Semantic Typology Research Articles

Interpreting meaning in police interviews: Applied Language Typology in a Forensic Linguistics context

The main aim of this paper is to raise awareness about the importance of language contrasts in legal interpreting contexts. The semantic typology of motion events put forward by Talmy (1991, 2000) and its implications for discourse and narrative (Slobin 1991, 1996, 2004, 2005) are used as an example of how an applied typology approach can be useful for the analysis of language contrasts in a forensic linguistics context. Applied Language Typology (Filipović 2008, 2017a, b) is used here to analyse transcriptions of police interviews that were mediated by an English-Spanish interpreter in California (USA) and an English-Portuguese interpreter in Norfolk (UK). The results of this analysis demonstrate that certain differences in semantic components of motion such as Manner, Cause and Deixis can lead interpreters to add, omit or modify the content of a message in the process of translation. This leads us to conclude that professional practices such as the production of bilingual transcripts and use of control interpreters, together with the inclusion of Applied Language Typology in interpreting training, would improve the quality of interpreting practices in legal contexts.

ВІДДІЄСЛІВНІ NOMENA AGENTIS ДАВНЬОРУСЬКОЇ МОВИ: КОГНІТИВНО-ОНОМАСІОЛОГІЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

One of the urgent linguistic problems is the study of the motivation of derivative units, in particular, the verbal agent nouns of the Old Rus language. In the linguistics, motivation has traditionally been analyzed at the boundary of word formation and linguistic semantics, and has been seen as a link between two linguistic characters – the generative and the derivative. The typology of motivation was based on different principles. The development of national cognitive onomasiology has made it possible to interpret this concept in a new way and to distinguish the following types of motivation: propositional, modal, mixed, conceptual and integrative.Purpose. The purpose of the article is to investigate the verbal agentic nouns of the Old Rus language in the cognitive-onomasiological aspect: to interpret their onomasiological structure, to determine the type of motivation of these derivatives.Results. Verbal nomina agentis are usually formed as a result of predicative argumentative motivation, based on the choice of the motivator from the zone of true information about an object obtained in the course of cognitive and practical activity of nominees and represented by signs of direct importance. The semantic typology of predicates is taken into account in the analysis of verbal agent nouns. This made it possible to identify groups of names that are motivated by verbs denoting work, thinking, speech and other activities. The onomasiological structure of the nomina agentis studied necessarily contains an onomasiological trait, the onomasiological basis – a word-forming formant, optional implicit, connotative components. The semantic properties of the Old Rus language are also illustrated by redundancy.Originality. It is the first time in domestic linguistics, that cognitive-onomasiological analysis was applied to study the motivation of derivative nouns of the Old Rus language.Conclusion. The study of the verbal nomina agentis of the Old Rus language in the cognitive-onomasiological aspect shows that these derivatives are formed as a result of predicate-argumentative motivation. Their derivatives are verbs of different semantic classes. The most numerous are the group of agency names, motivated by recruiters with the value of work activity. The onomassiological structure of a number of human names contains an implicit component, a connotative characteristic

Regular homophones: a tool for semantic typology and for linguistic reconstruction

This article deals with two different aspects of “regular homophony” in comparative historical linguistics. “Homophony” is used here as a cover term for both polysemy and homonymy, i.e. all the cases where a word is given several meanings in a dictionary. Our results are based on the semi-automatic analysis of regular homophony in RefLex, the richest online lexical database, which gathers 1,150,000 words from 1289 sources, covering 785 African languages (as of 2018). We show that the first aspect of regular homophony, i.e. regular polysemy, may be effectively used for semantic reconstruction and for the finding of new cognates. An Appendix gives the inventory of all regular polysemic links found in the RefLex corpus for notions included in the Swadesh-100 list. The second aspect, regular homonymy, may be effectively used for the finding of regular sound correspondences between related languages. Such correspondences may even be set up between genetically distant languages, without having to rely on intermediate reconstructions.

