Nominal Expressions Research Articles

How grammatical constructions contribute to responsibility attribution in GBV coverage: a corpus-assisted study

Abstract The portrayal of key participants in gender-based violence (GBV) by the media has been analyzed as ideologically driven by critical discourse analysis (CDA) scholars. Nevertheless, previous studies of media coverage of GBV cases with a CDA approach were confined to qualitative analysis while quantitative evidence was lacking and were perpetrator-oriented without the victim’s perspectives. Addressing these gaps, this study conducted a case analysis of four British newspapers, each representing different political inclinations. Results revealed that the political inclinations did not influence media’s preference for certain constructions. However, the perpetrator was ascribed with a much greater degree of agency in high frequency active constructions. Even in passive and nominal constructions, he was specified more frequently than deleted, contradicting most previous research indicating that the perpetrators were often deleted to conjure away responsibility. We also verified the significance of the context particularly in interpreting the agentless passive and nominal constructions. Further research from diachronic and reader-oriented perspectives should bring more converging evidence.

The Function and Structure of Nominative Participial Constructions in Modern English

The following paper examines the syntactic construction and functional variety of nominative participial constructions in Contemporary English, focusing on the syntactic economy provided by nominative participial constructions and the contribution to discourse clarity. Based on examples from the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English, this chapter discusses how these sorts of structure embed delicate actions or states into sentences without elaborate clause structures. This chapter will explore how nominative participial constructions serve these discourse functions through the use of examples from academic, journalistic, and literary registers-foregrounding information, summarizing preceding actions, and emphatic purposes. The study also provides comparative insights into nominative participial constructions in relation to other forms of non-finite clauses, such as gerunds, which uniquely allow for condensation with a clearly identifiable subject even in highly reduced syntactic environments. In all, these findings contribute to a view that nominative participial constructions in English represent an instance of embodiment of the functional-syntactic interface: conciseness vs. richness of description, contributing to a more flexible and expressive syntax.

What a nominal predicate may mean: eel, merfolk, and other creatures

Abstract A nominal predicate construction (NPC; e.g. “Cicero is {Tully/an orator}”) typically indicates the relation of identity or inclusion. NPCs, however, may receive marked interpretations as well, as in “I’m the ham sandwich” and “Their car is a peculiar color”; the former does not entail that the speaker is identical to the sandwich, and the latter does not entail that the car belongs to a set of colors. This article identifies, classifies, and analyzes such marked NPCs in English and Japanese, thereby enriching the taxonomy of NPCs acknowledged in the existing literature. It will be argued that both Japanese and English NPCs may indicate either (i) one of a handful of relatively specific semantic relations including the one of identity/inclusion, or (ii) an unspecified relation that is to be contextually inferred. The English NPC is semantically less flexible than the Japanese one, being compatible with a narrower range of specific semantic relations and allowing the unspecified-relation interpretation less leniently. The English NPC, on the other hand, is more liberally used in comparison to its counterparts in some related languages (e.g. German). The analysis put forth makes a good vantage point for general-linguistic and typological inquiries as to how languages in general may contrast with each other in terms of what types of situations can be described with a NPC.

Light predicate raising in the Mandarin post-VP adverbial nominal constructions

Light predicate raising in the Mandarin post-VP adverbial nominal constructions

<i>Pridёt Dvoje iz Larca:</i> an Experimental Study of Variable Agreement with Quantified Subjects

This paper presents an experimental study of predicative agreement in person and number with two types of quantified subjects containing a personal pronoun. Using two syntactic experiments with a rating task (the Likert scale), we compared the properties of the elective (dvoje iz nas ‘two of us’) and nominative (my dvoje ‘us two’) constructions regarding the preferred form of the verb in two configurations: with the preverbal and the postverbal position of the subject. Ordinal numbers (from dvoje ‘two of’ to semero ‘seven of’) and the quantifier word vse ‘all’ were compared as well. The results show that word order has a significant impact on the acceptability of different agreement strategies. For the elective construction, with the SV order, agreement by person and number of the quantifier is available, and the default agreement is rated as significantly less acceptable, while with the VS order, there are no significant differences between the ratings of the two agreement options. For a nominative construction with SV, only agreement by person and number of the pronoun is possible, while with VS, all strategies are rated as acceptable.

