Description Of Constructions Research Articles

Equative and similative constructions in Chibchan languages

The objective of this paper is to offer the first description of equative and similative constructions in twelve Chibchan languages focusing on two typological particularities: first, all the languages share the construction with only an equative standard marker. But, although all the Chibchan languages have SOV constituent order, the constituent order in the equative construction is not the same in all the languages. Some languages display the expected order for SOV constituent order languages, that is the standard marker follows the standard and both precede the parameter. But the central Isthmian languages show the reverse order, that is the standard marker occurs after the standard entity and both follow the parameter. Second, the distinction between equative and similative constructions, which is semantically and formally present in European languages, is not attested in most of the Chibchan languages that have only one construction for expressing similarity and equality. Only three languages, Cabecar, Ika and Pesh usually use the construction with similative standard marker for similarity and have another dedicated construction with a degree-marker for equality.

Еволюція непрямого способу в нідерландській мові

The article is connected with evolution investigation of the grammatical category which is recognized as the Oblique Mood in the Dutch language. The evolution of that grammatical phenomenon is reconstructed involving authentic texts of different periods, starting with very restricted material of early middle Dutch period and finishing with numerous and different texts of modern Dutch period. The transformation of morphological structure of the Dutch Oblique Mood moves into the direction of growing analytical structures with the parallel degradation of synthetical forms with traditional flexion markers. Taking into consideration the fact that the Oblique Mood is very well reflected on the syntactical (sentence) level, the attention is focused not only on the simple sentences but on the developed system of subordinate clauses. All the steps of transformation are reflected in the stages of diachronical analysis too. For the better definite differentiation of the Oblique Mood Construction and finding differences in the constructions, all the variants of the Oblique Mood are compared with the variants of the Indicative Mood. It helps to provide the comparison in the dichotomy of the Indicative – Oblique Moods. The special attention is given to the description of periphrastic constructions which were formed combining preterite-present verbs with infinitives I, II and further grammaticalisation of two-component verb combination. The ruining of the synthetical paradigm was caused by the reduction of corresponding suffix reflection. There was the attempt to restore the synthetical forms in translation of the Bible from Latin and Greek into Dutch, it was the marker of the literature language but not the colloquial one. The influence of the French and German languages was definite but sporadical. The analytical forms were created in the conditional clauses and were recognized as the Conditional Mood I, II. This type of mood had some meaning of supposition forming the corresponding subgroup of the Suppositional Mood. If the preterite-present verb zullen was a productive form but willen was not involved into the Oblique Mood analytical form creation, remaining outside of that grammatical category. There is some resemblance between the Dutch and English Oblique Mood, in particular the structure of analytical forms.

Конструкційна граматика: основні принципи і поняття

The article provides an overview of Construction Grammar. First, a general survey of the basic principles and major strands of the grammatical theory is given. The main assumptions include the recognition that all linguistic knowledge is of the same type as knowledge in general and follows the same principles such as categorization, abstraction and generalization. In the second part, the presentation focuses on two important elements of construction grammar research: the concept of the construction as complex sign and the abandoning of the distinction between lexicon and grammar. Using examples from Ukrainian, the different relationships between constructions of different complexity and schematicity in the so-called constructicon – the common space of both lexical and grammatical knowledge – are described. It is shown, how abstract constructions offer slots for other elements and how these are constrained regarding form and meaning. In addition, the status of constructions as complex signs is assessed from the perspective of semantics and compositionality. It is highlighted that Construction Grammar rejects the assumption of compositionality and rather conceptualizes meaning as determined by the construction itself. At the same time, semantics is understood in an encyclopaedic sense, which renders the description of constructions highly detailed and language-specific.

Well quasi orders in a categorical setting

This article describes well quasi orders as a category, focusing on limits and colimits. In particular, while quasi orders with monotone maps form a category which is finitely complete, finitely cocomplete, and with exponentiation, the full subcategory of well quasi orders is finitely complete and cocomplete, but with no exponentiation. It is interesting to notice how finite antichains and finite proper descending chains interact to induce this structure in the category: in fact, the full subcategory of quasi orders with finite antichains has finite colimits but no products, while the full subcategory of well founded quasi orders has finite limits but no coequalisers. Moreover, the article characterises when exponential objects exist in the category of well quasi orders and well founded quasi orders. This completes the systematic description of the fundamental constructions in the categories of quasi orders, well founded quasi orders, quasi orders with finite antichains, and well quasi orders.

