Verb Classes Research Articles

An Analysis of Japanese Verb Conjugation Errors Among Students at Universitas Harapan Medan

This study aims to identify and analyse the common verb conjugation errors among students in the Japanese Language Program at Universitas Harapan Medan. The research method utilised was the analysis of student essays, focusing on verb conjugation forms such as ~te, ~ta, ~nai, and ~nakatta. The collected data indicates that the most frequent errors occur in the ~te and ~ta forms, accounting for 43.37% and 42.17%, respectively. These findings suggest that students struggle with differentiating between positive and negative past forms. Errors in the negative forms ~nai and ~nakatta were also found at lower percentages. The results of this study indicate a need to improve the teaching methods of verb conjugation at the university.

Analisis Kontrastif Kelas Kata Verba Bahasa Indonesia dan Melayu pada Kamus Bahasa Indonesia dan Bahasa Melayu

Comparative analysis is a branch of linguistics that compares two or more languages ​​to find similarities or differences in form and meaning. Indonesian and Malay have differences and similarities in form or meaning. Furthermore, the aims of this research are, 1) to describe the formation of verb word classes in Indonesian and Malay dictionaries; 2) Describe the similarities and differences of verb classes in Indonesian and Malay dictionaries. Contrastive analysis research uses a qualitative descriptive method. Data collection techniques in this study were carried out through observation, comparative analysis of class statements and documents. Data analysis techniques involve collecting all data, classifying and analyzing the results. The results of the analysis carried out by the author focus on the class of verbs in the Indonesian and Malay dictionaries by comparing their similarities, differences and similarities. Keywords: Analysis of contrasts, verb class, dictionary, meaning, and form

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

Android-Based Media Development For Memorizing Arabic Verbal Conjugation and Its Functional Meaning

Android-Based Media Development For Memorizing Arabic Verbal Conjugation and Its Functional Meaning

A semantic approach for the analysis of verbs in life sciences texts

ABSTRACT This paper presents a corpusbased study of a group of lexical verbs in eighteenth and nineteenth century scientific texts. The study has a twofold aim. Firstly, it aims to select four types of verb classes (verbs of communication, desire, aspectuals and perception) identified by Levin and Noonan and explore their use in the Corpus of English Life Sciences Texts, a subcorpus of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. Secondly, it aims to determine if the frequency of these verbs varies based on the gender of the authors. Further, the study seeks to ascertain if a shifting pattern could be attested in the use of these verbs throughout the two centuries examined in the corpus, at a time when the scientific register was already becoming established. The findings of the study obtained from the greater or lesser occurrence of the verbs in question over the two centuries indicate which ones were more frequent in Life Sciences texts, whether they were more commonly used either by men or women and whether there was a pattern of continued usage of these verbs in Late Modern English scientific language rather than a shift towards nominalisation in this type of discourse.

Updating Old English Dative–Genitives: A Diachronic Construction Grammar Account

This article conducts a corpus linguistics analysis of the dative–genitive subconstruction within the broader context of Old English double object complementation. The ditransitive construction in Old English has traditionally been perceived as a network of alternating subconstructions, including dat-acc, acc-dat, acc-gen, dat-gen, and acc-acc, as the most productive variants. Recent literature has primarily focused on dat-accs and acc-dats because they are the most productive patterns across the history of English, giving also rise to the current ditransitive construction. However, the less productive case frames have received considerably less recent attention. This work, part of an ongoing investigation aimed at creating an OE dat-gen database, builds upon Visser’s list, verified and implemented by findings obtained from a search conducted in the Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus. We obtain 88 verb types and 443 tokens, incorporating 19 new verb types and 260 tokens into the database. More significantly, we offer a detailed description of the conceptual domains and verb classes associated with OE dat-gens, which display a semantics characterized by the presence or absence of actual transfer, as well as transitions from literal to metaphorical transfer, with speech verbs playing a significant role.

