Grammatical System Research Articles

Grammar and the Formal Identity of Name and Object

In this paper, I will be arguing that the basic infrastructure of an ineffable formal identity between name and object which is presented in the Tractatus is still very much involved in Wittgenstein's early development of the concept of grammar. First, it will be necessary to clearly describe how the identity between name and object is initially formulated in the Tractatus. Hence, in section 1, I will show how the 'picture theory' is ontologically grounded on the identity of linguistics' and worldly atomic structural elements. I will discuss the ‘picture theory’ only briefly, since my main interest is to illuminate how that infrastructure remains a core aspect of Wittgenstein's “middle period” thinking: that is, in what way the identity of name and object is contained and presupposed within his concept of grammar and how it is still used as a condition for our symbolism to make sense. Another way to describe this paper's aim, this time from its end backwards, would be to say that it is to reveal that grammatical systems of rules are nothing other than the implementations of that special kind of identity, for the latter is always and already manifest within our symbolism

Metaphor in grammatical works of linguists

The object of the research is metaphorical nominations in scientific linguistic discourse. The purpose of the study is to systematically describe the structural and semantic features of metaphors in grammatical works. The identification of expressive linguistic units in scientific texts is important for a comprehensive study of the relationship between rational and emotional in strict speech styles. The appeal to this topic is dictated by the need to find ways to present complex theoretical material in university syntax teaching. The article considers metaphors-words, metaphors-phrases and metaphors-predicative units characterizing transitional phenomena in the grammar of the Russian language. Metaphorical designations in the description of the desemanticized verbal components of analytical constructions and verbal connectives are highlighted. Metaphors characterizing other grammatical phenomena are analyzed. The role of verbal metaphors in the description of constitutive features of sentences of different types is established. The features of substantive and adjectival metaphors in grammatical works are noted. It is shown that the expanded metaphors demonstrate the multidimensional nature of syntactic categories. It is concluded that verbal and substantive metaphors convey the desire of linguists to present the grammatical system as dynamic, actively developing. The use of metaphorical names makes it possible to present grammatical theory in a more accessible way, to draw attention to interesting linguistic facts.

Labeling by type

Abstract The primary goal of this article is to take advantage of some recent theoretical innovations in syntactic theorizing to propose a novel characterization of some of the basic word-order types isolated by typological research. In the minimalist framework, a necessary condition for a derivation to converge is that the structure it generates should be appropriately labeled. This requirement in particular holds for the major syntactic structures displayed by the various linguistic types. It will be argued that labeling theory, combined with phase theory and the variable syntax of inflectional and discourse features, offers contrasting characterizations of these structures and, as such, provides a window on how exactly SVO, V1 and V2 grammatical systems differ: they differ precisely in the strategy that each type selects in order for neutral declarative root clauses to satisfy the labeling requirement. It will also be shown that the topic and focus structures involving phrasal movement to the periphery, although different parametric choices are made by the various grammatical systems considered here, basically conform to the same requirement.

Improving A2-Level German Syntax And Morphology Via Learningapps.Org: a Web-Based Approach

The rapid change of times made foreign languages necessary in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, including German, which is taught in formal education. German language learning faces challenges due to the difference in grammatical systems between German (inflectional language) and Indonesian (agglutinative language). This difficulty often causes boredom and a lack of enthusiasm for learning. This research aims to create an A2-level German language learning media through Learning app. org-based quizzes. This development study uses the educational design research (EDR) method. The subjects involved in this research are one material expert and one media expert. The data collection methods used were interviews, observations, and questionnaires, and the instrument used was a questionnaire sheet. After the data was collected, it was analyzed using descriptive qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. The results showed that based on validation data provided by material and media experts, the material achieved a validation score of 90%. This indicates that the material is suitable for learning media and falls into the Very Good category. In addition, the validation conducted by Learningapp.org resulted in a final percentage of 92.85%, confirming that Learningapp.org media is suitable for use in the Very Good category. So, Learningapp.org media is ideal for use. This research is expected to help learners expand morphology, building sentences, and improve syntactic understanding interactively.