Exclamativas encubiertas en español

Abstract Since Bosque (1982; 1984a) extrapolated to Spanish grammar the concept of concealed exclamation introduced by Elliot (1971; 1974) and Grimshaw (1979), the analysis of determiner phrases (DPs) such as los libros que le gustan in Ya te imaginas los libros que le gustan and la altura del edificio in Me sorprendió la altura del edificio has not been homogeneous. While some authors agree in analyzing both DPs as concealed exclamations (DPs semantically equivalent to indirect exclamative clauses and arguments of an explicit predicate), others confine this analysis to the latter DP. They analyze the former either as a clause with exclamative import subordinate to an explicit predicate (a quantified clause or a complement clause) or as a DP with exclamative import providing the argument for an explicit predicate which they do not consider a concealed exclamation, but a nominal exclamative structure or a nominal emphatic relative construction. Our goals are: 1) to review the analyses proposed so far for this type of structures, and 2) to put forward an analysis of these DPs characterizing them not as arguments of an explicit predicate, but as genuine DPs that are remnants of grammatical ellipsis. Specifically, they are argued to be subjects of elliptical clauses that are simultaneously indirect exclamatives and predicational copular clauses.

A three-way distinction in definiteness: sortal, individual, and functional concepts in Réyoné

Abstract This article offers a case study of a definiteness split in a language in which three different types of nominal expressions are available for definite descriptions. The article contributes ample empirical data and comprises a close investigation of the patterns found in Reunion Creole (Réyoné), the language under study. Réyoné displays one kind of contrast also found in other languages which is frequently analyzed in terms of semantic versus pragmatic definiteness (following Löbner) or uniqueness versus familiarity (following Schwarz). What sets Réyoné apart from other languages though, is that it features a determiner that is dedicated to functional concepts. The language thereby distinguishes individual from functional concepts: the former type (the sun; the News) is exclusively expressed by bare noun phrases, while functional concepts – definite descriptions with functional head nouns (prefect of y; head of y), including a subtype of bridging reference, as well as compositionally created functional relations such as superlatives – are realized by lo-marked noun phrases. These facts offer strong support for Löbner’s theory. The article also discusses demonstrative descriptions, which have already been reported to play a role in certain definiteness splits, and which are obligatory with sortal concepts in Réyoné. It is argued that demonstratives are pragmatic definites.

Linguistic coding of the INFIDELITY event. Analysis of verbal and nominal constructions in Mexican Spanish.

El objetivo central de este trabajo es analizar las técnicas lingüísticas que el español de México utiliza para configurar el evento de INFIDELIDAD, es decir, cómo el español mexicano codifica lingüísticamente el evento de INFIDELIDAD. El presente artículo constituye parte de una investigación más amplia, aquí nos centramos sólo en dos técnicas que utiliza el español mexicano para codificar dicho evento, a saber, las construcciones verbales y nominales. El análisis se hace recurriendo a la lingüística operacional, según la cual, la función primordial de las lenguas es la comunicación de significados, donde cada una de ellas los expresa de manera distinta haciendo uso de las estructuras y técnicas que le son propias, así como de la creatividad de sus hablantes al utilizarlas. Para este estudio nos valemos de un corpus heterogéneo tomado de artículos de revistas, textos literarios y del habla coloquial cotidiana, entre otros. Con este artículo pretendemos contribuir a los estudios en semántica, en variación lingüística y en otros temas concerientes a la lingüística en general.

