Multi-verb constructions in Eastern Indonesia

Constructions with multiple verbal elements have posed a long-standing challenge to linguistic analysis. Most studies of verb serialisation have been confined to single languages rather than looking at crosslinguistic patterns. This book provides the first in-depth account into the areal characteristics of multi-verb constructions (MVCs) in Eastern Indonesia. By collating published data as well as corpus data from 32 Austronesian and Papuan languages, the study traces commonalities as well as differences in MVC use across the area. Analysis takes place on two levels: first, the morpho-syntactic behaviour of MVCs is taken into account. As this plane of analysis arguably does not provide any meaningful insights into why MVCs are construed and used the way they are, a semantic account of MVCs is presented. One of the main hypotheses advanced in this book is that the crucial driving force behind multi-verb construals is semantic interaction between the verbs, leading to four principal techniques of event formation: merging, staging, modification, and free juxtaposition. The study aims at showing that while all four techniques are, to varying degrees, in use in Eastern Indonesian languages, the morpho-syntactic output does not necessarily mirror these underlying differences in event conception. Applying insights from Davidsonian event semantics as well as from predicate decomposition, the book provides a model of event interaction that helps to explain differences in MVC behaviour such as issues in constituent order or operator assignment

Multi-verb constructions in Eastern Indonesia (Volume 28)

Constructions with multiple verbal elements have posed a long-standing challenge to linguistic analysis. Most studies of verb serialisation have been confined to single languages rather than looking at crosslinguistic patterns. This book provides the first in-depth account into the areal characteristics of multi-verb constructions (MVCs) in Eastern Indonesia. By collating published data as well as corpus data from 32 Austronesian and Papuan languages, the study traces commonalities as well as differences in MVC use across the area. Analysis takes place on two levels: first, the morpho-syntactic behaviour of MVCs is taken into account. As this plane of analysis arguably does not provide any meaningful insights into why MVCs are construed and used the way they are, a semantic account of MVCs is presented. One of the main hypotheses advanced in this book is that the crucial driving force behind multi-verb construals is semantic interaction between the verbs, leading to four principal techniques of event formation: merging, staging, modification, and free juxtaposition. The study aims at showing that while all four techniques are, to varying degrees, in use in Eastern Indonesian languages, the morpho-syntactic output does not necessarily mirror these underlying differences in event conception. Applying insights from Davidsonian event semantics as well as from predicate decomposition, the book provides a model of event interaction that helps to explain differences in MVC behaviour such as issues in constituent order or operator assignment

Arrhenatheretum elatioris – Glatthaferwiese, Pflanzengesellschaft des Jahres 2019

Dass Pflanzenarten bei aller Dynamik nicht einfach zufällig an bestimmten Orten zusammen erscheinen, sondern in wiederkehrenden und beschreibbaren Mustern, ist in der Öffentlichkeit noch immer wenig bekannt. Diese Muster werden von der Vegetationskunde seit ihren Anfängen im 19. Jahrhundert wissenschaftlich untersucht. Die Grundeinheit ist dabei die Pflanzengesellschaft oder Assoziation. Damit ist die Gesamtheit aller Pflanzenarten gemeint, die unter bestimmten biotischen und abiotischen Bedingungen regelhaft miteinander koexistieren. Um auf die Gefährdung und Schutzwürdigkeit der heimischen Pflanzengesellschaften aufmerksam zu machen, hat die Floristisch-Soziologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Tuexenia) für das Jahr 2019 zum ersten Mal eine "Pflanzengesellschaft des Jahres" ausgerufen (DIERSCHKE & HEINKEN 2018, TISCHEW & al. 2018). Die Wahl ist auf die Glatthaferwiese (Arrhenatheretum elatioris) gefallen, was kaum ein Zufall sein dürfte, denn Glatthaferwiesen gehören zu den buntesten und auffälligsten Pflanzengesellschaften unserer Landschaften – und sie sind im Flachland mittlerweile von vollständiger Vernichtung bedroht (FINCK & al. 2017)

Multi-verb constructions in Eastern Indonesia (Volume 28)

Constructions with multiple verbal elements have posed a long-standing challenge to linguistic analysis. Most studies of verb serialisation have been confined to single languages rather than looking at crosslinguistic patterns. This book provides the first in-depth account into the areal characteristics of multi-verb constructions (MVCs) in Eastern Indonesia. By collating published data as well as corpus data from 32 Austronesian and Papuan languages, the study traces commonalities as well as differences in MVC use across the area. Analysis takes place on two levels: first, the morpho-syntactic behaviour of MVCs is taken into account. As this plane of analysis arguably does not provide any meaningful insights into why MVCs are construed and used the way they are, a semantic account of MVCs is presented. One of the main hypotheses advanced in this book is that the crucial driving force behind multi-verb construals is semantic interaction between the verbs, leading to four principal techniques of event formation: merging, staging, modification, and free juxtaposition. The study aims at showing that while all four techniques are, to varying degrees, in use in Eastern Indonesian languages, the morpho-syntactic output does not necessarily mirror these underlying differences in event conception. Applying insights from Davidsonian event semantics as well as from predicate decomposition, the book provides a model of event interaction that helps to explain differences in MVC behaviour such as issues in constituent order or operator assignment

Nepeta cataria – Echte Katzenminze (Lamiaceae) in Nordrhein-Westfalen und die Behandlung von "Alten Heilpflanzen" in der Roten Liste

Die Echte Katzenminze, auch Katzenkraut, Katzenmelisse oder Steinmelisse genannt, ist eine alte Heilpflanze, die bereits von den Römern in Mitteleuropa kultiviert wurde. Ihre Ver-wilderungen gehörten zur typischen Flora der Dörfer, der Umgebung von Klöstern und Gehöften. Die Art tritt aber auch im Siedlungsbereich größerer Städte auf. Sie war in der nordrhein-westfälischen Flora zumindest im letzten Jahrhundert nie häufig und ist heute nur noch sehr selten zu finden (z. B. BECKHAUS 1893, HÖPPNER & PREUSS 1926, RUNGE 1990, HAEUPLER & al. 2003, GORISSEN 2015). Derzeit steht sie landesweit als stark gefährdet auf der Roten Liste (RL 2, RAABE & al. 2011), in einigen Großlandschaften wird sie sogar als "vom Aussterben bedroht" (RL 1) oder "ausgestorben" (RL 0) eingestuft. Dabei muss man aber wissen, dass aktuelle Vorkommen der Echten Katzenminze oft als neophytisch klassifi-ziert und deswegen nicht in der Roten Liste berücksichtigt werden. Hierbei drängt sich die Frage auf, inwiefern sich solche neophytischen Vorkommen überhaupt von anderen Vorkommen unterscheiden

On the universality of intonational phrases: a cross-linguistic interrater study

This study is concerned with the identifiability of intonational phrase boundaries across familiar and unfamiliar languages. Four annotators segmented a corpus of more than three hours of spontaneous speech into intonational phrases. The corpus included narratives in their native German, but also in three languages of Indonesia unknown to them. The results show significant agreement across the whole corpus, as well as for each subcorpus. We discuss the interpretation of these results, including the hypothesis that it makes sense to distinguish between phonetic and phonological intonational phrases, and that the former are a universal characteristic of speech, allowing listeners to segment speech into intonational phrase-sized units even in unknown languages