Studies in Ditransitive Constructions


Book Description

This rich volume deals comprehensively with cross-linguistic variation in the morphosyntax of ditransitive constructions: constructions formed with verbs (like give) that take Agent, Theme and Recipient arguments. For the first time, a broadly cross-linguistic perspective is adopted. The present volume, consisting of an overview article and twenty-odd in-depth studies of ditransitive constructions in individual languages from different continents, arose from the conference on ditransitive constructions held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) in 2007. It opens with the editors' survey article providing an overview of cross-linguistic variation in ditransitive constructions, followed by the questionnaire on ditransitive constructions, compiled by the editors in order to elicit various properties of these patterns. The editors' overview discusses formal properties of ditransitive constructions as well as behavioral (or syntactic) and lexical properties (i.e., the extension of ditransitive constructions across different verb classes). The volume includes 23 contributions describing properties of ditransitive constructions in languages from all over the world, written by leading experts. Care has been taken that the contributions to the volume will be representative of structural, geographic and genealogical diversity in the domain of ditransitive constructions. Thus the present volume provides a unique source of information on typological diversity of ditransitive constructions. It is expected that it will be of central interest to all scholars and advanced students of linguistics, especially to those working in the field of language typology and comparative syntax.




Studies on Reduplication


Book Description

For several reasons, mostly inherent to the different developments of generative grammar, an increasing number of publications have dealt with reduplication in the past 20 years. Reduplication lends itself perfectly as a test field for theories that opt for a non-segmental organization of phonology and morphology. As it happens frequently, then, the discussion centers around a rather small set of data for which alternative analysis are offered, and which themselves are intended to contribute to the foundation of new theoretical developments. The present volume (which goes back to a conference on reduplication at the University of Graz, Austria) offers a broader approach to reduplication not only from different theoretical viewpoints, but especially for its phenomenology. Across theories a number of highly qualified authors deal with formal and functional perspectives, with typological properties, with semantics, comparative issues, the role of reduplication in language acquisition, the acquisition of reduplicative systems, sign languages, creoles and pidgins, general grammatical and cognitive principles; the picture is completed by a series of language or language-family specific studies as on Uto-Aztecan, Salish, Tupi-Guarani, Moroccan and Cairene Arabic, various African languages, Chinese, Turkish, Indo-European, languages from India, etc. The overall scope of the conference was to contribute to a new level of discussion of the phenomenon, across theories and across specializations and interests. Update on Contributor's addresses (PDF)




Salish Applicatives


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive view of the morphology, syntax, and semantics of applicative constructions in Salish, a language family of northwestern North America. The historical development and discourse function of applicatives are elucidated and placed in typological perspective.




The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America


Book Description

This handbook provides broad coverage of the languages indigenous to North America, with special focus on typologically interesting features and areal characteristics, surveys of current work, and topics of particular importance to communities. The volume is divided into two major parts: subfields of linguistics and family sketches. The subfields include those that are customarily addressed in discussions of North American languages (sounds and sound structure, words, sentences), as well as many that have received somewhat less attention until recently (tone, prosody, sociolinguistic variation, directives, information structure, discourse, meaning, language over space and time, conversation structure, evidentiality, pragmatics, verbal art, first and second language acquisition, archives, evolving notions of fieldwork). Family sketches cover major language families and isolates and highlight topics of special value to communities engaged in work on language maintenance, documentation, and revitalization.




