Verb Constructions Research Articles

The Aspectual Meaning of Non-Aspectual Constructions

The distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect has been identified in many languages across the world. This paper shows that even languages that do not have a dedicated perfective—imperfective distinction may endow a verbal construction that is not specifically aspectual with a perfective value. The crucial diagnostic for identifying perfectivity in a given non-aspectual construction is a difference in the temporal interpretation of clauses involving that construction, licensed by the actionality class of the main predicate: while stative verbs have a present interpretation, dynamic verbs yield a non-present (past or future) interpretation. This pattern of interaction is triggered by a phenomenon that has been referred to as the ‘present perfective paradox’, i.e., the impossibility of aligning dynamic situations with the time of speaking while at the same time conceptualizing them in their entirety. The latter type of construal is argued to be the main function of perfective aspect. The range of non-aspectual constructions with underlying perfective semantics includes ‘iamitive’ markers, an evidential, an epistemic supposition marker, a focus marker, a polar question marker, and a declarative marker. These constructions come from typologically different and genetically unrelated languages, illustrating the cross-linguistic salience of the category of perfective aspect.

АРГУМЕНТНА СТРУКТУРА НА НЯКОИ ДВОЙКИ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИ ПРЕДИКАТИ И ПРЕДИКАТИВИ / ARGUMENT STRUCTURE OF SOME PAIRS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PREDICATES AND PREDICATIVES

The main topic of this study is the syntactic realization of the arguments of the predicates радвам (to rejoice; make someone glad) and радвам се (to be glad) and the predicative constructions expressing positive emotion (joy) in Bulgarian. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs denoting emotions, also known as physiological verbs or psych predicates, obligatorily assign the semantic role of experiencer to one of their arguments. The comparison between verbal predicates and predicative constructions demonstrates the differences concerning the type of argument expression (as a direct or an indirect object), the prepositions that introduce indirect object phrases, explicit and null subject realizations and the syntactic marking of semantic roles. Keywords: emotional predicates, psychological verbs, complements, experiencer

Subject Raising in Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verb Constructions: A-movement or A′-movement?

Abstract Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as hui and yao can take a nonfinite TP complement which cannot value the abstract case of the embedded subject. Hence the embedded subject must get its case valued by the matrix T and is raised to the Spec-TP of the matrix clause. This kind of raising is A-movement and is obligatory. Modal auxiliary verbs such as keneng and yinggai take a finite CP complement that can be assigned tense value by the broader context. The embedded subject can get its case valued and stay in situ. It can also be raised to the sentence-initial position by topicalization. This kind of raising is A′-movement. The A-movement and A′-movement contrast accounts for the minimal link condition in object raising, weak and strong quantificational NPs, topic stacking, and resumptive pronouns in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions.

Поетична формула календарно-обрядового тексту як маркер етностилістики

Formulaicity is one of the basic folklore principles. It means the stereotypy of linguistic and semantic constructions, embedded into the poetic canon in one way or another. The researchers nominate these stable repeated elements in various ways, namely formulas, invariable phrases, themes, motifs, loci communes, traditional epithets, similes, metaphors, parallelisms, idioms, fixedverbal complexes, blocks. The article is aimed at the formulaicity studying as one of the typological universals of various folklore genres. Introductory or initial formulas, containing chronological instructions, spatial parameters, are distinguished according to the compositional significance, their place in the text. These are stable rhythmic verbal constructions characterized by recognizability and stereotipicity. They execute memory (mnemonic), utilitarian and aesthetic functions. Semantic and functional ranges of formulaicity are revealed in the article. They can consolidate significant ritual-based and meaning determining segments of the text, contribute to better content preservation. They are called the aesthetic marker used to define the folklore style of the genres. The object of the research includes the formulas types – medial, situated in the key elements of the compositional structure emphasizing the dignity of the master, strength, beauty, etc., request-formulas, warning formulas, formulas of the impossible. The wishes aimed at ensuring good harvest, health and well-being of a person belong to the final formulas. They are expressed often in an imperative form.

A Usage-Based Proposal for Argument Structure of Directional Verbs in American Sign Language.

Verb agreement in signed languages has received substantial attention for a long time. Despite the numerous analyses about the linguistic status of verb agreement, there is little discussion about the argument structure associated with “directional verbs,” also known as agreeing/agreement or indicating verbs. This paper proposes a usage-based approach for analyzing argument structure constructions of directional verbs in American Sign Language (ASL). The proposal offers low-level constructions for reported speech, non-dedicated passive and reflexive, and stance verb constructions, which capture the patterns, abstracted from recurring usage events, that are part of users’ linguistic knowledge. The approach has potential to push the field of sign linguistics in new directions of understanding the interplay of language use and structure.

