Simplex Verbs Research Articles

Particle verbs versus simplex verbs in Maldivian English

AbstractNotwithstanding current indications that English might soon become the country's dominant L1, the structures of English in the Maldives have—despite laudable exceptions—not yet received sufficient academic attention. The present paper studies the contrast between simplex verbs (e.g. COMPRISE) and their innovative particle–verb alternatives (e.g. COMPRISE of) (a) in a short‐term diachronic database of Maldivian newspaper texts and (b) with the help of acceptability ratings of the forms concerned collected through an online survey. The research questions address the relative frequencies of use of innovative particle verbs as opposed to corresponding simplex verbs, the diachronic variability of these relative frequencies and the degree to which the local speech community accepts innovative verb–particle combinations. While the well‐established simplex verbs constitute the overall dominant structural choices, each of the innovative particle verbs has become more frequent in the course of the 14‐year time period observed. These corpus‐based insights align with the generally high acceptability ratings for the innovative particle–verb constructions evident from the survey data, where young women display the largest degree of acceptance towards the innovative particle verbs.

Celebrating diversity: The origins and pathways of three support-verb constructions

Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot of a sentence, such as to make a suggestion in I made the suggestion that she join us. While qualifying as semantic-lexemic phrasemes (collocations and idioms) in Mel’čuk’s Sens-Texte framework, they sit at the lexicon-syntax interface. They qualify as verbal multi-word expressions lexically speaking and form complex predicates syntactically. In classical and post-classical Greek, support-verb constructions form an internally heterogenous group of constructions, yet one that has existed since the earliest records of the language and survives into the modern variety. The present chapter capitalises on the over 2000 years of continuous written history of Greek, and the internal heterogeneity of the group of support-verb constructions, in that it investigates the origins and pathways of three members of this group in the literary (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) and documentary (Duke Database of Documentary Papyri) corpora of Greek. The bulk of documentary texts dates from the 3rd c. BC onwards, whereas the earliest literary texts date from around the 8th c. BC. The variety of sources allows us to trace the three structures of interest through the centuries in varying environments and thus to trace traditions and independent developments. δίκην δίδωμι dikēn didōmi existed as a collocation ‘to give judgement(s)’ from archaic times and into the medieval period, in classical times, the idiom δίκην δίδωμι dikēn didōmi ‘to pay the price for one’s actions’ arose and became indexed for the technical and higher registers. In χάριν ἀπολαμβάνω kharin apolambanō ‘to receive a favour’, the prototypical compound ἀπολαμβάνω apolambanō seems to be diatopically and subsequently diastratically indexed but retreats into the higher registers after the classical period; the canonical simplex verb λαμβάνω lambanō predates it in early classical verse and postdates it. προσέχω τὸν νοῦν prosekhō ton noun exists as an idiom especially in medical discourse from at least classical times onwards but in parallel also as a pragmateme from archaic times onwards. Support-verb constructions are a pattern that is considered near universal in languages, such that especially the methodological tool of the support-verb-construction field developed and drawn upon in this chapter is transferable beyond Greek.

On causatives – A comparison between European Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese

Based on the caused eventuality, causation can be subdivided into the causation of activity and causation of change of state. By analyzing how causatives are expressed in European Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese, this study shows that these two languages exhibit quite many differences in expressing causation of change of state. We observe that many Portuguese verbs that intrinsically involve causative meanings do not have Chinese equivalence in simplex verb forms – their Chinese counterparts may take complex forms, including a construction we call Causative Resultative V-Vs (CR V-Vs). Differences are also found in the derivational process: whereas anticausation plays a significant role in Portuguese, causation is the primary process in Chinese. We attribute the contrast to different semantics of verb roots in the two languages: Portuguese exhibits plenty of result roots that can intrinsically express caused-result meanings; in contrast, Chinese roots tend to denote either a pure activity or a pure (change of) state, and a causative structure is needed to express causative meanings.

