13 research outputs found

    Cognitive approaches to uniformity and variability in morphology

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    This special issue of Cognitive Linguistics reexamines the notions of uniformity and variability within morphological systems from a cognitive linguistic standpoint. It challenges traditional perspectives that regard morphological variability as mere deviations from the norm, suggesting instead that such variability is systematic and shaped by external influences including language acquisition and processing constraints. The contributions in this issue promote a shift from isolated analysis to a holistic view of paradigms, classes, and systems, advocating for a framework where morphological structures are seen as integral to communicative and functional aspects of language. By accounting for the broad adaptive dynamics of language systems, the complex interplay between uniformity and variability is revealed as an inherent aspect of language usage

    Morphological variation and sensitivity to frequency of forms among native speakers of Czech

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    This article looks at inter-speaker variation in two environments: the genitive and locative singular cases of masculine ‘hard inanimate’ nouns in Czech, using a large-scale survey of native speakers that used two tasks to test their preferences for certain forms (acceptability) and their choices (gap filling). Our hypothesis that such variation exists was upheld, but only within limited parameters. Most biographical data (age, gender, education) played no role in respondents’ choices or preferences. Their region of origin played a small but significant role, although not the one expected. Relating the two types of tasks to each other, we found that respondents’ use of the ratings scale did not correlate to their choice of forms, but their overall strength of preference for one form over another did correlate with their choices. Inter-speaker variation does thus go some way to explaining the persistent diversity in this paradigm and arguably may contribute to its maintenance

    Do users’ reading skills and difficulty ratings for texts affect choices and evaluations?

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    In our contribution, we consider how corpus data can be used as a proxy for the written language environment around us in constructing offline studies of native-speaker intuition and usage. We assume a broadly emergent perspective on language: in other words, the linguistic competence of individuals is not identical or hardwired but forms gradually through exposure and coalescence of patterns of production and reaction. We hypothesize that while users presumably all in theory have access to the same linguistic material, their actual exposure to it and their ability to interpret it may differ, which will result in differing judgments and choices. Our study looks at the interaction between corpus frequency and two possible indicators of individual difference: attitude towards reading tasks and performance on reading tasks. We find a small but consistent effect of task performance on respondents’ judgments but do not confirm any effects on respondents’ production tasks

    Linguistic Authority, Language Ideology, and Metaphor : The Czech Orthography Wars /

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    How does a country find itself 'at war' over spelling? This book focuses on a crucial juncture in the post-communist history of the Czech Republic, when an orthographic commission with a moderate reformist agenda found itself the focus of enormous public controversy. Delving back into history, Bermel explores the Czech nation's long tradition of intervention and its association with the purity of the language, and how in the twentieth century an ascendant linguistic school - Prague Functionalism - developed into a progressive but centralizing ideology whose power base was inextricably linked to the communist regime. Bermel looks closely at the reforms of the 1990s and the heated public reaction to them. On the part of language regulators, he examines the ideology that underlay the reforms and the tactics employed on all sides to gain linguistic authority, while in dissecting the public reaction, he looks both at conscious arguments marshaled in favor of and against reform and at the use, conscious and subconscious, of metaphors about language. Of interest to faculty and students working in the area of language, cultural studies, and history, especially that of transitional and post-communist states, this volume is also relevant for those with a more general interest in language planning and language reform. The book is awarded with the "The George Blazyca Prize in East European Studies 2008".How does a country find itself 'at war' over spelling? This book focuses on a crucial juncture in the post-communist history of the Czech Republic, when an orthographic commission with a moderate reformist agenda found itself the focus of enormous public controversy. Delving back into history, Bermel explores the Czech nation's long tradition of intervention and its association with the purity of the language, and how in the twentieth century an ascendant linguistic school - Prague Functionalism - developed into a progressive but centralizing ideology whose power base was inextricably linked to the communist regime. Bermel looks closely at the reforms of the 1990s and the heated public reaction to them. On the part of language regulators, he examines the ideology that underlay the reforms and the tactics employed on all sides to gain linguistic authority, while in dissecting the public reaction, he looks both at conscious arguments marshaled in favor of and against reform and at the use, conscious and subconscious, of metaphors about language. Of interest to faculty and students working in the area of language, cultural studies, and history, especially that of transitional and post-communist states, this volume is also relevant for those with a more general interest in language planning and language reform. The book is awarded with the "The George Blazyca Prize in East European Studies 2008".Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed Mar. 30, 2016

    Morphological overabundance and defectivity in Czech

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    Note sul verbo běžati in slavo orientale antico

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    The paper deals with the verb běžati (‘to run away’) and its aspectual behaviours in the Early East Slavic language. The use of the aorist and past participle confirms that in the Early East Slavic documents of the 11th‒14th centuries (taken from the Old Russian subcorpus of the RNC) the verb was used in perfective contexts, but some forms of present participle, simple present and imperfect attested in the documents are discussed in order to show the aspectual indefiniteness of this ver

    Se non potere \ue8 non volere. L\u2019evoluzione diacronica del prezens naprasnogo o\u17eidanija

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    In russo antico i significati non attuali del non-passato proto-perfettivo (NPPF), tra cui anche il cosiddetto prezens naprasnogo o\u17eidanija (PNO), avevano una maggiore distribuzione. In determinati contesti, il PNO esprimeva, oltre all\u2019\u201cimpossibilit\ue0\u201d, la \u201cnon volont\ue0\u201d di portare a termine una data azione (oggi codificata nelle costruzioni polisemantiche interrogativo-negative del tipo di Po\u10demu ty ko mne ne zajde\u161\u2019?). A partire da testi databili tra il XI e il XV secolo \u2013 la redazione Lavrent\u2019evskaja della Povest\u2019 vremennych let, le gramoty e lo \u17ditie i cho\u17edenie dell\u2019igumeno Daniil \u2013 il presente contributo intende indagare le ragioni formali di questo cambiamento intrasistema
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