Converb Constructions Research Articles

Integration and Autonomy in Japanese Converb Constructions: A Corpus Study

Researchers still have no common opinion on the integration and autonomy of parts of Japanese converb constructions. In this article, morphological and syntactic connectedness in the most common Japanese converb constructions is examined through tests whose results can be verified using corpus data. Results show that parts of all considered converb constructions demonstrate morphological independence (except for contracted colloquial forms). As for the syntax, converb constructions demonstrate both features of autonomy and unity, forming a sort of continuum, which makes it difficult to categorize them and to distinguish syntactic subtypes for each of the constructions. This reminds us that grammaticalization is a constantly ongoing process, and word classes not falling steadily into our classifications require flexible means of description.

Türkçedeki Zamansıl Ulaç Tümcelerinin Derlem Temelli İncelenmesi

The studies in cognitive and psycholinguistics have reported that the sentential position of converb clauses which are part of adverbial clauses is influenced by syntactic, semantic and discourse factors (Diessel, 2005, 2008; Verstraete, 2004; Wiechmann & Kerz, 2013). One of the semantic factors is the iconicity of sequence and the related iconicity principle states that linguistic structures mostly mirror the structure of conceptual order (Croft, 2003). In other words, the meaning relationships that the linguistic structures bear has an effect on the positioning of those structures. For example, the temporal meaning relationship that a construction has can have an effect on the linear structure of this construction. This study aims at investigating the positioning variations of temporal converb clauses in Turkish and at revealing whether or not it is consistent with the iconicity principle. There are several endings used as temporal converb clauses in Turkish. In the study, the following nine converb endings are analysed: -(y)IncA (when), -DığIndA (when), -DIğI zaman (when), -ken (while), -(A/I) r…-mAz (as soon as), -DIğIndAn beri (since), -mAdAn önce (before), -DIktAn sonra (after), and –DikçA (whenever). The data of the study were collected from the Turkish National Corpus (TNC) (Aksan et al., 2012) which contains 50 million words. After identifying 9000 samples of temporal converbs, these were first grouped based on the endings mentioned above. Then the data were analysed using chi-square test. The 2×3 X² analysis was employed to see the correlations between conceptual order and linear structure. The findings of the study show that temporal converb clauses in Turkish generally have a tendency to appear before the main clause. The clauses expressing priority, namely -(y)IncA (when), -DiğIndA (when), -DIğI zaman (when), -(A/I) r…-mAz (as soon as), -DIğIndAn beri (since) and -DIktAn sonra (after) and the clauses expressing simultaneity, namely, -DiğIndA (when), -DIğI zaman (when), -ken (while) and –DıkçA (whenever) are found to precede the main clauses, which is in line with iconic clause order. The converb constructions expressing posteriority, such as –DiğIndA (when), -DIğI zaman (when) and -mAdAn önce (before) appear to precede the main clause, which is not supported by the iconicity principle. These findings suggest that the iconicity of sequence has a role in the placement of temporal converb clauses in Turkish.

Information structure of converb constructions: Estonian -des, -mata and -maks constructions

Abstract This paper describes the variation in information structure of Estonian -des, -mata and -maks constructions, and analyzes the factors influencing this variation. The paper describes information structure via the categories of information status and information role. Information status, which refers to the general pragmatic status of a linguistic unit, has two possible values: an information unit or an element of an information unit. Information role refers to the pragmatic status of an element in the information structure of a larger information unit. Information role has five possible values: focus, background of the comment, topic, frame or prominent element. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article gives an account of the variation in the information status and information role of Estonian converb constructions. In addition, this paper discusses the way in which the relevant explanatory variables relate to the information status and role of converb constructions. This analysis gives an overview of how the information status of converb constructions relates to the presence of punctuation, the position of the converb construction relative to the main clause, the number of words in the converb construction, the semantic function of the converb construction, the position of the converb within the construction, the morphological form of the converb, and the number of modifiers of the converb. This analysis also discusses how the information role of converb constructions relates to the position and semantic function of the construction and the presence of a lexicogrammatical prominence marker.

