1st Person Research Articles

Unges dialektbrug i bygden Sandur på Færøerne

In this article, dialect changes and variation among young schoolchildren in the island of Sandoy in the Faroe Islands are discussed. The fieldwork was made by a group of students at the University of the Faroe Islands in November 2019 under the guidance of this article’s author. The informants are two groups of 10 and 15 year old schoolchildren. By examining the young generation, we can get information about the ‘state of health’ of the dialect. Here three dialectal variables are examined: (i) The variation of definite and indefinite form of words for family members, for instance the dialectal form mamman ‘the mother’ and the Central Faroese form mamma ‘mother’; (ii) Personal and possessive pronouns in 1st and 2nd person plural in oblique case, for instance the dialect form [o:gʊn] ‘us’ and the Central Faroese form [ɔʰk:ʊn] ‘us’; (iii) The pronunciation of short ó with the dialectal variant [ɔ] and the Central Faroese form [œ], for instance [fɔlk] resp. [fœlk] ‘people’.
 The first variable shows clearly a tendency towards dialect change in the young generation: the indefinite forms are much more frequent than the dialect counterpart. The use of the pronouns shows a relatively high degree of variation: the dialect forms are more frequently used by the 10 than the 15 year old pupils. The pronunciation of short ó shows variation to a large extent. Here we see the same pattern as we saw for variable 2: the youngest pupils are more likely to use the dialect¬al form [ɔ] than the older ones. On the other hand, variation is much more common in the group of 15 year old pupils. 
 This study shows both stability and change in the dialect of children in Sandoy: Stability in use of the dialectal forms of the personal and possessive pro¬nouns, and variation and change in the two other variables. In a couple of years an underwater tunnel will connect the island of Sandoy with the central part of the islands. In a future scenario this dialect study opens the possibility for comparative studies of the dialect of Sandoy before and after the opening of the tunnel.

Конструкции c частицей ийне, выражающие значение опасения и предостережения, в тувинском языке

The paper examines the combination of the form of the present-future participle on =ar and the particle iyne expressing the meaning of fear and caution in the Tuvan language. The verbal analytical constructions with the combination considered are described structurally and semantically. The form =ar + particle iyne does not have a complete personal-numerical paradigm: it is used only in the 3rd person singular and in the 1st person singular with the word kiži ‘person’. This form expresses the general semantics of fear and caution uncomplicated by additional meanings, is used regularly and in both finite and infinite functions. Consideration is given to the semantics of complex sentences in which the grammaticalized form =ar + particle iyne forms a dependent predicate. Concerning the terms known in linguistics to describe this meaning, the form =ar + particle iyne can be defined as apprehensive by most criteria. The paper provides the author’s observations on the use of this form in the oral speech of native speakers of the Tuvan language and examples from folklore texts. Such a grammaticalized form in the Tuvan language might be due to the influence of the Mongolian languages, in which separate moods with corresponding grammatical markers are distinguished. This form is suggested to be distinguished as a marker of a specific mood with the meaning of fear and caution in the system of grammatical forms of the Tuvan verb expressing the relation of action to reality.

Еще раз о мозге и семиозисе: можно ли найти точку в нейросетях?

The paper discusses semiotic aspects of higher human functions and a possibility and relevance of traditional search for their neurophysiological basis. The state of the art on the subject is reviewed and the lack of data on anthropological specificity for reasoning, thinking, language and its AI modeling is highlighted. Experimental neuroscience presumes that if we know the characteristics of neu­rons and their connections, we automatically understand what mind and con­sciousness are. However, it is evident that such a paradigm does not allow us to get relevant answers to the main questions. I argue that the problem should be dealt with not only within the field of neurophysiology proper. Rather, such re­search should involve exploring the 'archeology' of mental processes as they are revealed in arts as well as in other symbolic spaces. The paper discusses the ade­quacy of physiological methodology when it is employed to demonstrate brain mechanisms of higher functions. Besides, I explore the relevance of juxta­posing similar data from other biological and artificial intelligent systems. I view language processing, mind and reasoning and 1st person experience (qualia) as human specific features, and questions the possibility of direct testing these phenomena. The paper links genetic, anthropological and neurophysio­logical data to semiotic activity and semiosphere formation as the basis for com­munication. The paper discusses the place of humans in the changing world in the context of new cognitive dimensions.