Greșeli gramaticale de acord la studenții străini

Our article examines the difficulties encountered by foreign students in learning the Romanian language, particularly the most common grammatical accord errors. These mistakes can be mainly attributed to a lack of language proficiency, as well as to the peculiarities of the Romanian morphological system. The accord between the predicate and subject, as well as between the adjective and the governing term, are among the most frequent sources of grammatical errors for foreign students. The accord between the predicate and subject can be challenging to learn due to the homonymy between the verb forms for the third person singular and plural in Romanian. Additionally, word order in the sentence can contribute to confusion and errors. Regarding the accord of the adjective with the regent term, neglecting this agreement can affect the correct understanding and interpretation of the message conveyed. We highlight that interference with the native/international language, the complexity of the Romanian grammatical system, and lack of practice are among the main reasons for these errors. In the final part of the article, we discuss errors related to the use of the adverb, such as false agreement in the construction of the relative superlative and treating the adverb as an adjective, especially when used as a determinant of a proper adjective or participial nature, in the plural number. To avoid these agreement mistakes, it is necessary for students to know very well the differences between flexible and inflexible parts of speech and to pay special attention to the context in which these parts are used in sentences

Cognitive-epistemological, pragmatic, and psycholinguistic aspects of French interjections

Interjections as a lexical and grammatical category still belong to the interdisciplinary lacunae, as they require the concretization of interpretations in various aspects: terminological definitions, pragmatic functions, cognitive reception by a speaker, and an adequate reproduction by an addressee. Their functional capabilities to reflect and combine emotional and rational, verbal and non-verbal information in communication are significant. Interjections are closely related to a speech act, the mental characteristics of its participants, verbal and non-verbal means of communication, context, and objective reality. The current study aims to analyze the determinative interpretations and lexical and grammatical structures of interjections as a universal category used for determining communicative and pragmatic functions. A part of the psychological epic In Search of Lost Time/“A la recherche du temps perdu” – “Albertine Disappears” (“Albertine Disparue”) by Marcel Proust (1925) serves as a research material. Interjections, as a universal category, hold a prominent place in the lexical and grammatical system of languages. As a result of conducted quantitative analysis of interjections, the most common interjections discovered in the studied literary French-language text were one-word interjections, ‘oh!’ ‘ah!’, and ‘hélas!’, which, depending on the author’s illocutionary intention, their pragmatic function, as well as their position in the remark - at the beginning, in the middle or at the end - can create a range of meanings according to their emotional effect, such as hope, disappointment, doubt, embarrassment, confirmation, denial, request or call to action. Conversely, the texts frequently comprise interjection phrases that convey the processes of reflection on the inner experiences of a particular character and their psychological state. This, in turn, reveals the process of their personality development. Disclosure Statement The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest. * Corresponding author: Oksana Rohach, 0000-0002-5304-0837oksanarog@vnu.edu.ua

The acquisition of Polarity Items in L3/Ln Catalan by speakers of English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish: implications for L3/Ln development theorising and language teaching

ABSTRACT This paper provides fresh insights on how PIs (Polarity Items) in non-veridical contexts (questions and conditionals) are represented in the grammar of multilingual learners of Catalan at different stages of development. It explores how this non-native grammatical system interacts with other previously acquired systems of negation and the implicit and explicit evidence about the negative system as presented in textbooks. We test 89 Ln learners of Catalan (L1 English/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese) on the interpretation of PIs in non-veridical contexts. The findings reveal that initially, learners exhibit both facilitative and non-facilitative transfer from their prior languages (L1/L2), and that grammatical restructuring in L3/Ln development is influenced by learners’ language background, syntactic context, and proficiency in Catalan. The results indicate a tendency towards stagnation and reduced accuracy throughout the learning process, especially among learners whose L1 had a facilitative effect either during initial transfer or later stages of development. These observations are discussed in the context of theories of morphosyntactic transfer in L3/Ln acquisition, as well as L3 development. The paper also evidences that the presentation of PIs in textbooks can shape and restructure learners’ interpretation of these items and proposes acquisitionally and pedagogically informed criteria for the instruction of PIs to Catalan learners.

