Extended ergativity in Bumthang

This paper addresses ergativity in Bumthang. In 2016, Donohue & Donohue reported on the variable use of the ergative case marker in Bumthang transitive clauses. They identified a number of largely pragmatic, semantic, and informational structural contexts that license the use of the ergative case on the subjects. Given the nature of the factors involved we examined similar conditions for arguments of monovalent verbs, not a typical context for receiving ergative case if structural conditions were uniquely determining case, but which would likely also be sensitive to these same factors. We find that there are some contexts in which the sole argument of an monovalent verb can bear ergative case, drawing on some of the same features, but not identical to those relevant for transitive verbs. In particular, the notion of agentivity is of paramount importance for licensing ergative case arguments of monovalent verbs, and we discuss the set of factors that need to coincide for this to happen

Polisemija glagola koji označavaju koncept SJEDENJA u engleskom, hrvatskom i njemačkom jeziku

This paper presents the findings of a corpus-based research of the posture verb SIT in English, Croatian and German. In line with the central tenets of cognitive linguistics we argue that figurative meanings of this verb are motivated by bodily experience and grounded in image schemas such as CONTAINMENT and GOOD-FIT and as such follow roughly the same paths of meaning extension in the languages under scrutiny. The results of our analysis also imply that differences noted among English, Croatian and German can partly be attributed to different levels of saliency of particular image schemas in the three languages (e.g. figurative extensions based on the image schema CONTAINMENT are much more prominent in English and German than in Croatian). We also maintain that the divergent paths of the meaning extension of verbs expressing the concept SIT in English, Croatian and German can be put down to idiosyncratic features of these languages which are by analogy extended from one construction or pattern of use to another. Such processes explain why it is possible for English sit, unlike Croatian sjediti and German sitzen, to behave as a transitive verb (e.g. in sentences: sit the child on a chair, sit meat on a plate).Ovaj rad predstavlja rezultate korpusnog istraživanja glagola koji označavaju koncept SJEDENJA u engleskom, hrvatskom i njemačkom jeziku. U skladu sa središnjim postavkama kognitivne lingvistike, krećemo od pretpostavke da je značenje utemeljeno u tjelesnom iskustvu te predodžbenim shemama poput one SPREMNIKA ili BLISKOG PRIANJANJA LIKA UNUTAR SPREMNIKA, pa stoga možemo očekivati da će se značenjska proširenja analiziranih glagola kretati otprilike istim smjerovima. Rezultati naše analize navode nas na zaključak da se razlike u prenesenim značenjima glagola sit, sjediti i sitzen mogu dijelom pripisati različitoj istaknutosti određene sheme u pojedinom jeziku (npr. shema SPREMNIKA istaknutija je u engleskom nego u hrvatskom i njemačkom). Također smatramo da do razlika u proširenim značenjima glagola sit, sjediti i sitzen može doći uslijed idiosinkratičnih osobina tih jezika koje se iz jednog uporabnog obrasca analogijom prenose u druge. Takvi procesi objašnjavaju kako je moguće da se engleski sit ponaša kao prijelazan glagol, za razliku od hrvatskog sjediti ili njemačkog sitzen (npr. u rečenicama: sit the child on a chair, sit meat on a plate)

Changes in transitivity and reflexive uses of "sit (me/myself down)" in Early and Late Modern English

Peer reviewe

Second Language Learner Knowledge of Verb–Argument Constructions: Effects of Language Transfer and Typology

This article examines second language (L2) learner knowledge of English verb–argument constructions (VACs), for example, the ‘V against n’ construction. It investigates to what extent constructions underpin L2 learners' linguistic competence, how VAC mental representations in native speakers and learners differ, and whether there are observable effects of the learners' first language. Native speakers of English and advanced learners of 3 different first language backgrounds (Czech, German, Spanish) were asked to generate the first verb that came to mind to fill the gap in 20 sparse VAC frames like “she ____ against the….” The comparison of learner and native speaker verb responses highlights crosslinguistic transfer effects as well as effects of language typology that impact verb semantics (cf. Talmy, 1985). Our findings suggest that learners whose L1 is, like English, satellite‐framed (here Czech and German) produce more target‐like verbs than learners whose L1 is verb‐framed (here Spanish).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109566/1/modl12149.pd

