Reciprocal Constructions Research Articles

Towards a constructionist account of Old Catalan <i>la un a l'altre</i>

Summary: The aim of this paper is to trace, in accordance with the assumptions of Construction Grammar, how Latin reiterated reciprocal clusters came to be subsumed under la un a l’altre in Old Catalan texts (13th to 14th century). The data for conducting the analysis were selected from Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic, comprising 240 bipartite reciprocal constructions. The shift can be traced back to two diachronic mechanisms: the loss of the relics of binary quantification and the gradual advent of articles. By means of the formal apparatus of Construction Grammar, Old Catalan is demonstrated to have had three distinct, albeit lexically related, reciprocal form-meaning pairs. They are different in that in some of them un and altre have the status of anaphorically bound elements and represent two distinct c-structure nodes, whereas in others un and altre form a single constituent. Finally, rather than conveying reciprocity proper, in sentences where it appears alongside se, la un a l’altre gains a more subjective status. All these facts lend support to the hypothesis of a gradual entrenchment and an increasingly schematic character of the medieval reciprocal sequence. [Keywords: reciprocal constructions, continuous vs. split bipartite sequence, c-structure, form-meaning pairing, binding, subjectification]

The Za constructions: Middle-like constructions in Boro

Abstract This paper investigates a set of five related constructions in Boro, called middle-like constructions, following Kemmer’s (1993) semantic analytical framework of the middle voice. The paper presents a detailed analysis of these constructions, which include Spontaneous event constructions, Reciprocal and Collective constructions, Facilitative constructions, Reflexive-causative constructions, and Adversative constructions. These constructions share striking structural and functional features, including a morpheme za ‘become, happen, take place’, which is a verb in origin. The morpheme za ‘become, happen, take place’ can be characterized as a ‘middle marker’, which is used as a simple predicator in Spontaneous event constructions and as a serial verb in the other constructions. Functionally, these constructions express events in which there are either no construed agents or the agents are non-topical. Following Kemmer’s semantic map approach, the event types are mapped onto the semantic transitivity continuum. What is notable in the semantic map of the Za constructions is that the area covered by Za constructions is not contiguous, which we would expect following principles like the Semantic Map Connectivity Hypothesis (Croft 2001: 96) and Semantic Map Continuity (Boye 2010).

Soil as a key criteria in the construction of farmers' identities: The example of farming in the Austrian province of Burgenland

Studies of farming symbols in modern agriculture indicate that soils and agricultural land are important factors when it comes to the construction of farmers' identities. This article uses Bourdieu's framework of habitus along with his theory of capital to discuss the importance of soils in this construction process of farmers' identities. A range of methods was used in this study involving qualitative and quantitative interviews with 124 farmers in the Austrian province of Burgenland. In the Burgenland, soil and landscapes are loaded with meaning and therefore never neutral: always implying a wide range of moral concepts of what is “good” or “bad” in the context of soil and land. Farmers “read” soils and related management practices as indication of farming skills and the farmers' interpretation always depends on farmers' aesthetic perception of the world and thus on the farmers' habitus and cultural capital. Farmers distinguish themselves from other farmers, groups or areas of work relating to soil quality aspects or soil management strategies of others. This reciprocal construction of boundaries locates the standing of individual farmers within a community. The importance of the relation between farmers and their soils for the construction of farming identity is especially important for organic farmers.