Collo-Creativity and Blending: Recognizing Creativity Requires Lexical Storage in Constructional Slots

AbstractThis article explores to what extent linguistic creativity can be accounted for by investigating the collocational and collostructional properties of different constructions. A distinction is made between intended creativity and creativity caused by despair. It is argued that while unexpected combinations of constructions (in the sense of lexical items and syntactic constructions) are not the only type of linguistic creativity, they are of particular relevance to linguistic theory because they can only be appropriately accounted for in terms of a model that takes an integrative view of grammar and lexicon and allows for a considerable amount of lexical knowledge concerning the description of constructions.

Combinatorial Encodings of Infinite Symmetric Groups and Descriptions of Semigroups of Double Cosets

Spaces of double cosets of infinite symmetric groups with respect to some special subgroups admit natural structures of semigroups. Elements of such semigroups can be interpreted in combinatorial terms. We present a description of such constructions in a relatively wide degree of generality.

A comparative analysis of passive constructions in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa: Grammar and acquisition

Whilst literature on the acquisition of passive constructions by speakers of European languages abounds, there is a dearth of grammatical descriptions of passive constructions in (especially South) African languages that may serve as a basis for acquisition studies. Furthermore, the majority of studies have focused on monolingual participants only, leaving the typical multilingual African language acquisition context underrepresented. This paper addresses these gaps in the literature by offering an in-depth cross-linguistic comparison of passive constructions in the three official languages of the Western Cape, a province in South Africa, namely the Germanic languages English and Afrikaans and the Southern Bantu language isiXhosa. The grammatical description of passives in these languages covers the nature of the passive verb complex; the placement of the object and, in long passives, subject arguments; movement of the object argument across clause boundaries in infinitival clauses; existential passive constructions; case assignment; restrictions on passivisation; and verbal versus adjectival passive constructions. This information may serve as basis for finer syntactic analyses, studies of cross-linguistic bootstrapping, and also descriptive grammars. The paper finally presents normative data for the acquisition of passive constructions by monolingual speakers of English and by speakers of languages closely related to Afrikaans and isiXhosa (such data not yet being readily available for the latter two languages). The reported higher frequency of passive constructions in Bantu languages is cited as a possible explanation for the relatively early acquisition of this otherwise notoriously late-acquired construction.

Transformations in medieval Fez: Almoravid hydraulic system and changes in the Almohad walls

ABSTRACTDuring the Almoravid and Almohad periods, Fez acquired a great importance which was materialised in a great number of constructions and transformations in the town. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of these medieval works and their importance in the development of Fez between the 11th and 13th centuries. In this way, we analyze two samples of these works: the Almoravid hydraulic system built by Yūsuf Ibn Tāšufīn, including the ‘water dispenser’ of Būjlūd, and the Almohad transformations in the military constructions of Fez, especially the defensive system of Bāb Sāgma. Beyond a brief historical introduction of the city during the Almoravid and Almohad periods, a section about written and archaeological sources and the detailed description of both constructions, we have included a discussion section with the interpretation of the main reasons why the Almoravids and Almohads developed this kind of works in the town. This fact was related to religious and political reasons, deeply connected to the ideas of control, power and exaltation of governors of both dynasties. Moreover, we include the analysis of the type of decoration known as ‘false bonding’ (falso despiece) that appears in the complex of Bāb Sāgma. For the presence of this ornamentation, typically used during the Almohad period, as well as for the references of the written sources, we propose a revision of the traditional Merinid chronology suggested for this military construction.

Comparing subjective and objective evaluation of show jumping competition and warm-up arena surfaces

The development of safety and quality standards for equestrian surfaces needs to be based on objective, repeatable measurements which allow comparisons between surfaces. These measurements should incorporate the assessment of surface performance by riders. This study provides data from objective and subjective assessment of functional properties of high-level show jumping competition and warm-up arenas. Twenty-five arenas in nine international show jumping events were evaluated by mechanical in-situ testing with a surface tester, rider assessments using visual analogue scales (198 riders provided 749 arena evaluations), descriptions of arena constructions and by laboratory tests of surface material. Mixed models were used to present subjective evaluation of rider perception of the functional properties for each arena while controlling for rider and event. The association between objective and subjective assessments were also explored creating mixed models, controlling for rider and event.Mechanical measurements of impact firmness, and to a lesser extent cushioning and grip, had a significant positive association with the riders’ perception. Responsiveness as assessed by the Orono biomechanical surface tester (OBST) was negatively associated with the riders’ perceptions, which suggests riders and the OBST had different concepts of this functional property and that further developments of the OBST might be necessary. Objectively measured uniformity showed no useful association with riders’ perception. Even though arena assessments were made by top level riders, a substantial inter-rider variation was demonstrated.

