Semantics of nouns and nominal number

In the present paper, I will discuss the semantic structure of nouns and nominal number markers. In particular, I will discuss the question if it is possible to account for the syntactic and semantic formation of nominals in a parallel way, that is I will try to give a compositional account of nominal semantics. The framework that I will use is "twolevel semantics". The semantic representations and their type-theoretical basis will account for general cross-linguistic characteristics of nouns and nominal number and will show interdependencies between noun classes, number marking and cardinal constructions. While the analysis will give a unified account of bare nouns (like dog / water), it will distinguish between the different kinds of nominal terms (like a dog / dogs / water). Following the proposal, the semantic operations underlying the formation of the SR are basically the same for DPs as for CPs. Hence, from such an analysis, independent semantic arguments can be derived for a structural parallelism of nominals and sentences - that is, for the "sentential aspect" of noun phrases. I will first give a sketch of the theoretical background. I will then discuss the cross-linguistic combinatorial potential of nominal constructions, that is, the potential of nouns and number markers to combine with other elements and form complex expressions. This will lead to a general type-theoretical classification for the elements in question. In the next step, I will model the referential potential of nominal constructions. Together with the combinatorial potential, this will give us semantic representations for the basic elements involved in nominal constructions. In an overview, I will summarize our modeling of nouns and nominal number. I will then discuss in an outlook the "sentential aspect" of noun phrases

XML Annotation of Hebrew Elements in Judaeo-Arabic Texts

The main aim of this study is to introduce a model of TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) annotation of Hebrew elements in Judaeo-Arabic texts, i.e. code-switching, borrowing and Hebrew quotations. This paper will provide an introduction to using XML (Extensible Markup Language) to investigate sociolinguistic aspects in medieval Judaeo-Arabic texts. Accordingly, it will suggest to what extent using XML is useful for investigating linguistic and sociolinguistic features in the Judaeo-Arabic paradigm. To provide an example for how XML annotation could be applied to Judaeo-Arabic texts, a corpus of 300 pages selected from three Judaeo-Arabic books has been manually annotated using the TEI P5. The annotation covers all instances of code-switching, borrowing, and Hebrew quotations in that corpus

Annotations of Connectives and Arguments in Malayalam Language

AbstractDiscourse relations in natural languages link clauses in text and compose overall text structure. Discourse connectives are an important part of modeling the Malayalam discourse structure. We followed the annotation procedure of Penn Discourse Tree Bank and worked on tagging of discourse connectives and arguments of Malayalam text and also report the senses of relation. We present our work on annotations of Malayalam discourse connectives and arguments which helps to know more about the discourse connectives and their appearance in case of semantic rules in Malayalam discourse. Discourse connectives may or may not be explicitly present in the relation. In our work, we focus on the annotation of both explicit and implicit connectives and arguments in Malayalam text and showed encouraging results

Legal Translation Instruction at Discourse Level and the Problem of Equivalence

Legal translation is often claimed to be one of the most difficult types of technical translation. The difficulty may partly be due to the characteristic features of legal discourse which is typically archaic, obscure, complex, and culturally-bound, different linguistic systems, and the type of equivalence the legal translator seeks to achieve; and partly be due to the item-centered approach commonly used in teaching legal translation which emphasizes word-for-word equivalence. The present paper introduces a discourse-oriented approach as an alternative to the currently-used method of teaching legal translation in Iraqi universities. The major argument is that teaching legal translation at discourse level helps the students of translation to recognize the lexical, grammatical, pragmatic, and stylistic dimensions of the legal text which are essential for providing appropriate legal equivalence. Keywords: legal translation, legal equivalence, translation instruction, discourse-oriented approach, characteristics of legal discourse DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-17-03 Publication date:June 30th 2020

Aspects of the Syntax, Production and Pragmatics of code-switching - with special reference to Cantonese-English

This dissertation argues for the position that code-switching utterances are constrained by the same set of mechanisms as those which govern monolingual utterances. While this thesis is in line with more recent code-switching theories (e.g. Belazi et al. 1994, MacSwan 1997, Mahootian 1993), this dissertation differs from those works in making two specific claims: Firstly, functional categories and lexical categories exhibit different syntactic behaviour in code-switching. Secondly, codeswitching is subject to the same principles not only in syntax, but also in production and pragmatics. Chapter 2 presents a critical review of constraints and processing models previously proposed in the literature. It is suggested that in view of the vast variety of data, no existing model is completely adequate. Nevertheless, it is argued that a model which does not postulate syntactic constraints (along the lines of Mahootian 1993, MacSwan 1997) or production principles (along the lines of de Bot 1992) specific to code switching is to be preferred on cognitive and theoretical grounds. Chapter 3 concerns word order between lexical heads and their complements in code-switching. It is shown that the language of a lexical head (i.e. noun or verb) may or may not determine the word order of its complement. Chapter 4 investigates word order between functional heads and their complements in code-switching. Contrary to the case with lexical categories, the language of functional heads (e.g. D, I and C) is shown to determine the word order of their complements in code-switching. It is proposed that word order between heads (lexical or functional) and complements is governed by head-parameters, and the difference between lexical heads and functional heads is due to their differential processing and production in terms of Levelt's (1989) algorithm. Chapter 5 investigates the selection properties of functional categories in codeswitching, with special reference to Cantonese-English. Contrary to the Functional Head Constraint (Belazi et al. 1994), it is shown that code-switching can occur freely between functional heads and their complements, provided that the c-selection requirements of the functional heads are satisfied. Chapter 6 investigates the selection properties of lexical categories in code-switching, again with special reference to Cantonese-English. It is shown that "language-specific" c-selection properties need not be observed: a Cantonese verb may take an English DP whereas an English verb may take a Cantonese demonstrative phrase (DemP). Similar phenomena are drawn from other language-pairs involving a language with morphological case and a language without morphological case. The difference between functional categories and lexical categories in their selection properties is again explained in terms of the different production processes they undergo. Chapter 7 is devoted to prepositions which have been problematic in terms of their status as a functional category or a lexical category. Based on the behaviour of prepositions in code-switching, it is suggested that prepositions display a dual character. It is proposed that prepositions may well point to the fact that the conventional dichotomy between functional categories and lexical categories is not a primitive one in the lexicon. Chapter 8 looks at code-switching in a wider perspective. and explores the pragmatic determinants of code-switching in the light of Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995). It is argued that many types of code-switching (e.g. repetitions, quotations, etc.) are motivated by the desire to optimize the "relevance" of a message, with "relevance" as defined in Relevance Theory

The Effects Of Using Portfolio In Writing Activities Aimed At Developing The Arabic Language Discourse Competence Of 1st Secondary Grade Students In Housha Secondary School For Girls In Jordan

The focus of the present study is the investigation of the effects of using portfolio in writing activities aimed at developing the Arabic language discourse competence of 1st secondary grade students in Housha secondary school for girls in Jordan. The study sample was chosen purposefully. It consists of two sections for the first secondary grade, namely: the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group consisted of twenty (20) females, while the control group consisted of twenty (20) females as well. The treatment represented in using portfolio was conducted through an academic semester that lasted for three months. At the end of the semester, both groups were tested in using discourse competence components. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group in using elements of discourse competence due to the treatment. In light of the results, the researcher presented some recommendations at the end of the study