Papapana Re~redu~reduplicates: Multiple Reduplication in an Endangered Northwest Solomonic Language

Although Austronesian languages display a wide range of formal reduplicative patterns, multiple reduplication is reported only for Thao and Mokilese, and is practically unattested in Western Oceanic languages, including those of the Northwest Solomonic (NWS) subgroup. This paper investigates the functions and typologically rare patterns of multiple reduplication in Papapana, a previously undescribed and undocumented, highly endangered language (NWS, Western Oceanic) of Papua New Guinea. Both derivational and inflectional reduplication in Papapana involve leftward, monosyllabic or disyllabic copying. Inflectional reduplication always occurs in combination with another morpheme: (i) negative markers in prohibitives, (ii) the reciprocal marker vei in reciprocal constructions, or (iii) postverbal subject-indexing enclitics to express imperfective aspect. Although monosyllabic and disyllabic copying are typically Oceanic, some verbs in Papapana also display the cross-linguistically rare phenomenon of multiple reduplication to make a distinction between subtypes of imperfective aspect. Papapana also has unusual reduplication constructions because the preverbal comitative applicative marker me and the preverbal reciprocal marker vei can be reduplicated instead of the verb, and despite allowing multiple reduplication in imperfective aspect constructions, it is not permitted in constructions expressing both imperfective and reciprocal meanings. These features of Papapana reduplicative constructions call into question the status of the reduplicant as an affix or clitic, and the nature of multiple reduplication as a unitary or serial process, and these issues are debated in light of a typological comparison with related and unrelated languages.

A modularization approach for linear-shaped functional supercapacitors

A self-standing PPy-based tube common module is obtained by using a reciprocal formwork construction technique. This common module can be further assembled with other building blocks to fabricate high performance linear-shaped supercapacitors.

Reflexive and Reciprocal Constructions in Modern Greek

This paper examines the various constructions that convey reflexivity and reciprocity in Modern Greek. Modern Greek reflexive and reciprocal constructions are characterized by a considerable degree of overlap between them, in the sense that they are structurally parallel to each other. More concretely, both reflexives and reciprocals in the language can be lexicalized through the addition of the non-active suffix -mai to a transitive verb; moreover, reflexivity and reciprocity can be syntactically realized by means of an active transitive verb followed by a pronominal that is referentially bound to an antecedent. Lastly, pronoun incorporation to a –mai verb constitutes another way of expressing reflexivity and reciprocity in the language, while in certain cases reflexivity/ reciprocity is inherently encoded in the semantics of individual verb predicates. The analysis is implemented within Role-andReference Grammar; the richness of the data, however, dictates the need for the enrichment of the framework. Specifically, the traditional Role-and-Reference Grammar organization structure is extended through the postulation of additional steps to the semantics-to-syntax derivational process and through the introduction of a feature-based analysis at the semantic level of representation. What is aimed in this way is a more thorough and effective analysis of the constructions under examination. 1. MG Reflexives and Reciprocals: Description Reflexive and reciprocal constructions are closely correlated in Modern Greek (henceforth MG). At a semantic level, the surface subject of both reflexives and reciprocals in MG encodes not only agentivity, but also affectedness by itself (in the case of reflexives) or by a partner (in the case of reciprocals), which is, in essence, a crosslinguistic property of reflexive and reciprocal subjects (Shibatani 1985, pp.840-841). Apart from the semantic correlation between reflexives and reciprocals in MG, it should be noted that there is also a considerable degree of syntactic overlap between them. Taking into account that a variety of structures can give rise to a reflexive or a reciprocal reading in MG, it will be illustrated that reflexive structures parallel reciprocal structures in their formation; besides, it is worth noting that reflexivity and reciprocity can be expressed under certain circumstances through the use of the same structure, thus giving rise to a potentially ambiguous interpretation. The discussion will firstly turn to an examination of MG reflexives. ∗ The contents of this paper are part of my M.Phil. in Linguistics thesis, which was submitted on 29 August 2005 to the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Brian Nolan for all his input, support and inspiration; his insightful comments and supportive feedback have been of great assistance to me in the writing of my thesis, making him an invaluable guide throughout. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Ianthi Tsimpli for generously providing me with a wealth of intuition on the Modern Greek data. All shortcomings remain, of course, my own responsibility.

Structural and functional analysis of SleL, a peptidoglycan lysin involved in germination of Bacillus spores.

