Lexical Verb Research Articles

Lexical verbs hedging in Chinese linguistic academic writing

The goal of this research is to investigate the challenges faced by Chinese master novices regarding hedging in academic writing. A comparative analysis was conducted on the usage of lexical verbs hedging in academic writings between novices and experts. The results indicate that novices demonstrate proficiency similar to experts in expressing viewpoints and quoting findings. However, they frequently exhibit reluctance in utilizing speculative verbs and encounter difficulties in grasping the negative evaluative nuances of quotative verbs, as well as lacking proficiency in the interpersonal function of sensorial verbs. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the nuances involved in hedging strategies in academic writing, shedding light on areas where novices may require further support and guidance. Целью данного исследования является описание затруднений, с которыми сталкиваются китайские студенты-магистранты в процессе хеджирования в научном письменном тексте. Проведен сравнительный анализ употребления глаголов хеджирования в научных трудах студентов-магистрантов и лингвистов-экспертов. Результаты показывают, что студенты-магистранты демонстрируют навыки, аналогичные лингвистам-экспертам, в выражении точек зрения, в цитировании, в выводах. Однако студенты часто проявляют нежелание использовать глаголы с семантикой предположения и сталкиваются с трудностями в понимании негативных оценочных коннотаций, выражаемых глаголами в цитированиях, а также не владеют глаголами сенсорного восприятия в межличностной коммуникации. Исследование способствует более глубокому пониманию оттенков смыслов, связанных со стратегиями хеджирования в научном письменном тексте, и определению аспектов, в которых магистрантам требуется консультативная помощь.

The verb ʔadʒa ‘come’ in Jordanian Arabic: three levels of grammaticalization

This paper investigates the grammaticalization of the verb ʔadʒa ‘come’ in Jordanian Arabic. The study argues that the verb has been grammaticalized into three meanings that constitute three levels on the grammaticalization pathway. These three meanings coexist i.e. are not considered three diachronic stages. The first meaning is to introduce a purpose clause; it is the least grammaticalized since the core lexical meaning of the verb is still apparent. The second meaning that the verb ‘come’ is grammaticalized into is intention; it is more advanced since the core lexical meaning is completely absent. The third meaning the verb come is grammaticalized into is prediction. It can be considered the most advanced since the verb come is used as a preposition meaning ‘around’. Finally, the paper provides several tests to differentiate the lexical verb from the grammaticalized forms including: the types of complements the lexical verb and gramaticalized forms require, the logical completions of the sentences, negation, and elliptical answers for yes/no questions. All of these tests show that the lexical verb and the grammaticalized forms do not require the same complements, are negated differently, and are asked about in yes/ no questions in a different manner.

C-Agree is local subject-verb agreement in Kipsigis

AbstractUpwards-oriented complementizer agreement raises questions about the directionality and locality of agreement. Based on novel data from original fieldwork, we argue that what has been described as an agreeing ‘say’-based complementizer in Kipsigis (Diercks and Rao 2019; Diercks et al. 2020) is the lexical verb ‘say,’ and what looks like C-Agree is in fact agreement between this verb and its locally introduced (often covert) subject. Our analysis highlights that ‘say’-based complementizers might be of category V, not C, in more languages than previously thought (Koopman 1984; Major 2021), which means that some instances of what has been described as C-Agree may instantiate standard verbal agreement. Furthermore, we provide a semantic analysis of ‘say’-based complementation in Kipsigis along the lines of contentful eventualities (Hacquard 2006; Kratzer 2013a).

Lexical Nominalization in Bodo

One of the most frequently noted characteristics of Bodo language is the presence of nominalization. Most Bodo nouns are derivational. In this language, nominalized nouns are used in a wide range. Here, the nouns are derived from lexical verbs and lexical adjectives through the suffixation process. Lots of suffixes are employed as nominalizer. The nominalizing suffixes or noun denoting suffixes are the derivational in nature. This paper describes the structure and process of forming lexical nouns in Bodo.