La sintaxis de la predicación no verbal en maya yucateco

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Prerequisites for the Creation of Energy-Conserving Constructions of Tubular Belt Conveyors

A description of different constructions of tubular belt conveyors with spherically shaped rollers is given. Through use of the functional relationships between the tribotechnical assemblies of the conveyors, the energy losses caused by friction and wear of the service elements are determined, their contribution to rolling and sliding friction established, and the significance of each technical and economic criterion of the relative competitive advantage of alternative variants of tubular belt conveyors determined.

A FUNCTIONAL PROFILE OF LEFT DISLOCATION IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

The primary aim of this paper is to provide a functional profile of verbal Left Dislocation (=LD) constructions in the Torah and Former Prophets (Genesis–2Kings). As a precursor, however, an abbreviated syntactico-semantic description of LD constructions within the aforementioned corpus is provided. This description consists of seven overlapping constructional schemas (i.e. construction types) that form a radial network around a typologically prototypical schema. Accordingly, each schematic type is more or less prototypical depending on its family resemblance (i.e. shared attributes) to the prototype. In light of this formal profile, and of the fact that grammatical constructions are equal parts form and function, the remainder and central focus of the paper will entail a detailed functional explanation of LD. This functional profile will consist of two complementary parts: 1) the central factors motivating the use of LD, and 2) the prototypical and non-prototypical discourse-pragmatic functions achieved by the construction in discourse. Together with the formal description, this functional explanation reveals a textured profile of the LD category, one that consists of a unified radial network of overlapping constructional types.

Consequential Constructions in Contemporary European Portuguese: A Contribution

The aim of this study is to provide an integrated description of consequential constructions in European contemporary Portuguese, relating their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic behavior. It will be argued that the discourse segment introduced by the connectives consequentemente, de forma que, dai (que), de modo que, por isso, assim can be analyzed in terms of a supplement (Huddleston & Pullum 2002), not syntactically integrated with its anchor, but semantically related to it. Semantically, consequential constructions may be paraphrased by causal ones involving an adverbial subordinate clause. But, unlike causal constructions, consequential ones connect two distinct speech acts. The suppression of the consequential connective may trigger two different readings, but it will be argued that, for pragmatic reasons (Levinson 2000), the preferential reading is still the consequential one.

Serial verb constructions and their subtypes in Avatime

This paper presents a description of Avatime serial verb constructions (SVCs), their properties, functions, and subtypes. Such a description is of wider typological interest due to Avatime’s status as an agglutinating member of the Ghana-Togo Mountain branch of the otherwise typically isolating Kwa language family. It is also notable for the unusual system of truncated agreement markers and the distinction between nuclear and core SVC subtypes not typically reported for West African languages.

Units in Near-Rings

We investigate near-ring properties that generalize near-field properties about units. We study zero symmetric near-rings N with identity with two interrelated properties: the units with zero form an additive subgroup of (N, +); the units act without fixedpoints on (N, +). There are many similarities between these cases, but also many differences. Rings with these properties are fields, near-rings allow more possibilities, which are investigated. Descriptions of constructions are obtained and used to create examples showing the two properties are independent but related. Properties of the additive group as a p-group are determined and it is shown that proper examples are neither simple nor J2-semisimple.

Sheaves on $\mathcal T$-topologies

The aim of this paper is to give a unifying description of various constructions of sites (subanalytic, semialgebraic, o-minimal) and consider the corresponding theory of sheaves. The method used applies to a more general context and gives new results in semialgebraic and o-minimal sheaf theory.

