On the Expression of Spatial Relations in Ardeşen-Laz

This paper gives an overview of the means of expression which are used in descriptions of spatial scenes in Laz. With motion verbs, Laz uses the satellite-framed strategy with motion-manner conflation in the verbal root. Path information is given in preverbal satellites. With respect to locative expressions it belongs to the multi-verb-type languages. Hence, considering the lexical properties of the verb roots, Laz is a rather ordinary language. However, with respect to the semantics of its spatial case system and the semantics of the satellites, i.e. its system of spatial preverbs, it will be shown that Laz is typologically rather unusual

Psych-Verbs and Lexical Economy

Psych-verbs have been a touch-stone to linking-theories, which assume that case selection is determined by thematic roles. Though psych-verbs share the same thematic grid (experiencer and stimulus), they show different case frames. Different syntactic (structural) and semantic (event- or causal structure) approaches exist, but at least in German we will show that none of the several approaches to psych-verbs cover all differences and similarities of the several formal classes of psych-verbs in that language. In this paper we argue that the case selection of psych-verbs does not depend on their psychical reading at all. While Functional Expressivity requires that different thematic roles are expressed by different forms, Lexical Economy states that lexical entries should be minimally, i.e. verbs should only provide one case frame. Thus, the case frame of a verb must be compatible to the thematic requirements of all readings of this verb. Researchers paid little attention to the fact that polysemy is characteristic for psych-verbs. Psychverbs have (or have had) other, more specific readings, as well, and occasional psychical readings are possible for most verbs. According to the proto-role approach of Dowty (1991) and its modifications by Primus (1999b, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c), case selection is determined by the grade of agentivity or patientivity of arguments. Concrete readings have stronger agents and patients and make therefore stronger restrictions to case selection, and the psychical reading of a verb is always compatible with this reading. Thus, the case selection of psych-verbs is not affected by its psychical reading

Motivated sign formation in Hieroglyphic Egyptian and German Sign Language (DGS). Towards a typology of iconic signs in visual linguistic systems

In Spoken Egyptian, the form of a linguistic sign is restricted by rules of root structure and consonant compatibility as well as word-formation patterns. Hieroglyphic Egyptian, however, displays additional principles of sign formation. Iconicity is one of the crucial features of a part of its sign inventory. In this article, hieroglyphic iconicity will be investigated by means of a preliminary comparative typology originally developed for German Sign Language (Kutscher 2010). The authors argue that patterns found in Egyptian hieroglyphic sign formation are systematically comparable to patterns of German Sign Language (DGS). These patterns determine what types of lexical meaning can be inferred from iconic linguistic signs

Emotionsverben im Estnischen: Konstruktionsvarianz und Kausalstruktur

The article deals with the constructional variation of emotion predicates in Estonian. It gives an overview of constructional types, including information on their quantitative distribution. I show that one characteristic of Estonian is the formation of pairs of converses, i.e. paired emotion verbs, which have the same emotional semantics but different argument realisation patterns. These converses are based on derivational morphology, such as the causative morpheme -ta ‘CAUS’. Causative derivation has been adduced in the theoretical literature as support for the assumption that the cross-linguistically widespread constructional variation in emotion predicates has its origin in a difference in the causal structure in verbal semantics. The article shows that the data for Estonian contradict this assumption

Das Muťafi-Lazische

Die in der vorliegenden Publikation untersuchte Sprache ist ein Dialekt des Lazischen, der in Muťafi und Umgebung gesprochen wird. Dieser Dialekt ist bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht wissenschaftlich untersucht worden. Da er einige Charakteristika aufweist, die in anderen lazischen Dialekten nicht zu finden sind, hielten wir es für notwendig, unsere Untersuchungsergebnisse zu veröffentlichen. Eine auffällige Besonderheit findet sich z.B. im Kasussystem: Sowohl das Georgische als auch das Zanische weisen innerhalb der zentralen Kasus zwei Systeme auf, ein "akkusativisches" und ein traditionell als ergativisch analysiertes (vgl. Harris 1985). Letzteres ist jedoch, nach der ausführlichen Analyse von Harris 1985 ein aktivisches System, da die intransitiven Verben je nach ihrer Rektion in zwei Klassen aufgeteilt werden müssen. Aktive Subjekte intransitiver Verben erhalten Narrativmarkierung, Subjekte intransitiver Verben, die inaktiv sind, werden mit dem gleichen Kasus wie das Objekt des transitiven Verbes markiert. Im Lazischen weitete sich das aktivische System auf alle TAM-Kategorien aus. Für die meisten lazischen Dialekte ergibt sich daher ein etwas anderes Kasussystem als für den Dialekt von Muťafi. […] Aufgrund der Besonderheiten des untersuchten Dialekts orientieren sich die vorliegenden Arbeiten nicht in erster Linie an den bisher veröffentlichten Ergebnissen zum Lazischen. Vielmehr wurde das Muťafi-Lazische für diese Untersuchung als eigenständige Sprache betrachtet. Aspekte der Dialektabgrenzung und der Diachronie bleiben daher unberücksichtigt. Desweiteren soll diese Publikation dazu beitragen, eine bedrohte Sprache zu dokumentieren