The Ethno-Linguistic Relationship between Smelling and Kissing: A Southeast Asian Case Study

This paper investigates smell/kiss colexification, the lexical semantic association of transitive verbs of smelling with verbs expressing certain types of conventionalised gestures of greeting and/or affection (i.e., kissing). Whilst found sporadically in the languages of the world, smell/kiss colexification is common in languages of all families of Southeast Asia. The prevalence of the lexical association reflects an ancient, endemic Southeast Asian practice in which kissing involves the nose, rather than the mouth, as the primary organ. This study demonstrates the potential of lexical semantic typology to contribute to identifying linguistic areas and cultural practices shared across them.

Tipologia semântica das condicionais de se no Português de Moçambique

This paper discusses the semantic typology of the conditionals of the Mozambican Portuguese (MP), focusing on the occurrence of verb tenses and mood, in comparison with European Portuguese (EP). Based on data collected through a combination of different research methods, the analysis suggests that the differences between MP and EP are limited: in both varieties, there are three semantic classes of the conditionals (factual, hypothetical and counterfactual) and the correlation between tense/mood and interpretation of conditionals is not necessarily biunivocal. However, there are some differences between MP and EP in contexts where tenses and mood are used in a more marked way in hypothetical and counterfactual conditionals. Moreover, other differences result from ambiguous EP input, and the fact that MP speakers use distinct grammatical rules: common to EP and particular rules of MP.

The Question of the Prospects of Indo-Iranian (Aryan) Tradition in the Interpretation of Hydronymy of Eastern Europe (as Exemplified by the Semantic Family of Words “Water”, “River”)

The article examines the prospects of hydronymic research in Eastern Europe in the context of linguistic, cultural, epic, mythological, and historical traditions of the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) people, using the example of the semantic family of words “water”, “river”. The thesis about the East European homeland of the Indo-Iranian peoples, gaining ever greater support in modern historical science, naturally requires comprehensive verification by a specific onomastic material. In this sense, the conclusions of hydronymic research, taking into account the source specifics of this onomastic category, should be considered among the decisive arguments for a convincing solution to the “Indo-European problem”, the reproduction of the early history of Indo-Iranian peoples, and the reconstruction of ethnocultural processes in Eastern Europe in the old days. The data considered in the article undoubtedly confirm the presence of a number of Indo-Iranian and, more narrowly, Indo-Aryan terms for the designation of water and river in the hydronymy of Eastern Europe, that is ap (apsu), danu, sindhu, jala, pani, uda (udra), nadi, vār, ambu, dub, nar, etc. This fact, based on the semantic typology of hydronymic names, gives grounds to consider this part of the hydronymicon one of the most archaic layers of the Eastern European hydronymy that dates back to the period of the Indo-European linguistic and cultural community. This, in turn, causes the methodological need for revising the traditional concept of pan-Iranism in the approaches to the interpretation of Eastern European (in particular, Scythian-Sarmatian) onomastics toward wider Indo-Iranian (Aryan) interpretations; extends the prospects of interpreting Eastern European hydronymics at the expense of the Indo-Aryan language and cultural tradition; refutes a series of unreasonable etymologies of domestic onomastics, offering instead new, more convincing interpretations of numerous East European water names. The author believes that further onomastic studies in the field of East European hydronymy (in particular, its consideration through the prism of other semantic families), will additionally substantiate such a scientific position.

The Work of Roberto Busa SJ: Open Spaces between Computation and Hermeneutics

A review of the achievements of Fr. Busa over the course of his 60 years of work in the area of computational linguistics: internal hypertexts, the systematization of allographs, lemmatization, homographs and typologies; the lexical system; the laws of economy for graphemes, for semantic typology, for heterogeneity among terms, and of the two lexical hemispheres. Finally, the project of disciplined languages is mentioned, a response to the linguistic challenge resulting from informational globalization.

THE PHENOMENON OF ART NOUVEAU: TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF DECORATIVE ELEMENTS IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF SAMARA MODERN

Modernism is considered as a phenomenon of world culture at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, its features in the architecture of European countries, in Russia and, in particular, in Samara. The stages of development of the Samara Art Nouveau and its composition-decorative and color features are highlighted in detail. The existing semantic typology of decorative elements of modern style is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the compositional aspects of the shaping of decorative elements of modernism with the identifi cation of the simplest geometric forms. The main color principles and color combinations of the Art Nouveau architecture are revealed, on the basis of which specifi c recommendations on the splitt ing of one of the Samara mansions in the Neo-Renaissance style are off ered.