ДЕМИФОЛОГИЗАЦИЯ КУЛЬТУРНЫХ КОНСТРУКТОВ ВОЛШЕБНЫХ СКАЗОК В РАССКАЗАХ АНЖЕЛЫ КАРТЕР

The paper focuses on culture stereotypes embodied in fairy tales and the ways of their representation in twice-told tales. The awareness of pressure of stereotypes in culturally central texts led to their persistent revision by the 20th century women writers. In “The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories”, Angela Carter appropriates some of Charles Perrault’s classical plots calling it a “demythologizing business”. The paper studies “social fictions” regarding women scrutinized in Carter’s reinterpretations of Beauty and the Beast plot. As their overall structure analysis testifies, critical approach to conventional culture’s concepts of gender predetermines the mode of narration - “stories about fairy stories” and female character perspective. These allow for the use of metacommentary that centres on economic issues concerning young women. Alongside with their fears, these issues are thematised by foregrounding recurrent motifs and law words. As the research shows, the major female character’s motivations that their flat prototypes lack are exposed; the 1st person narration also absent in the pretext permits the author to articulate criticism of “social fictions” underlying classical fairy tales through the female character’s mouthpiece in feminist terms. The introduction of a foil triggers the female character’s self-discovery and the multiple reinterpretations of the same plot shattering its ruthless changelessness provide new life scenarios for her.

DEMYTHOLOGISING SOCIAL FICTIONS IN ANGELA CARTER’S REINTERPRETATIONS OF FAIRY TALES

The paper focuses on culture stereotypes embodied in fairy tales and the ways of their representation in twice-told tales. The awareness of pressure of stereotypes in culturally central texts led to their persistent revision by the 20th century women writers. In “The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories”, Angela Carter appropriates some of Charles Perrault’s classical plots calling it a “demythologizing business”. The paper studies “social fictions” regarding women scrutinized in Carter’s reinterpretations of Beauty and the Beast plot. As their overall structure analysis testifies, critical approach to conventional culture’s concepts of gender predetermines the mode of narration - “stories about fairy stories” and female character perspective. These allow for the use of metacommentary that centres on economic issues concerning young women. Alongside with their fears, these issues are thematised by foregrounding recurrent motifs and law words. As the research shows, the major female character’s motivations that their flat prototypes lack are exposed; the 1st person narration also absent in the pretext permits the author to articulate criticism of “social fictions” underlying classical fairy tales through the female character’s mouthpiece in feminist terms. The introduction of a foil triggers the female character’s self-discovery and the multiple reinterpretations of the same plot shattering its ruthless changelessness provide new life scenarios for her.

COMPORTAMENTO VARIACIONISTA DA EXPRESSÃO PRONOMINAL A GENTE EM TEXTOS ESCOLARES

Há um número crescente de estudos que têm investigado a variação linguística. Resultados atestam que os usos linguísticos são condicionados por restrições internas quanto por sociais. Objetivamos descrever e analisar o comportamento da expressão pronominal “a gente”, à luz da Teoria da Variação (LABOV, 1966; [1972] 2008) em textos escritos, produzidos por alunos de duas escolas da rede de ensino. O corpus é constituído por 91 textos (memórias literárias e crônicas) e está estratificado por sexo, nível de escolaridade, faixa etária, gênero textual/discursivo, tipo de escola e variáveis linguísticas. A metodologia seguiu os passos da técnica laboviana e para tratamento estatístico, após a extração das ocorrências e codificação, foi utilizado o Programa do Goldvarb X (SANKOFF, TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005). Os resultados demonstram que a expressão pronominal “a gente” é a segunda variante mais frequente e que seu uso está condicionado por fatores sociais (tipo de escola) e fatores linguísticos (posição do acento, tempo verbal, tipo de conjugação verbal e contexto fonológico seguinte). As variáveis selecionadas, por um lado, apontam os contextos mais frequentes de emersão de “a gente” e por outro que estamos diante de outra regra gramatical para indicar a 1ª pessoa do plural.

Personal pronouns in Bua languages

Bua languages in general are poorly documented and many aspects of their morphosyntax are still undescribed. The purpose of this paper is to outline a state of the art concerning the structure and operation of the personal pronoun systems. Largely based on unpublished or restricted documentation, it systematically reviews the systems of eight languages, commenting on both the identity of persons and the types of functional paradigms. Despite numerous shortcomings and uncertainties, interesting observations can be made concerning the 1st person plural ‘exclusive’/‘inclusive’ contrast, the logophoric pronouns, the tonal polarity of Subject and Object pronouns, and different types of personal possessive constructions.