A major event in the germination of Bacillus spores concerns hydrolysis of the cortical peptidoglycan that surrounds the spore protoplast, the integrity of which is essential for maintenance of dormancy. Cortex degradation is initiated in all species of Bacillus spores by the combined activity of two semi-redundant cortex-lytic enzymes, SleB and CwlJ. A third enzyme, SleL, which has N-acetylglucosaminidase activity, cleaves peptidoglycan fragments generated by SleB and CwlJ. Here we present crystal structures of B. cereus and B. megaterium SleL at 1.6 angstroms and 1.7 angstroms, respectively. The structures were determined with a view to identifying the structural basis of differences in catalytic efficiency between the respective enzymes. The catalytic (α/β)8 -barrel cores of both enzymes are highly conserved from a structural perspective, including the spatial distribution of the catalytic residues. Both enzymes are equipped with two N-terminal peptidoglycan-binding LysM domains, which are also structurally highly conserved. However, the topological arrangement of the respective enzymes second LysM domain is markedly different, and this may account for differences in catalytic rates by impacting upon the position of the active sites with respect to their substrates. A chimeric enzyme comprising the B. megaterium SleL catalytic domain plus B. cereus SleL LysM domains displayed enzymatic activity comparable to the native B. cereus protein, exemplifying the importance of the LysM domains to SleL function. Similarly, the reciprocal construct, comprising the B. cereus SleL catalytic domain with B. megaterium SleL LysM domains, showed reduced activity compared with native B. cereus SleL.

The language of fashion in postmodern society: A social semiotic perspective

AbstractThis article analyzes the language of fashion in postmodern society with the hypothesis that fashion trends mutate when social trends change, in a relationship of reciprocal construction that we can define as social semiotics. The analytic approach ranges from social semiotics to the fashion theory field. If social semiotics focuses on the study of signs, spaces, and language mutations in the system of social discourses, fashion theory provides a perspective combining lifestyles, worldviews, personal meanings, and social values about custom: indeed, in fashion we simultaneously observe participation in collective trends and the expression of individuality.

Constructions at argument-structure level in the SenSem Corpora

In this paper we present the annotation scheme of constructions at the argument-structure level in the Spanish and Catalan Corpora SenSem. Constructions are accounted for as form-meaning pairs following the theoretical underpinning of Construction Grammar. Regarding meaning, we propose a hierarchy of constructions taking into account, at the highest level, the prominence of the logical subject in the sentence. Thus, we differentiate between topicalized and detopicalized sentences, which is an innovative proposal to solve some terminological issues related to pronominal constructions in Spanish. We further develop this classification taking into account the semantic relation of the logical subject with the verb and its coindexation, if any, with other participants. As regards form, the basic features we consider are syntagmatic categories and syntactic functions. Furthermore, we annotate the form the verb requires, that is, if it requires a pronoun in order to convey a particular meaning. Other relevant contributions are the annotation of some linguistic phenomena not taken into account in other similar resources, such as reciprocal, dative or impersonal constructions. Finally, we present the frequencies of all these constructions in Spanish.

Evidence Based on a dynamic source: Database support for a theory of transitive reciprocals

Abstract The novelty of this document is that the empirical support for the predictions it examines, predictions about the distribution and interpretation of transitive reciprocal constructions, will be different each time it is read. The evidence will change because this paper will only provide parameters for a search of the Afranaph Database (ongoing) and two other databases, and as these databases grow and change over time, the search results returned today will be different from the results returned by the same search executed months or years from now. Reversing the normal priorities of linguistic research, the proposal we present about the nature of reciprocal constructions in natural language, which contends that direct object full DPs anaphors do not directly contribute reciprocal meaning (a proposal more broadly and specifically defended by Safir and Selvanathan (in preparation) is secondary (a) to our demonstration of the methodology we employ to support our claims and (b) to the lessons we draw from it about the evaluation of evidence for research in linguistics in the digital age.