A new converb originating from the locative noun in Beserman

Abstract In Beserman, a new converb grammaticalizes from the possessive locative form of the locative noun in (o)ń-ńig. We show that the constructions with the converb have a clausal structure, while the constructions with the locative noun are mostly noun phrases, even if they include an indication of the agent and patient of the situation encoded by the locative noun. Semantically, the two types of constructions are also different. In the converb constructions the situations encoded by the main and the embedded clause must overlap, while with locative nouns this is not necessarily the case. The temporal reference of locative nouns is habitual/iterative, while converbs often have episodic (non-habitual) interpretation. The original locative noun denotes a reference to a fixed location where the situation usually takes place. In the constructions with the converb this meaning is bleached and generalized as an action which takes place in any possible location.

Features of Monoclausality and Polyclausality in Japanese Benefactives: A Corpus Study

Typological status of complex converb constructions in Japanese is not currently well-defined. Japanese language researchers have no common opinion regarding their syntactic and functional unity. In this article we use corpus data to study such constructions with auxiliary verbs yaru, ageru, kureru, kudasaru, morau and itadaku and reveal features of monoclausality and biclausality with them. In the first part of the article, we overview the preexisting research on this topic, and then we apply the tests of morphological and syntactic independency that can be validated using corpus data. To test morphological independency, we check if focus particles such as mo ‘too’ can be placed between the parts of benefactive construction. For syntactic independency we use such tests as replacing a main verb with soo suru ‘to do so’ and checking the implementation of locality condition for shika ‘except’ when the negation marker is added to a main verb or to an auxiliary. According to our data, parts of all the six types of Japanese benefactive constructions demonstrate morphological independency (except for contracted colloquial forms). As for their syntactic properties, benefactives demonstrate both monoclausality and biclausality features. However, the parallel with direct and indirect passive constructions that exists in preceding research does not find endorsement in our data.

Converb constructions in Mari and Udmurt

Uralic languages of the Volga-Kama Region, especially Mari and Udmurt, show strong Turkic influence in the range of usages of converbial (gerundial, i.e. adverbial non-finite) forms. Converbs can be found in combination with syntactically superordinate verbs communicating different values, mirroring Turkic structures: modal (“swimming know” = ‘know how to swim’), directional (“crawling leave” = ‘crawl away’), benefactive (“baking give” = ‘bake something for someone’), aspectual (“drinking send” = ‘drink up’). It is debatable however to what extent one can speak of grammaticalized structures and to what extent one should speak of a body of loan translations in individual languages or varieties. The paper explores the prospect of using verbs borrowed from Russian as a metric of productivity: as these were borrowed after the phase of intense Turkic language contacts ended, their usage in Turkic-type structures can been seen as evidence for their grammaticalization, while their absence in such structures can be seen as evidence against it.

Acquisition of Pitjantjatjara Clause Chains.

In Pitjantjatjara, a central Australian Indigenous language, speakers typically describe sequences of actions using clause chaining constructions. While similar constructions are common among the world’s languages, very little is known about how children acquire them. A notable exception are the converb constructions of Turkish, which have been relatively well-studied. The present paper examines the acquisition of Pitjantjatara clause chaining constructions and compares this with the acquisition of Turkish converb constructions. Data is drawn from a naturalistic corpus recorded between 2016 and 2019. The corpus contains over 4000 utterances from 23 children aged between 10 months and 10 years, five of whom are recorded at multiple ages. The corpus also includes approximately 1600 utterances from 21 adults, aged between 16 and 70. Results show that the acquisition of Pitjantjatjara clause chains consists of three stages. Stage 1 features juxtaposition of finite verb forms. In Stage 2, children make regular use of clause chain morphology, but primarily for modification purposes. In Stage 3, clause chains are the preferred strategy for sequential actions as well as modification purposes. The initial use of verb juxtaposition followed by increasing use of dedicated morphology is consistent with findings for Turkish converb acquisition, with speakers of both languages utilizing dedicated forms from around 2;6 onwards. A notable difference between the acquisition of Pitjantjatjara clause chains and Turkish converbs is in the order of acquisition of semantic functions. In Turkish, children acquire temporal functions, such as sequential actions, before modifying functions, such as manner specification. In Pitjantjatjara, the order is reversed, with children first using clause chaining constructions for modification and simultaneous aspects of events before utilizing them to combine sequential actions. This raises questions regarding the distribution and relative timing of event combination and modification strategies.

