Semantic Verb Classes Research Articles

Teaching Implication of Meaning Construction at Morphological Level of Affixation in a Complex Indonesian Verb Formation

A tension exists between rationalists and empiricists regarding the nature of knowledge: innate then activated/discovered (rationalists) or constructed then invented (empiricists). The assumption is that, to a certain extent, basic knowledge seems to be innate in our mind and develops through experience by thinking processes to construct meanings. This meaning construction (thinking), mainly using language, is to make sense of and interpret the world. Meanings should be the primary motivation underlying linguistic constructions at all levels. This paper investigates meaning constructions at the lexical level of affixation by focusing on semantic behaviours of verbs in a complex word formation as an attempt: 1) to find out the semantic patterns of verb-based complex word formation, 2) to reveal if there is an iconic relationship of a sign (signifier) and its meaning (signified), and 3) to suggest for its teaching. Using semantic classes of verbs, based on situation types in deriving complex words, this study attempts to find out semantic patterns of such complex word formation and the possibility of revealing its iconicity. Using Antconc software, this study scrutinized linguistic expressions involving related verbs of state, event, and action in a corpus to reveal meaning construction at that level. The findings show several semantic patterns of verb-based complex word formation and an indication of the iconicity of signs. The paper also offers suggestions for teaching affixation

Semantic Classification of Verbs in Romanian

Semantic Classification of Verbs in Romanian

Auxiliary Selection – Syntactico-Semantic Interfaces in English and Romanian

The present study presents the issue of auxiliary selection in English and Romanian, aiming to underline the specificities of the two languages, and contrast them in terms of differences and similarities as regards auxiliary selection. We analyse the restrictions in the selection of the progressive/imperfective and perfective aspects (that is, the auxiliaries have or be) with different semantic classes of verbs (states, processes, activities) in English, and the difference of selection for perfective and imperfective in Romanian by contrast with the English selection. Furthermore, the present paper also illustrates the differences in auxiliary passive selection between Romanian and English.

On verbal arguments in sign languages

     It is now accepted that sign languages ​​have a rich morphological structure in both flexion and derivation terms. Most foreign scholars believe that sign languages show simultaneous morphology rather than a consistent sequential one. Morphological marking of verbal arguments in the Georgian Sign Language (GESL) verbal paradigm is performed in three ways: 1. Deictive marking, such as the incorporated verb paradigm; 2. Possessive-destination marking with semantic content, such as version category, expressing respectful and disrespectful forms, as an additional semantic marking for an indirect object; and 3. Morpho-syntactic marking – adding the morphological markers for arguments conveyed by nouns. The subject of the transitive verb in the aorist is expressed with an ergative case, for the rest verbal forms the subject is in nominative (unmarked), while the indirect object is often marked with a deictive marker of dative case. Thus, here we have the combination of the abovementioned first and third types. In GESL (and in other sign languages as well) such combinations are usual.    The semantic groups of verbs in sign languages can be distinguished according to the following two principles: The first approach follows and repeats the approaches of spoken languages. Here the classification models of verbs are grouped according to the lexical semantics of verb roots. The second approach can be formulated according to the proper characteristics of sign language verbs. With such an approach, the semantic classification of verbs takes into account the kinetic characteristics of the verb and not its lexical-semantic content. In particular, it will be possible to distinguish the following two main groups of verb in sign languages:Body-related (or body anchored) verbs, and B. Free verbs.

Past habitual actions as relative future? On an unexpected use of the Konkani future participle and its likely origin

In this paper we focus on the functions of the future participle in Goan Konkani. In addition to the more-or-less expected functions of a future participle, such as nominal attribution or marking a future or modal predicate in various subordinate and main clauses, the future participle in Konkani can also mark main predicates with a past habitual interpretation in a construction which we refer to as the “promise-construction”, as it is only found with a small class of main predicates such as promise, intend, think, etc., which take an object complement clause. We argue that the future participle originally denoted an atemporal event and later came to include habitual events with any temporal value (past, present or future), and that this has since grammaticalized with exclusively past habitual temporal reference in this one construction, as this was likely the most common environment in which habitual events of this semantic class of verbs occur.

