Derivational issues in Old English: Unexpected morphological features of the prefix ge-

openQuesto elaborato mira ad evidenziare alcuni problemi legati alla derivazione morfologica di alcune parole dell'inglese antico prefissate con ge-. Numerose caratteristiche di questo prefisso presentano problemi di carattere semantico e morfologico che non ne consentono una completa comprensione da parte degli studiosi, presentando aspetti che non rispecchiano i comportamenti tipici dei normali prefissi. Partendo dai fenomeni derivativi, nel primo capitolo vengono fornite alcune nozioni che sono alla base per la buona formazione di parole derivate, tra cui: la condizione della base unica; il costituente testa nella derivazione; il cambio di categoria della parola e la derivazione zero/conversione; restrizioni e norme dei processi derivativi. Vengono poi illustrati i concetti di polisemia e omonimia e la loro relazione con l’etimologia delle parole. Nel secondo capitolo viene descritto il prefisso ge- e le sue principali funzioni nell'inglese antico, dai significati forniti dalle grammatiche storiche alle analisi proposte dagli studiosi. Vengono infine comparati nel terzo capitolo gli aspetti tipici dei fenomeni derivazionali, presentati nel primo capitolo, con le caratteristiche proprie di ge-, evidenziandone i particolari aspetti derivativi. Viene poi discussa la possibile relazione di polisemia o di omonimia relativa a due funzioni principali del prefisso come strumento di analisi della sua etimologia, e vengono illustrati gli aspetti diacronici e sincronici che complicano lo studio e la comprensione delle sue funzioni morfologiche e semantiche. Lo scopo di questa tesi è di mettere in evidenza come tutti questi aspetti rendano la classificazione di ge- come prefisso una questione complessa.This thesis is an attempt to highlight some of the problems related to the morphological derivation of Old English words prefixed by ge-. Many features of this prefix present semantic and morphological problems that make it difficult for academics to be fully understood, including aspects that differ from the typical behaviour of prefixes. Starting with derivational phenomena, the first chapter will provide a number of notions that form the basis for successful derivational word formation, including: the Unitary Base Hypothesis; the 'head' of derived words; the word category change and zero derivation/conversion; restrictions and rules of derivational processes. Next, the concepts of polysemy and homonymy and their relation to word etymology will be explained. The second chapter will describe the prefix ge- and its main functions in Old English, from the meanings provided by historical grammars to the analyses proposed by scholars. Finally, in the third chapter, the typical aspects of derivational phenomena presented in the first chapter will be compared with the characteristics of ge-, highlighting its unusual derivational aspects. It will also be discussed the possible relationship of polysemy or homonymy related to two main functions of the prefix as a tool to analyse its etymology, and eventually the diachronic and synchronic aspects that complicate the study and understanding of its morphological and semantic functions. The aim of this thesis is to highlight how all these aspects make the classification of ge- as a prefix a complex matter

Is Hanja represented in the Korean mental lexicon?: Encoding cross-script semantic cohorts in the representation of Sino-Korean

Korean can be transcribed in two different scripts, one alphabetic (Hangul) and one logographic (Hanja). How does the mental lexicon represent the contributions of multiple scripts? Hangul’s highly transparent one-to-one relationship between spellings and sounds creates homophones in spoken Korean that are also homographs in Hangul, which can only be disambiguated through Hanja. We thus tested whether native speakers encoded the semantic contributions of the different Hanja characters sharing the same homographic form in Hangul in their mental representation of Sino-Korean. Is processing modulated by the number of available meanings, that is, the size of the semantic cohort? In two cross-modal lexical decision tasks with semantic priming,participants were presented with auditory primes that were either syllables (Experiment 1) or full Sino-Korean words (Experiment 2), followed by visual Sino-Korean full word targets. In Experiment 1, reaction times were not significantly modulated by the size of the semantic cohort. However, in Experiment 2, we observed significantly faster reaction times for targets preceded by primes with larger semantic cohorts. We discuss these findings in relation to the structure of the mental lexicon for bi-scriptal languages and the representation of semantic cohorts across different scripts.1. Introduction 2. Hanja and Hangul during processing 3. Experiment 1: Cross-modal fragment priming 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants 3.1.2. Materials and design 3.1.3. Procedure 3.2. Results 3.3. Discussion 4. Experiment 2: Cross-modal full word priming 4.1. Method 4.1.1. Participants 4.1.2. Materials and design 4.1.3. Procedure 4.2. Results 4.3. Discussion 5. General discussion 6. Conclusion