Verb stress in brazilian portuguese

Neste estudo, pretendemos lançar novas luzes sobre as investigações, até então, realizadas acerca do padrão de acento dos verbos no português brasileiro (PB), associando o modelo de restrições da Teoria da Otimidade com os princípios fundamentais da Fonologia Métrica (HAYES, 1995). Propomos uma análise do acento verbal, incluindo os contrastes acentuais (ex.: “parte” e “parti”) presentes nesta classe de palavras e que não aparecem nos trabalhos sobre o assunto. Com base na Teoria Métrica Paramétrica, de Hayes (1995), consideramos que três parâmetros são suficientes para captar os fatos referentes ao acento primário dos verbos no PB, quais sejam: a. Construção do pé: forme um troqueu silábico não-iterativo da direita para a esquerda. Pés degenerados são permitidos apenas na posição forte, quando o pé canônico não puder ser formado (proibição fraca); b. Extrametricidade: a desinência de plural na 1ª e 2ª pessoas do plural dos verbos dos tempos do imperfeito, do mais-que-perfeito e do futuro do pretérito do indicativo. Nos casos restantes, a consoante final com status de desinência, ou seja, N ou S; c. Regra Final: à direita.

Response to commentaries on ‘hard criteria for empirical theories of consciousness’

ABSTRACT In consciousness research, we have a very large number of theories, which exceeds by far the number of theories in other fields. We recently presented a set of criteria for evaluating and comparing theories of consciousness, and then applied the criteria to a number of different theories. Our publication sparked strong responses as evident by the many comments published in Cognitive Neuroscience (this issue). Overall, there seems to be consensus that a theory of consciousness (ToC) needs to have an unconscious alternative, but other criteria sparked controversy. The hottest debate is to what extent consciousness needs to work with purely 1st person data, containing information not available in 3rd person reports. We would like to thank all the commentators for their lively input and we look forward to continued dialog as theories evolve and compete.

Contribution of the Semiological Approach to Deixis-Anaphora in Sign Language: The Key Role of Eye-Gaze.

We address the issue of deixis–anaphora in sign language (SL) discourse, focusing on the role of eye-gaze. According to the Semiological Approach, SL structuring stems from a maximum exploitation of the visuo-gestural modality, which results in two modes of meaning production, depending on the signer’s semiotic intent. Involving both non-manual and manual parameters, the first mode, expressing the intent to say while showing, uses constructions based on structures, the termed “transfer structures.” The second one, expressing the intent to say without showing, involves lexical, pointing and fingerspelling units. In order to situate our descriptive concepts with respect to those used by SL linguists who, like us, adopt a cognitive–functionalist perspective, we expose a specific theoretical foundation of our approach, the “enunciation theories.” The concept of “enunciation” is decisive for understanding the role of eye-gaze, as being at the foundation of deixis and the key vector of referential creation and tracking in SL discourse. “Enunciation” entails the opposition between “Enunciation” and “Utterance” Domains. The first links, as co-enunciators, the signer/speaker and his/her addressee, establishing them by the very “act of enunciation” as 1st and 2nd person. The second is internal to the discourse produced. Grounding on corpora of narratives in several SLs (some with no historical link), we illustrate this crucial role of eye-gaze and the diversity of functions it fulfills. Our analyses, carried out in this perspective, attest to the multiple structural similarities between SLs, particularly with regard to transfer structures. This result strongly supports the typological hypothesis underlying our approach, namely, that these structures are common to all SLs. We thus show that an enunciative analysis, based on the key role of eye-gaze in these visual languages that are SLs, is able to give the simplest account of their own linguistic economy and, in particular, of deixis–anaphora in these languages.

Syntax of Native Advertising Publications in Glossy Periodicals

The question of the originality of the syntax of native advertising publications in Russian editions of international glossy magazines in 2018-2020 is considered. The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the interest of domestic and foreign experts in one of the modern formats of brand promotion on the market — natural advertising that organically fits into the content of the site, print or online edition and helps to promote the brand’s products to the market. The novelty of the study is associated with the allocation, systematization and description of the main features of native publications: the functioning of bisubstantive sentences, question-answer complexes, connecting structures, definite personal one-part sentences with predicate verbs of the 1st and 2nd person singular; the use of bifunctional exclamation sentences, simple sentences, complicated by inserted constructions and introductory-modal words; the use of non-union complex sentences with explanatory semantic relations, complex sentences with explanatory-object and intrinsic-attributive clauses; introduction of various explicit intertextual units, etc. The author comes to the conclusion that the syntax of texts in the native advertising format as a whole is a hybrid formation, similar to the syntax, on the one hand, of direct advertising texts, and journalistic and PR-texts on the other.