Verbal classifiers from a crosslinguistic and cross-modal point of view

Abstract: Whether spoken language verbal classifiers and sign language classifier handshapes are comparable enough to be treated similarly is a subject of debate in the literature. In this article, I first show that both spoken language verbal classifiers and sign language classifier handshapes cross-reference the internal argument in intransitive and transitive clauses. Despite differences in the modality of expression (visual-gestural vs. auditory-oral), verbal classifiers end up accomplishing this same kind of work in the grammar, which falls under absolutive alignment. From a morphosyntactic point of view, however, there is more to the story, as data from body-part classifiers reveal. I show that Turkish Sign Language (TİD) is similar to Manam, Diegueño, and Cherokee with regard to classifiers cross-referencing the external or internal argument’s body part. While some of this falls outside of absolutive alignment because cross-reference is to the external argument, I show that the syntactic distributions of clauses with body-part classifiers in both modalities can be accounted for with a few modifications to recent morphosyntactic proposals originally offered for sign languages. This supports the conclusion that verbal classifiers are comparable across modalities. Along the way, I refine Benedicto and Brentari’s (2004) account and propose that there are building blocks (selected fingers and hand-parts) in the morphophonology of TİD that combine to yield the range of classifiers that researchers hitherto have tended to describe with holistic labels. Namely, all classifier types in sign languages (whole entity, handling, and body part) employ selected fingers that cross-reference the internal argument in some way, similarly to how many spoken language verbal classifiers cross-reference internal arguments. Furthermore, handling and body-part classifiers make use of hand-parts that can cross-reference the body part of the external argument. Similarities between the spoken languages Manam, Diegueño, and Cherokee and the sign language TİD in cross-referencing the body part of an argument in syntax become clear, and the morphophonological patterns of hand-parts also reveal handling and body-part classifiers in sign languages to be more similar than previously thought.

Verbal classifiers from a crosslinguistic and cross-modal point of view: Supplemental Material

Verbal classifiers from a crosslinguistic and cross-modal point of view: Supplemental Material

Semantic Classification of Verbs in Romanian

Semantic Classification of Verbs in Romanian

AVALENT AND MONOVALENT VERBS IN THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

This paper examines avalent and monovalent verbs in the Albanian language and the clause patterns generated with such verbs. Avalent verbs do not select any complement , whereas monovalent verbs require a complement to form the minimal structure of a clause and convey their intended meaning. In Albanian, the classification of verbs by valence is often explained on the basis of their transitivity and their ability to take a subject. However, while transitivity may sometimes suggest a verb's valence, these two classifications should not be equated due to distinct criteria. In Albanian, for example, the number of intransitive verbs significantly exceeds the number of monovalent verbs: all monovalent verbs are intransitive, but not all intransitive verbs are monovalent. This paper aims to clarify the classification criteria and to describe avalent and monovalent verbs; that is, the clause patterns they generate. A comprehensive corpus has been built for this purpose, in which all such verbs and the types of complements they take have been identified and analyzed according to functional, syntactic, and semantic criteria.

Метафорические образы перемещения в жидкой среде в диалекте английского языка Scots

The paper attempts to study the semantics of verbs denoting movement in a liquid medium in the Scots dialect. The aim of the study is to determine the ways of figurative interpretation of the semantics of movement in a liquid medium in Scottish lexical metaphor. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in the Scots dialect, the semantics of verbs of movement in a liquid medium have been studied and described as a basis for creating a system of metaphorical images. The results showed that such a class of verbs is small and poorly differentiated. In the original meaning of the verbal lexemes of this class, such semantic components as “medium”, “speed” and “sound” turned out to be important. These components of the semantics in dialectal verbs served as the basis for a figurative assimilation of processes and phenomena of various spheres of human activity. The metaphorical evaluation of verbs in which the main semantic component of the original (nominative) meaning is movement in a “liquid dirty medium” is most often negative. Movement in such a medium served as a source sphere for the figurative comprehension of a number of deviant social actions, deeds, and human behavior.

Kincretism in crosslinguistic perspective

Traditional anthropology in the vein of Morgan (1871) distinguishes between descriptive and classificatory kinship terms. Mainstream US English father functions as a descriptive term, as it conventionally only indicates one relationship type: `'ego's begetter'. In contrast, Aboriginal English father functions as a classificatory term, as it conventionally indicates both 'ego's begetter' and `'ego's begetter's brother'. We propose that it is possible to study classificatory kinship in the same manner that we study morphological syncretism in nominal and verbal paradigms. We propose toy features for kinship and demonstrate that Murdock's (1949) classical hexapartite typology of kinship patterns is best thought of as a set of metasyncretisms (Harley 2008) generated by impoverishment. In theoretical terms, we contribute to the broader research program of Crossmodular Structural Parallelism (Nevins 2008), in that we argue that kintactic features may interact and be modified in ways homologous to phonological and morphological features. In empirical terms, we provide a genealogically diverse sample of underdescribed language-specific kincretisms outside of the broader Murdockian typology, with an emphasis on kincretisms that involve affinal terms.