Notes on the history of reciprocal NP-strategies in Semitic languages in a typological perspective

Among Semitic reciprocal constructions, a division is seen between two types: 1) two-unit constructions, with two components, each filling a different argument position of the verb, and 2) one-unit constructions, with an anaphora that co-refers with the subject (that must be plural) and occupies only the non-subject position required by the verb. The goal of this paper is to explain how these constructions developed, specifically: 1) how did the various types of two-unit constructions evolve? and 2) could diachronic chains be identified in order to explain the development of the one-unit constructions from the two-unit constructions? Previous work on question (1) focuses on the range of phrases that tend to develop into reciprocal markers. Such accounts, however, do not explain how these constructions developed the specific meanings they have. I argue that consideration of the semantics of these constructions is crucial for understanding their evolution. Instead of ‘reciprocal constructions’ it is better to see them as denoting ‘unspecified relations’. As for (2), various attempts have been made to explain such processes focusing on Indo-European languages, which do not capture the Semitic developments; therefore I propose an alternative hypothesis, according to which the one-unit constructions result from a reanalysis of the two-unit constructions.

Grammaticalization of reciprocal pronouns in Indo-Aryan: Evidence from Sanskrit and Indo-European for a diachronic typology of reciprocal constructions

Abstract This paper focuses on the evolution of the Old Indo-Aryan reciprocal pronoun anyo'nya- as well as some related forms, tracing its grammaticalization from the early Vedic period onwards until the beginning of the Middle Indic period. On the basis of a comparison of the history of this formation with similar processes documented in some other Indo-European branches (Greek, Slavic etc.), I uncover some basic mechanisms and scenarios of the evolution of reciprocal constructions attested in the history of Indo-Aryan languages in a diachronic typological context, offering a number of typological generalizations on the diachrony of reciprocals.

Morphosyntax of Balinese Reciprocal Constructions

This study aims at analyzing the types and morphological forms of verbs used in Balinese reciprocal constructions. Data was obtained from Balinese speaking informants living in the island of Bali through observation method. The collected data was analyzed by deductive and inductive approaches so that clear description about reciprocal phenomenon of Balinese could be achieved. The result shows that reciprocal construction in Balinese can be divided into lexical, morphological, and syntactic reciprocal. Balinese has some verbs that lexically mean reciprocal so that constructions using such the verbs are called lexical reciprocal. Morphological reciprocal is a construction that means reciprocal when the verbs have particular morphological process (affixation and or reduplication). Affixes usually attached to the base to result reciprocal meaning are affix (ma-) and (ma-/-an). Meanwhile, syntactic reciprocal is a construction that may mean reciprocal if it has a syntactic element saling. Verb used in syntactic reciprocal may be base and derived verbs and the constructions will not mean reciprocal if the element saling is omitted from the constructions. Seen from the argument, Balinese reciprocal may be distinguished between reciprocal that has core and noncore arguments and reciprocal that has only core arguments.

Reciprocal NP-Strategies in Jewish Dialects of Near Eastern Neo-Aramaic in Light of Parallel Semitic Constructions

This article focuses on the origin of the forms of various NP-strategies for expressing reciprocity in the Jewish dialects of North Eastern Neo-Aramaic (nena). The discussion concerning the origin of these forms is of special interest when considering their historical relationship with their regional ancestors from Late Aramaic (Syriac, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, and Mandaic). This discussion is conducted in light of what has been previously discussed concerning similar constructions among the Semitic languages and cross-linguistically. This article also elaborates on the relationship between reciprocal constructions and sociative- comitative- collective expressions.