Imperfectivability of Russian prefixal perfectives: Regularity and peculiarities

The article provides the results of the study of the imperfectivability (the possibility of suffixal imperfectivation) of Russian prefixed verbs listed according to the Dictionary of the Russian Language. Each monosemic lexeme from the sample was aligned with its imperfective correlate (IPFV2) according to three sources: Yevgenieva’s dictionary, Russian National Corpus (ruscorpora.ru), Google and Yandex Search Engine Results pages (Runet). The results revealed that the average level of the imperfectivability of Russian prefixed verbs rounded to integers lies in the range of 77 % (according to the dictionary data) to 92 % (when taking into account unconventional IPFV2s encountered in RNC and the Russian-language Internet) according to maximal samples, while the minimal samples demonstrated a 80 % to 94 % average imperfectivability level. Thus, the suffixal imperfectivation meets the requirement of regularity of an inflectional category even on the level of a normative dictionary. Moreover, when the RNC and Runet data are also considered, the compliance with the regularity requirement becomes obvious. In addition to assessing the average level of imperfectivability, the paper describes suffixal imperfectivation of specialized subcategories of verbs within prefixal groups, such as denominatives, perfectives formed from perfective simplex stems, verbs ending in -i(zi)rovat’, morphologically marked Aktionsarten and verbs with the suffix -(a)nu-. The acquired results confirm descriptive adequacy of the two-component model of Russian aspect. According to this model, aspect is an inflectional category realized exclusively through suffixal imperfectivation and limited to prefixal verbs (the first component), while actionality is the foundation and explanation for imperfective (and, less frequently, perfective) functioning of simplex verbs (the second component).

Predicate derivations in Thulung

Abstract In this article, I describe a subset of complex predicates in Thulung (Kiranti, Nepal) which I call “predicate derivations” (after Post, Mark. 2010. Predicate derivations in the Tani languages: root, suffix, both or neither? In Mark Post & Stephen Morey (eds.), North East Indian linguistics, 175–197. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India). I argue that these constructions in Thulung are built on grammaticalized elements that can be synchronically considered to be derivational. I focus on their morphology, placing it within the context of simplex verbs, and highlighting certain features – multiple exponence, allomorphy of the derivational suffixes similar to that of simplex verbs – which suggest strongly a development from serial verb constructions. I discuss their functions, which cover valence changes, as well as the marking of associated motion and aspect/Aktionsart. Complex predicates are seen as a feature of South Asian languages, but the types found in Tibeto-Burman languages appear to be quite different, morphologically, from what is found in Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages. This article therefore represents a language-specific description as a contribution to cross-linguistic research on the topic.

Headedness and the Lexicon: The Case of Verb-to-Noun Ratios

This paper takes a well-known observation as its starting point, that is, languages vary with respect to headedness, with the standard head-initial and head-final types well attested. Is there a connection between headedness and the size of a lexical class? Although this question seems quite straightforward, there are formidable methodological and theoretical challenges in addressing it. Building on initial results by several researchers, we refine our methodology and consider the proportion of nouns to simplex verbs (as opposed to light verb constructions) in a varied sample of 33 languages to evaluate the connection between headedness and the size of a lexical class. We demonstrate a robust correlation between this proportion and headedness. While the proportion of nouns in a lexicon is relatively stable, head-final/object-verb (OV)-type languages (e.g., Japanese or Hungarian) have a relatively small number of simplex verbs, whereas head-initial/verb-initial languages (e.g., Irish or Zapotec) have a considerably larger percentage of such verbs. The difference between the head-final and head-initial type is statistically significant. We, then, consider a subset of languages characterized as subject-verb-object (SVO) and show that this group is not uniform. Those SVO languages that have strong head-initial characteristics (as shown by the order of constituents in a set of phrases and word order alternations) are characterized by a relatively large proportion of lexical verbs. SVO languages that have strong head-final traits (e.g., Mandarin Chinese) pattern with head-final languages, and a small subset of SVO languages are genuinely in the middle (e.g., English, Russian). We offer a tentative explanation for this headedness asymmetry, couched in terms of informativity and parsing principles, and discuss additional evidence in support of our account. All told, the fewer simplex verbs in head-final/OV-type languages is an adaptation in response to their particular pattern of headedness. The object-verb/verb-object (OV/VO) difference with respect to noun/verb ratios also reveals itself in SVO languages; some languages, Chinese and Latin among them, show a strongly OV ratio, whereas others, such as Romance or Bantu, are VO-like in their noun/verb ratios. The proportion of nouns to verbs thus emerges as a new linguistic characteristic that is correlated with headedness.

