Complex Predicates in South Asian Languages


Book Description

Complex Predicates Have Been A Readily Identifiable Feature Of South Asian Languages. This Study Is The First Attempt Of Its Kind To Bring Together The Data And Descriptive Facts From Various South Asian Languages With A View To Providing A Comparative Picture As Well As An Overall Theoretical Perspective.




The Structure of Complex Predicates in Urdu


Book Description

This book takes a detailed look at two differing complex predicates in the South Asian language Urdu. The Urdu permissive in particular brings into focus the problem of the syntax-semantics mismatch. An examination of the syntactic properties of this complex predicate shows that it is formed by the combination of two semantic heads, but that this combination is not mirrored in the syntax in terms of any kind of syntactic or lexical incorporation.




Complex Predicates


Book Description

A variety of approaches to the question of the range and nature of complex predicates.




The Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 2003


Book Description

South Asia is home to a large number of languages and dialects. The considerable body of linguists working on this region have made significant contributions to our understanding of language, society, and language in society on a global scale. Despite this, there is as yet no recognized international forum for the exchange of ideas amongst South Asian linguists. The YEARBOOK OF SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS is designed to be just that forum. It brings together empirical and theoretical research and serves as a testing ground for the articulation of new ideas and approaches which may be grounded in a study of South Asian languages but which have universal applicability. Each volume of this annual series will have four major sections: I. Invited contributions consisting of state-of-the-art essays on research in South Asian languages. II. Refereed open submissions focusing on relevant issues and providing various viewpoints. III. Reports from around the world book reviews and abstracts of doctoral theses. IV. A forum for dialogue; critiques; comments and discussions; reports on research activities; and conference announcements. In the words of the Editor-in-Chief, 'other than excellence and non-isolationism, we have no agenda and no thematic priorities'. This pioneering series will interest all those in the fields of sociolinguistics, language studies, grammar, literature and sociology.




Verb-Verb Complexes in Asian Languages


Book Description

This volume is the first to present a detailed survey of the systems of verb-verb complexes in Asian languages from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Many Asian languages share, to a greater or lesser extent, a unique class of compound verbs consisting of a main verb and a quasi-auxiliary verb known as a 'vector' or 'explicator'. These quasi-auxiliary verbs exhibit unique grammatical behaviour that suggests that they have an intermediate status between full lexical verbs and wholly reduced auxiliaries. They are also semantically unique, in that when they are combined with main verbs, they can convey a rich variety of functional meanings beyond the traditional notions of tense, aspect, and modality, such as manner and intensity of action, benefaction for speaker or hearer, and polite or derogatory styles in speech. In this book, leading specialists in a range of Asian languages offer an in-depth analysis of the long-standing questions relating to the diachrony and geographical distribution of verb-verb complexes. The findings have implications for the general understanding of the grammaticalization of verb categories, complex predicate formation, aktionsart and event semantics, the morphology-syntax-semantics interface, areal linguistics, and typology.




Complex Predicates


Book Description

Complex predicates are multipredicational, but monoclausal structures. They have proven problematic for linguistic theory, particularly for proposed distinctions between the lexicon, morphology, and syntax. This volume focuses on the mapping from morphosyntactic structures to event structure, and in particular the constraints on possible mappings. The volume showcases the 'coverb construction', a complex predicate construction which, though widespread, has received little attention in the literature. The coverb construction contrasts with more familiar serial verb constructions. The coverb construction generally maps only to event structures like those of monomorphemic verbs, whereas serial verb constructions map to a range of event structures differing from those of monomorphemic verbs. The volume coverage is truly cross-linguistic, including languages from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, East Africa and North America. The volume establishes a new arena of research in event structure, syntax, and cross-linguistic typology.




South Asian Languages


Book Description

Explores the similarities and differences of about forty South Asian languages from the four different language families.




A Generative Lexicon Account of Bangla Complex Predicates


Book Description

This book is an attempt to provide a corpus based account of Bangla complex predicates and represent them in a structured lexicon suitable for further information processing useful in any Natural Language Processing (NLP) works. The framework which is adopted in the book for representation of the complex predicate is Generative Lexicon proposed by James Pustejovsky. Bangla has mainly three kinds of complex predicates which are extensively used in the language, viz., Adjective-Verb conjunct predicates, Noun-Verb conjunct predicates and Verb-Verb predicates known as compound verbs in the literature. There are three very important outcomes of this research work, none of them has ever been attempted for any Indian languages and all of them are crucial from both theoretical as well as applicational point of view. First, it provides a classification of adjectives of Bangla based on their behavior when attached in a conjunct verb. This classification is based on the semantic properties of the adjectives. However, it also provides information about their syntactic behavior, viz., which semantic class goes with which verb in a conjunct verb frame in the syntax. Secondly, it also attempts to classify the nouns of Bangla used in Noun-Verb conjuncts. This classification is based on the syntactic frames in which they appear when used in a Conjunct Verb construction. Thirdly, the work creates verb frames for the complex predicates of Bangla. Verb frames are syntactic frames or environment where these verbs occur. They are able to provide important information about their argument structure both types and kinds of arguments. The book will be useful for researchers working in theoretical linguistic issues like argument structure, semantics of complex predicates etc in general. The book uses a powerful knowledge representation framework Generative Lexicon for the representation of the complex predicates and can be used in the area of applied Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing.




Clause Structure in South Asian Languages


Book Description

The researchers in the field of theoretical and theoretically inclined descriptive linguistics have for a long time felt a need for detailed and clearly presented linguistic treatments of various syntactic phenomena in South Asian languages. Clause Structure in South Asian Languages: provides a comprehensive overview and covers major aspects of clause structure in a variety of South Asian languages; provides detailed analyses of several aspects of phrase structure of many prominent South Asian languages; gives theoretically up-to-date treatment of several important issues in South Asian syntax and semantics; contains papers by some of the most prominent linguists working on South Asian languages.




The Lexicon–Syntax Interface


Book Description

The present collection offers fresh perspectives on the lexicon-syntax interface, drawing on novel data from South Asian languages like Bangla, Hindi-Urdu, Kashmiri, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Punjabi, and Telugu. It covers different phenomena like adjectives, nominal phrases, ditransitives, light verbs, middles, passives, causatives, agreement, and pronominal clitics, while trying to settle the theoretical tensions underlying the interaction of the lexicon with the narrow syntactic component. All the chapters critically survey previous analyses in detail, suggesting how these may or may not be extended to South Asian languages. Novel explanations are proposed, which handle not only the novel data presented here, but also pave alternative ways to look at issues of minimalist architecture.