Introduction

AbstractThis volume presents nine chapters dealing with emotionally loaded morphology over four continents. The collection is the result of a workshop on “morphology and emotions” (MorphÉm) held by the first author at Dynamique du Langage (CNRS) in Lyon on 29–30 April 2015. In this introduction, we first discuss our definitions of the terms “emotions”, “morphology”, and the intersection between the two (Section 1). InSection 2, we contextualize the study of the morphological encoding of emotions within semantic typology and semantic ecology, and spell out some of the cross-linguistic generalizations that can be made about the morphological encoding of emotions on the basis of the contributions in this volume. InSection 3, we summarize the findings of the volume on the more specific topic of evaluative morphology, the most widespread type of emotionally loaded morphology. Finally,Section 4offers a chapter-by-chapter outline of the volume.

Linguistic diversity, language vitality and the advancement of Linguistics as a science

The study of linguistic and cognitive strategies for spatial referencing has seen an increase in studies reported in the literature since the 1970s. This research has moved from formulating theories based on a handful of international languages to documenting and analyzing a growing sample of the world’s languages. This paper focuses precisely on the contributions that languages across a diversity of language families, sociocultural contexts, and geographic settings are making to the advancement of research on spatial referencing. A concrete example is illustrated by the Diidxazá language (Juchiteco, Isthmus Zapotec, Otomanguean) whose analysis has propelled significant explorations into spatial referencing in Mesoamerica and beyond. This paper explores the contributions made by Diidxazá and other lesser studied languages to the advancement of semantic typology, spatial referencing and language and cognition studies. This is placed in the context of current trends in the decline of the world’s linguistic diversity. Thus, this paper advocates for a sustained, and, ideally, increased engagement of the sciences in documenting and revitalizing the world’s languages.

The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts: 20 Years Later

The article summarizes the goals and the current state of the Catalogue of sematic shifts (CSSh), its primary notions being those of a semantic shift , which is understood as a relation of cognitive proximity between two linguistic meanings, and a realization of a semantic shift, i.e. one polysemic word or a pair of cognate words of the same language or different languages that act as “exponents” of this relation. The typology of semantic shifts occupies a position at the crossroad of semantic, lexical and grammatical typologies, overlapping each of these areas of study in terms of linguistic data and methods used; however, the domain of CSSh does not coincide with any of them. The framework of CSSh provides the theoretical foundation for identifying recurring cross-linguistic semantic shifts, and collecting them in the Database of Semantic Shifts for further analysis. The article demonstrates that the notion of semantic shift as defined in CSSh is just a formalization of an instrument of linguistic analysis that is already quite common in various areas of linguistics. Semantic shift provides a basis for the notion of semantic parallel used in the historical linguistics and etymology, for motivational models in word-formation, it is a central notion for grammati- calization theory; finally, semantic shift is one of various types of implicit meanings (along with presuppositions and connotations) that shape the “linguistic model of the world”. Linguistic data contained in the Database of Semantic Shifts can be used in all these areas, in order to provide semantic plausibility criteria for linguistic reconstruction, to act as empirical evidence for cognitive mechanisms of linguistic conceptualization, to aid in identifying specific features of the semantic system of a given language or group of languages.

Les impératifs négatifs romans. Le cas de l’italien et du roumain

The paper presents the situation of the negative imperative in Romanian in comparison with that of Italian. The comparison shows a strong similarity between the two Romance languages, in that both languages exhibit the same contrast between singular and plural in the realization of the negative imperative. The contrast in Italian is explained in a well-known book of Rafaella Zanutinni (“Negation and Clausal Structure”) through the existence of two kinds of imperatives: imperatives with and without mood morphology. I show that this explanation cannot be adopted for Romanian, even if, given the fact that the explanation is built within the framework of Universal Grammar, this would be desirable. I propose instead to explain the contrast in both languages through the scope properties of the imperatives with respect to negation. This leads to a more general reformulation of the distinction between the two types of imperatives, as a distinction between imperatives with scope over negation and imperatives with scope under negation. In the rest of the paper I show how this new distinction may be applied to other cases of Romance imperatives, as well. A semantic typology of Romance imperatives emerges, accordingly.