Extension of Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall: A Contemporary Application of Irregular Reciprocal Frames

Reciprocal frame structures, formed by a set of self-supported elements in a closed circuit, have long been used since antiquity to cover large spans with small elements.The roof structure of the Euskalduna conference centre and concert hall extension in Bilbao, covering an irregular geometry of 3000 m2 with a maximum span of 45 m, presented an interesting opportunity to revisit the concept and to apply these classical systems.Furthermore, its analysis and development led to an interesting discussion on reciprocal frames. They showed great sensitivity of these systems to the local modification of a particular element, establishment of irregular load paths, mobilisation of almost the entire system when locally applying a punctual load and, finally, its large deformability.Besides, reciprocal frames present particular construction complexities and possibilities due to the moderate length of the structural elements, the predominance of shear-only connections and the necessity of the entire system to be completely erected to guarantee its stability.Euskalduna extension, completed in 2012, is one of the largest and a very particular case of irregular reciprocal frame structures built in the world. It shows the formal possibilities and potentiality of reciprocal frames to respond to free and irregular geometries.

Are there subject anaphors?

A generally accepted universal property of anaphors in reflexive and reciprocal constructions is that they cannot occur in the subject position of a main clause with a non-subject binder in the same clause. In this article a number of languages are examined that have reflexive elements resembling subjects. But it is argued that some of them can be shown not to be anaphoric pronouns or never to occur in the subject position of active main clauses. Even those languages such as Sanzhi Dargwa (Nakh-Daghestanian) in which anaphoric pronouns can fulfill more prominent semantic functions than their binders are claimed not to have subject anaphors simply because they do not have subjects. The article also offers a semantic explanation for why anaphors can and sometimes even must occur as agents and experiencers in reflexive (and reciprocal) constructions in Sanzhi Dargwa and in other related languages.

Antibodies Specific For Human Neutrophil Antigen 3a (HNA-3a) Recognize Complex Epitopes On Choline Transporter Protein 2 (CTL2): Implications For HNA-3a Antibody Detection

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), the leading cause of mortality associated with blood transfusion, usually results from passive transfer of antibodies present in donated blood to a patient. TRALI can be triggered by antibodies specific for Class I or Class II HLA antigens, human neutrophil antigens (HNA) and possibly other targets. For reasons not well understood, antibodies specific for the leukocyte antigen HNA-3a cause particularly severe, often fatal TRALI. It would be highly desirable therefore to be able to screen blood donors routinely for HNA-3a antibodies.HNA-3a/b antigens are carried on choline transporter-like protein 2 (CTL2), an apparent 10 membrane-spanning protein with 5 extracellular loops and N and C intracellular termini. The HNA-3a/b polymorphism is created by an R/Q substitution at position 154 in the first of these extracellular loops (Loop 1). In solid phase assays, about one-half of HNA-3a antibodies implicated in TRALI recognize Loop 1 peptides containing R154 (Type 1 antibodies). The remaining antibodies (Type 2) are non-reactive with peptides despite reacting well against full length CTL2. We studied reactions of Type 1 and Type 2 HNA-3a antibodies against soluble recombinant CTL2 fragments, human CTL2, mouse CTL2, and human/mouse CTL2 chimeras expressed in HEK293 cells to characterize the basis for HNA-3a antibody heterogeneity. The following observations were made:1) Only Type 1 antibodies react with detergent-solublized CTL2 in solid phase assays.2) A soluble recombinant fragment derived from the first extracellular (EC) loop (R154) of human CTL2 reacts only with Type 1 antibodies.3) Mouse CTL2 is 91% identical to human CTL2 and contains the R154 residue critical for HNA-3a expression. Type 1 antibodies recognize mouse CTL2, but Type 2 antibodies do not.4) Chimeric CTL2 containing human sequence in EC Loop 1 and mouse sequence in Loops 2-5 (H1M) reacts only with Type 1 antibodies. The reciprocal construct with mouse sequence in EC loop 1 and human sequence in Loops 2-5 (M1H) reacts with both Type 1 and Type 2 antibodies.5) Chimeric CTL2 containing human sequence in EC Loops 1-2 and mouse sequence in Loops 3-5 (H2M) reacts only with Type 1 antibodies.6) Chimeric CTL2 containing human sequence in EC Loops 1-3 and mouse sequence in Loops 4-5 (H3M) reacts with both Type 1 and Type 2 antibodies.These findings show that Loop 1 peptides containing R154 are sufficient for Type 1 antibodies to recognize CTL2 and the Type 1 epitope survives detergent solubilization of the protein. However, Type 2 antibodies require human sequence in EC Loops 1-3 for binding and the epitope they recognize does not survive detergent treatment. Moreover both Type 1 and Type 2 recognize the M1H chimera with the entire EC loop 1 sequence derived from mouse. The simplest explanation for these observations is that Type 2 HNA-3a antibodies need to contact human amino acid residues in EC Loop 3 in addition to Loop 1 for tight binding to CTL2. An alternative possibility is both Type 1 and 2 antibodies recognize only Loop1, but EC Loops 2 and 3 are required to hold Loop 1 in a configuration suitable for Type 2 antibody binding. In either case, it appears that at least the first 3 EC loops of CTL2 (R154) need to be in a configuration that closely mimics their natural state in the cell membrane in order to be recognized by Type 2 HNA-3a antibodies. Considerable ingenuity will be required to engineer a target capable of detecting both Type 1 and Type 2 HNA-3a antibodies in a format suitable for large-scale blood donor screening. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Reciprocal constructions in Mian