Szyk modyfikatorów wskazujących we współczesnym języku polskim i ukraińskim

Although demonstrative adjectives fall within the adjectival paradigm and, within the framework of this paradigm, implement most grammatical oppositions, in terms of linearization they differ significantly from qualitative and relative adjectives: the postposition of the demonstrative modifier has a completely different character than in the case of adjectives. The authors intend to achieve several goals. The first goal is to compare nominative constructions with the pronominal (demonstrative) modifier in Slavic languages belonging to different groups, i.e. Polish and Ukrainian. The second objective is to examine the factors determining the post-positional use of demonstrative attributes, both direct evident (functionally marked) and statistical. In this respect, the authors mention the following factors: 1) the linear position of the nominal group in relation to the predicate; 2) the position of the nominal group in the communicative (thematic-rhematic) structure; 3) the stress structure of the utterance; 4) case of the noun; 5) degree of development of the nominal group; 6) the status of the noun as a primary or derived (from an adjective) name. The empirical material of the study was collected on the basis of language corpora and source texts of various styles.

Clitic and Affix Combinations: Korean Nominal Template Redux

I claim à la Choi (2023) that semantic case morphemes in Korean are clitics, which are syntactically indepen- dent words of postpositions quite unlike structural case morphemes which are affixes. It follows that nominal expressions with a semantic case morpheme are PPs whereas those with a structural case morpheme are NPs. The present proposal thus crucially diverges from Cho and Sells (1995), who claims that case morphemes in Korean, be they structural or semantic, are affixes. I will discuss the important implications of the present proposal hitherto unnoticed in the literature for the post-nominal morphemes in the so called nominal template by Cho and Sells (1995). which is morphological in nature. These findings strongly suggest that templatic approach by Cho and Sells (1995) is simply wrong.

Gender asymmetries of the category “appearance” in the English language (based on the analysis of attributive-nominal word combinations with the core lexemes “man” and “woman”)

The relevance of this article is determined by the increasing interest in the asymmetries of gender-sensitive categories like “appearance” or “beauty”. The history of the issue and detailed results of contemporary studies in this field have been outlined in the article. The category of appearance has long been considered gender-biased and asymmetric, being related more to women than to men. Present-day studies offer support for the idea that notions of appearance and beauty are unevenly linked to women, resulting in a multitude of societal and individual difficulties. Certain modern linguists even argue that the concept of beauty is employed as a narrative to perpetuate women’s feelings of discontent and self-criticism. Our work presents an attempt to measure the relevance of this supposition against practical data of the semantic analysis of collocations with the core lexemes “man” and “woman”. A total of 2,814 noun phrases relevant to the category of appearance have been extracted from the texts of the British National Corpus of the English language. Three subcategories have been distinguished in the process of continuous sampling: parametric characteristics of appearance, general characteristics, and assessments. The method of comparative analysis allowed us to make conclusions regarding the degree of validity of assumptions about the asymmetry of the category of appearance in the English language. The analysis was carried out in two stages: the first stage required a general comparison of the amount and semantic nature of attribute-nominal word combinations with the core lexemes “man” and “woman”. The second stage of analysis was based on connotational analysis of nominal constructions semantics in the context of positive and negative characteristics of females’ and males’ appearance. The summary data of the study allowed us to present reliable evidence-based conclusions about the objective characteristics of the category of appearance. The study questions the widespread belief that the category of appearance is gender-biased and suggests considering it as a significant androgenic characteristic relevant to both men and women.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING PROFESSION SPECIFIC TRANSLATION TO STUDENT TEACHERS OF ENGLISH ON THE TOPIC OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS: NEW ROLES AND COMPETENCES.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING PROFESSION SPECIFIC TRANSLATION TO STUDENT TEACHERS OF ENGLISH ON THE TOPIC OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS: NEW ROLES AND COMPETENCES.

On the emergence of argument encoding in causatives constructions in Romance

Causative constructions in Romance show complex variation regarding the case of the subject of the non-finite clause (causee) and to its position with respect to the main causative verb and the embedded non-finite verb. It has been argued that the variation reflects the diachronic evolution of the causative construction in Romance and also documents an ongoing process of further development. We present original empirical data from a comparative corpus of Bible translations that provide new insights into diachronic evolution as well as to the synchronic variation. Our comparative approach allows us to generalize over additional semantic and pragmatic parameters for the choice of a particular construction. Our data support the assumption of the extension of ECM from clitic to nominal causee constructions in French, but they do not support this for Italian. For Spanish we see some ECM constructions in the most recent translation only.

