Lexical Roots Research Articles

Semantic Connections in PIE Vocabulary

The present study is devoted to semantic and phonetic features of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary. Based on a statistical analysis of dictionary entries the similarity and coincidence of lexical roots is explored

On the Semantic Prosody of Career Women in Chinese Web Reportage

This paper examines the genetic relationship between verb to be forms in Arabic and English mainly as well as German, French, and Latin secondarily. It applies the principles and tools of the lexical root theory according to which be -forms are shown to be true cognates in having the same or similar forms and meanings with slight phonetic, morphological and semantic changes. Unlike traditional comparative historical linguistics views in which Arabic and English, for example, are classified as members of different language families, it shows how such verb forms are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. For example, all s- based forms such as is/was in English, sein, ist in German, es, soi in French, sum in Latin are true cognates of Arabic kawan/kaan 'be/was' via common sound changes.

The Arabic Origins of Verb 'To Be' in English, German, and French: A Lexical Root Theory Approach

This paper examines the genetic relationship between verb to be forms in Arabic and English mainly as well as German, French, and Latin secondarily. It applies the principles and tools of the lexical root theory according to which be -forms are shown to be true cognates in having the same or similar forms and meanings with slight phonetic, morphological and semantic changes. Unlike traditional comparative historical linguistics views in which Arabic and English, for example, are classified as members of different language families, it shows how such verb forms are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. For example, all s- based forms such as is/was in English, sein, ist in German, es, soi in French, sum in Latin are true cognates of Arabic kawan/kaan 'be/was' via common sound changes.

The Arabic Origins of English Pronouns: A Lexical Root Theory Approach

This paper examines the genetic relationship between all personal pronouns, which are part of the core vocabulary of language, in Arabic and English mainly as well as German, French, and Latin secondarily. Converse to traditional views in comparative historical linguistics in which Arabic and English, for example, are classified as members of different language families, it shows how such pronouns are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. The paper applies the principles and tools of the lexical root theory according to which the pronouns are shown to have the same or similar forms and meanings with slight phonetic, morphological and semantic or lexical changes.

The Arabic Origins of Common Religious Terms in English: A Lexical Root Theory Approach

The aim of this paper is to extend the application of the lexical root theory to the investigation of select religious terms in English and Arabic to prove their genetic relationship. It criticizes and rejects the claims of the Comparative Historical Method that Indo-European languages have no genetic relationship to Arabic whatsoever. It provides further definitive counter evidence that such languages are not only related to Arabic but are also descended from it directly. The evidence concerns Arabic and English words in the area of faith and religion, which have been deliberately excluded from Swadesh’s 100- and 200-word lists used in language family classifications. The paper argues that religious terms are as central as core vocabulary because man’s life is meaningless without faith that opens up windows of future hope and achieves internal and external peace and security. More precisely, it shows how certain extremely common Arabic religious words and expressions exist in today’s English, noting minor phonetic and semantic changes.

Knowledge Vertices in XUNL

This paper addresses some lexical issues in the development of XUNL - a knowledge representation language descendent from and alternative to the Universal Networking Language (UNL). We present the current structure and the role of Universal Words (UW) in UNL and claim that the syntax and the semantics of UWs demand a thorough revision in order to accomplish the requirements of language, culture and human independency. We draw some guidelines for XUNL and argue that its vertices should be represented by Arabic numerals; should be equivalent to sets of synonyms; should consist of generative lexical roots; should correspond to the elementary particles of meaning; and should not bear any non-relational meaning.

Lexical Categories and Root Classes in Amerindian Languages

Resenha do livro "Lexical categories and root classes in Amerindian languaes". O texto aborda: (i) Os níveis e processos de determinação categorial, (ii) a universalidade das categorias e sus respectivas funções, sobretudo, os processos de predicação, (iii) a aquisição das categorias lexicais e a natureza do léxico mental.

Contrastive linguistics and micro-variation

This article deals with a very general problem, namely the origin of the well-known distinction between dialectal and typological variation. It is argued that the fact that the possible grammatical choices are more restricted within a dialectal domain is not due to a supposed principled difference in the parameters that rule variation. Rather, they are a function of the originally unitary lexicon dialects share. If language variation is essentially located in the functional items, and they are derived from the same lexicon, then they will share some core properties that make dialectal variation so restricted. I propose that the fact that the lexicon is similar can give us clues about the internal structure of syntactically complex elements which are represented by a single word, like quantifiers, wh-items, modal verbs, etc. Within a homogenous domain, structural complexity correlates with a higher number of lexical roots: the higher the number of the lexical roots found, the more complex internal structure the functional item will display.