From Taxonomy to Typology: The Features of Lexical Contact Phenomena in Atepec Zapotec-Spanish Linguistic Contact

In this paper, I begin with an examination of what constitutes a borrowing from one language to another with particular reference to lexical borrowing. I develop a set of three aspects of words/lexemes that can serve as features within the context of borrowing and as a model for their representation to be used to account for lexical contact phenomena, and compare them with characteristics used in previous descriptions of these phenomena. I then apply a featural analysis to the currently accepted taxonomy in order to demonstrate its lack of consistency in arbitrarily excluding a part of the lexical results of cultural contact and in failing to distinguish crucial differences in the agentivity of change. I argue that, by using these features, the full scope of lexical contact phenomena can be described. Using a derived and coherent terminology, I apply the features to the results of Atepec Zapotec (AZ)-Spanish (Sp) contact and conclude with a discussion of possible uses of this typology in terms of other areas of contact linguistics

Conceptualization and cognitive relativism on result in Mandarin Chinese: the case study of Mandarin Chinese bǎ construction using a cognitive and centering approach

This work adopts Langacker\u27s cognitive grammar approach and addresses the cognitive significance of result in Mandarin Chinese, as expressed in resultant construals in the Mandarin Chinese bă construction: X bă Y Z. I identify the semantic prime of result in Mandarin Chinese, and discuss its role in the resultative verbal compound construction, the V-de-EXT resultative construction, and the bèi construction, with particular focus on the bă construction. I provide evidence for the resultant nature of segment Z in the bă construction in (1) aspectual markers, (2) resultative suffixes, (3) resultative verbal compounds, (4) locative complements, (5) directional complements, (6) the double object gěi \u27give\u27 construction, (7) inalienable possession; (8) durative and frequentative markers; and (9) the regard predicate. I consider the semantic category of result in the Mandarin Chinese bă construction to be grounded in the conceptualization of the morpheme bă \u27to take, to hold.\u27 The manipulative sense of holding an object is transformed into a metaphorical resultative sense of holding a grammatical event. Comparisons with the English get/have + p.p. construction and the German inseparable prefixes reveal the shared cross-linguistic nature of agency and result. I utilize Grosz, Joshi, and Weinstein\u27s (1995) centering discourse approach to analyze the Mandarin Chinese bă construction X bă Y Z, and determine that segment Y is the backward-looking center. Prince\u27s assumed familiarity accounts for the cognitive constraints of segment Y. I ascribe the cognitive significance of result to the claim of construal differences. I apply cognitive relativism to pedagogical implications for SLA instruction of the Mandarin Chinese bă construction

Lexical Structure and the Nature of Linguistic Representations

This dissertation addresses a foundational debate regarding the role of structure and abstraction in linguistic representation, focusing on representations at the lexical level. Under one set of views, positing abstract morphologically-structured representations, words are decomposable into morpheme-level basic units; however, alternative views now challenge the need for abstract structured representation in lexical representation, claiming non-morphological whole-word storage and processing either across-the-board or depending on factors like transparency/productivity/surface form. Our cross-method/cross-linguistic results regarding morphological-level decomposition argue for initial, automatic decomposition, regardless of factors like semantic transparency, surface formal overlap, word frequency, and productivity, contrary to alternative views of the lexicon positing non-decomposition for some or all complex words. Using simultaneous lexical decision and time-sensitive brain activity measurements from magnetoencephalography (MEG), we demonstrate effects of initial, automatic access to morphemic constituents of compounds, regardless of whole-word frequency, lexicalization and length, both in the psychophysical measure (response time) and in the MEG component indexing initial lexical activation (M350), which we also utilize to test distinctions in lexical representation among ambiguous words in a further experiment. Two masked priming studies further demonstrate automatic decomposition of compounds into morphemic constituents, showing equivalent facilitation regardless of semantic transparency. A fragment-priming study with spoken Japanese compounds argues that compounds indeed activate morphemic candidates, even when the surface form of a spoken compound fragment segmentally-mismatches its potential underlying morpheme completion due to a morpho-phonological alternation (rendaku), whereas simplex words do not facilitate segment-mismatching continuations, supporting morphological structure-based prediction regardless of surface-form overlap. A masked priming study on productive and non-productive Japanese de-adjectival nominal derivations shows priming of constituents regardless of productivity, and provides evidence that affixes have independent morphological-level representations. The results together argue that the morpheme, not the word, is the basic unit of lexical processing, supporting a view of lexical representations in which there are abstract morphemes, and revealing immediate, automatic decomposition regardless of semantic transparency, morphological productivity, and surface formal overlap, counter to views in which some/all complex words are treated as unanalyzed wholes. Instead, we conclude that morphologically-complex words are decomposed into abstract morphemic units immediately and automatically by rule, not by exception