Сause and Random Causation (on French Data)

This article addresses the semantic similarities and differences between causative constructions (CiveC) and causal constructions (CsalC) in French, with its findings probably relevant for typology studies as well. A contrastive syntactic and semantic analysis of the two construction types shows that while syntactically different, they are similar semantically in that both express cause vs. consequence relations. This similarity is not, however, complete. French has three types of CiveCs: factitive constructions with the auxiliary faire, permissives with the auxiliary laisser, and constructions with notional causative verbs. Causal constructions exist in two types – multiclause constructions, and nominal constructions. Revealing the ability of CiveCs and CsalCs to undergo mutual synonymic transformations, the article concludes that the similarities/differences of their grammatical meanings depend on the randomness/non-randomness of the causation (cause). Random causation takes place in agency situations with active agents. Non-random causation emerges where one event generates/impacts the other one. The conclusions are the following: 1) the factitive construction faire + Inf. can express two grammatical meanings: a) cause, b) random causation/active purposive action; 2) permissive constructions normally express random causation, except for constructions with inanimate subjects; 3) notional causative verbs can express both meanings above; 4) causal, both nominal and multiclause, constructions never express random causation, invariably signaling cause.

Лексема Jumal ‘Бог’ в карельском языке: лингвокультурологический аспект

the article examines the specifics of functioning of the component Jumal ‘God’ in Karelian lexemes. Names with the semantics “God”, as well as terms containing the composite under consideration as part of complex words in the Karelian language in comparison with Vepsian, Finnish and Russian languages are analyzed. Objective: to determine the role of the lexeme Jumal ‘God’ in the formation of cultural and linguistic thesaurus of the Karelians. Research materials: Karelian-language linguistic sources. Results and novelty of the research: the author examines the semantic and motivational principles of nomination of Karelian names containing the component Jumal ‘God’ in genitive or nominative construction. In addition, terms with the semantics ‘God’ that are important in the aspect of spiritual culture are analyzed. Their etymological, word-formation and ethnolinguistic analysis is revealed. As a result of the study, 20 dialect variants were identified that denote God in the Karelian language and have different origins: Russian borrowings, substantivized participles, denominal nouns, as well as lemmas of Baltic-Finnish origin. The name Jumal functions most widely in the linguistic picture of the world of the Karelians and other peoples: in the names of diseases, Christian terminology, as well as meteorological vocabulary. In the vocabulary under study, linguistic and cultural contacts of the Karelians, Vepsians, Finns and Russians are traced. The scientific novelty of the research is due to the first comprehensive study of the functioning of the component Jumal ‘God’ in Karelian lexemes

Nominal Possession in Contact Spanish Spoken by Mapudungun/Spanish Bilinguals

Possession has been scarcely studied in the variety of Spanish in contact with Mapudungun and in Chilean Spanish. In this contribution, we analyze the nominal possessive constructions found in a corpus of interviews with speakers from five communities: three Mapudungun–Spanish bilingual communities from the Araucanía Region, one Spanish monolingual rural community from the Bío Bío Region, and one Spanish monolingual urban community from the Araucanía Region. The possessive constructions found in the contact Spanish, rural Spanish, and urban Spanish varieties are analyzed and compared to describe the domain of possession and to propose some possible explanations from the perspective of language contact theory for the case of the Spanish spoken by bilinguals. From the corpus of transcribed interviews, nominal possessive constructions were selected, classified, described, and compared. Double possession with restrictive relative clauses, and unstressed possessive pronouns plus a prepositional phrase with genitive/specific value, showed a limited frequency of occurrence. These constructions are analyzed using the Code-Copying framework. This perspective accounts for the observed equivalencies between both languages in contact and the constructions emerging in the bilinguals’ speech. This work contributes to the documentation of the variety and, more generally, to the description of the expression of possession in the Latin American contact varieties of Spanish.