Object agreement and ‘pro-drop’ in Kerinci Malay

Kerinci is a group of grammatically diverse Malayic varieties spoken in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. This article focuses on a previously undescribed dialect of Kerinci, spoken in the village of Tanjung Pauh Mudik (TPM). Many Kerinci dialects have developed a morphological alternation in root-final syllables as a result of stress-related diachronic changes. In TPM, as in Sungai Penuh Kerinci (described by Steinhauer and Usman (1978), inter alia), lexical roots surface in two forms, termed ‘absolute’ and ‘oblique’, which differ in the phonological shape of their final syllable. These forms exhibit a wide array of grammatical properties that differ considerably between dialects. We focus on the function of this unique marking in the verbal domain, and argue that the oblique form marks agreement with a nominal complement. Our analysis explains why TPM, a language that retains the morphological properties of the traditional Malay voice system, unexpectedly appears to permit the extraction of nonsubject arguments from active clauses, contradicting the predictions of theories that causally link symmetrical voice morphology and a ban on nonsubject extraction from vP (e.g. Keenan 1972, 1979, Rackowski & Richards 2005, Cole et al. 2008).We argue that apparent cases of nonsubject extraction do not involve movement, but that the apparently moved argument is generated outside of vP and binds a phonologically null pronoun licensed by the oblique morphology; thus, we are able to relate TPM’s unexpected syntactic behavior to the availability of the absolute/oblique marking. This analysis has broader consequences for the theory of pro-drop. Neeleman and Szendrői’s (2007) theory of radical pro-drop is unable to differentiate between syntactically projected pronouns (like null objects in TPM) and nonobject pro-dropped arguments in TPM that lack the behavior of a syntactically projected argument. In light of this inadequacy, we put forward an alternative proposal regarding the universal typology of pro-drop.

Aegyptio-Afroasiatica XXIII

New Afro-Asiatic parallels are suggested for Egyptian lexical roots continued from the previous communications.

Prosodic fusion and minimality in Kabardian

AbstractThe Northwest Caucasian language Kabardian displays a typologically unusual process of word formation, whereby two lexical roots fuse to form a single prosodic word whose phonological behaviour is parallel to prosodic words containing a single root. It is shown that this process of fusion, which is subject to a number of phonological and morphosyntactic restrictions, reflects a typologically unusual response to a cross-linguistically common minimal word requirement banning monomoraic prosodic words. Rather than employing segmental lengthening or insertion to ensure that minimality is satisfied, Kabardian chooses to violate the one-to-one mapping between grammatical and prosodic words. A further complication is the scalar nature of minimality in Kabardian: while the impossibility of fusion in certain prosodic and morphosyntactic contexts allows monomoraic prosodic words to surface, a more stringent minimality restriction ensures that all prosodic words have at least one mora.

Arguments for pseudo-resultative predicates

This paper addresses the compositionality puzzle presented by a class of ‘pseudo-resultative’ predicates, such as tight in the sentence She braided her hair tight. The analysis proposed reveals that the modification involved also provides insight into the nature of the lexical roots of verbs and their role in compositional semantics. Pseudo-resultative predicates superficially resemble resultative secondary predicates and resultative adverbs. However, it is shown that they do not modify any ‘word’ in the syntax. Rather, these predicates modify the root of the verb in a configuration which is licensed by the semantic type of the root and the structure of root creation verbs. The modification of such roots provides evidence that they are syntactically active, as proposed in the framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993; Marantz 1997; Arad 2003). It is shown that the roots are syntactically well-behaved and can be modified just like other ‘larger’ constituents. Syntactic parallels between the root creation verbs which license pseudo-resultative predicates and other structures further provide evidence for a syntactic decomposition of these verbs whereby the object is related to the root in a prepositional structure in a manner reminiscent of proposals for other classes of verbs in Hale and Keyser (1993, 2002).

The Interpretation of Functional Heads: Using Comparatives to Explore the Mass/Count Distinction

Comparative judgments for mass and count nouns yield two generalizations. First, all words that can be used in both mass and count syntax (e.g., rock, string, apple, water) always denote individuals when used in count syntax but never when used in mass syntax (e.g. too many rocks vs. too much rock). Second, some mass nouns denote individuals (e.g., furniture) while others do not (e.g., water). In this article, we show that no current theory of mass-count semantics can capture these two facts and argue for an alternative theory that can. We propose that lexical roots are not specified as mass or count. Rather, a root becomes a mass noun or count noun by combining with a functional head. Some roots have denotations with individuals while others do not. The count head is interpreted as a function that maps denotations without individuals to those with individuals. The mass head is interpreted as an identity function making the interpretation of a mass noun equivalent to the interpretation of the root. As a result, all count nouns have individuals in their denotation, whereas mass counterparts of count nouns do not. Also, some roots that have individuals in their denotations can be used as mass nouns to denote individuals.

The encoding of adjectives

In this paper, we will give a unified account of the cross-linguistic variation in the encoding of adjectives in predicative and in attributive constructions. Languages may differ in the encoding strategy of adjectives in the predicative domain (Stassen 1997), and sometimes change this strategy in the attributive domain (Verkerk 2007). We will show that the interaction of two principles, that of faithfulness to the semantic class of a lexical root and that of faithfulness to discourse functions, can account for all attested variation in the encoding of adjectives.