Concordância verbal no português brasileiro em Maceió/AL, Brasil

RESUMO: Neste artigo analisamos a concordância verbal no português brasileiro falado na zona urbana de Maceió/AL, tomando como base os pressupostos teóricos e metodológicos da Teoria Sociolinguística Variacionista, de William Labov (2008 [1972]) com o objetivo de descrever e analisar o padrão de concordância dos falantes maceioenses. Para tanto, utilizamos dados do projeto Portal – Variação Linguística no Português Alagoano, com entrevistas gravadas e transcritas ortograficamente de 36 colaboradores, homens e mulheres de três faixas etárias e três níveis de escolaridade. Foram selecionadas como variáveis sociais ‘gênero’, ‘faixa etária’ e ‘escolaridade’; e como variáveis linguísticas ‘posição do sujeito em relação ao verbo’, ‘elementos intervenientes entre sujeito e verbo’ e ‘natureza do sujeito’. Concluímos que a concordância verbal em Maceió é diretamente proporcional à escolaridade e que há interação entre as variáveis gênero e faixa etária. Do ponto de vista linguístico, o processo é favorecido pela 1ª pessoa do plural e desfavorecido pela 3ª pessoa do plural. As variáveis ‘posição do sujeito’ e ‘elementos intervenientes’ não foram estatisticamente significativas.
 PALAVRAS-CHAVE: variação linguística, sintaxe, variedade alagoana.

Eerstezinsdeeldeletie in het Nederlands

Abstract First-constituent-deletion in Dutch. What topic drop is and what it is not This paper discusses the phenomenon of pronoun deletion in Dutch. In the position before the finite verb a 3rd person pronoun may be deleted. The deletion of the pronoun is constrained by the recoverability condition, which requires that its referential features can be reconstructed from the context. It will be argued that only the deletion of a d(emonstrative)-pronoun is ‘topic drop’, which is typical for spoken Dutch. Deleted topic d-pronouns are subject to the same syntactic conditions as overt topic d-pronouns (Van ). Like the overt topic d-pronoun, the deleted d-pronoun refers to the focus constituent of the preceding sentence. A deleted p(ersonal)-pronoun, by contrast, does not have a uniquely determined antecedent and therefore it cannot be analyzed as discourse topic drop. In written texts, it solely maintains the preceding subject referent. I will further discuss the deletion of 1st person pronouns and the deletion of d-pronouns in imperatives.

Understanding the multi-dimensional nature of informational language in health care interactions

AbstractMuch of the corpus-based research on medical discourse has focused on “involved” language (e.g., 1st person pronouns, discourse markers) and its importance in creating patient rapport (Adolphs, Brown, Carter, Crawford, & Sahota, 2004;Skelton & Hobbes, 1999;Staples, 2016). However, in the broader literature on health care interactions, providers’ information provision is equally important in patient-centered care (Ong, de Haes, Joos, & Lammes, 1995). This paper investigates the ways in which providers and patients use informational language in medical discourse using multidimensional analysis (MDA;Biber, 1988). We first examine three corpora of medical interactions and then focus a new MDA on one type of interaction that requires more informational language use: discussions of disease and treatment options. The analysis revealed multifaceted aspects of information provision that differ depending on the nature of the information, including providers’ procedural information for medical treatment and impersonal information provision for explaining the disease.

Features of referential pronouns and indexical presuppositions

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates that the presuppositions triggered by the 1st and 2nd persons behave differently in important ways from those triggered by the 3rd person and the genders. While the 1st and 2nd persons trigger indexical presuppositions, the 3rd person and the genders do not. I show that the presuppositions triggered by the 1st and 2nd persons are not susceptible to presupposition failure of the kind familiar from ordinary presuppositions. Such failures occur for the 3rd person and the genders. Moreover, the presuppositions triggered by the 1st and 2nd persons do not exhibit the projection behavior of ordinary presuppositions. The 3rd person and the genders do. I sketch a semantics in which the relevant difference is between presuppositions that impose constraints on functions from contexts to intensions (characters) and presuppositions that impose constraints on intensions.