Continuative constructions in the Lezgic languages and their use in parallel contexts (in the Gospel of Luke translations)

The paper presents an overview of grammaticalized constructions expressing the continuative meaning ‘still do, continue doing’, attested in a number of languages of the Lezgic branch ( Nakh-Daghestanian), although enjoying very little attention from researchers. A peculiarity of four Lezgic languages is the existence of a stative verb describing continuation of existence or staying in a certain place (‘still be, remain’). It is this verb that is found as an auxiliary in continuative constructions of East Lezgic languages and Rutul; in Archi, periphrastic continuative forms are based on dedicated continuative converbs, while the auxiliary is a simple copula. In addition, I discuss the use of continuative constructions, as well as other means of expressing the continuative meaning, in parallel contexts from the Gospel of Luke translations (seven translations into six Lezgic languages were taken into account). According to cross-linguistic studies of the continuative by Panova (2021, 2023), the continuative meaning is unambiguously present in 17 contexts in the Gospel of Luke. The present paper demonstrates in which of these contexts the means of expressing the continuative meaning were most frequently used and which particular means were employed, as well as which languages explicitly express the continuative meaning more often than others. On the whole, in more than a half of all cases the continuative meaning is not expressed by an explicit grammatical or lexical means other than imperfective verb forms. At the same time, the three East Lezgic languages, as well as Rutul, make use of stative verbs meaning ‘still be, remain’, both as a lexical verb and as an auxiliary, and also of adverbs. Tsakhur and Udi, which lack dedicated continuative constructions, only use adverbs in the respective contexts, the use of adverbs in these two languages being more frequent than in languages possessing continuative constructions.

How do constructions with modal verbs develop in second language learners of English?

Abstract The study reported on in this paper uses data from a large, pseudolongitudinal corpus of second language (L2) learner writing to investigate how L2 knowledge of verb-argument constructions (VACs) develops from low-beginner to upper-intermediate proficiency levels. The focus is on learners from two L1 backgrounds (L1 German and L1 Spanish) and on a subset of VACs that contain modal auxiliaries in combination with lexical verbs (e.g., subject-modal-verb, as in I can cook). For each VAC, L1, and proficiency level, frequency lists of verbs were created and compared across datasets. Reference data on the same constructions was extracted from a corpus of L1 writing. Results suggest that modal VACs become more frequent, less predictable, more productive, and more aligned with L1 production as learner proficiency increases. The findings of this study help to expand our understanding of the processes that underlie L2 construction acquisition.

Functional transition from hear to nonvisual sensory and hearsay evidential categories

Abstract This article presents a development of evidential categories derived from a verb related to the auditory sense in the evidential system attested in rGyalthang Tibetan varieties. The language varieties under study possess a morphological distinction of at least five evidentials in the access-to-information category and two evidentials in the source-of-information category. The discussion focuses on one morpheme derived from the Literary Tibetan verb grag ‘resound, hear’ used for both categories, and examines its process of grammaticalisation and degrammaticalisation. Elicited data illustrate the following functions: (1) grag as a nonvisual sensory evidential suffix that was further degrammaticalised as a copulative nonvisual sensory verb stem; (2) grag as a hearsay marker in a separate syntactic slot, which extended from (1); and (3) grag as a lexical verb stem meaning ‘hear’ [the common origin to (1) and (2)], which underwent two grammaticalisation processes.

Does D Select the CP in Light Verb Constructions? A Reply to Hankamer and Mikkelsen 2021

In this response to Hankamer and Mikkelsen (H&M) 2021, we clarify the meaning of the definite article the in out-of-the-blue occurrences of English light verb constructions such as make the claim. While H&M view these as purely uniqueness-requiring determiners (as opposed to purely anaphoric ones in non−light verb constructions), we classify them as instances of Carlsonian weak definites (e.g., Carlson et al. 2006), which presuppose neither uniqueness nor anaphoricity. This clarification casts doubt on H&M’s idea that the D in light verb constructions selects the descriptive CP, which serves to uniquely specify the intended referent. Crosslinguistic data (from the Dravidian language Kannada) also serve to question the relationship between D and CP claimed by H&M. We conclude that D does not directly select the CP in light verb constructions. Nevertheless, these CPs do empirically behave like syntactically selected complements. We suggest that this is because, if the light verb construction is taken as a whole—that is, the light verb + the weak definite nominal—its complement selection properties altogether parallel those of the corresponding lexical verbs. We propose a compositional analysis that reinforces this conclusion.