Aspectual Verb Constructions in Persian

AbstractThis paper aims to describe and explain the different morphosyntactic and semantic features of some double verb constructions in Persian, an Indo-European language mainly spoken in Iran. It is argued that these double verb constructions are not instances of serial verb construction, but instances of emerging aspectual verbs with varied degrees of grammaticalization. It is argued that numerous factors lead to grammaticalization of these verbs, including context, the semantic class of the verbs, and their frequency. A corpus-based analysis shows that these aspectual verbs have been grammaticalized in different ratios during the last one hundred years, demonstrating ongoing change in the Persian language.

On Coordination and Clitic Climbing in Spanish Auxiliary Verb Constructions

AbstractIn this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing in Spanish sentences with auxiliary verbs. We aim at shedding light on three kinds of structures, or ‘scenarios’: (1) those in which we find coordinated auxiliaries taking a single lexical verb as complement (Puede y debe hacerlo); (2) those in which a single auxiliary takes coordinated lexical verbs as complement (estás molestándonos y mirándonos), and (3) those in which coordinated auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross, John Robert. 1967.Constraints on variables in syntax. Cambridge: MIT disertation, can account for the facts without the need forad hocmachinery.

Modal auxiliary verb constructions in East African Bantu languages

Modal auxiliary verb constructions in East African Bantu languages

Thinking as a function and its decomposition into a Taylor series

The paper hypothesizes the possibility of applying the mathematical construction of the Taylor series in the semantic space. Then symbolic forms, like some spiritual functions that display the immanent in semantic space and are explicated in the form of verbal constructions, can be tried to decompose into a Taylor series. The first terms of the Taylor series of thinking functions carry basic meanings that are conjectured by secondary forms, tertiary, etc., as in the case of the usual Taylor series, where the first term of the series is a constant, the second term is linear, determined by the first derivative of the function, the third is quadratic, otherwise acceleration. The paper shows that all of the above can be found in the paradigms of thinking called Foucault epistems. The world in ancient philosophy seemed unchangeable or cyclical, which refers us to the concept of a constant or the first term of the Taylor series of the function of thinking. With the advent of Christianity, the circle of time turned into a straight line, the concept of evolution appeared. This stage was completed by Galileo, who introduced the idea of speed into the paradigm of thinking, which completed the formation of the second, linear term of the Taylor series of the thinking function. The third term of the series appeared in Newton's theory and entered the next episteme with the idea of acceleration. Deductively, one can continue the decomposition of the thinking function into a Taylor series and imagine the appearance of a member of the series responsible for the third derivative.

VP-Nominalization and the Final-over-Final Condition

The Final-over-Final Condition has emerged as a robust and explanatory generalization for a wide range of phenomena (Biberauer, Holmberg, and Roberts 2014, Sheehan et al. 2017). In this article, we argue that it also holds in another domain, nominalization. In languages that show overt nominalization of VPs, one word order is routinely unattested, namely, a head-initial VP with a suffixal nominalizer. This typological gap can be accounted for by the Final-over-Final Condition, if we allow it to hold within mixed extended projections. This view also makes correct predictions about agentive nominalizations and nominalized serial verb constructions.

Complex and Simple Sentences: Issues Translation Correspondence in Russian and Chinese

The question of correspondences in the translation of complex sentences from Russian into Chinese is considered. It is noted that at present, translation correspondences in Russian and Chinese, including in the field of syntax, have not been studied enough. It is indicated that the difficulties of translation may be related to the discrepancy between the number of types of complex sentences in Russian, which are more than in Chinese. It is shown that some complex structures do not have an equivalent in Chinese and are translated into simple Chinese sentences. The author shows that complex sentences with explanatory clauses in Russian correspond not only to sentences with an included part in Chinese, but also to two-part and one-part sentences. The correspondence of complex sentences with attributive clauses, with relative clauses and degrees to different members of simple sentences of the Chinese language, as well as to chain sentences is substantiated. It is stated that some clauses of the tense (for example, with the conjunction NOT YET) correspond to circumstances, post-positional definitions of predicates, or one of the verbal constructions of a sentence with a sequential verbal predicate (连动句) in Chinese.