Studies in Salishan


Book Description




Benefactives and Malefactives


Book Description

Preface -- List of contributors -- Introduction: benefaction and malefaction from a cross-linguistic perspective / Seppo Kittilä & Fernando Zúñiga -- Benefactive applicative periphrases: A typological approach / Denis Creissels -- Cross-linguistic categorization of benefactives by event structure: A preliminary -- Framework for benefactive typology / Tomoko Yamashita Smith -- An areal and cross-linguistic study of benefactive and malefactive constructions / Paula Radetzky & Tomoko Smith -- The role of benefactives and related notions in the typology of purpose clauses / Karsten Schmidtke-Bode -- Benefactive and malefactive uses of Salish applicatives / Kaoru Kiyosawa & Donna B. Gerdts -- Beneficiaries and recipients in Toba (Guaycurú) / Marisa Censabella -- Benefactive and malefactive applicativization in Mapudungun / Fernando Zúñiga -- The benefactive semantic potential of 'caused reception' constructions: A case study of English, German, French, and Dutch / Timothy Colleman -- Beneficiary coding in Finnish / Seppo Kittilä -- Benefactives in Laz / René Lacroix -- Benefactive and malefactive verb extensions in the Koalib verb system / Nicolas Quint -- Benefactives and malefactives in Gumer (Gurage) / Sascha Völlmin -- A 'reflexive benefactive' in Chamba-Daka (Adamawa branch, Niger-Congo family) / Raymond Boyd -- Beneficiary and other roles of the dative in Taqshelhiyt / Christian J. Rapold -- Benefactive strategies in Thai / Mathias Jenny -- Korean benefactive particles and their meanings / Jae Jung Song -- Malefactivity in Japanese / Eijiro Tsuboi -- General index (names, languages, subjects)




Irregularity in Morphology (and beyond)


Book Description

Irregularity is a philological concept which is not adequately defined. The present volume aims to improve the understanding of irregularity within the domain of morphology, relating to inflectional, derivation, and compounding. Studies aim to discover the potential regularity behind irregularities, the fact or hypothesis that regular (sound) change produces irregularity (Sturtevant's Paradox), the nature of paradigms (esp. suppletion and overabundance), and the interplay of irregular morphology with syntax and pragmatics. Perspectives are synchronic and diachronic. A few studies approach irregularity from the psycholinguistic point of view (issues of memory and acquisition). Languages studied include Latin and its daughter languages French, Catalan and Italian, but also English, German, Greek, Russian, Turkish, Thompson Salish, and the Iroquoian languages. Theories discussed include Canonical Typology, Distributed Morphology, Whole Word Morphology, Minimalism, and the Procedural/Declarative Model.




The Clause-Typing System of Plains Cree


Book Description

This book offers detailed empirical coverage of the syntax and semantics of Plains Cree, an Algonquian language of western Canada. It combines careful elicitation with corpus studies to provide the first systematic investigation of the two distinct verbal inflectional paradigms - independent and conjunct - in the language. The book argues that the independent order denotes an indexical clause type with familiar deictic properties, while the conjunct order is an anaphoric clause type whose reference is determined by rules of anaphoric dependence. Both syntactic and semantic considerations are examined: on the syntactic side, indexical clauses are shown to be restricted to a subset of matrix environments, and to exclude proforms that have clause-external antecedents or induce cross-clausal dependencies. Anaphoric clauses have an elsewhere distribution: they occur in both matrix and dependent contexts, and freely host and participate in cross-clausal dependencies. The semantic discussion focusses primarily on the context in which a proposition is evaluated: it shows that indexical clauses have absolute tense and a speaker origo, consistent with deixis on a speech act; anaphoric clauses, by contrast, use anaphoric dependencies to establish the evaluation context. Data from Plains Cree is compared to the matrix/subordinate system found in English, to the clause-chaining system of the Amele language of Papua New Guinea, and to Romance subjunctive clauses. The book also provides the first micro-typology of pronominal marking and initial change in Algonquian languages.




The Universal Structure of Categories


Book Description

Using data from a variety of languages such as Blackfoot, Halkomelem, and Upper Austrian German, this book explores a range of grammatical categories and constructions, including tense, aspect, subjunctive, case and demonstratives. It presents a new theory of grammatical categories - the Universal Spine Hypothesis - and reinforces generative notions of Universal Grammar while accommodating insights from linguistic typology. In essence, this new theory shows that language-specific categories are built from a small set of universal categories and language-specific units of language. Throughout the book the Universal Spine Hypothesis is compared to two alternative theories - the Universal Base Hypothesis and the No Base Hypothesis. This valuable addition to the field will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in linguistics.