Theme maximalization through modifiers: A case of Mandarin verbal classifier <i>bian</i>

Maximalization strategies and their syntactic representations are at the centre of a long debate (Filip & Rothstein 2005; Filip 2008; Martínez Vera 2021; a.o.). Semantically, events can be maximalized with respect to theme, path, degree, etc., and thus maximalization features several types. Syntactically, maximalization has been argued to be exerted by a verb or an argument of the verb. This research offers a novel observation that elements in a modifier position can also introduce maximalization. In particular, I propose that Mandarin verbal classifier bian is a theme-maximalizing element situated in an adjunct of VP. I further provide a compositional analysis within the framework of neo-Davidsonian event semantics. In the end, I compare bian with another theme-maximaling element diao and identify two distinct levels of theme maximalization.

Alternation in the Chinese Event-quantifying Construction: A multivariate approach

In modern Chinese, an object can precede or follow a quantifier (numeral + verbal classifier) when they co-occur after a verb, which is supposedly affected by multiple factors. Within a usage-based probabilistic variationist framework, this study defines the above ordering as the alternation of the Event-quantifying Construction and examines ten potential variables that probabilistically constrain the construction alternation, using three multivariate methods. Results indicated that six variables significantly affect the selection of the two variants, i.e., “Quantifier-first construction” and “Object-first construction”, including the animacy, definiteness, givenness, and pronominality of objects, as well as the length difference between objects and quantifiers and the type of verbal classifiers. The two variants differ in the values of these variables, which may result from the postverbal constraint, the end-focus principle, and the end-weight principle in Chinese. However, these distinctions in the formal or semantic aspects will be neutralized in natural communication, thereby allowing the alternation of this construction.

When morphology is not enough: The acquisition of voice in monolingual Greek children and bilingual children with Greek as a heritage language

ABSTRACT The acquisition of voice in Greek remains understudied, especially in heritage populations. Voice in Greek poses a challenging acquisition task for children due to its syncretism, marking various verb classes as well as passives. The present study explores the acquisition of anticausatives, reflexives, and passives in 6-to-8-year-old monolingual Greek and Greek-German bilingual children with Greek as their heritage language. This age coincides with the immersion of children in the education system. A Sentence Picture Matching task tested participants’ interpretation preferences when ambiguity arises in reflexives and (optionally) (un)marked anticausatives (reflexive/anticausative vs. passive interpretation); it also tested accuracy in passives compared to actives-transitives (passive vs. active interpretation). All children exhibited adult-like performance in reflexives. In anticausatives, despite their lower performance, they were qualitatively similar to adults, exhibiting knowledge of verb classes. Children’s preferences were predicted by age (active-morphology/ACT) and vocabulary (non-active/NACT), confirming the role of the mental lexicon in the acquisition of NACT anticausatives. The only difference between bilingual and monolingual children was in optionally (un)marked anticausatives, both in ACT and NACT, that was marginally predicted by age and grammar production respectively, suggesting that optionality affects bilingual more than monolingual children. In passives, children were less accurate than adults despite ceiling performance in actives-transitives. Bilingual children performed less well than monolingual children and performance was predicted by grammar and exposure. These findings reflect the difficulties of monolingual children with passives and their late acquisition which further affects bilingual development due to reduced input in heritage Greek.