A semantic approach for the analysis of verbs in life sciences texts

ABSTRACT This paper presents a corpusbased study of a group of lexical verbs in eighteenth and nineteenth century scientific texts. The study has a twofold aim. Firstly, it aims to select four types of verb classes (verbs of communication, desire, aspectuals and perception) identified by Levin and Noonan and explore their use in the Corpus of English Life Sciences Texts, a subcorpus of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. Secondly, it aims to determine if the frequency of these verbs varies based on the gender of the authors. Further, the study seeks to ascertain if a shifting pattern could be attested in the use of these verbs throughout the two centuries examined in the corpus, at a time when the scientific register was already becoming established. The findings of the study obtained from the greater or lesser occurrence of the verbs in question over the two centuries indicate which ones were more frequent in Life Sciences texts, whether they were more commonly used either by men or women and whether there was a pattern of continued usage of these verbs in Late Modern English scientific language rather than a shift towards nominalisation in this type of discourse.

Epistemic Modality in the Inaugural Speeches of Philippine Presidents

This qualitative corpus-based study employing epistemic analysis uncovered the epistemic modality (EM) markers used and their communicative functions in the seven inaugural speeches of the seven Philippine 5th Republic presidents. The findings revealed the preponderant use of epistemic modal verbs with 152 occurrences (81.72%), followed by epistemic lexical verbs with 20 occurrences (10.75%), epistemic modal adverbs with 9 occurrences (4.84%), and epistemic modal adjectives with 5 occurrences (2.69%). Moreover, the top-five modal verbs operated in the presidential inaugurals are will with 97 instances (66.9%), can with 28 instances (19.31%), shall with 9 instances (6.21%), would with 6 instances (4.14%), and could with 5 instances (3.44%). Meanwhile, should and might were never used by any president. In this regard, the presidents are confident, committed, bold, and certain with their statements; some are tentative and quite confident but still communicatively sensitive and polite; and few are uncertain but still diplomatic. Further, the communicative functions of the EM markers were categorized to high-intermediate-low modality values, certain-probable-possible semantic meanings, and close-near-distant epistemic distances.

Epistemic Modality in the Inaugural Speeches of Philippine Presidents

This qualitative corpus-based study employing epistemic analysis uncovered the epistemic modality (EM) markers used and their communicative functions in the seven inaugural speeches of the seven Philippine 5th Republic presidents. The findings revealed the preponderant use of epistemic modal verbs with 152 occurrences (81.72%), followed by epistemic lexical verbs with 20 occurrences (10.75%), epistemic modal adverbs with 9 occurrences (4.84%), and epistemic modal adjectives with 5 occurrences (2.69%). Moreover, the top-five modal verbs operated in the presidential inaugurals are will with 97 instances (66.9%), can with 28 instances (19.31%), shall with 9 instances (6.21%), would with 6 instances (4.14%), and could with 5 instances (3.44%). Meanwhile, should and might were never used by any president. In this regard, the presidents are confident, committed, bold, and certain with their statements; some are tentative and quite confident but still communicatively sensitive and polite; and few are uncertain but still diplomatic. Further, the communicative functions of the EM markers were categorized to high-intermediate-low modality values, certain-probable-possible semantic meanings, and close-near-distant epistemic distances.

The Aspectual Properties of Italian Venire Passives

Italian essere (be) and venire (come) periphrastic passives differ in their aspectual properties, both lexical and grammatical. Squartini’s (1999) analysis of venire passives accounts for their incompatibility with perfect aspect. In the present study, I develop an account of passive venire in which it is analyzed as a light verb, rather than a lexical verb. This difference, together with certain assumptions about the syntax of lexical aspect are leveraged to account for passive venire’s incompatibility with perfect aspect, propredicative lo, and with stative verbs. In this way, the empirical ground covered by the previous analysis is substantially expanded.