From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative

Abstract Over the last 300 years, the into-causative (he talked his father into giving him money) increased in frequency and lexical diversity. Changes of this kind are often taken as evidence of functional expansion. From a Construction Grammar (CxG) perspective, this paper argues that what appears to be a loss of restrictions on the verbal slot results from changes in argument mapping links. As the construction provides the argument roles by mapping semantics (causer, causee, result) onto syntax (subject, object, oblique), stronger mapping links increasingly facilitated the use of verbs that are semantically and syntactically atypical for the expression of causation. Data from the Corpus of Historical American English confirm three predictions of this hypothesis with respect to shifts in (i) the semantic classes of matrix verbs, (ii) their general argument structure preferences, and (iii) voice-marking. The results provide evidence for a subtle semantic change from movement into action to manner of causation. The increase in frequency and productivity are hence explained as the consequence of the syntactic form becoming a more reliable cue for causative meaning. We discuss implications for models of language change against the background of current issues in Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG) pertaining to constructionalization vs. constructional change.

Category-specific verb-semantic deficits in Alzheimer’s disease: Evidence from static and dynamic action naming

ABSTRACT We investigated the representation and breakdown of verb knowledge employing different syntactic and semantic classes of verbs in a group of individuals with probable Alzheimer’s Disease (pAD). In an action naming task with coloured photographs (Fiez & Tranel, 1997. Standardized stimuli and procedures for investigating the retrieval of lexical and conceptual knowledge for action. Memory and Cognition, 25(4), 543–569. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03201129), pAD individuals were impaired for naming actions compared to objects. Verb tense was also affected, with simple-past (e.g., chopped) being more difficult to name than the gerundial form (e.g., chopping). Employing action-naming with short movies depicting events and states, we contrasted three verb classes based on their hypothetical structural and semantic/conceptual properties: argument structure, thematic structure, and conceptual templates. The three classes were: causatives (peel), verbs of perception (hear), and verbs of motion (run) Overall, results suggest that individuals with pAD are selectively impaired for verb tense and thematic assignment, but not conceptual-template complexity. Methodologically, we also show that dynamic scenes are more ecologically valid than static scenes to probe verb knowledge in AD.

Как можно было распространять заведомо ложную информацию в xviii веке?

The paper considers a semantic class of verbs with the meaning ‘to spread false information about someone’ that functioned in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia in the 18th century. The research material is the definitions of lexemes published in the dictionary of the “Russian language of the 18th century: Eastern Siberia. Zabaikalie” A. P. Maiorov/

TO THE QUESTION ABOUT THE SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE VERB (IN FRENCH VERBS)

The article deals with the semantic classification of verbs whichdenote the name of the action performed by the noun.

Libyan Students’ Syntactic and Semantic Problems in Using Phrasal Verbs to Write English Texts

This study aimed to explore the existence of syntactic problems and semantic problems and to explain the relation of syntactic problems to semantic problems among Libyan students in using phrasal verbs during writing English texts. The participants in this study were ten Libyan students studying in three Universities in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. The ten participants were from different majors of Master and Doctoral degrees. They can use English language in their study so they have a basic knowledge of English. The data were ten English which taken by Libyan students as previous papers. In this study, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative method to analyze the data. The results showed that Libyan students have three problems related to adverb insertion, particle placement and fronting particle and they have semantic problems in understanding the meanings in the semantic classes of phrasal verbs and semantic (non-)compositionality. Finally, the researcher found out that the syntactic behaviour of particles depends on semantic (non-)compositionality.

Ditransitivity hierarchy, semantic compatibility and the realization of recipients in Korean dative constructions

It has been observed that a subset of dative verbs that can express causation of possession such as cwu- ‘give’, ceykongha- ‘offer’ and cikupha- ‘pay’ may be found in the double accusative frame as well as in the DAT(ive)-ACC(usative) frame in Korean. These verbs contrast with transfer of possession verbs such as kennay- ‘hand’ and phal- ‘sell’ and verbs of sending and throwing, which are found in the DAT-ACC frame only. This paper presents a meaning-based account of the limited productivity of the dative/accusative alternation in Korean dative verbs. Building on Croft et al. (2001) and Levin (2004, 2008b), I argue that the semantic classes of dative verbs form an implicational hierarchy pure caused possession > transfer of possession > caused motion, which ranks verbs in terms of the degree of the compatibility with a caused possession event type. I suggest three criteria for compatibility between verb meaning and constructional meaning and show that the analysis of verb–construction pairings proposed here, when combined with an account of variation, provides a unified explanation for verb distribution patterns observed for ditransitive constructions within and across languages and the morphosyntactic expression of recipients of dative verbs in Korean. It accounts for the limited productivity of the dative/accusative alternation in dative verbs in Korean as a consequence of choosing the cut-off point at the highest end of this hierarchy, thus explaining why only the verb class that is most compatible with the caused possession event type, i.e. pure caused possession verbs, may be used ditransitively.