General converbs in Andi

AbstractThis paper describes the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of general converb constructions in Andi, a language of the Avar-Andic group of the East Caucasian language family. There are two general converbs in Andi, both of which are homophonous with a finite verb form (the aorist and the perfect, respectively). There is a considerable functional overlap between the two converbs. Both can be used to render the first stage of a complex event. The perfect / converb can also specify manner. An additive particlelooften accompanies the perfect as converb, while a specialised particlelodːuappears with the aorist as converb. The situation in Andi is unusual, because the two converbs are functionally very similar and not opposed in terms of aspect. In addition, Andi seems to be the only East Caucasian language where a specialised particle (i.e.lodːu) is found in this type of converbal clauses.

On the Uzbek Converb Construction Starting with <em>olib</em>, its Reanalysis, and its Grammaticalisation

Converb constructions are widely used in Uzbek, as in many other Turkic languages. A less studied type of converb construction is the one which can be referred to as the Converb Construction of Motion (CCM). In this article, first, four groups of Uzbek CCMs are distinguished and it is argued that the CCMs starting with olib, the converb of the verb ol- (‘take’), constitute an important subgroup within the second group. It is further claimed that these olib CCMs are unique in that their first converb shows signs of grammaticalisation, accompanied by reanalysis. Based on data from a monolingual Uzbek corpus, a specific path is tracked down, leading through a number of syntactic levels from the use of the converb as a clause chaining device to its final univerbation with the following verb. It is demonstrated that the different levels of this process exhibit different morphosyntactic, prosodic and/or phonological behaviours. Reanalysis is especially apparent in the transition from a biclausal syntactic structure to a monoclausal structure, while the changes occurring in a set of parameters allow us to characterise the entire process as grammaticalisation.

Deutsche komitative Konnektor 'wobei' in administrativen Texten und seine Entsprechungen im Italienischen

This paper deals with German 'wobei'-clauses and their Italian counterparts. Based on a corpus study of administrative texts, we identify the type and frequency of the Italian constructions that correspond to 'wobei'-clauses. In particular, we will assess to what extent the Italian converb construction gerundio correlates with 'wobei'-clauses. More specifically, we will focus on the thesis put forward by Haspelmath (1995) and Breindl (2014), according to which comitativity is expressed by converb constructions when it applies to state of affairs.

The macro-event property and the layered structure of the clause

We ask whether there is a “macro-event phrase,” a uniform level of syntax at which complex scenarios may be described as single events under the Macro-Event Property (MEP). The MEP is a form-meaning mapping property that constrains the compatibility of event descriptions with time-positional modifiers. An examination of English infinitival complements, Ewe serial verb constructions, and Japanese converb constructions suggests that the putative crosslinguistic “macro-event phrase” is the verbal core of the Layered Structure of the Clause theory of Role and Reference Grammar. Across languages, simple cores necessarily have the MEP, whereas complex cores have it if and only if they are integrated by ‘cosubordinate’ nexus, defined as a symmetric union of two cores that together behave like a single core. We furthermore argue that this connection between core cosubordinations and the MEP may help explain why cosubordinate cores seem to always share an argument through control.

General Converbs in Mehweb

This paper deals with the morphological and syntactic properties of general converbs in Mehweb, including the markers used to form general converbs and the alternations they undergo, periphrastic converbs, independent uses of converbs, their behaviour in combination with tensed verbs in the imperative, different strategies of how a converb clause shares its arguments with the main clause, and coordination/subordination properties of general converb construction. The description of morphological features of the general converbs is mostly based on the existing studies of Mehweb. The description of their syntactic properties is based on an analysis of elicited examples.

A Comprehensive Syntactic Analysis of Korean [... V ... V] Expressions: Converb Constructions and Types of Gaps

A Comprehensive Syntactic Analysis of Korean [... V ... V] Expressions: Converb Constructions and Types of Gaps

Деепричастные аналитические конструкции в алтайском языке

Деепричастные аналитические конструкции в алтайском языке

Children and situation models of multiple events.

The present study demonstrates that children experience difficulties reaching the correct situation model of multiple events described in temporal sentences if the sentences encode language-external events in reverse chronological order. Importantly, the timing of the cue of how to organize these events is crucial: When temporal subordinate conjunctions (before/after) or converb constructions that carry information of how to organize the events were given sentence-medially, children experienced severe difficulties in arriving at the correct interpretation of event order. When this information was provided sentence-initially, children were better able to arrive at the correct situation model, even if it required them to decode the linguistic information reversely with respect to the actual language external events. This indicates that children even aged 8-12 still experience difficulties in arriving at the correct interpretation of the event structure, if the cue of how to order the events is not given immediately when they start building the representation of the situation. This suggests that children's difficulties in comprehending sequential temporal events are caused by their inability to revise the representation of the current event structure at the level of the situation model.