Multilingual corpora: models, methods, uses

This paper gives an account of our work on multilingual corpora at the University of Oslo. Different corpus models are presented, in particular the bi-directional translation model used in building the English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC). The steps in building the ENPC are briefly outlined, with some comments on problems encountered. Most of the paper is concerned with the use of this sort of corpus. There is a brief introduction to the search program developed for the ENPC. The main point of the paper is to show that the bi-directional corpus model makes it possible to carry out contrastive studies and simultaneously control for translation effects. Bengt Altenberg’s notion of mutual correspondence is introduced, with reference to his study of adverbial connectors in English and Swedish, based on the sister corpus of the ENPC, the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus. As an illustration of translation effects, there are some comments on the distribution of two verbs of posture in the ENPC: Norwegian stå and its English cognate stand. The difference is sharpest in original texts, while the distribution in the translations is clearly tinged by the source texts.O presente artigo relata nossos trabalhos com corpora multilíngües na Universidade de Oslo. Diferentes modelos de corpora são apresentados, em especial, o modelo bidirecional de tradução usado no English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC). As etapas de construção do ENPC são descritas de forma sucinta, acompanhadas de alguns comentários acerca dos problemas encontrados. Grande parte do artigo é dedicada aos usos desse tipo de corpus. Há também uma breve introdução à ferramenta de busca desenvolvida para o ENPC. O principal objetivo aqui é mostrar que o modelo bidirecional de corpus de tradução possibilita a realização de estudos contrastivos e permite, simultaneamente, observar efeitos de tradução. A noção de correspondência mútua, introduzida por Bent Altenberg, é discutida quando comentamos seu estudo sobre conectores adverbias em inglês e sueco, desenvolvido com base no corpus English-Swedish Parallel Corpus, criado segundo os mesmos parâmetros do ENPC. Como exemplo de efeitos de tradução, são tecidos alguns comentários quanto à distribuição de dois verbos de posição no ENPC: o norueguês stå e seu cognato em inglês stand. A diferença é mais marcada em textos originais; já nas traduções, a distribuição é claramente influenciada pelos textos originais

Number Disagreement in There Sentences with Existence Verbs

認知・機能言語学研究 (8

Hendiadys in naturally occurring interactions : A cross-linguistic study of double verb constructions

Double verb constructions known as hendiadys have been studied primarily in literary texts and corpora of written language. Much less is known about their properties and usage in spoken language, where expressions such as 'come and see', 'go and tell', 'sit and talk' are particularly common, and where we can find an even richer diversity of other constructions. In this study, we investigate hendiadys in corpora of naturally occurring social interactions in four languages, Danish, English (US and UK), Finnish and Italian, with the objective of exploring whether hendiadys is used systematically in recurrent interactional and sequential circumstances, from which it is possible to identify the pragmatic function(s) that hendiadys may serve. Examining hendiadys in conversation also offers us a special window into its grammatical properties, for example when a speaker self-corrects from a non-hendiadic to a hendiadic expression, exposing the boundary between related grammatical forms and demonstrating the distinctiveness of hendiadys in context. More broadly, we demonstrate that hendiadys is systematically associated with talk about complainable matters, in environments characterised by a conflict, dissonance, or friction that is ongoing in the interaction or that is being reported by one participant to another. We also find that the utterance in which hendiadys is used is typically in a subsequent and possibly terminal position in the sequence, summarising or concluding it. Another key finding is that the complainable or conflictual element in these interactions is expressed primarily by the first conjunct of the hendiadic construction. Whilst the first conjunct is semantically subsidiary to the second, it is pragmatically the most important one. This analysis leads us to revisit a long-established asymmetry between the verbal components of hendiadys, and to bring to light the synergy of grammar and pragmatics in language usage.Peer reviewe

Automatic Concept Discovery from Parallel Text and Visual Corpora

Humans connect language and vision to perceive the world. How to build a similar connection for computers? One possible way is via visual concepts, which are text terms that relate to visually discriminative entities. We propose an automatic visual concept discovery algorithm using parallel text and visual corpora; it filters text terms based on the visual discriminative power of the associated images, and groups them into concepts using visual and semantic similarities. We illustrate the applications of the discovered concepts using bidirectional image and sentence retrieval task and image tagging task, and show that the discovered concepts not only outperform several large sets of manually selected concepts significantly, but also achieves the state-of-the-art performance in the retrieval task.Comment: To appear in ICCV 201

Converb constructions in Mari and Udmurt: Russian loanwords as a metric of productivity

Uralic languages of the Volga-Kama Region, especially Mari and Udmurt, show strong Turkic influence in the range of usages of converbial (gerundial, i.e. adverbial non-finite) forms. Converbs can be found in combination with syntactically superordinate verbs communicating different values, mirroring Turkic structures: modal (“swimming know” = ‘know how to swim’), directional (“crawling leave” = ‘crawl away’), benefactive (“baking give” = ‘bake something for someone’), aspectual (“drinking send” = ‘drink up’). It is debatable however to what extent one can speak of grammaticalized structures and to what extent one should speak of a body of loan translations in individual languages or varieties. The paper explores the prospect of using verbs borrowed from Russian as a metric of productivity: as these were borrowed after the phase of intense Turkic language contacts ended, their usage in Turkic-type structures can been seen as evidence for their grammaticalization, while their absence in such structures can be seen as evidence against it