Morphosyntactic underspecification affects the processing of verbal forms at different levels of abstraction in L1 and L2 German

Abstract Using a priming paradigm, we investigated the processing of overtly identical verb forms with different sets of morphosyntactic features in L1 and L2 German. We found that more specific functions of a verb (inflected verbs) were better primes for less specific verb functions (past participles) than vice versa. For L1 speakers, these priming asymmetries were observed regardless of whether the lexical verb was repeated in prime and target or not (i.e., priming also for abstract configurations). For L2 learners, a similar but not native-like asymmetric priming pattern was seen only with repetition of the lexical verb. It was absent when the verb was not repeated. We conclude that in L2, morphosyntactic information is processed more on a lexical, item-based level compared to L1. We discuss our results in the context of several accounts, e.g., Shallow Structure Hypothesis, Declarative Procedural Model and the Ontogenesis Model of the L2 Lexical Representation.

“Let’s Move on to the Recommendations.” The Use of Phrasal Verbs in Business Presentations of University Students in Hong Kong

Phrasal verbs (PVs), as a notoriously difficult L2 feature, have attracted the attention of applied linguists for a few decades. Empowered by corpus linguistics, the current study explored the quantity and quality of PVs in business presentations of university students in Hong Kong, to investigate nuances of the PV production of students in contexts. The learner corpus consists of twenty business case study presentations by 36 mixed-L1 students. Quantitative results showed that students used a sizeable number of PVs accurately. The most common lexical verbs showed a different pattern compared with native speakers of English, while the most common adverbial particles were mostly identical to those used by native speakers. International students seemed to use more PVs than Chinese L1 students and the avoidance phenomenon was observed on a few PVs. The unnatural PV use mostly stemmed from misuse of the adverbial particles due to negative L1 transfer and two instances of creative PV use were observed on English L1 speakers. We advise language teachers to incorporate more comprehensive instruction of PVs in business English courses (including common collocations, syntactic particularities, and polysemy) as well as more authentic L2 exposure.

Nominalizations and its grammaticalization in standard Thai

Abstract The focus of this study is on the function and grammaticalization of nominalizations in Thai and the nominalization categories and nominalizing strategies in Thai are described. The Thai language exhibits a composite of derivational and clausal nominalizations marked with three nominalizers: kaan 1 derives nouns or nominalized clauses from lexical verbs and relative or complement clauses; khwaam 1 derives nouns from lexical verbs and adjectives; and kaan 1 thii 3 is used for clauses. The current study posits diachronic developments for nominalizers and addresses related issues. It is concluded that nominalizers kaan 1 and khwaam 1 were originally lexical nouns meaning ‘work’ and ‘matter’. The essential features of the use of nominalizations have remained constant, but certain developments have occurred, which include lexical nominalization to clausal nominalization and the emergence of a new nominalizer, kaan 1 thii 3 . It is found that nominalizers kaan 1 , khwaam 1 and kaan 1 thii 3 are basically in complementary distribution, and language internal evolution and external contact are the primary motivations for nominalization in Thai.

Auxiliary selection in Italian restructuring: An insight into the size of the clause

AbstractIn Standard Italian, restructuring clauses are characterized by apparently optional transparency effects in the choice of the clausal perfect auxiliary. In the perfect periphrasis, the auxiliary associated with the modal verb can be either HAVE or the one corresponding to the lexical verb (BE or HAVE). In this paper, I argue that there is no true optionality: different auxiliaries show up because the modal verb can select complements of different sizes. Assuming that auxiliary selection is a form of person Agree, different complement sizes determine different Agree domains. In particular, the “transparent” auxiliary results from a vP complement, while a TP complement leads to HAVE insertion.