Subject and agentivity in Teotitlán Zapotec

Abstract In Teotitlán Zapotec, some, but not all, verbs undergo stem alternation in the 1st person forms, in addition to the attachment of the pronominal enclitics that encode the subject argument. We argue that stem alternation and pronominal cliticization are independent from one another and that each encodes different grammatical features, agent and subject, respectively. The phenomenon discussed in this paper is peculiar in two respects. First, stem alternation as the exponent of the agent is cross-linguistically rare (although it is common within the Otomanguean languages). Furthermore, the category of agentivity has not been studied in detail in Zapotecan languages, but this paper shows the pervasiveness of agentivity in the Teotitlán Zapotec grammar.

The Korean hortative construction revisited

Abstract This paper revisits the hortative -ca construction in Korean from a usage-based perspective, examining its functions in natural interactional spoken data The examination of the actual occurrence of -ca reveals its various functions: -ca indicates that the performer of the focal-event encoded in the utterance may be 1st person plural subject, i.e., the speaker and other interlocutors; 2nd person, i.e., the addressee(s); 1st person, i.e., the speaker; and 3rd person. Our findings provide direct evidence for the different degrees of prototypicality among these functions, which are reflected in their different frequency counts. Furthermore, this study proposes two novel functions of ca, the accordant imperative (to demand that the addressee agree with the speaker that the addressee perform the focal-event) and the speaker hortative (to ask the addressee to perform an action so that the speaker him-/herself can perform the focal-event).

On the historical source of <i>a ~ u</i> alternations in Dëne Sųłıné optative paradigms

In most dialects of Dëne Sųłıné, the optative prefix, reconstructed in Proto Dene as *Gʷə (Krauss 1969), exhibits an alternation in verb paradigms: an a-vowel is found in the 1st and 3rd person singular forms (ɣʷa, wa, or ha, depending on the dialect), while an u-vowel is found elsewhere (ɣʷu, wu, hu). This alternation raises three questions. First, how could the same consonant *Gʷ trigger both raising and lowering of the following vowel? Secondly, what phonological factors conditioned this alternation historically? And finally, does this alternation still belong to the synchronic phonology of modern Dëne Sųłıné dialects?In this paper, I will explore what insights the Contrastivist Hypothesis (CH) (Hall 2007, Dresher 2009) can add to our understanding of this alternation. Representationally, the CH makes it possible to describe lowering to a as spreading of [low], while raising to u involves spreading of [round]. I propose that the choice of which process applied in which forms depended on prosodic factors. In addition, I show what insights the CH can contribute to internal reconstruction. Specifically, I argue that, under the CH, spreading of [low] cannot be a part of the modern synchronic phonology of Dëne Sųłıné, but rather originated at a time before a series of consonant shifts occurred in the language, in particular when the retroflex series was still part of the consonant inventory.

The cultural opposition “my, our own vs alien”: Russian pronouns in language representation of the concept “patriotism”

The article presents the peculiarities of language objectification of basic archaic cultural opposition “my, our own ‒ alien” by mean of Russian personal and possessive pronouns’ semantics and functioning. The purpose is to detect how the 1st and 2nd person pronouns in their non-referential usage get potentiality to form conceptual content and language representation of the concept “patriotism”. The methodology includes methods of referential and conceptual analysis. The material is the data of lexicographic sources, Russian national Corpus and the authors’ internet-monitoring. The study shows that Russian personal and possessive pronouns contribute most to language expression of culturally significant opposition of “circles ours, our own” and circle “others, aliens”, of values of “own world” and “alien world”. The findings are that the fact of conceptual contraposition of the 1st and the 2nd person pronouns is to be included in linguo-cognitive description of the concept “patriotism”.

New journalistic genres in social weeklies

The traditional system of journalistic genres requires an update, which was attempted in a relatively coherent concept by T. Rončáková. We applied her genre classification containing both new and traditional genres to a sample of Slovak social weeklies and statistically tested the presence and quantity of individual genres. At the same time, we examined the presence of the author's opinion, verbs in the 1st person singular and the hidden advertising in the texts. The presented findings on genres and the presence of opinions, subjectivity and hidden advertising were interpreted in the context of the classification of individual periodicals, either elite or lifestyle ones, which helped determine the impact of the tabloid orientation of periodicals on their content and form.