Encoding definiteness on pronominal objects in Mordvinic

This article examines the morphosyntax of pronouns in object function and reveals the syntactic and morphological differences between nominal and pronominal objects in Mordvinic. The variation in case marking and declension type of nominal objects is affected by definiteness. Indefinite objects are in the basic declension nominative, whereas definite ones are in the definite or possessive declension genitive. Furthermore, definite objects may be indexed on the verb. In this paper, I analyze the morphosyntax of pronouns, in order to reveal the regularities between semantics and morphological marking and to provide a better understanding of definiteness. For this purpose, the finite forms of perception verbs were collected from the MokshEr corpus, which contains written texts in the literary languages, and native speakers were consulted on the results. Perception verbs were chosen for this study because they agree with the object in person and number more frequently than other semantic classes of verbs, thus providing good material for examining the correlation of definiteness with verbal conjugation. The paper shows how definiteness is displayed within the morphosyntax of pronouns and uncovers how verbal conjugation correlates with different pronominal objects.

Semantic Agreement of Aspectual Prefixes and Verbs in Serbian

This paper looks into the idea of empty prefixes and grammatical prefixation in Serbian language. The aim of the paper is to give support to the view that aspectual prefixes in Serbian are not semantically empty and that their meaning is one of the decisive factors in the process of perfectivization even when they do not add any new semantic content to a verb. It is assumed that if prefixes have no meaning, they would be attached to verbs randomly without any effect of the verb semantics. There were two steps in the analysis: semantic classification of verbs and statistical analysis of the effect of verb semantics on the choice of prefix. The results show that the distribution of prefixes among semantic classes is not random and that semantic compatibility between a verb and a prefix is a crucial factor in the grammatical prefixation.

A semântica da construção ditransitiva em perspectiva diacrônica

Este artigo tem como foco a construção ditransitiva do português do Brasil, com o objetivo de examinar sua evolução semântica. Para tanto, compara manifestações dessa construção nos séculos XVIII e XX a fim de investigar se houve mudança em sua morfossintaxe e na classe semântica dos verbos que a instanciam. A abordagem teórica conjuga pressupostos e categorias analíticas da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso (FURTADO DA CUNHA, M. A.; BISPO, E. B.; SILVA, 2013a) e da Gramática de Construções (GOLDBERG, 1995; TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013; HILPERT, 2014). Os resultados obtidos indicam que, tanto no século XVIII como no século XX, em seu sentido prototípico, a construção ditransitiva conceitualiza um evento de transferência física, em que um participante animado (Sujeito) transfere um objeto (Objeto Direto) para uma entidade humana (Objeto Indireto). Além disso, não foi constatada mudança na classe semântica dos verbos que podem instanciar extensões do sentido central dessa construção.

Second Language Acquisition of English Unaccusative Verbs: A Theoretical Critique and Prospects for Future Studies

Unaccusative verbs are a focus of second language acquisition research. Taking the second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs as an example, this study first reviews the Unaccusative Hierarchy Hypothesis, the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis and the Semantic Verb Class Hypothesis, which are exclusively concerned with the acquisition of unaccusative verbs. Then it examines the Entrenchment Hypothesis and the Interface Hypothesis, which address language acquisition in general, but shed light on the second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs. This study maintains that these five hypothesis help to provide a panoramic view of second language acquisition of English unaccusative verbs. But it also points out that these hypotheses need to be further tested. It advises future studies to take a usage-based theoretical approach. It also calls for more attention to the possible between-verb variations, the possible influence of L1 transfer and the online processing of English unaccusative verbs

SYNTACTIC-SEMANTIC FEATURES OF MULTI-VERBS IN THE RUSSIAN AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

The article deals with semantic classes of verbs with different valences. Based on the interpretation of the semantic class of verbs, in the process of teaching the Russian language, semantic representations are used that are the result of the segmentation of the gestalt interpretation, so that the prepositional-case forms and verbs align the semantic in variants - the frame. From the point of view of semantics, the first actant is the subject of action, i.e. the one who performs the action; the second actant is an object that is impacted by a direct action object, a direct object; the third actant is an indirect or further object to whose benefit or to the detriment of which an indirect complement is performed. The semantic side of a sentence assumes its surface form, i.e. the sentence is considered as a sign that has a plan of content and a plan of expression. Both plans are closely related, but a comprehensive approach is needed to clarify the specifics of the organization of each of them and establish their relationship. L. Tenier also emphasized that trivalent verbs, the most structurally complex and the most difficult to master, fall out of the researcher's field of vision. Therefore, the selection of semantic classes of such verbs is of great theoretical and practical importance. The semantics of a verb includes the verb and subject features. The latter are the semantic basis of the valency of the verb. It can be assumed that as part of the semantic interpretation of the distributive-transformational scheme, the correlation between frames and the minimal interpretation determines the case value of each of the actants. To determine the meaning of the case, it is sufficient and necessary to refer the word of this case form to the distributional transformational feature and name the frame corresponding to the segment of interpretation of this noun.