Should the Public Use of mat Be Punishable? Public Opinion and Linguistic Common Sense

The expansion of Russian mat in public use during the nineties has provoked a lot of hostile reactions in Russian society. Not surprisingly, this has led to an increasing legal pressure on it, to mention but the fines charged for public swearing in Belgorod. This legal practice raises, however, a host of questions. Above all, the term “public space” calls for a stricter definition than the ones that are offered by Russian penal and administrative law. Second, as is well known, the term mat itself is far from being unequivocal. On the contrary, the following aspects remain open which may well have an impact on the legal evaluation of its public use: to what extent does mat involve real swearing, and in what cases does it simply represent obscene speech? Which lexical roots constitute the hard core, i.e. the prototypical mat and which ones may be said to mark the periphery of the domain? What kinds of speech acts are realized by mat utterances? In what kinds of social settings is mat the appropriate variety to select? To what extent should the different mechanisms of euphemization, the playful and creative aspects of mat and effects of semantic bleaching taken into account? As the Kirkorov case in 2004 has shown, the weight of such mitigating factors may well prevent a legal sanction at all.

Marginal notes on Chadic lexical roots with *n- (Addenda et corrigenda to O.V. Stolbova’s Chadic Lexical Database, Issue I: L, N, NY, R)

Hungarian Academy of ScienceEötvös Loránd UniversityThis paper examines the Afro-Asiatic etymologies of Chadic lexical roots discussed by Olga V. Stolbova in her Chadic Lexical Database, Issue I (2005). The analysis is arranged according to the following sections: (1) Common Chadic reconstructions, (2) Isolated Chadic roots that nevertheless have Afro-Asiatic cognates. The paper represents the third part of my longer series of papers on addenda et corrigenda to Chadic lexical roots.

Lexikalische Typologie – Dänisch und Französisch als endo- bzw. exozentrische Sprachen

The article discusses one of the lesser studied aspects of linguistic typology, the lexicon. Taking as its point of departure the theory of lexicalisation of Leonard Talmy (1985), i.e. the different combinations of (presumably) universal semantic components different (types) of languages choose to code in their simple lexical roots, the article applies this approach to French and Danish – typology is not just a question of comparing so-called exotic languages. It appears that just as verb roots in Germanic, such as Danish, and Romance languages, such as French, differ fundamentally in their lexicalisation patterns, so do their nouns. And more importantly, the two word classes exhibit complementary lexicalisation patterns: in Germanic languages the verbs are rather concrete – what is lexicalised is the external, visible aspect of the situation described by the verb, the manner – whereas the Romance verbs are abstract, describing i.e. the idea of a movement and its direction; in nouns, however, the situation is the exact opposite: the Germanic nouns are rather abstract, covering a wide range of phenomena having a certain function in common, but the Romance nouns are concrete, describing the external, visible aspect of things, their form rather than their function. This finding permits the hypothesis of two fundamental linguistic types: the endocentric languages (Germanic), where the concrete information is found in the centre of the clause, the verb, and the exocentric languages (Romance), where this information is found outside the centre, in the nouns.

The origins of grammar in the verbalization of experience

Why is there grammar? The verbalization of experience can provide an explanatory model of the function of grammatical categories and constructions. Chafe's model of verbalization provides a model of how the unanalyzed, unique whole of experience is broken up into parts that are categorized into types, that is, the lexical roots of an utterance. We add further processes to Chafe's model, because the speaker also must convert the types represented by the lexical roots back to the particulars of the experience, and put the parts back together into the original whole. These additional processes express the aspects of experience that become grammaticalized. A functional classification of grammatical categories and structures in terms of their role in verbalization is outlined.

A single route, full decomposition model of morphological complexity

Against longstanding assumptions in the psycholinguistics literature, we argue for a model of morphological complexity that has all complex words assembled by the grammar from lexical roots and functional morphemes. This assembly occurs even for irregular forms like gave. Morphological relatedness is argued to be an identity relation between repetitions of a single root, distinguishable from semantic and phonological relatedness. Evidence for the model is provided in two MEG priming experiments that measure root activation prior to lexical decision. Both regular and irregular allomorphs of a root are shown to prime the root equally. These results are incompatible both with connectionist models that treat all morphological relatedness as similarity and with dual mechanism models in which only regular forms involve composition.

Aegyptio-Afroasiatica XI

The long-range series “Aegyptio-Afroasiatica”is devoted to the publication of new Afro-Asiatic etymologies of Egyptian lexical roots which have been identified in the course of my research on the “Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian”(EDE, Leiden, Brill, published since 1999). The underlying consonant correspondences the proposed etymologies are based on have been elaborated and demonstrated in EDE I. The numeration of the etymological entries in the present contribution continues that of the previous parts.