Reflection of the Dynamics of the Language Grammatical Sub-system through the Prism of the Notion of Absence

The notion of absence is viewed as a linguo-cognitive phenomenon that has certain means of its representation in language. The purpose of the article is to trace the changes in the Russian grammar in correlation with the notion of absence, which is semantically heterogeneous and reveals the national specifics of the studied language. The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism. The tasks of distinguishing between past and present phenomena outlined in the study have been solved using the method of actualization. Explanation of the appearance of empty links in the structure of the Russian language is based on cognitive studies of the notion absence. Since asymmetric relations penetrate into all levels of the language system, and the theory of oppositions reflects the essential characteristics of language, the abstract notion of absence is foregrounded in explaining the privative nature of a language. Studies of the essence and the phenomenon of the notion of absence in the grammatical system resulted in the following ideas: manifestations of the notion of absence reflect grammatical lacunae that may correlate with different semantic types of the notion of absence in Russian grammar. Based on the historical facts of the Russian language and their cognitive interpretation, three semantic types of the notion of absence have been conventionally distinguished: complete absence, recovered absence, and disappearance. In the methodological aspect, the article combines psychological and socio-cultural vectors. The research methodological foundation made it possible to trace and describe lexical and grammatical mechanisms of forming the notion of absence at the grammatical level of the Russian language system.

Heike Wiese. Grammatical systems without language borders. Lessons from free-range language

Heike Wiese. Grammatical systems without language borders. Lessons from free-range language

Naturalistic L2 acquisition and the formation of an immigrant variety of Spanish

Immigrants in their host country sometimes take advantage of the assistance offered in order to learn formally the host country language in a classroom setting. This is not always the case. This contribution examines the variety of Spanish that was created by an immigrant who arrived in Spain to work in the restaurant industry. Because of her work situation, she did not take formal Spanish lessons. Rather, she constructed her own variety of Spanish based on input she received on the job and in her interactions with native Spanish speakers. Three aspects of her grammatical system are the focus: tense-aspect marking, copula use, and the pronoun system. The solutions the immigrant created for communication show she has developed a grammar that is different from that of the native speakers of the host language , and its nature is largely predictable by appealing to frequency and detectability of forms in discourse and the process of L1 transfer.

Development points of the derivation process related to Nakhchivan dialects and accents (based on written and oral literary and artistic examples)

In linguistics, the study of the characteristics of acquisition of dialects is of particular importance. In particular, the study of dialects based on written and oral literary examples plays an important role for research in this field. Until 1920, Azerbaijani dialects played a fundamental role in the development of the literary language of Azerbaijan. The role of dialects in enriching the lexicon of the literary language is irreplaceable. Thus, dialect words have become the source and base of the lexicon of the literary language. Now this process is going in another direction. In other words, the literary language affects dialects and changes them, creates conditions and grounds for the reduction and disappearance of the expressive function of dialect words. But for now, dialects remain as an independent language unit in the national language. As the literary language affects the dialects, their phonetic, grammatical systems and pronunciation rules also change. They lose their unique features and approach the literary language. The research article deals with the creation of words related to dialects in prose. Word formation of both suffixes is proved by selected examples from the literature. In conclusion, let’s note that word-forming affixes have more stylistic features in works written in spoken language, and their study is important from a philological aspect.

A PRAGMATICALLY ORIENTED APPROACH TO GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS

The annotated paper examines the possibility of creating an original grammatical system when teaching a new language. The pragmatic approach to generative linguistics was the methodology of language acquisition using a unified model of the Russian sentence. The article discusses algorithms of sentence modelling at two levels: external and internal, based on the theories of N.Chomsky and L.Teniers. The external level includes the construction of a unified sentence structure from the deep structure to the surface structure according to N.Chomsky. And the internal level includes the structural correlation of model elements as the content of the unified sentence structure itself -according to L.Tenier. The theories of N.Chomsky and L.Teniers defined all models as a union of components and reflected in the same models the relations of hierarchy between the components. The study demonstrates a way of teaching foreign speakers the language with the help of the author’s theory of algorithmic syntax.