Частково фразеологізовані речення з відношеннями зумовленості

Background. Questions of the semantic typology of partially phraseologized sentences have been left out of the attention of researchers. Purpose. Analysis of the semantic type of partially phraseologized sentence with the relation of conditionality, determination of communication between their parts and clarification of the specifics of additional semantics. Methods. Observation, generalization, descriptive, transformational and modeling methods. Results. Depending on the filling of the kernel of the phrase-complex, fractional phraseologized sentences with conditional relations form two varieties: 1) with kernel варто.., як; and 2) with kernel досить (достатньо).., як (що, щоб, і (й)). 1. The first environment is represented by a substantive word with the value of the subject in the form of a dowry case and the infinitive of the finished species. The second environment is expressed by a number of tokens, namely: the person-time form of the verb, the infinitive, the connecting verb and the predicative adverb. On the basic relations of conditionality, some semantics is added, the specifics of which determines the lexical filling of the second part. There are three types of additional semantics: semantics of surprise, semantics of the result, and semantics of conditional-consequential-target. 2. Partially phraseologized sentences with the kernel досить (достатньо).., як (що, щоб, і (й)). Such phraseologized sentences have two environments: the prepositive part of the three-component – the verb to be in the form of the past, a substantive word for the definition of the subject of action in the form of a dowry case or a quantitative-noun compound, pronoun, verb, adjective or adverbial token, and the infinitive of the finished species. The post-positive part is varied as follows: a) a one-component element expressed in the verb in the face-time form; and b) a two-component structure – a verb in a personal form, an infinitive or an in-person verb and adverb. Partially phraseologized sentences with the kernel досить (достатньо).., як (що, щоб, і (й)) form two semantic-structural varieties: 1) іn the first variety, the value of the prepositional part in general affects the implementation of the action, called in the post-positive part; 2) іn the second variety, in the prepositional part, an action, a sign or a quality is expressed, the sufficiency of which determines the consequence in the post-positive part. Consequently, the semantic type of partially phraseologized sentences with the relationship of conditionality has formed two subtypes: the kernel is варто.., як and the kernel досить (достатньо).., як (що, щоб, і (й)). Clearly fixed position of the constant and variable components, as well as their grammatical forms influence the formation of additional semantics.

Translating motion events into typologically distinct languages

ABSTRACTTranslation studies on the expression of Manner-of-motion in typological different languages have raised the interest of translators since the early work of thinking-for-speaking studies. Semantic typology has greatly influenced research on motion events and lies at the basis of the thinking for speaking hypothesis, a more cautious and dynamic version of linguistic relativity, which was applied to translation and termed thinking for translating. It analyses the different attention given to Manner-of-motion in translation across languages. The present paper focuses on translations of The Hobbit into a language pair (English/Galician) that has not been explored in the domain of motion. It analyses the possible influence of typological differences on: a) the type of verbs used, b) the translation strategies used to convey Manner-of-motion information, c) the types of constructions. It also analyses the role of expertise. Six professional translations and eight translations by in-training translators of nine fragments of the novel were studied. Findings revealed that the translation of Manner-of-motion information is influenced by typological differences between English and Galician, both in verbs and constructions.

Semantic typology: meaning in a cross–linguistic perspective

Semantic typology: meaning in a cross–linguistic perspective

A comparative syntax of internally-headed relative clauses in Gur

Gur (or Mabia) languages which are spoken in West Africa have so-called internally-headed relative clauses (IHRCs), but they have not received serious attention in syntactic and typological research on IHRCs. In this article, building on detailed first-hand data, we describe the syntax and semantics of IHRCs in five Gur languages: Buli, Dagaare, Dagbani, Gurene, and Kabiyé. It is demonstrated that their IHRCs refute the syntactic and semantic generalizations proposed in the literature (Gorbet 1976; Cole 1987; Grosu 2002; Watanabe 1991; 2004). We also compare IHRCs in Gur and Japanese and argue that the existing semantic typology of IHRCs must be reconsidered, showing that properties of two types of IHRCs—restrictive and maximalizing IHRCS—do not necessarily show predicated correlations.This article is part of the special collection: Internally-headed Relative Clauses

Binomials in Russian Speech: Semantic Types and Objective and Subjective Frequency