Converbs in translation: the role of Aktionsart in the interpretation and translation of Russian converb constructions into English and Norwegian

My ongoing investigation of the role of Aktionsart in the interpretation and translation of Russian sentences with converb constructions (cf. Krave forthc.) suggests that the lexical aspect of a particular converb construction in the source data (Russian) may trigger a specific interpretation restricting the range of possible translation patterns found in the target data (i.e. English and Norwegian). For example, it was found that coordinate clauses (e.g. VP coordination – by means of the conjunction ‘og’ (‘and’) linking the main event and the event expressed by the converb) occur most frequently in the Norwegian translations of the ‘achievement’ type of converbs (including the semelfactive lexical type). This pattern is contrasted with the preference for the Norwegian construction with ‘etter’ (‘after’) followed by either a DP or a Perfect Infinitive construction – ‘å ha’ (‘to have’) + past participle – found in translations of the delimitative Aktionsart of the converb construction.

Russian converbs – temporal interpretation and information structure

This paper presents a study of Russian converb constructions (non-finite verb forms used for adverbial subordination) and their interpretations, addressing the question of whether their semantic diversity could be explained in terms of vagueness (i.e. converbs are assumed to have one basic (vague) meaning, but may receive additional readings as a result of various linguistic as well as extra-linguistic factors) or polysemy (i.e. converb meanings can only be analyzed by listing all the different interpretations as a disjunction). Using compositional semantics, I present a temporal calculus for Russian converb sentences, arguing for a unified account of the semantics of converbs (a temporal overlap relation attributed to the converb suffix ‘-(j)a’ and the meaning of temporal anteriority encoded by the converb suffix ‘-v’). I conclude that these temporal meanings are the basic vague meanings of the two converb constructions, even though their realization is subject to constraints imposed by co-text or context.

Escape from the noun phrase

This paper deals with the evolution of certain subordinating constructions in Hup, a Nadahup (Makú) language of the northwest Amazon. Internal reconstruction, informed by close resemblances among synchronically attested clause types, suggests that Hup’s headless relative clause has given rise to a converb construction, a subtype of adverbial in which a dedicated verb form modifies a main clause. This development provides new insight into the origins of converbs and sheds light on the crosslinguistically common resemblance between relative and adverbial constructions more generally. Additionally, the Hup converbal clause has itself developed a main clause function, and the subordinating morphology employed by the relative and converb constructions is associated with topicalization. The transitions undergone by these structures in Hup contribute to our understanding of the diachronic pathways that may be taken by clauses once they have attained syntactic complexity.

Advantages and disadvantages of using parallel texts in typological investigations

In this paper, advantages and disadvantages of using parallel texts in typological studies are considered according to the criteria of diversity, domains, analysis, per-spective, quality, representativity, and comparability. It is shown in a case study of multi-verb constructions (including serial verb constructions, converb constructions, etc.) in two motion event domains (BRING and RUN) how typology can profit from parallel texts especially in the investigation of quantitative variables. A method is introduced to transform features with continuous distributions into ternary features with low, intermediate, and high values which can then be tested for correlations.

Aspect markers grammaticalized from verbs in Kamas

The article presents some results of research into aspectual auxiliaries of Kamas (Southern Samoyed; extinct). Code-copied from Turkic, Kamas started to use verbs with salient aspectuality to modify the aspectual meaning content of another verb or the representation of a whole state of affairs. The formal means by which this modification could take place was a converb construction, in which the modified main verb figured as the non-finite verb form (the converb). At the end of the grammaticalization process, some of the auxiliaries ended up as suffixes. Within Kamas sources from the middle of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, the various degrees of grammaticalization are documented. The relevant grammaticalization processes are semantic reduction, fixation and formal reduction; the first two processes can be understood as prerequisites for the third process which puts an end to the coexistence of grammaticalized and non-grammaticalized items. The main Kamas auxiliaries are listed and, according to their function, grouped into non-transformative vs. initial-, final-, and momentaneous-transformative auxiliaries.