Revisiting Aspect and Aktionsart: A Corpus Approach to Koine Greek Event Typology

<i>Revisiting Aspect and</i> Aktionsart<i>: A Corpus Approach to Koine Greek Event Typology</i>

Complex predicates in Betta Kurumba

AbstractThis paper discusses various types of complex predicates found in Betta Kurumba, a South Dravidian language spoken in southern India. The constructions discussed include causativising and valency-modifying affixes, phrasal compound verbs, and compound verb stems. Compound verb stems are unusual for the language area, as they combine verb roots word-internally rather than as independent words, and have undergone varying degrees of grammaticalization. The origin of the compound verb stem construction is investigated, with the paper demonstrating that this construction was also originally a phrasal structure containing separate verb words. In addition, the history of valency modification and compound verb stem formation is shown to have contributed to the structure of simplex verb words in this language.

The Connection between Aspect and Valency in Simplex and Compound Verbs with Prefixes

This article presents the interrelations between verbal aspect and the verbal valency of simplex verbs and compound verbs with prefixes. It presents (non­loan) prefixes that change the valency of compound verbs compared to simplex verbs and presents examples of verbs with unchanged valency. The valency remains unchanged when the prefix expresses phasality, delimitation or aspectuality (perfectivity). Semantic and valency overlap between a simplex and compound verb can only exist when they are in clear aspectual correlation.

The nominalization of Dutch particle verbs: Schema unification and second order schemas

Abstract The event nominalizations of Dutch particle verbs and other types of separable complex verbs are not derivations from particle verbs, but compounds nouns, with a deverbal head preceded by a word that functions semantically as a modifier of the verbal base of the head noun. This structural analysis explains two empirical generalizations: (i) simplex verbs allow for nominalization with -ing when embedded in compounds; (ii) particle verbs have corresponding nominalizations with the same unproductive type of nominalization as the corresponding simplex verbs. In order to account for these generalizations, the following related concepts from the theoretical framework of Construction Morphology are used: the representation of word formation patterns by means of constructional schemas (in which form-meaning asymmetries can be specified), schema unification (with unified schemas having their own degree of productivity), constructional idioms (constructional schemas with lexically filled slots), and second order schemas. Thus, this case study illustrates the descriptive power of Construction Morphology.

The Syntax and Semantics of Russian Non-Sentence Adverbials

For the first time non-sentence adverbials in Russian are analyzed in their totality, i.e., from a lexical, syntactic and propositional-semantic point of view. They are classified, defined and interpreted according to four propositional structures identified in Russian: (1) state descriptions and (2) activity descriptions – both created by simplex verbs; (3) event descriptions and (4) process descriptions – both involving complex verbs. All four structures function as statement models and are used to represent semantic paraphrases of utterances in order to be able to show the exact contribution from an adverbial to the meaning conveyed by the entire utterance. The paraphrases allow us to define the domain of an adverbial, its scope and its subdomain possibilities corresponding to its possible meanings. They also allow us to describe lexical differences, i.e., the way a specific adverb differs from other adverbs belonging to the same synonymous group. It appears that members of various synonymous groups differ from one another with respect to subdomain, i.e., their differences in meaning are treated as being reflexes of originally deep syntactic differences. In this connection the so-called entailment structure of all verbs involving an activity description seems to have a special explanatory power.

Ontology-based event relation prediction: A SUMO based study of Mandarin VV compounds

This paper explores the interaction between eventive information and morpho-syntax based on Chinese VV compounds. Chinese VV Compounds’ identical morpho-syntactic structure represents different event relations between the two component words and the correct interpretation of the meaning of these compounds relies on the prediction on their event relations. Without overt syntactic clues, we propose that ontology-based conceptual classification can be used to predict the event relation between the two component words. Compounding is the most productive way to research multi-word expressions in Mandarin Chinese. A Mandarin VV compound can be classified according to the eventive relation between two simplex verbs, which specifies how the eventive meanings of the two simplex verbs combine to form the meaning of the compound. The way in which two events combine with each other depends upon their event types, and the three types of eventive relations that we deal with in this paper are coordinate, modificational, and resultative. Using an ontology-based prediction approach, we hypothesized that the eventive relations could be predicted by the conceptual classification of the two simplex verbs’ event types. First, we utilized SUMO and Sinica BOW to classify each simplex verb. Next, the correlation between the ontology-based classification of each verb position and each eventive type was scored using a manually tagged lexical database and a training set was established. Finally, we encoded the ontological information of each VV compound in a 3-tuple based on these correlation scores. This 3-tuple was represented as a three-dimensional vector and was used to predict the eventive type of the new VV compounds. The results of our findings show that the classification experiments on event relation of unknown VV compounds can be reliably predicted based on the ontological classification of their component words.