Ergonyms of the thematic group “Educational institutions” of Naberezhnye Chelny

INTRODUCTION. At the present stage of studying proper names, a special place is given to urban ergonyms, which form the urban onomasticon. Ergonyms, being an integral part of the appearance of a modern city, reflect not only the lexical and grammatical systems of the language, but also represent scientific value as an additional source of information about the social, cultural and historical situation in a certain territory. The purpose of the study is to describe the ergonymic space of Naberezhnye Chelny, Republic of Tatarstan, which includes the names of educational institutions.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research material is the modern names of educational institutions from the official website of the directory of organizations of the city of Nab erezhnye Chelny 2023. The factual material analysis is carried out based on the use of general li nguistic methods (structural and descriptive), as well as the use of elements of the synchronic method and nominative technique analysis.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The main technique for creating new ergonyms is symbolic nomination, which is expressed in nomination using metaphor and metonymy. The emergence of innovative ergonyms in the urban space of Naberezhnye Chelny is mainly associated with the appearance of names in the Tatar language, but with the presence of spellings of words dating back to the English language and Russian words in English transcription. The study of urban ergonoms is carried out in three aspects: analysis of the nominative appearance of a modern city, analysis of thematic groups of urban ergonyms and identification of the peculiarities of the functioning of ergonyms in the speech of modern citizens.CONCLUSION. The names of various children's and youth clubs serve as a certain attribute to attract the target audience. Basically, secondary educational institutions in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny are called by a certain number, but there are a number of specialized institutions that have a name in the Tatar language, indicating the essence of these schools. The city names of additional education institutions for school-aged children reflect Russian names, many of which remain from the Soviet past. Onimization is carried out using metaphorical components in order to expand the semantic structure of the word, its functionality, and the significance of ergonymic vocabulary in communication.

한국어 문법에 의한 톨카피얌 해독의 가능성 검토

Tolkāpiyam, the oldest known book written in Old Tamil, is believed to have been authored around 100 B.C. Although Tolkāpiyam deals with the grammar of Tamil, a language still spoken by Tamils today, this ancient text, along with other Old Tamil books, has remained largely undeciphered. The reason for this lies in the fact that the grammar of Old Tamil has not been fully comprehended. Previous attempts to decipher Tolkāpiyam have mostly involved making educated guesses about the meaning of a paragraph based on the meanings of individual words.
 In this paper, I reveal the grammatical system of Old Tamil, drawing from the grammar theory presented in Part 2 of Tolkāpiyam. Old Tamil, much like pre-medieval Korean, employs predicates as nouns. It features elements such as chosa (조사), verb endings, honorifics, and causative verb suffixes. Remarkably, Tolkāpiyam is structured following the Korean word order. The grammar of Old Tamil closely resembles that of modern Korean. As a demonstration that Koreans can decipher Tolkāpiyam without prior knowledge of ancient Tamil, relying on word meanings alone, I also provide a correct interpretation for several paragraphs in Part I (Phonology). These interpretations challenge previous misconceptions and affirm the validity of my paper's argument, highlighting the limitations of prior research.