Despite the ongoing interest in reciprocal situations, which form a central part of our social, intellectual, and moral lives, and the linguistic encoding of such situations in different languages, studies of reciprocals in Papuan languages remain underrepresented in the reciprocal literature. The Trans New Guinea languages Mian, Amele, and Hua have a reciprocal construction in which the reciprocal subevents are expressed by individual transitive verbs plus an existential verb expressing that the reciprocal action is done together. Mian goes one step further and fuses this construction into a single verb with a reciprocal suffix -sese. The present paper is an in-depth analysis of the morphology, syntax, and semantics of reciprocal constructions in Mian, including a comparison with Amele, and an analysis of the diachronic development of the Mian reciprocal, whose origin presumably lies in a biclausal description in which the reciprocal subevents are spelled out separately and sequentially.

L'expression de la réciprocité en ancien français<BR> Mécanismes grammaticaux et leur évolution

The essay is designed to characterize reciprocal markers encountered in Old French texts. Examples are drawn from three integral epic poems (including one song of heroic feats) written in the 12thcentury – Perceval ou le conte du Graal, Le Roman de Thebes and Le couronnement de Louis.Seven kinds of reciprocal constructions are singled out depending on what auxiliary means are used. They may be further split into lexical (e. g. adverbials, as in Coste a coste vont par la pree»They are walking one next to the other across a meadow«) and grammatical (e. g. bipartite anaphorics, Li uns plaint l’autre, grant duel font»One is moved to pity by the other; they are sunk in grief«), mono-clausal and multi-clausal ones (e. g. Vos confondez lui et il vos»You embarrass him and inversely«). Theoretical findings on their evolutionary paths will then be formulated in terms of grammaticalization. The analysis reveals also syntactic changes undergone by reciprocal exponents in French (the present-day clitic se)

Reciprocal constructions in Avar

This paper examines reciprocal constructions in Standard Avar, focusing on the syntactic positions (S, A, O, etc.) the reciprocal pronoun coca- and its antecedent fill when they are dependents of the same predicate. Avar, a Daghestanian language spoken in the North East Caucasus in Russia, has an absolutive-ergative case marking system. Standard Avar mainly uses the free reciprocal pronoun coca- for reciprocalization. Taken from a crosslinguistic perspective, coca- displays an interesting distribution pattern. The most unusual property of Standard Avar reciprocal constructions occurs when a reciprocal relation holds between the two participants of an event normally encoded as an ergative-absolutive transitive clause. The reciprocal pronoun coca- often appears in the ergative case and its antecedent in the absolutive case. From a morphological perspective, the ergative reciprocal pronoun and its antecedent appear to occupy the A and O positions, respectively. I argue that, from a syntactic perspective, the absolutive antecedent is S rather than O, and that the ergative reciprocal pronoun is not A but still functions as an NP.