Absolute algebra and Segal's Γ-rings: Au dessous de [formula omitted

TextWe show that the basic categorical concept of an S-algebra as derived from the theory of Segal's Γ-sets provides a unifying description of several constructions attempting to model an algebraic geometry over the absolute point. It merges, in particular, the approaches using monoïds, semirings and hyperrings as well as the development by means of monads and generalized rings in Arakelov geometry. The assembly map determines a functorial way to associate an S-algebra to a monad on pointed sets. The notion of an S-algebra is very familiar in algebraic topology where it also provides a suitable groundwork to the definition of topological cyclic homology. The main contribution of this paper is to point out its relevance and unifying role in arithmetic, in relation with the development of an algebraic geometry over symmetric closed monoidal categories. VideoFor a video summary of this paper, please visit https://youtu.be/BJ4Zsc4Nv7E.

Register-Specific Collocational Constructions in English and Spanish: A Usage-Based Approach

Abstract: Constructions are usage-based, conventionalised pairings of form and function within a cline of complexity and schematisation. Most research within Grammar has focused on the monolingual description of schematic constructions: Mainly in English, but to a lesser extent in other languages as well. By contrast, very little constructional analyses have been carried out across languages. In this study we will focus on a type of partially substantive construction from the point of view of contrastive analysis and translation which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the first studies of this kind. The first half of the article lays down the theoretical foundations of the study and introduces Grammar as well as other formalisms used in literature in order to provide a construal account of collocations, a pervasive phenomenon in language. The experimental part describes the case study of V NP collocations with disease/enfermedad in comparable corpora in English and Spanish, both in the general domain and in the specialised medical domain. It is provided a comparative analysis of these constructions across domains and languages in terms of token-type ratio (constructional restriction-rate), lexical function, type of determiner, frequency ranking of the verbal collocate and domain specificity of collocates, among others. New measures to assess construal bondness will be put forward (lexical filledness rate and individual productivity rate) and special attention will be paid to register-dependent equivalent semantic-functional counterparts in English and Spanish and mismatches.Keywords: Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, Phraseology, Collocations, TranslationIntroductionThe term Grammar (CXG) refers to a family of closely related grammars (or constructionist approaches) which are in contrast to Chomskyan's views on language and idiomaticity. CXG aims at providing a comprehensive account of language that explains all aspects of a speaker's knowledge about their language. As Hoffmann (2013: 326) puts it, Construction Grammar does not only focus on the idiosyncratic periphery of language, but [that] is a full-fledged grammatical theory that it is observationally, descriptively as well as explanatorily adequate.Within constructional approaches, linguistic knowledge is acquired through repeated experience with actual instances of constructions and their generalisations. Usage frequency appears to play a crucial role in the emergence of constructions or cognitive schemata (mental representations) and their storage strength in memory (entrenchment).Contrary to mainstream Generative Grammar, constructions are not the result of a limited set of transformations or derivations, but symbolic units which are linked to each other and constitute complex networks (Goldberg, 1995; 2006). Thus, language is conceived as an idiomatic continuum of which constructions are the building blocks and general patterns and idioms stand on an equal footing (Kay and Fillmore, 1999: 1).In this study we will adopt a constructionist approach to collocation in line with CXG postulates. In addition, we will take an observational stance toward a corpusbased analysis of constructions in English and Spanish, with a special emphasis on equivalent semanticfunctional counterparts and potential mismatches.This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 (On the Construal Nature of Collocations) provides a theoretical framework for collocation within competing linguistic approaches. As we will argue, collocations have a clear construal nature, as evidenced by their lexical filledness restrictions, semantic dependency and coercion along a cline of complexity and schematisation. Section 3 (Constructions in Contrast: A Case Study) furnishes a fine-grained characterisation of the V NP construction with disease/enfermedad in two comparable reference and specialised medical corpora in English and Spanish. …

An algebra of arrays and almost perfect watermarks

Viewing array convolution as a commutative and associative multiplication, we furnish the set of all m×n arrays with the structure of a ?$\mathbb {C}$-algebra. We show that this allows a very efficient description of array manipulations and constructions. This is demonstrated by translating the technical polynomial construction of the almost perfect arrays given by Arasu and de Launey to a concise algebraic description.

TeV-Scale Strings

This review discusses the status of string physics where the string tension is around the TeV scale. It covers model-building basics for perturbative strings, based on D-brane configurations. The effective low-energy physics description of such string constructions is analyzed: how anomaly cancellation is implemented, how fast proton decay is avoided, and how D-brane models lead to additional Z′ particles. This review also discusses direct search bounds for strings at the TeV scale, as well as theoretical issues with model building related to flavor physics and axions.