Trees and after: The concept of text topology: Some applications to verb-form distributions in language corpora

International audienceThe model described here relies on the key concepts of topology, i.e. neighbourhood and equivalence of shape. A linguistic object L is studied in text T by means of one or several local questions Q. The set of successive local answers is processed so as to provide a global function characterizing the textual space under scrutiny. We begin with short sequences of tenses to illustrate the way in which to explore originally Emile Benveniste's concepts of history and discourse . We then supply life-size examples of other objects selected for their heuristic value. We go on to demonstrate the model at work on the distribution of strings of finite (F) and non-finite (n) verbal forms in the LOB Corpus of English. A topological chart is produced as the synthetic image mirroring the locations of the relevant linguistic entities throughout the text. All the individual strings concatenating any number of F and n are classified in a table. Alternatively, individual full-text strings can be extracted. We then proceed to refine the notion of lexical distribution in "rafales" in a lemmatized corpus of Latin texts, the purpose being to test the stability of the distributions in individual texts of selected verbs and assess whether a verb's behaviour is related to its semantic status. The final section is devoted to other Latin texts. The use of segments of equal length makes it possible to draw up the narrative profile of each author as revealed by his handling of tenses in main clauses

Weak Object Pronoun Placement in Later Medieval Greek: Intralinguistic Parameters Affecting Variation

This paper presents some results from an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of variation in weak object pronoun placement in Later Medieval Greek, focusing on the language-internal parameters that affect the variation. The findings reveal a complex pattern of variation that cannot be fully understood at this stage, and pose interesting questions for further investigation

Text, grammar, and worlds

Bei dieser Dissertation handelt es sich um eine einzelsprachlich typologische Beschreibung des traditionellen narrativen Genres "Kwintu" in Cusco Quechua. Hauptziele der Arbeit sind die Aufstellung eines Wissensmodells (oder einer Textwelt) für das narrative Genre und die Beschreibung diskursgrammatischer Merkmale innerhalb dieses Genres. Neben einer umfangreichen linguistischen Untersuchung ausgewählter Texte werden kulturelle Hintergründe der andinen Erzähltradition, textsemantische und erzähltheoretische Strukturen sowie stilistische Merkmale beleuchtet. Dabei wird, sofern sprachvergleichende Daten vorliegen, auf universale Tendenzen und Quechua-spezifische Merkmale hingewiesen. Die narrative Textwelt des Cusco Quechua ergibt sich aus den „Mittelwerten“ der untersuchten Erzählungen, die als prototypisch für das Genre „Kwintu“ anzunehmen sind. Zudem wird festgestellt, inwiefern sich textsemantische Größen und stilistische Merkmale in linguistischen Strukturen niederschlagen. Die Arbeit soll einen Beitrag zur textbasierten Forschung innerhalb der Kognitiven Linguistik und Sprachtypologie leisten

Inquiries into words, constraints and contexts : Festschrift in the honour of Kimmo Koskenniemi on his 60th birthday

Peer reviewe

Roots of language

Roots of language was originally published in 1981 by Karoma Press (Ann Arbor). It was the first work to systematically develop a theory first suggested by Coelho in the late nineteenth century: that the creation of creole languages somehow reflected universal properties of language. The book also proposed that the same set of properties would be found to emerge in normal first-language acquisition and must have emerged in the original evolution of language. These proposals, some of which were elaborated in an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1984), were immediately controversial and gave rise to a great deal of subsequent research in creoles, much of it aimed at rebutting the theory. The book also served to legitimize and stimulate research in language evolution, a topic regarded as off-limits by linguists for over a century. The present edition contains a foreword by the author bringing the theory up to date; a fuller exposition of many of its aspects can be found in the author’s most recent work, More than nature needs (Harvard University Press, 2014)

Roots of language

Roots of language was originally published in 1981 by Karoma Press (Ann Arbor). It was the first work to systematically develop a theory first suggested by Coelho in the late nineteenth century: that the creation of creole languages somehow reflected universal properties of language. The book also proposed that the same set of properties would be found to emerge in normal first-language acquisition and must have emerged in the original evolution of language. These proposals, some of which were elaborated in an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1984), were immediately controversial and gave rise to a great deal of subsequent research in creoles, much of it aimed at rebutting the theory. The book also served to legitimize and stimulate research in language evolution, a topic regarded as off-limits by linguists for over a century. The present edition contains a foreword by the author bringing the theory up to date; a fuller exposition of many of its aspects can be found in the author’s most recent work, More than nature needs (Harvard University Press, 2014)

Roots of language

Roots of language was originally published in 1981 by Karoma Press (Ann Arbor). It was the first work to systematically develop a theory first suggested by Coelho in the late nineteenth century: that the creation of creole languages somehow reflected universal properties of language. The book also proposed that the same set of properties would be found to emerge in normal first-language acquisition and must have emerged in the original evolution of language. These proposals, some of which were elaborated in an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1984), were immediately controversial and gave rise to a great deal of subsequent research in creoles, much of it aimed at rebutting the theory. The book also served to legitimize and stimulate research in language evolution, a topic regarded as off-limits by linguists for over a century. The present edition contains a foreword by the author bringing the theory up to date; a fuller exposition of many of its aspects can be found in the author’s most recent work, More than nature needs (Harvard University Press, 2014)

Roots of language

Roots of language was originally published in 1981 by Karoma Press (Ann Arbor). It was the first work to systematically develop a theory first suggested by Coelho in the late nineteenth century: that the creation of creole languages somehow reflected universal properties of language. The book also proposed that the same set of properties would be found to emerge in normal first-language acquisition and must have emerged in the original evolution of language. These proposals, some of which were elaborated in an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1984), were immediately controversial and gave rise to a great deal of subsequent research in creoles, much of it aimed at rebutting the theory. The book also served to legitimize and stimulate research in language evolution, a topic regarded as off-limits by linguists for over a century. The present edition contains a foreword by the author bringing the theory up to date; a fuller exposition of many of its aspects can be found in the author’s most recent work, More than nature needs (Harvard University Press, 2014)