Recent change in stative progressives: a collostructional investigation of British English in 1994 and 2014

The spread of the progressive from dynamic to stative verbs started in the seventeenth century, and slowed down in the late twentieth century. The present study investigates recent change in the use of stative progressives in conversational British English from the early 1990s to the early 2010s. The analysis focuses on a total of 100 stative verb lemmata in the spoken, demographic sections of the original and newBritish National Corpus, restricted to a variable context where a progressive could potentially occur. Results indicate that overall, stative progressives have not become more frequent in the last twenty years, and that the group of stative verbs is highly heterogeneous. However, particular verbs, such asexpectandthink,do indeed combine more frequently with the progressive now, which could be the cause of the popular impression of the continuing spread of stative progressives. In addition to a frequency-based analysis, a distinctive collexeme analysis offers a more fine-grained analysis of the collostructional preferences of individual verb lemmata and semantic classes of stative verbs. This analysis reveals that the stative verbs are heterogenous and that the lemmata most distinctly associated with the progressive belong to the group of stance verbs.

Deverbal zero-nominalization and verb classes: Insights from a database

We investigate deverbal zero-derived nominals in English (e.g., to walk > a walk) from the perspective of the lexical semantics of their base verbs and the interpretations they may receive (e.g., event, result state, product, agent). By acknowledging that, in the absence of an overt affix, the meaning of zero-nominals is highly dependent on that of the base, the ultimate goal of this study is to identify possible meaning regularities that these nominals may display in relation to the different semantic verb classes. We report on a newly created database of 1,000 zero-derived nominals, which have been collected for various semantic verb classes. We test previous generalizations made in the literature in comparison with suffix-based nominals and in relation to the ontological type of the base verb. While these generalizations may intuitively hold, we find intriguing challenges that bring zero-derived nominals closer to suffix-based nominals than previously claimed. Dieser Beitrag ist ursprünglich im Peter-Lang-Verlag erschienen (https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/plg/jwf/2020/00000004/00000002/art00007)

Reconstructing the ditransitive construction for Proto-Germanic: Gothic, Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic

AbstractThe semantic range of ditransitive verbs in Modern English has been at the center of linguistic attention ever since the pioneering work of Pinker (1989.Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press). At the same time, historical research on how the semantics of the ditransitive construction has changed over time has seriously lagged behind. In order to address this issue for the Germanic languages, the Indo-European subbranch to which Modern English belongs, we systematically investigate the narrowly defined semantic verb classes occurring in the ditransitive construction in Gothic, Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic. On the basis of data handed down from Proto-Germanic and documented in the oldest layers of the three Germanic subbranches, East, West and North Germanic, respectively, we show that the constructional range of the ditransitive construction was considerably broader in the earlier historical stages than now; several subclasses of verbs that could instantiate the ditransitive in early Germanic are infelicitous in the ditransitive construction in, for instance, Modern English. Taking the oldest surviving evidence from Germanic as point of departure, we reconstruct the ditransitive construction for an earlier proto-stage, using the formalism of Construction Grammar and incorporating narrowly defined semantic verb classes and higher level conceptual domains. We thus reconstruct the internal structure of the ditransitive construction in Proto-Germanic, including different levels of schematicity.

Degree Resultatives as Second-Order Constructions

Resultatives in English and Dutch have developed special degree readings. These readings stem from a reinterpretation of the resultative predicate as indicating a high degree rather than an actual result. For example, when a parent saysI love youtodeath, one need not call the cops, since the sentence is not about love turning lethal, but merely indicative of a high degree of affection. Such cases have often been noted in the literature as idiomatic, but this view ignores the fact that these are not isolated cases but productive constructions that can be used with a variety of verbs. We explore various resultative constructions in English and Dutch, and give a classification of the subtypes involved as well as their diachronic development from ordinary to degree interpretation. We link these subtypes to lexical semantic classes of verbs. Both English and Dutch show a steady growth in the lexical and structural diversity of degree resultatives throughout the early modern and contemporary periods (1600-2000). We focus in our paper on the period 1800-2000, for which we did an extensive corpus study using the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and Delpher (a collection of digitized Dutch newspapers, journals, magazines, and other resources). One of our findings is that, similar to other types of expressive language, such as degree modification and emphatic negation, taboo expressions play a role in degree resultatives; in fact, their role is excessive. We outline a number of the commonalities among the semantic domains of expressive language used in resultatives.