon on the morphology-syntax interface makes it possible to assess their descriptive and explanatory power.




Complex Lexical Units


Book Description

Both compounds and multi-word expressions are complex lexical units, made up of at least two constituents. The most basic difference is that the former are morphological objects and the latter result from syntactic processes. However, the exact demarcation between compounds and multi-word expressions differs greatly from language to language and is often a matter of debate in and across languages. Similarly debated is whether and how these two different kinds of units complement or compete with each other. The volume presents an overview of compounds and multi-word expressions in a variety of European languages. Central questions that are discussed for each language concern the formal distinction between compounds and multi-word expressions, their formation and their status in lexicon and grammar. The volume contains chapters on German, English, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Polish, Finnish, and Hungarian as well as a contrastive overview with a focus on German. It brings together insights from word-formation theory, phraseology and theory of grammar and aims to contribute to the understanding of the lexicon, both from a language-specific and cross-linguistic perspective.




Morphological Complexity within and across Boundaries


Book Description

This volume brings together a collection of original articles investigating state-of-the-art themes in morphology. The papers in the volume provide an in-depth analysis for spoken and sign languages within morphological word domain, morphosyntax and morphophonology. Bringing data from a variety of languages including Turkish, some understudied ones (e.g. Turkish Sign Language, Late Ottoman Turkish) and also endangered languages (e.g. Karachay-Balkar, Sauzini, Cappadocian, Aivaliot and Pharasiot Greek), the volume will be of special interest to a wide audience ranging from typologists to theoretical linguists and graduate students in linguistics and is expected to generate further research on the above mentioned languages, as well as to contribute to the cross-linguistic literature on the themes explored in the volume.




The semantic transparency of English compound nouns


Book Description

What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns, discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc readings across constituent families. All semantic annotations used in the book are freely available.




The Morphology of Asia Minor Greek


Book Description

This volume provides an unprecedented collection of data from Asia Minor Greek, namely from Cappadocian, Pharasiot, Silliot, Smyrniot, Aivaliot, Bithynian, Pontic, Propontis Tsakonian and the dialect of Adrianoupolis. It offers fresh and original reflections on the study of morphology, dialectology and language contact by examining issues regarding inflection, derivation and compounding, dealt with by Metin Bağrıaçık, Marianna Gkiouleka, Aslı Göksel, Mark Janse, Brian D. Joseph, Petros Karatsareas, Nikos Koutsoukos, Io Manolessou, Theodore Markopoulos, Dimitra Melissaropoulou, Nikos Pantelidis and Angela Ralli. An in-depth investigation of phenomena aims to increase our understanding of language change. They result either from a natural evolution of Asia Minor Greek, or from the interaction between the fusional Greek and the agglutinative Turkish or the semi-analytical Romance.







Alloglо̄ssoi


Book Description

The studies presented in this volume deal with numerous and often undervalued aspects of multilingualism in Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean. Primarily, but not exclusively, they explore the impact of the great transnational languages, Greek and Latin, on numerous indigenous languages: the latter mostly disappeared apart from a number of written texts, often not well comprehensible, but at the same time provided the dominant languages with loanwords, some of them destined to enduring success. Moreover, Greek and Latin were remarkably affected by their mutual contact, with the complication that Greek was notoriously far from monolithic, and in some areas its different dialects intermingled with each other and with the local languages. The case studies of this volume were conducted in the frame of a European HERA research on Multilingualism and Minority Languages in Ancient Europe, which covered a number of very diverse areas, with an emphasis on Sicily and Southern Italy, Illyria, Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Egypt and Asia Minor (also in medieval and modern times). This book makes indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in multilingualism and language contact in Ancient Europe.




Extravagant Morphology


Book Description

Taking extra-vagans literally (Lat. ‘wandering outside, out of bounds’), this volume comprises nine case studies on extravagant morphology ranging from pattern-extending derivational processes via theory-challenging compounding processes to interface-straddling morphosyntactic phenomena. As a heuristic approach, morphological extravagance captures word-formation processes characterised by constraint violations, interface phenomena as well as borderline phenomena not easily reconcilable with traditional postulates of morphological accounts. In this regard, the notion of extravagance allows for an exploration of rule-bending language use both empirically and theoretically. The volume makes a valuable contribution to studies on morphological variation, which has only recently seen a renewed and growing interest in morphological phenomena that challenge morphological frameworks. The volume is of interest to all researchers who seek to gain a broader understanding of the mechanisms and factors at work in morphological variation and who are interested in the reassessment of morphological theorising in light of empirical data.




Language Use and Linguistic Structure


Book Description

The twenty-three articles in this volume are based on papers and posters presented at the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium (OLINCO) at Palacký University in the Czech Republic in June 7-9, 2018. This conference welcomed papers that combined analyses of language structure with generalizations about language use. The thematic sections are as follows: Part I. Micro-syntax: The Structure and Interpretation of Verb Phrases; Part II. Micro-syntax: Word-Internal Morphosyntax in Nominal Projections; Part III. Macro-syntax: Structure and Interpretation of Discourse Markers and Projections; Part IV: Empirical Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies. Články v tomto sborníku vycházejí z příspěvků prezentovaných na konferenci Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium (OLINCO), pořádané Univerzitou Palackého v Olomouci ve dnech 7. 6. - 9. 6. 2018. Jako téma byl zvolen "Jazyk jako prostředek a lingvistická struktura", což mělo umožnit prezentaci referátů ze všech současných lingvistických disciplín, pokud se zabývají vědeckým (empirickým, formálním) popisem jazykového systému. Články jsou rozděleny do následujících tematických sekcí: Part I. Micro-syntax: The Structure and Interpretation of Verb Phrases; Part II. Micro-syntax: Word-Internal Morphosyntax in Nominal Projections; Part III. Macro-syntax: Structure and Interpretation of Discourse Markers and Projections; Part IV: Empirical Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies.




Compounds and Compounding


Book Description

This controversial new book addresses the linguistic problems around compounds: words which sit on the borderline of syntax and morphology.