When past meets future in Persian: A construction grammar approach to futurity

ABSTRACT In Persian, two of the verbal constructions used for expressing futurity – the Past Simple and the Future Simple – are built around the past form of the main verb. This paper seeks to demystify this connection between the past and the future by investigating how these past forms contribute to the expression of futurity and setting this within an overall analysis of the future constructions in this language. Based on the form of the main verb in 940 sentences with verbal future constructions, six constructions were identified and categorized into future-oriented past constructions (FPST), which include the Past Simple and the Future Simple, and future-oriented present constructions (FPRT), which include the Present Simple, the Present Progressive, the Present Subjunctive and the WANT construction. A construction grammar approach together with Reichenbach and neo-Reichenbach terminology was then utilized to distinguish the differing relations between tense, aspect, mood and speaker perspective, and assign syntactic-semantic maps in terms of features such as level of formality, perfectness, intended future, certainty and inner aspect (aktionsart) to each of the FPST and FPRT constructions. It is argued that the use of the past form of the main verb in the Past Simple and the Future Simple (FPST constructions) owes much to aspectual and ontological factors, with the past element indicating certainty, perfectness and a speaker perspective of looking back.

The Phonetic Connotation of the Appending Letter Alef in the Holy Qur’an

Appending is a morphological term which means the addition of one or two letters to a structure to be similar to other structures of well-known abstractor additional nouns and verbs constructions. The goal of appending is to organize what have been expanded linguistically and collect similarities to reduce the syntactic rules. This is because the appended word exists for expanding purposes; however, it has no construction of its own. An appending was included with another construction with mentioning the additional letter. This by itself means that appending as a process is a term that helps organize rather than expand language. Scholars further noticed that the appending letter is not semantically significant, and so it differs from the increasing letter (letters of sa’altomoniha). However, since every addition in the structure has an additional meaning, the appending letter must have a benefit as well. Besides, the hypothesis here is having an audio suggestive connotation adds to the different lexical, contextual and figurative connotations of a word. This connotation is the connotation of multiplication, exaggeration and amplification of the appending letters in general, and the connotation of extension and lengthening in the letters of extension in particular. The approach adopted follows the words attached to the Holy Qur’an and the scholars’ sayings of appending descriptively and analytically.

‘-어 버리-’의 의미에 대한 소고

The purpose of this paper is to consider the meaning and usage of the auxiliary verb construction ‘-어 버리(eo beori)-’. The meaning of ‘-어 버리(eo beori)-’ has been discussed in point of view, both aspect and emotive attitude. However, it is difficult to see these in the meaning of ‘-어 버리(eo beori)-’. Thus, from the perspective that the usage of grams could be divided into the meaning level and the pragmatic level, this paper argues that the meaning of ‘-어 버리(eo beori)-’ could be divided into meaning and pragmatical meaning. From this point of view, It is argued that the meaning of ‘-어 버리(eo beori)-’ is ‘a change in essence’ which means a change in state or situation. And the things that have been mentioned as emotional attitudes correspond to lexicalized implications.

The syntax of directional Serial Verb Constructions in French-based creoles

Abstract This article bears on directional Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in French-based creoles. Starting with a working definition of our topic of study, we present a detailed description of the data in Martinican Creole (MQ) – whose grammar is similar in the relevant respects to that of Haitian (HC). Four different structural patterns are distinguished. Our results bring partial support to Aboh’s (2015) assumption that the emergence of Haitian SVCs might have resulted from congruence between Gbe SVCs (analysed as ‘causative-like’) and French Clause Union. We argue that this idea finds further confirmation in cross-creole comparison, but only concerns one type of (directional) SVC.

Multiple Objects, Serial Verbs and the Question of Argument-Sharing

This paper explores syntactic operations that obtain in multiple object and serial verb constructions in Akoose, a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. Focus is placed on the structure and types of multi-verb constructions (MVCs), the structure of (MVCs), as well as multiple object constructions (MOCs). The paper also examines argument-sharing in both (MVCs) and (MOCs). The analysis is done following insights from Chomsky (1981, 1995; Miyagawa, 2010). While (MOCs) display predicates with two structural patterns, namely [VP, [NP IO [NP DO]]] and [VP, [NP DO [NP IO]]], serial verb constructions (SVCs) constitute a maximum of three different VP structures, namely a) [V1 [XP [V2]], b) [XP [V1 [V2]], and c) [V1[V2 [XP [V3]]]. It is found that notwithstanding the normal SVO word order in the language, complex serial verbs impose an S-V1-V2-(V3)-O word order, which further derives S-V1-V2-O-V3 and S-V1-O-V2-V3 surface variants. The analysis further reveals that irrespective of the complex nature of structures examined and the various transformational operations they undergo, there is no argument sharing in MOCs and SVCs in Akoose.