Hybrid subjects in Spanish and Catalan: Halfway between Agents and Patients

We analyze an intransitive construction involving verbs like Spanish matarse ‘kill’ whose subjects appear to have both internal and external argument properties. Examples include Juan se mató en un accidente de coche ‘Juan got himself killed in a car accident’, in which the subject’s referent shows hybrid behavior between agent and patient as it needs to be engaged in an action leading to its accidental death. We propose that the subject’s internal and external argument properties can be accounted for if subjects can bear two semantic roles by virtue of being associated with more than one distinct head in the syntax (Pineda & Berro 2020). We argue that such intransitive uses involve a distinct argument structure from transitive reflexives despite sharing the same surface form, cf., El sospechoso del homicidio se mató al estar rodeado por la policía ‘The suspect killed himself when he was surrounded by the police’. The present account provides evidence that agents and external arguments do not always correlate since some verb classes can have identical surface form, despite involving underlyingly distinct argument alignment.

Unstable Statives – An Observational Study: How British Popular Culture Reveals What is Happening to A Specific Verb Class, and the Possible Reasons for This Development

That a certain class of verb commonly known as ‘statives’ is undergoing change in terms of the way in which certain verbs of this type are being used in everyday speech is nothing new to the field of linguistics. Much has been written about it, and the author of this paper alone has been preoccupied with the subject for many years now. However, notwithstanding that this change has been fairly widely documented for well over half a century, the present paper has been motivated by the desire to capture the root cause of this change in writing and to establish the linguistic conditions that have enabled it to occur. This is not so much a reductionist venture, negatively conceived, as a quest to determine the primary factors involved in what can seem at times to be a most peculiar phenomenon. The method employed to delimit these causal factors proceeds by a process of elimination, while the provision of evidence adopts the traditional, tried-and-tested method of ‘observation and collection’. The stative-specific research papers that examine the current variation constituting the focus of this paper are all from the present century.

Phonological Processes Triggered by Means of Verbs Conjugation in Bantu Languages

This study explores the complex relationship between phonological processes and verb extensions, focusing on the concept of word elasticity, which describes the transformations words undergo based on linguistic contexts. Anchored in the Generative Phonology Theory, which postulates a transition from underlying representation to surface structure, the research aims to understand the phonological outcomes stemming from verb extension morphology, particularly in Bantu languages. Employing a qualitative approach through a documentary systematic review of peer-reviewed literature and academic articles across diverse languages, findings reveal multiple phonological processes, such as elision, assimilation, and palatalization, demonstrating the dynamic shifts induced by verb conjugations. The study concludes that understanding the interplay between morphology and phonology is fundamental, emphasizing the transformative nature of verb extensions in shaping phonological processes across languages.

Introducing agents by binding indices: Implications for subjectless presuppositions and agent entailments.

(Bale 2007) argues, on the basis of the differential availability of subjectless repetitive presuppositions with again with certain verb classes, that the agent argument of eventive transitive verbs is introduced VP-externally (Kratzer 1996), but that the agent argument of intranstive and stative transitive verbs must be taken as a true argument by the verb. We challenge Bale’s claim from two directions. First, we observe that two classes of eventive transitive verbs, resist subjectless presuppositions with again. Second, we show that the unavailability of subjectless presuppositions with these and other verb classes is not an ironclad argument against severing agents from their verbs generally, and, develop a semantic analysis, inspired by an analysis of stative transitive verbs due to Hale & Keyser (2002), on which the relevant classes of verbs inherently make reference to the agent of their event argument in the form of an anaphoric index. This index is subsequently bound by a functional head that introduces the agent argument. The facts and analysis proposed here have wider theoretical implications for the way agents qua external arguments are introduced in general, suggesting that verbs of certain classes and VP-external functional heads may both play crucial roles in the syntactic introduction of the agent argument and its interaction with sublexical modifiers like again.

High frequency as a morphomic coherence inhibitor: evidence from the evolution of some Catalan verbs

Abstract During the Middle Ages, a new verb class was formed within the Catalan 2nd conjugation, characterized by the presence of a velar augment (/g/ or /sk/) in the L-pattern (first-person present indicative and present subjunctive) and PYTA (preterite, old conditional and imperfect subjunctive). In this paper, we study three verbs that avoided, totally or partially, the analogical velarization undergone by most 2nd conjugation verbs: haver ‘to have’, ser ‘to be’, and voler ‘to want’. Based on a corpus of Catalan works ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, we test the extent to which the L- and PYTA-patterns of these three verbs are psychologically real for speakers. The results confirm what some authors have already observed for other languages, pointing out that the high frequency of these specific verbs or the need for phonological congruence could inhibit the morphomic pattern or even block analogical levelling.