Working paper
Syntactic structure of participial clauses in Meadow Mari
This dissertation analyzes the reflexivity patterns in Uralic languages from the point of view of a minimalist approach to binding. The languages under consideration are five Uralic languages spoken in the Russian Federation: Meadow Mari, Komi-Zyrian, Khanty, Besermyan Udmurt, and Erzya. The empirical data were compiled during fieldwork, and are used to test and assess current approaches to binding. The main focus of the dissertation is on a number of puzzles posed by these languages, namely the locally bound pronominals in Khanty, as well as the binding domains of what I call semi-reflexives and their ability to take split antecedents in Meadow Mari, Komi-Zyrian, Besermyan Udmurt, and Erzya. The analysis of reflexive strategies proposed in this dissertation is based on a modular approach to binding (see Reuland 2011). It disentangles the various factors playing a role in establishing interpretive dependencies, including properties of predicates and syntactic chains. The puzzling behavior of reflexive strategies under discussion is accounted for in terms of their morphosyntactic composition in tandem with general properties of grammatical computation. The present approach provides a unified basis for verbal and nominal reflexives. Overall, the study shows that cross-linguistic variation is not random. It demonstrates how descriptive fieldwork and theoretical research can be mutually beneficial and how their symbiosis deepens our understanding of the general principles underlying language, and the way these are rooted in our cognitive system.
Gradience in syntax is often described as having prototype-based architecture. However, the syntactic prototypes postulated in literature are not all alike. In this paper, we distinguish between (i) true prototypes, which are based on clear linguistic evidence, (ii) liminal prototypes, which are associated with diachronically unstable patterns and hence cannot be precisely determined, and (iii) fake prototypes, which are based on effects that only reflect the diversity of sources of a phenomenon. In relation to these three kinds of concepts, we discuss relative clause constructions, serial verb constructions and the notion of subject.
This paper is a pilot comparative study on coreference chaining in three languages, namely, Czech, English and Russian. We have analyzed 16 parallel English-Czech newspaper texts and 16 texts in Russian (similar to the English-Czech ones in length and topics). Our motivation was to find out what the linguistic structure of coreference chains in different languages is and what types of distinctions we should take into account for advancing the development of systems for coreference resolution. Taking into account theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of coreference we based our research on the following assumption: the recognition of coreference links for different structural types of noun phrases is regulated by different language mechanisms. The other starting point was that different languages allow pronominal chaining of different length and that coreference chains properties differ for the languages with different strategies for zero anaphora and different systems for definiteness marking. This work reports our first findings within the task of the structural NP types’ distribution comparison in three languages under analysis.
Andi, Botlikh and Avar mostly use native ‘time’ nouns to form temporal subordinate clauses. In Andi and Botlikh the cognate nouns rihi and rihu // riw are morphologising towards temporal converb markers, however in Avar, there is no such development. meχ and other nouns in temporal expressions in Avar more frequently appear in ergative, but only zaman appears more frequently in locative. In temporal subordinate clauses with a participle this difference disappears. Possibly zaman + locative is contact-induced through (Kipchak). Turkic languages spoken in the area though this requires further investigation.
This article introduces the verb’s categories offered by Europe linguists in second half of the 19th century. Description of the structure of the Korean language was made in comparison with the grammar of the European languages. Authors of the first Korean grammar based their theories on philosophical perceptions about universalism of grammatical standards represented by A. Arnauld and Cl. Lancelot in Port-Royal grammar.
The paper focuses on the paths of grammaticalization of the verb of speech manaš (‘say’, ‘name’) in Eastern Mari. The converb of this verb (manən) is desemantisized, it loses the syntactic properties of the verb of speech and shifts to the category of subordinators. Successive grammaticalization steps of this marker can be observed in Modern Mari: in some contexts it functions as a quotation marker, while in others as a subordinator. We suggest two paths of grammaticalization of this form on the basis of the given analysis: the fi rst path involves the context of verbs of speech, mental and emotive complementtaking predicates, the second path involves the contexts of causation and potential situation (in complementation), purpose and causal adverbial clauses. The argumentation for this grammaticalization pattern is based on the constraints on subordinate predicate encoding (acceptability of non-fi nite clauses with manən), the choice of pronouns [we focus on the choice of the anaphoric vs. deictic strategy of encoding the textual («original» in [Aikhenvald 2008]) speaker and hearer] and the mood of the verb in the complement clause. We show that in Modern Mari the analyzed form can have the following functions: as a quotation marker, as a subordinator in complement and adverbial clauses, as a discourse marker of hesitation and autocorrection, and as a semantically empty subordinator that is used to express negation with the infi nitive.
The paper is focused on the study of reaction of italian literature critics on the publication of the Boris Pasternak's novel "Doctor Jivago". The analysys of the book ""Doctor Jivago", Pasternak, 1958, Italy" (published in Russian language in "Reka vremen", 2012, in Moscow) is given. The papers of italian writers, critics and historians of literature, who reacted immediately upon the publication of the novel (A. Moravia, I. Calvino, F.Fortini, C. Cassola, C. Salinari ecc.) are studied and analised.
In the article the patterns of the realization of emotional utterances in dialogic and monologic speech are described. The author pays special attention to the characteristic features of the speech of a speaker feeling psychic tension and to the compositional-pragmatic peculiarities of dialogic and monologic text.