Four Ways to Get Tangled Up in Russian

In this paper I will analyze the four Natural Perfectives of the simplex verb путатьipf ‘tangle up’, namely впутатьpf, спутатьpf, перепутатьpf and запутатьpf. According to Janda et al. (2013:103), “prefix variation” is a phenomenon that applies to 27% of all Russian verbs and is caused by the ability of prefixes to “focus the meanings of a simplex verb in different ways” (op. cit.:162). My question is: Is it possible to predict the choice of prefix when there is prefix variation? And, if yes: How? My hypothesis is that the choice of prefix largely depends on the construction in which the verb appears and the semantics of its internal argument. Thus, I consider two factors in my analysis: Factor 1 Constructions and Factor 2 Semantics of the Internal Argument. My findings indicate that both factors are vital and, more specifically, that the choice of prefix for this verb to a large extent can be predicted by six tendencies that I will discuss thoroughly.I will argue that these six tendencies are of great relevance to second language learners, like myself, who often find themselves confused at the number of prefixes and, more specifically, Natural Perfectives available for a given verb. The topic of this paper has been born from a desire to gain insight with practical value in second language learning.

When Small Is Many in the Event Domain

This paper pursues the idea that event-internal pluractional verbs are morphologically complex forms that describe non-canonical events and denote in the domain of events constituted by pluralities of phases [Tovena 2010b]. Non-canonicity is understood in comparative terms with respect to the description of the events provided by the corresponding simplex verb forms. The leading question is what is the source of the multiplicative meaning component in verb forms such as tagliuzzare and tossicchiare in Italian, and it is answered by arguing that it arises from the use of diminutive morphology specifically to build verb forms that describe modified events. Parallelisms with the nominal domain strengthen the case for a characterisation of the word formation process as involving diminutive morphology. It is also shown that the type of modification of an event description allowed by forming pluractional verbs is generally more complex that by simple adverbial or PP adjunction, as it involves at least two dimensions of the event. Furthermore, languages may use morphological distinctions to mark different binary oppositions within Cusic’s three level system.

Preverbation and narrativity in Lithuanian. The distribution of finite simplex and compound verbs in narrative main clauses

The article deals with the use of simplex and compound (prefixed) verbs in narrative text. Main clauses comprising finite verb forms in the past and in the past habitual tense are examined in an attempt to establish to what extent simplex and compound verbs exhibit aspect oppositions, and whether a correlation exists between the occurrence of simplex vs. compound verbs and distinct textual units. The investigation shows that although simple and compound verbs in Lithuanian are not in direct aspect opposition to each other, in the background text portions most of the verbs are prefixless past tense forms or habitual forms, whereas in the plot-advancing text portions, the vast majority of verbs are compound verbs in the simple past tense.&#x0D;

'Eξιλ &lt;tex-math&gt;$\acute{\alpha}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; σασθαι: Appeasing God in the Septuagint Pentateuch

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) I. STATING THE PROBLEM The simplex verb ... and its compound ... indicate in Greek literature action appease, placate, propitiate, and are found in both religious and secular realms. The group (hereafter the word or the verb) expresses process by which a person could restore to kindness an aggrieved deity or fellow mortal, who would typically appear as direct object of verb. Septuagint this sense occurs to a limited extent.1 cultic portions of Pentateuch, however, in its meaning propitiate becomes a contextual difficulty. Such a meaning does not equate to ... (pivel), which there does not mean appease but rather something like of impurities.2 Moreover, Greek verb does not appear in syntax familiar to Greek readers. Instead of a human or deity appearing as direct object in accusative, a prepositional phrase or, far less frequently, an impersonal noun as direct object now follows verb. The nouns in prepositional phrases are often individuals, but could also be items such as tents and altars or abstracts such as life and sin. If verb could convey something like purge, purify, or expiate in these types of constructions, it would make better contextual sense, especially since this is what Hebrew means. The resolution of this contextual difficulty has been guided by considerations extraneous to LXX as a corpus of linguistic information. For instance, readers from earliest times have noticed that ... and cognates in meaning of appease were intrusive into Jewish and Christian thought. Consequently, in much of attention paid to this in secondary literature aim has been to resolve theological contradiction posed by LXX language, in which deity is propitiated by sacrifice, when Hebrew Bible and NT do not on face of it support such a notion. this regard, C. H. Dodd posited a development in meaning such that expiate or purge would be considered part of word's semantic range.3 That is, after all, what translators must have known term to connote if it came to stand in for a Hebrew of that meaning, or so his argument goes. Dodd's work was and remains highly influential.4 It is not surprising, therefore, to encounter meaning purge for in a LXX lexicon or a NT commentary that draws on Septuagintal usage. T. Muraoka and J. Lust et al. list in addition to standard meanings also sense of purge.5Harold W. Attridge in his commentary on Epistle to Hebrews states that in LXX words ... and ... had come to be used for expiation as well as propitiation. In Hebrews, he observes, Christ's sacrifice is always directed at removing sin and its effects, not at propitiating God.6 The central question for this study is whether such a semantic shift is borne out by philological data. II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP Since appearance of Dodd's work, another kind of solution has been put forward that focuses on meaning of Hebrew context. Leon Morris's argument, articulated first in an article in Expository Times and later in a monograph, rests on assumption that meaning of ... is indeed propitiate or else translators would not have employed Greek equivalent, or that, at least, respective Hebrew contexts contained idea of God's wrath, so that translators employed a that responds well to such contexts.7 Morris's work is commendable, although my impression is that, had he argued for Greek word's meaning from perspective of its standard meaning, he would have arrived at similar conclusions. Instead he opened himself up to criticism by resorting to Hebrew context. I shall return to his arguments below. What one encounters in other studies is an emphasis on evidentiary value of Greek context with no regard for its relationship to Hebrew parent text. …