This article studies the functioning of a particular type of collocations in Russian speech, whose elements are typically connected by means of coordination. The purpose of the article is to reveal the correlation between the objective and subjective frequency of binomials and the discursive variation of this parameter, as well as the types and nature of the idiomatisation of their meaning. The analysis is conducted with reference to texts from the Russian National Corpus, main corpus, and newspaper, oral, and poetic subcorpora, along with data from dictionaries of idioms and psycholinguistic questionnaires. The analysis is based on the methods of corpus linguistics (at the stages of material selection and objective frequency count); psycholinguistics (at the stage of subjective frequency count); and distributive analysis. The authors also employ statistical methods to analyse the obtained data. The analysis helps the authors determine and describe the composition of binomials: the units are ranked according to the average and discursively determined frequency of their usage in Russian speech. The authors also determine the scope of variation of the discursively determined frequency of binomials in the oral, newspaper, and poetic subcorpora. They single out the most frequent binomials, whose functional characteristics are discursively independent, as well as binomials, whose frequency depends on the type of discourse. The results of the objective frequency data analysis are compared with data on subjective awareness of their frequency by native speakers of the Russian language. The authors use the scaling method to establish the subjective frequency of binomials during a psycholinguistic survey. When drawing a functional and semantic typology, the authors contrast groups of binominals according to the presence or absence of secondary idiomatic meanings and their types (formed on the basis of relations of generalisation and metonymy) on the one hand, and metaphor on the other. A list of polysemantic binomials is compiled. The study helps reveal the prevalence of binomials that do not develop polysemy, whose functioning in the text is not associated with the idiomatisation of their meaning based on metaphorical or metonymic transfers or generalisation. Semantic types of binomials are characterised in terms of their frequency. The received data are used to test the hypothesis about the correlation between the degree of semantic cohesion of the components of binomials and the development of polysemy and their frequency. As a result, a positive correlation is found between frequency and the development of polysemy.

Модели семантической деривации в классе предикатов сожаления и раскаяния

The article continues a series of works devoted to the study of naming of emotions in language. The term semantic derivation is used for semantic derivatives that links the different meanings of the same word at the level of synchronous polysemy, and for the relations between meanings of word in different moments of its history. The predicates denoting the regret and remorse in different languages are the subject of the study. Methods of nominating the categories of regret and remorse are studied, which can be traced in the internal form of words, synchronous polysemy and phraseology. The study is based on a large corpus of explanatory and etymological dictionaries. The description is constructed using the inventory of semantic transitions. The compilation of the inventory of semantic transitions is an urgent task for semantic typology. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the study of inner forms of the word is one of the ways of studying the linguistic picture of the world because the inner form reflects the method of concept construction. Interest in diachronic studies of lexical semantics is also determined by the aims of constructing the explanatory models of language. Data obtained in the study of naming of emotions of regret and remorse can also be used in the preparation of the “Catalogue of semantic transitions,” which is currently being developed by Russian linguists.

‘It's mine!’. Re-thinking the conceptual semantics of “possession” through NSM

This study has two main parts. It begins with a conceptual and semantic analysis in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework (Wierzbicka, 1996; Peeters, 2006) Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2002, 2014a) of what linguists term “true possession” or “ownership”. The requirements of the NSM framework force the analysis to be conducted using very simple expressions that are available not only in English, but (ideally) in all languages. The main proposal is that true possession is anchored in a semantic prime with an egocentric perspective that occurs in a predicative construction, i.e. (is) mine. It is argued that expressions like ‘This is mine’ are semantically irreducible and (very likely) universally expressible across the diversity of the world's languages. In the second part of the study, three semantically and grammatically complex “possession verbs” are examined: steal, give, and own. Intricate (but coherent) explications for the English versions of these words are proposed, using (is) mine and a range of other semantic components. Though no claim is made that all languages possess precisely these meanings, this study hopes to help pave the way for a lexical semantic typology of “ownership-related” concepts in the languages of the world.

Do language-specific word meanings shape sensory and motor brain systems? The relevance of semantic typology to cognitive neuroscience

Do language-specific word meanings shape sensory and motor brain systems? The relevance of semantic typology to cognitive neuroscience