Lexical pragmatics and types of linguistic encoding: evidence from pre- and postpositions in Behdini-Kurdish

Lexical pragmatics starts from the assumption that the meaning communicated by a word is underdetermined by its semantics, and lexical pragmatists usually study the processes involved in bridging the gap between the encoded and the communicated meaning of words. This paper studies a different but related question: wether different types of linguistic encoding can play empirically distinguishable roles in lexical pragmatics. Carston (2002) suggests that some words may encode templates for concept formation whereas others encode fully-fledged concepts that provide inputs to pragmatic processes. Blakemore (1987) argued that some words encode constraints on inferential processes rather than concepts. But if some words might encode nothing more than concept-formation templates, and others procedural constraints, then both types of words appear to be highly context dependent and their linguistic semantics rather abstract in nature. Is it possible to distinguish these different types of encoding empirically? In this paper I want to argue that the answer to this question is positive. In Behdini-Kurdish, there is a class of four fundamental prepositions *di* 'in', *li* 'at', *ji* 'from', *bi* 'with'. Furthermore, there is a larger class of simple prepositions such as *ser* 'on', *nav* 'within', *ber* 'in front'. These simple prepositions can be added to one of the fundamental prepositions to form compound ones: *diser* 'on top of', *dinav* 'inside', *diber* 'in front of, in sight of'. Any fundamental, simple or compound preposition can be used together with one of three postpositions *da*, *ra* and *ve*. Postpositions are morphologically and syntactically simple, in contrast to prepositions. Though overlapping in meaning with prepositions, they are not redundant. Fundamental prepositions have a wider range of meaning than simple prepositions and compound prepositions. Finally, there are grammaticalisation paths from nouns through compound preposition to simple prepositions, but none involving the postpositions. My thesis is that these properties of the Behdini-Kurdish system of pre-and postpositions can be explained on the assumptions that the class of fundamental prepositions encodes templates for ad-hoc concept construction, the class of simple prepositions encodes concepts that allow the construction of ad-hoc concepts, and that the class of postpositions encode procedures constraining ad-hoc concept construction. This thesis gets additional support from German prepositional phrases. I conclude that the different types of linguistic encoding discussed do indeed lead to distinct effects in lexical pragmatics and are therefore empirically distinguishable. Thus, while there is reason to think that a unified account of the pragmatic processes involved in lexical pragmatics is possible (Wilson, to appear), the different types of inputs to these processes need to be recognised

Nominalizations and temporal prepositions

In this paper, we deal with the semantic interaction between ung-nominalizations of different event types and temporal prepositions like wiihrend 'during', vor 'before', nach 'after', bis 'until' and seit 'since'. According to the two-level-approach to selnantics (Bierwisch 1983, Bierwisch / Lang 1989), we will argue that the meaning of ten~poral prepositions is determined on the level of semantic form (SF). When combined with an event nominal, the period in time required by the preposition has to be inferred on the level of conceptual structure (CS). Very often, the exact nature of the period in time is determined by pragmatic factors. There are, however, some important restrictions to this inference procedure which rely on the event noun's Aktionsart. In Ehrich/Rapp (2000), it was claimed that eventive ungnominals inherit the Aktionsart of their base verb. This assumption receives strong support by the data presented in this paper

An Inventory of Preposition Relations

We describe an inventory of semantic relations that are expressed by prepositions. We define these relations by building on the word sense disambiguation task for prepositions and propose a mapping from preposition senses to the relation labels by collapsing semantically related senses across prepositions.Comment: Supplementary material for Srikumar and Roth, 2013. Modeling Semantic Relations Expressed by Prepositions, TAC

A computational model of the referential semantics of projective prepositions

In this paper we present a framework for interpreting locative expressions containing the prepositions in front of and behind. These prepositions have different semantics in the viewer-centred and intrinsic frames of reference (Vandeloise, 1991). We define a model of their semantics in each frame of reference. The basis of these models is a novel parameterized continuum function that creates a 3-D spatial template. In the intrinsic frame of reference the origin used by the continuum function is assumed to be known a priori and object occlusion does not impact on the applicability rating of a point in the spatial template. In the viewer-centred frame the location of the spatial template’s origin is dependent on the user’s perception of the landmark at the time of the utterance and object occlusion is integrated into the model. Where there is an ambiguity with respect to the intended frame of reference, we define an algorithm for merging the spatial templates from the competing frames of reference, based on psycholinguistic observations in (Carlson-Radvansky, 1997)

Aktywne procesy w systemie derywacji przyimków

The Russian language is constantly supplemented with derivative prepositions. Supplementing the language system with new lexical units is a continuous process. The main ways of forming derivative prepositions are transposition and diffusion.The Russian language is constantly supplemented with derivative prepositions. Supplementing the language system with new lexical units is a continuous process. The main ways of forming derivative prepositions are transposition and diffusion

German particle verbs and pleonastic prepositions

This paper discusses the behaviour of German particle verbs formed by two-way prepositions in combination with pleonastic PPs including the verb particle as a preposition. These particle verbs have a characteristic feature: some of them license directional prepositional phrases in the accusative, some only allow for locative PPs in the dative, and some particle verbs can occur with PPs in the accusative and in the dative. Directional particle verbs together with directional PPs present an additional problem: the particle and the preposition in the PP seem to provide redundant information. The paper gives an overview of the semantic verb classes inuencing this phenomenon, based on corpus data, and explains the underlying reasons for the behaviour of the particle verbs. We also show how the restrictions on particle verbs and pleonastic PPs can be expressed in a grammar theory like Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)

Preposisi Dalam Lirik Lagu Album Metropolis Karya Dream Theater

This research entitled “Prepositions in the Lyrics of Metropolis Album by Dream Theater” is written to analyze and classify the form and the meaning of the prepositions that are used in that album. A preposition is a word that connects a noun or pronoun with a verb, adjective, or another noun or pronoun by indicating a relationship between the things for which they stand. The problems of this research are focused on what are the form and the meaning of prepositions that are found in the lyrics of Metropolis Album? The method used in this research is descriptive. The data of prepositions in this research were collected from the lyrics of Metropolis Album Part I and Part II by Dream Theater. The data of the prepositions found in the album are given number and wrote in the small cards. The result of this research shows that The Writer of the lyrics in this album used many prepositions to express meaning through the lyrics of his songs. The research used Quirk (1985) concept in analyzing the form of prepositions, whereas Curme (1986) concept is used in analyzing the meaning of prepositions found in the lyrics of the songs in the Metropolis Album

Analysis of prepositions: near and away from Frames of reference.

XXII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2017)Traditional strategies and procedures to learn a foreign language include the study of rules of grammar and doing exercises such as filling the gaps, repetition of words, drills, memorization of irregular verbs and sentences which may express usual expressions of everyday life. Even if the array of exercises is adequate, polysemy in prepositions causes difficulties in choosing the proper preposition conveying the meaning required by different contexts. Two prepositions of the horizontal axis (near and away from) are taken into consideration in this paper. Approaching the problem from the theory of polysemy and understanding, the use of these prepositions is explored along the dimensions of function, topology – which is the study of physical space–, and force dynamics – introduced in studies such as Navarro (1998)–, as well as the notion of frame of reference (Levinson, 2004). Then, the different senses and uses of these prepositions of the horizontal axis are systematized, explained and examples are used to illustrate the difficulties in learning a language and the doubts which students may have in some situations