Light Verb Constructions as Means of Expressing Semelfactive/Multiplicative Meanings in J.K. Rowling’s Discourse (on the basis of novels ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’)

The article discusses the problem of light verb constructions in contemporary English on the basis of novels ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ by J.K. Rowling. We (the authors) state that most of light verb constructions denote either semelfactive or multiplicative meanings within the framework of Smith’s (1997) theory of aspect in which five situation types, namely states, activities, achievements, accomplishments, and semelfactives are distinguished. The aspectual meaning of a light verb construction is concentrated in its nominal component which can be proved by the existence of for, with-phrases like for a better look, where the verbal component is omitted. The singular of the deverbal noun indicates a semelfactive meaning, whereas the plural form expresses a multiplicative one. The verbal component in such constructions may be represented by ‘light’ verbs such as take, have, make, do, give or ‘heavy’ verbs like cast, draw, shoot etc. The qualitative characteristics of light verb constructions can be intensified by prepositive and postpositive modifiers such as quick, short, sharp etc. On the basis of novels ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ by J.K. Rowling 97 and 115 light verb constructions have been singled out and analyzed respectively. The results of the research contribute to the study of verbal plurality in English.

The Construction of Passive Verbs in Central and Banyumas Javanese: A Study of Typology

Typology is a language study that is used to classify the characteristics or behaviors contained in the Central Javanese and Banyumas languages. This study discusses how the construction of passive verbs in Central Javanese and Banyumas languages ​​and how to group them based on the characteristics of passive sentences in general. The method used is the listening and note-taking method with respondents who are native speakers of the two languages. This research reveals that there are at least four language characteristics discussed, such as; the use of prefixes dak- kok-, and di- in Central Javanese and tek-, kok-, and di- in Banyumas Javanese and how the rules are used. Then, this study also explains how the change in the form of the verb from the original 'colong' or 'take' to 'tekcolong' or 'taken', and it proves that the subject in both languages ​​can be erased. The fourth characteristic is discussing the sound changes that result from passivation in Central Javanese and Banyumas.

Light Verb Constructions in German and Their Equivalents in Thai: A Contrastive Analysis through the Example of the Constitutional Texts

The present article is a contrastive analysis that deals with light verb constructions in German and their equivalents in Thai. The purpose of the study is to answer the following questions: 1) Which light verb constructions occur in the constitutional texts? How can they be categorized?; 2) Which forms occur in Thai as equivalents of German light verb constructions? How can they be categorized?; 3) What is the difference between the use of the light verb constructions in the original German text and in the German translation text?; 4) What is the difference between the use of the Thai equivalents of German light verb constructions in the original Thai text and in the Thai translation text? For the analysis, a bidirectional parallel corpus consisting of constitutional German and Thai texts and their translation into the other language was used. The results of this contrastive study can explain both differences and similarities between the two languages and the original and translated texts, such as morphological forms, active and passive meaning, and degree of structural strength, including the most frequently occurring light verb constructions and light verbs in the constitutional texts. In addition, it was found that Thai equivalents have a greater variety and the proportion of passive meaning in German is a little larger than in their Thai equivalents

Characterizing macro- and micro-structures of narrative skills for Mandarin-speaking school-age children with specific language impairment

IntroductionLittle is known about the narrative skills of Mandarin-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). This study was aimed to capture the features of narratives for school-age Mandarin-speaking children with SLI. MethodsOral narrative samples by 55 Mandarin-speaking children with SLI [higher grades, recruited from Grade 4–5, n = 26, Mage = 11.00 years, SD = 0.56; lower grades, recruited from Grade 1–3, n = 29, Mage = 8.05 years, SD = 0.89] were compared with typically developing (TD) children on macro- and micro-structures of narratives. ResultsThe results revealed that across grades, for macrostructure, children with SLI lagged behind TD children in narrative pattern scores. For microstructure, children with SLI were constrained in the total number of words, the total number of different words, and the mean length of utterance. They also used fewer serial verb constructions, clausal objects, and temporality conjunctions. They were less adequate in the three referential functions of introduction, maintenance, and switch. Furthermore, the results showed that older children demonstrated higher narrative pattern scores, longer MLU, and higher proportions of conjunctions and referential forms of switch. ConclusionsThese results suggest that both macro- and micro-structure measures in narratives are sensitive to linguistic difficulties for children with SLI and that some of these measures are sensitive to grade growth. The findings shed light on the assessment and developmental changes of school-age Mandarin-speaking children with SLI and TD children.