A semantic analysis of bilingual compound verbs in two contact Spanish communities

Although previous work has contributed to our knowledge of bilingual compound verbs (BCVs) in different code-switching varieties, there is scant research on the semantic nature of these innovative constructions. To fill this gap, the present study examines semantic aspects of BCVs in Northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, two sociohistorically connected communities where Spanish hacer ‘do’ BCVs have been attested. Drawing on two datasets, we analyzed the semantic domains that are most open to other-language lexical verbs as well as the potential use of these structures as identity markers. The analysis of 1,140 BCVs (903 in Northern Belize and 237 in Yucatan) revealed that whereas ‘education’ particularly favored English lexical verbs in Northern Belize, ‘nourishment’ was the semantic sub-category most open to Yucatec Maya lexical verbs in the Yucatan Peninsula. Notably, only hacer BCVs from Yucatan evince the incorporation of cultural elements and linguistic practices such as albur ‘word play’ to index a Yucatec Maya ethnolinguistic identity. Our findings highlight the importance that the nature of bilingualism and community linguistic norms have on the semantic use of BCVs.

Directional constructions in Matukar Panau

Abstract The Oceanic language Matukar Panau has three equivalent morphosyntactic strategies for describing the direction of the event represented by a verb, with a system of ten directional morphemes that can appear in each construction. This variation is explored using a corpus from Matukar Panau and analysed quantitatively with Bayesian regression analyses to assess what factors influence the choice of directional construction. Variables pertaining to the lexical verb and the directional morphemes are found to be the most important factors affecting the variation in the directional system. Sociolinguistic factors are shown to play a less significant role. The findings have implications for the grammaticalization of directional elements, as well as the typology of directional constructions in Oceanic languages.

Semantic Shift in the Meaning of the Arabic word tamma

Grammaticalisation of lexical items takes place gradually, and to track the changes a word undergoes, a historical corpus is needed. This paper investigates the changes the Arabic word “tamma” underwent. The corpus provided by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST Arabic Corpus) is used in this study because the search engine for this corpus offers the ability for searches to be time-restricted. Thus, the development of the verb “tamma” was tracked. It was found that this verb is used in the corpus in two ways: as a polysemous lexical verb with three meanings: “to be completed,” “to occur,” and “to remain.” The second use of the verb is as an auxiliary that indicates the completion of the action of the verbal noun it precedes. An important finding is that this use, contrary to common belief, occurred in Arabic during the period between 1101 AD and 1200 AD and is not a modern introduction into Arabic. In order to explain this change, the paper investigates how this verb is translated to English and what grammatical function it has in recent use. This paper also suggests that the verb “tamma” could be defective.

Appunti per una teoria unificata dell'ausiliarizzazione

This article aims at discussing the premises for a unified account of auxiliarisation, here understood as aspecific subcase of grammaticalisation. The passage of Latin HABEO from a lexical verb to a tense-formingauxiliary is certainly one of the most well-studied innovations of Romance languages. Equally familiar are thecases of auxiliarisation of Latin TENEO, Germanic *habhen and *getan, as well as Scandinavian derivativesof Old Norse fà. Such processes follow a similar path, in the sense that they originally select a secondarypredication in the passive voice, which over time is reanalysed as active. At the same time, the governing verbis void of lexical content and turns into an auxiliary, while the implicit agent of the secondary predicate isreinterpreted as the surface subject of the construction. If a unified theory is to be attempted, such an approachshould capture why such a path of change is consistently observed and, moreover, why it seems to be a definingproperty of such auxiliarisation that the verbs involved originally describe possession, reception, or control.Furthermore, ideally the unified theory should account for why the semantic output of these processes variesover time: the earliest cases of auxiliarisation are precisely those involving HABEO/habhen, which give riseto the compound tenses in modern languages. Subsequent cases, however, such as the auxiliarisation ofTENEO/getan etc. do not lead to the formation of compound tenses, but rather to what could be defined ascompound aspects or, sometimes, compound causative constructions. This circumstance, too, requires aprincipled account.