Pfade der Grammatikalisierung : ein systematischer Überblick

In der Forschung zu Grammatikalisierungsphänomenen wurden die Untersuchungsergebnisse häufig in Form grafischer Schemata dargestellt. Die einschlägige Forschungsliteratur spricht daher von 'grammaticalization paths', 'chains' und 'channels'. Wir möchten in dieser Arbeit erstens einen Überblick darüber bieten, welche Grammatikalisierungspfade – und zu welchen traditionellen grammatischen Domänen – bisher vorgeschlagen wurden. Zweitens möchten wir mittels der Zusammmenstellung der Pfade in einem Gesamtbild veranschaulichen, wie ein Grammatik-Modell aussehen könnte, dem die Grammatikalisierungstheorie zugrunde liegt. Ein solcher Überblick ist aus mehreren Gründen problematisch: Zum einen liegen für einige Grammatikalisierungsentwicklungen verschiedene Vorschläge vor, von denen wir jeweils die auswählten, für die ausreichend Belegmaterial angeführt wurde. Ein anderes Problem stellt die Heterogenität der grafischen Schemata dar, für die wir versucht haben, ein einheitliches Format zu erarbeiten, um sie in unser Gesamtmodell zu integrieren. In gleicher Weise wurden die Vorschläge einbezogen, die nicht in grafischer Gestalt vorlagen. Ein grundlegendes Kriterium für die Auswahl aus der vielfältigen Literatur war, daß die Bewegung eines sprachlichen Elements entlang seines historisch belegten Pfades betrachtet wurde. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird die Gesamtgrafik in Bezug auf die von Himmelmann 1992 skizzierte Grammatikalisierungtheorie in einzelnen Aspekten erläutert. Der zweite Teil dient der Einordnung der historisch belegten Entwicklungen in das Gesamtschema, wobei zwei Pfade gesondert behandelt werden. Zum Abschluß möchten wir kurz auf die Möglichkeiten und die Mängel des Modells eingehen

The intracellular detection of MIP-1beta enhances the capacity to detect IFN-gamma mediated HIV-1-specific CD8 T-cell responses in a flow cytometric setting providing a sensitive alternative to the ELISPOT

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>T-cell mediated immunity likely plays an important role in controlling HIV-1 infection and progression to AIDS. Several candidate vaccines against HIV-1 aim at stimulating cellular immune responses, either alone or together with the induction of neutralizing antibodies, and assays able to measure CD8 and CD4 T-cell responses need to be implemented. At present, the IFN-γ-based ELISPOT assay is considered the gold standard and it is broadly preferred as primary assay for detection of antigen-specific T-cell responses in vaccine trials. However, in spite of its high sensitivity, the measurement of the sole IFN-γ production provides limited information on the quality of the immune response. On the other hand, the introduction of polychromatic flow-cytometry-based assays such as the intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) strongly improved the capacity to detect several markers on a single cell level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cumulative analysis of 275 samples from 31 different HIV-1 infected individuals using an ICS staining procedure optimized by our laboratories revealed that, following antigenic stimulation, IFN-γ producing T-cells were also producing MIP-1β whereas T-cells characterized by the sole production of IFN-γ were rare. Since the analysis of the combination of two functions decreases the background and the measurement of the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ T-cells was equivalent to the measurement of the total IFN-γ+ T-cells, we adopted the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data analysis system to evaluate IFN-γ-based, antigen-specific T-cell responses. Comparison of our ICS assay with ELISPOT assays performed in two different experienced laboratories demonstrated that the IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data analysis system increased the sensitivity of the ICS up to levels comparable to the sensitivity of the ELISPOT assay.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The IFN-γ+ MIP-1β+ data evaluation system provides a clear advantage for the detection of low magnitude HIV-1-specific responses. These results are important to guide the choice for suitable highly sensitive immune assays and to build reagent panels able to accurately characterize the phenotype and function of responding T-cells. More importantly, the ICS assay can be used as primary assay to evaluate HIV-1-specific responses without losing sensitivity in comparison to the ELISPOT assay.</p

Nef-specific CD45RA+ CD8+ T cells secreting MIP-1β but not IFN-γ are associated with nonprogressive HIV-1 infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Long-term survival of HIV-1 infected individuals is usually achieved by continuous administration of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART). An exception to this scenario is represented by HIV-1 infected nonprogressors (NP) which maintain relatively high circulating CD4+ T cells without clinical symptoms for several years in the absence of ART. Several lines of evidence indicate an important role of the T-cell response in the modulation of HIV-1 infection during the acute and chronic phase of the disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We analyzed the functional and the differentiation phenotype of Nef- and Tat-specific CD8+ T cells in a cohort of HIV-1 infected NP in comparison to progressors, ART-treated seropositive individuals and individuals undergoing a single cycle of ART interruption. We observed that a distinctive feature of NP is the presence of Nef-specific CD45RA+ CD8+ T cells secreting MIP-1beta but not IFN-gamma. This population was present in 7 out of 11 NP. CD45RA+ IFN-gamma^negMIP-1beta+ CD8+ T cells were not detected in HIV-1 infected individuals under ART or withdrawing from ART and experiencing a rebounding viral replication. In addition, we detected Nef-specific CD45RA+ IFN-gamma^negMIP-1beta+ CD8+ T cells in only 1 out of 10 HIV-1 infected individuals with untreated progressive disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The novel antigen-specific CD45RA+ IFN-gamma^negMIP-1beta+ CD8+ T cell population represents a new candidate marker of long-term natural control of HIV-1 disease progression and a relevant functional T-cell subset in the evaluation of the immune responses induced by candidate HIV-1 vaccines.</p