Quantifying events or entities?—A corpus-based study of universal quantifiers in early child English and child-directed speech

The acquisition of quantifiers is a central topic in cognitive science. The present study investigated the emergence, frequency, and non-target-like production of the universal quantifiers all, every, and each in child English from a linguistic perspective, based on the data from longitudinal naturalistic observation of 10 English-speaking children and their caregivers. We found that the use of these quantifiers as adverbs or in adverbials generally appeared earlier, and was more frequent, than their use as (pre)determiners in early child English. We also found that input frequency exerts a great influence on some aspects of the acquisition of universal quantifiers, for example, the frequency of the predeterminer all, but there are still some patterns that cannot be explained by mere input frequency, such as children’s initial preference for using universal quantifiers in A(dverbial)-quantification and their non-target forms. Their initial overreliance on A-quantification may be explained by event quantification being cognitively less demanding than entity quantification, and their non-target productions likely result from their developing grammatical systems. We argue that the acquisition of universal quantifiers involves multiple factors, such as cognitive complexity, children’s developing grammatical systems, and input frequency, interacting with each other.

Developmental changes in brain activation during novel grammar learning in 8-25-year-olds

While it is well established that grammar learning success varies with age, the cause of this developmental change is largely unknown. This study examined functional MRI activation across a broad developmental sample of 165 Dutch-speaking individuals (8–25 years) as they were implicitly learning a new grammatical system. This approach allowed us to assess the direct effects of age on grammar learning ability while exploring its neural correlates. In contrast to the alleged advantage of children language learners over adults, we found that adults outperformed children. Moreover, our behavioral data showed a sharp discontinuity in the relationship between age and grammar learning performance: there was a strong positive linear correlation between 8 and 15.4 years of age, after which age had no further effect. Neurally, our data indicate two important findings: (i) during grammar learning, adults and children activate similar brain regions, suggesting continuity in the neural networks that support initial grammar learning; and (ii) activation level is age-dependent, with children showing less activation than older participants. We suggest that these age-dependent processes may constrain developmental effects in grammar learning. The present study provides new insights into the neural basis of age-related differences in grammar learning in second language acquisition.

Влияние португальского языка на глагольную систему креольского языка Макао: семантика и функционирование макаоанского причастия в сравнении с португальским

The research aims to determine which morphological and syntactic elements of the participle in Macau Creole Portuguese were inherited from Portuguese and whether this indicates the influence of the Portuguese language not only on the lexical composition, but also on the grammatical system of Macanese patois, which developed on the basis of Portuguese. The participle is one of the two morphologically distinguished verb forms in Macanese patois. The paper analyzes the use of single participles, related and absolute participle constructions functioning as attributes and adverbials, as well as the participation of the participle in the formation of analytical verb forms. The work is novel in that it is the first to describe the functioning of the participle in Macanese patois. Besides, Macau Creole Portuguese itself is among the least studied living Creole languages based on Portuguese. As a result of the research, a set of functions of the Macanese participle inherited from the Portuguese participle was determined, the semantic and grammatical development of the participle was found specifically in Macau Creole Portuguese, which suggests that this verb form is productive. Thus, the significant contribution of the Portuguese language to the verb system of Macau Creole Portuguese was revealed.

The main trends in the word-formative adaptation of the latest borrowings to denote actions and states in the Ukrainian literary language of the 21 st century