Nominal constructions in spoken academic Englishes: A quantitative corpus-based approach

Abstract Academic English was traditionally treated as a monolithic register with respect to grammar, but recent research has shown that there is considerable variation across modes, dialects, research traditions and disciplines. We apply two quantitative corpus-linguistic methods (keyword analysis and a variant using PoS-grams instead of words) to investigate noun-noun and adjective-noun sequences in two discipline-specific Academic Englishes, that of the Arts and Humanities and that of the Physical Sciences. We show that the function of the various constructions underlying these sequences are exploited in different ways in these discipline clusters, in accordance with specific communicative needs. In the Physical Sciences, there is a need for standardized terminology. Noun-noun compounds are the preferred strategy for creating this terminology, with a specific adjective-noun construction involving relational adjectives playing a minor part and syntactic adjective-noun constituents playing no particular role. In the Arts and Humanities, there is a need for precise ad-hoc descriptions, and syntactic adjective-noun constituents are the preferred way of doing so. This difference accounts for the previously observed distribution, confirmed in our study, that noun-noun sequences are more typical for the natural sciences and adjective-noun sequences are more typical for the humanities.

Encoding of nominal predication constructions: a typological investigation in verb-initial languages

Abstract Encoding of nominal predication constructions (NPC) is an essential component in typological debates concerning lexical flexibility and parts of speech. This study investigates encoding strategies of NPCs in 65 verb-initial languages from 20 language families. The results indicate that the combinations of a zero strategy and certain other typological features are cross-linguistically disfavored due to non-iconicity. The varying degree of lexical flexibility observed among languages reflects a competition between economy and iconicity, as in many other aspects of linguistic diversity.

Functional-semantic category of beingness in the Yakut language

The article is devoted to the study of the functional-semantic category of beingness in the Yakut. The purpose of this article is to describe the structure of the category under consideration, identified on the Yakut material. The study is based on the functional-semantic approach, which allows us to display the holistic organization of universal semantic categories with specific content and means of expression. A brief description of the main directions of research into the category of beingness in linguistics, based on functional-semantic, linguopragmatic, syntactic approaches, is given. The structure of the functional- semantic category of beingness in Yakut is presented. The structure of the functional-semantic category of beingness in the Yakut language is presented. It was revealed that the functional-semantic field of beingness in Yakut has a polycentric structure, which is determined by the type of relationship of the semantics of beingness to the grammatical category (noun and verb) and the syntactic structure of the sentence (predicative and nominative constructions). From the position of the functional-semantic approach, the means of expressing the category of beingness in the Yakut can be combined into a functional-semantic field, consisting of two parts: the microfield of beingness, expressed by nominal means of denoting existence/non- existence, being/non-existence, presence/absence, and the microfield of beingness, represented by verbal means of denoting existence/non-existence, being/non-existence, presence/absence. The indicated parts of the functional-semantic field of beingness in the Yakut consist of multi-level means, dispersed according to the “center – periphery” principle. The article presen

Scoring Coreference Chains with Split-Antecedent Anaphors

Anaphoric reference is an aspect of language interpretation covering a variety of types of interpretation beyond the simple case of identity reference to entities introduced via nominal expressions covered by the traditional coreference task in its most recent incarnation in ONTONOTES and similar datasets. One of these cases that go beyond simple coreference is anaphoric reference to entities that must be added to the discourse model via accommodation, and in particular split-antecedent references to entities constructed out of other entities, as in split-antecedent plurals and in some cases of discourse deixis. Although this type of anaphoric reference is now annotated in many datasets, systems interpreting such references cannot be evaluated using the Reference coreference scorer Pradhan et al. (2014). As part of the work towards a new scorer for anaphoric reference able to evaluate all aspects of anaphoric interpretation in the coverage of the Universal Anaphora initiative, we propose in this paper a solution to the technical problem of generalizing existing metrics for identity anaphora so that they can also be used to score cases of split-antecedents. This is the first such proposal in the literature on anaphora or coreference, and has been successfully used to score both split-antecedent plural references and discourse deixis in the recent CODI/CRAC anaphora resolution in dialogue shared tasks.