Cross-Linguistic Metonymies in Human Limb Nomenclature

This dissertation is a cross-linguistic lexical study of metonymic change in human limb nomenclature. The data analyzed for this study make up both synchronic and diachronic databases. The synchronic data come from a sample of 153 non-Indo-European languages from 66 language families and are balanced for genetic and areal influence. The diachronic data are made up of a large collection of Indo-European etymologies. By comparing the metonymic patterns found in the Indo-European historical data with the synchronic cross-linguistic data, this dissertation explores to what extent the patterns of change found in Indo-European are cross-linguistic tendencies. In addition to showing how etymological data from one language family can help identify cross-linguistic tendencies, this dissertation also supports the claim that semantic change is regular, predictable and unidirectional. This serves as a framework for identifying cross-linguistic lexical tendencies. Along with its contributions to the theoretical discussion of regularity in lexical change, this dissertation proposes three universal tendencies and a substantial amount of lexical data that is useful for future cross-linguistic studies

Cognitive Arguments for a Fuzzy Construction Grammar

Following Desagulier (2005), I assume that it is by studying intermediate forms that we can gain a better understanding of creativity and innovation, from both a linguistic and a cognitive perspective. My case studies tend to show that form/function reshuffling is best understood as a grammatical blend, for which I offer a new definition, based on a critical examination of works by Fauconnier and Turner (1996, 1998, 2002) and Fauconnier (1997). Constructional integration networks, which are the keystone of my model, hinge on the following principle: a construction that is cognitively salient provides can serve as the basis for the structuring of speakers' mental grammars. This stable symbolic unit can thus (i) be retrieved wholly or partially to provide a template for the composition of new constructions (ii) help speakers/hearers gain access to more complex pairings

PHRASAL LOAN TRANSLATION TERMS IN THE MASTER’S THESES ON TEACHING TURKISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Languages are living creatures. They need to feed on lexical units to survive. To satisfy this biological need, they either utilize their own properties to produce novel lexical units like plants photosynthesize or import foreign words to meet calorie deficit like animals feed. Loan translation is the combination of these two tendencies. During this process, a language benefits from its own words to find an equivalence to a novel concept; however, imitating a foreign source word in lexical, phrasal, or sentential level. This method is also used for special languages of terminological domains. For these realities, phrasal loan translation terminologization method was decided on as the data type. Turkish master’s theses on teaching Turkish as a foreign language were selected as the sample. 25 theses were scanned, and 203 potential phrasal loan translation terms were detected. Related terms were classified under six domains: education, linguistics, sociology, methodology, statistics, and others. Potential source languages and terms were represented for each term. If possible, they were provided with evidential source texts. Problematic terms were handled separately, and the potential reasons for these problems were explained just under the related term in the table. In the conclusion part, potential solution suggestions were presented

A Cognitive Grammar Analysis of the Semantics of the Russian Verbal Prefix na-

The Russian verbal prefix na- is one of a set of aspectual prefixes that exhibit characteristics of both derivational and inflectional morphemes. In addition to forming aspectual pairs as a grammatical marker of Perfective aspect, na-, in many cases, also carries lexical meaning; in these cases, na-prefixation changes the lexical/semantic meaning of the verbal stem, resulting in a distinct lexical item. I examine a sample of 40 verbs to compare the frequencies of na- as a lexicalized prefix and as a grammaticalized prefix. I then propose a radial category model to account for the polysemous functions of na-, with several metonymically and metaphorically related functions branching out from a single spatial prototype