At the beginning of the 21 st century, especially in its second decade, foreign units were entering to the journalistic and scientific Ukrainian language so rapidly that linguists sometimes did not have time for objective reasons to evaluate their “quality” and the appropriateness of their use. The activation of borrowings caused a certain disorder: adaptation to the grammatical system of the Ukrainian language occurs unevenly, often with hesitation in word-formative adaptation. A significant number of new adapted borrowed lexemes are not yet in normative, general or industry dictionaries. The most verb lexemes appeared primarily in the field of information technology, quite a few verb lexemes appeared in the field of business, finance, psychology, cosmetology etc. Lexemes of the foreign languages (mostly from English, less often from German, French, Italian or other languages) such as verbs and nouns were adapted in Ukrainian using verb suffixes -ува-, -изува-/-ізува-. The dynamic entry of such words into modern Ukrainian has caused a multi- tude of ways of them adaptation. It is often difficult to determine whether a verb in the Ukrai- nian language has been formed from a foreign verb or noun. This indicates the ambiguous word-formation adaptation of the analyzed verbs. The verb suffix -и- also proved to be productive in adaptation of the new borrowings. The verbs formed with it have common root corre- lates among foreign verbs and nouns. We observe hesitation in the word-formative adaptation of some verbs. It is indicates by the availability of common root variants with suffixes -ува– and -и-. Derivatives that have replenished the stock of reflexive verbs have been formed from some of the analyzed lexemes either with the help of the postfix -ся, or this postfix and the suffix -и-. Among the prefixes which found in borrowed verb lexemes, the prefix ре- is regularly used and the prefix де- is somewhat less used. In enriching the lexicon of the Ukrainian language with borrowings, there are many cases of simultaneous adaptation to modern Ukrainian of related verb structures: with a prefix and without it. Sometimes it is difficult to establish the direction of derivation. Common root lexemes could have entered modern Ukrainian directly from English or another language with a prefix or have been formed with a prefix from verbs adapted in a suffixal way. The second stage of word-formative adaptation of borrowings shows that derivatives have been formed from many verb bases adapted in modern Ukrainian using proper Ukrainian productive word-forming prefixes зà-, з-(с-), нà-, роз-, по-, про-, пере-, which express the word-formative semantics usual for them. Unmotivated, groundless oversaturation of modern Ukrainian literary language with borrowed lexemes, word-formative formants, etc., uncontrolled using of such units lead to the leveling of national features of the Ukrainian language. This problem prompts a rethinking of ways to replenish the terminological systems of various branches of science with new borrowed language units and this problem prompts to a more critical usage of criteria for adaptation of foreign lexemes. Keywords: borrowings to denote actions and states, word-formative adaptation, proper Ukrainian word-forming verb suffixes, proper Ukrainian word-forming verb prefixes, foreign languages bases.

ИНДИВИДУАЛЬНАЯ СТРАТЕГИЯ ОСВОЕНИЯ РЕБЕНКОМ МОРФОЛОГИИ И ПЕРСОНАЛЬНОГО ДЕЙКСИСА В РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ (ПЕРВЫЙ ЯЗЫК)

Children’s acquisition of morphology in inflectional languages is of relevance in modern first language acquisition studies. It may go various ways, and the quantity of these ways depends on morphological affluence of the language. The Russian language has a developed inflectional system, which causes diversity in children’s individual strategies while acquiring the language. Various combinations of the so-called syntactic and morphologic strategies is the reason for strategic diversity among Russian-speaking children. According to the research, the optimal alternating of the two strategies benefits for quicker and more efficient acquisition of the category of person and the entire grammatical system of the language, absence of deictic and grammar mistakes. It will be the most effective to combine consistent alternation of strategies, starting with the syntactic strategy with its subsequent transition to the morphologic one. A denser interlacing of these strategies may cause chaotic acquisition of the language and incorrect usage of its elements in child speech.

Verb Forms with Aspectual Semantics in Latin and Ancient Greek in the Text of the New Testament (Gospel of Mark)

The results of a comparative study of verb forms with aspectual semantics in Ancient Greek (Koine) (which has an overt category of aspect) and Latin (where aspect is rather a covert category), based on the Gospel of Mark, have shown that the expected correspondence of verb forms appears to be standard in the material as well: it is found in the majority of cases (97,6 % of the Ancient Greek Aorist translated by the Latin Perfect, and 89,4 % of the Ancient Greek Imperfect/Present translated by the Latin Imperfect). Therefore, there must be a considerable semantic overlap between the Ancient Greek Aorist and the Latin Perfect forms and between the Ancient Greek Imperfect/Present forms and the Latin Imperfect forms. For each pair, there must be a common semantic core, corresponding in the first case to the perfective, and in the second case to the imperfective viewpoints. In the minority of cases, we find deviations from this standard correspondence. Some of them can be explained by the trivial fact that the context allows freedom in the choice of the aspectual viewpoint. However, in several cases, the discrepancies are not accidental and can be explained by the existence of specific differences between the grammatical systems of two languages. These include iterative contexts and contexts with speech verbs.