Light verbs as classifiers in Udi

In Udi, most verbal lexemes are composed, in all tense-aspect-mood categories, of a light verb and an ‘initial’. It is argued here that in the first stage of this development, simplex verbs were juxtaposed with focused constituents. In the second stage, initials and verbs formed compounds, and this pattern spread beyond those that had once involved focus. In the third stage, the subject of this paper, light verbs become classifiers, classifying the verb type — inchoatives, other unaccusatives, unergatives, transitive verbs of inherently directed motion, transitive change-of-state verbs, other transitives. I argue also that the classes identified by (some of) the light verbs have not become less semantically motivated; rather the semantics has shifted from a relatively narrow meaning to one of the three major classes.

Bergin’s Rule

Bergin’s Rule constructions, whereby verbs in Old Irish occur in other than normal clause-initial position and with ‘conjunct’ flexion in simplex verbs and ‘prototonic’ stress in compound verbs, has traditionally been viewed as evidence for the language’s prehistoric clausal configuration, usually considered to be SOV or, more recently, V2. Others view the construction as entirely artificial, i.e., as not reflecting any historical reality, perhaps based on Latin models. This paper demonstrates that the difficult evidence emphatically does not support a V2 analysis, but is otherwise indeterminate. The conjunct flexion of simplex verbs and the prototonic stress of compound verbs used in the construction is also diagnostic of the fact that it is not simply the result of scrambling the normal VSO clausal configuration of Old Irish, but represents vestiges of real syntax.

The influence of semantic and morphological complexity of verbs on sentence recall: Implications for the nature of conceptual representation and category-specific deficits

One hundred and forty normal undergraduate students participated in a Proactive Interference (PI) experiment with sentences containing verbs from four different semantic and morphological classes (lexical causatives, morphological causatives, and morphologically complex and simplex perception verbs). Past research has shown significant PI build-up effects for semantically and morphologically complex verbs in isolation ( de Almeida & Mobayyen, 2004). The results of the present study show that, when embedded into sentence contexts, semantically and morphologically complex verbs do not produce significant PI build-up effects. Different verb classes, however, yield different recall patterns: sentences with semantically complex verbs (e.g., causatives) were recalled significantly better than sentences with semantically simplex verbs (e.g., perception verbs). The implications for the nature of both verb-conceptual representations and category-specific semantic deficits are discussed.

Solving the bracketing paradox: an analysis of the morphology of German particle verbs

Inflectional affixes are sensitive to morphological properties of the stems of the verbs they attach to. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the inflectional material is combined with both the verbal stem of simplex verbs and the verbal stem of particle verbs. It has been argued that this leads to a bracketing paradox in the case of particle verbs since the semantic contribution of the inflectional information scopes over the complete particle verb. I will discuss nominalizations and adjective derivation, which are also problematic because of various bracketing paradoxes. I will suggest a solution to these paradoxes that assumes that inflectional and derivational prefixes and suffixes always attach to a form of a stem that already contains the information about a possible particle, but without containing a phonological realization of the particle. As is motivated by syntactic properties of particle verbs, the particle is treated as a dependent of the verb. The particle is combined with its head after inflection and derivation. With such an approach no special mechanisms for the analysis of particle verbs are necessary.