Non-Finite Relativization. A Typological Study in Accessibility.
Non-Finite Relativization. A Typological Study in Accessibility.

Author: Ladislav Drozdík

Publisher: Ústav orientalistiky SAV

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13: 8080950660

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The monograph is dealing with the non-finite relativization formally marked by the absence of dependent clauses. The traditional grammar tends to classify these constructions in terms of sentences with multiple attribute. In a number of languages, however, such constructions represent the unique way to express relativity (Turkic languages, Korean, Japanese, among others). The primary aim of the study is to establish the relation between subject and non-subject non-finite relatives in database languages: Arabic, Hungarian, Turkish and Korean. In contrast to Indo-European languages, like English, German and Russian, where the non-finite relativization is reduced to subject, that of all database languages involves non-subject as well. This monograph explores the structural parameters controlling the relation betweem subject and non-subject relatives (mainly the type of relativizer and word-order) which may considerably vary.

Non-Finite Relativization. A Typological Study in Accessibility.
Non-Finite Relativization. A Typological Study in Accessibility.

Author: Ladislav Drozdík

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9788080950668

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The monograph is dealing with the non-finite relativization formally marked by the absence of dependent clauses. The traditional grammar tends to classify these constructions in terms of sentences with multiple attribute. In a number of languages, however, such constructions represent the unique way to express relativity (Turkic languages, Korean, Japanese, among others). The primary aim of the study is to establish the relation between subject and non-subject non-finite relatives in database languages: Arabic, Hungarian, Turkish and Korean. In contrast to Indo-European languages, like English, German and Russian, where the non-finite relativization is reduced to subject, that of all database languages involves non-subject as well. This monograph explores the structural parameters controlling the relation betweem subject and non-subject relatives (mainly the type of relativizer and word-order) which may considerably vary.

Relative Clauses in Time and Space
Relative Clauses in Time and Space

Author: Rachel Hendery

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2012-07-18

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 9027273685

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This book presents a comprehensive survey of historically attested relative clause constructions from a diachronic typological perspective. Systematic integration of historical data and a typological approach demonstrates how typology and historical linguistics can each benefit from attention to the other. The diachronic behaviour of relative clauses is mapped across a broad range of genetically and geographically diverse languages. Central to the discussion is the strength of evidence for what have previously been claimed to be ‘natural’ or even ‘universal’ pathways of change. While many features of relative clause constructions are found to be remarkably stable over long periods of time, it is shown that language contact seems to be the crucial factor that does trigger change when it occurs. These results point to the importance of incorporating the effects of language contact into models of language change rather than viewing contact situations as exceptional. The findings of this study have implications for the definition of relative clauses, their syntactic structures and the relationships between the different ‘subtypes’ of this construction, as well as offering new directions for the integration of typological and historical linguistic research.

Participles
Participles

Author: Ksenia Shagal

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-11-05

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 3110629933

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The book is the first large-scale typological study of participles, based on data from more than 100 languages. Its main aim is to model the diversity of non-finite verb forms involved in adnominal modification. Participles are examined with respect to several morphological and syntactic parameters, and are shown to be a versatile cross-linguistic category. The book is of interest to language typologists and descriptive linguists.

Syntactic Complexity
Syntactic Complexity

Author: Talmy Givón

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 9027229996

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Complex hierarchic syntax is considered one of the hallmarks of human language. The highest level of syntactic complexity, recursive-embedded clauses, has been singled out by some for a special status as the apex of the uniquely-human language faculty – evolutionary but somehow immune to adaptive selection. This volume, coming out of a symposium held at Rice University in March 2008, tackles syntactic complexity from multiple developmental perspectives. We take it for granted that grammar is an adaptive instrument of communication, assembled upon the pre-existing platform of pre-linguistic cognition. Most of the papers in the volume deal with the two grand developmental trends of human language: diachrony, the communal enterprise directly responsible for fashioning synchronic morpho-syntax; and ontogeny, the individual endeavor directly responsible for the acquisition of competent grammatical performance. The genesis of syntactic complexity along these two developmental trends is considered alongside with the cognition and neurology of grammar and of syntactic complexity, and the evolutionary relevance of diachrony, ontogeny and pidginization is argued on general bio-evolutionary grounds. Lastly, several of the contributions to the volume suggest that recursive embedding is not in itself an adaptive target, but rather the by-product of two distinct adaptive gambits: the recruitment of conjoined clauses as modal operators on other clauses and the subsequent condensation of paratactic into syntactic structures.

Applicative Constructions
Applicative Constructions

Author: David A. Peterson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 0199270929

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This book presents the first systematic typological analysis of applicatives across African, American Indian, and East Asian languages. It is also the first to address their functions in discourse, the derivation of their semantic and syntactic properties, and how and why they have changed over time. Applicative constructions are typically described as transitivizing because they allow an intransitive base verb to have a direct object. The term originates from the seventeenth-century missionary grammars of Uto-Aztecan languages. Constructions designated as prepositional, benefactive, and instrumental may refer to the same or similar phenomena. Applicative constructions have been deployed in the development of a range of syntactic theories which have then often been used to explain their functions, usually within the context of Bantu languages. Dr Peterson provides a wealth of cross-linguistic information on discourse-functional, diachronic, and typological aspects of applicative constructions. He documents their unexpected synchronic variety and the diversity of diachronic sources about them. He argues that many standard assumptions about applicatives are unfounded, and provides a clear guide for future language-specific and cross-linguistic research and analysis.

Relative Clauses in Cameroonian Languages
Relative Clauses in Cameroonian Languages

Author: Gratien Gualbert Atindogbé

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-09-11

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 3110469545

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This volume is a series of nine (9) contributions to our understanding of relativization strategies in eleven (11) languages of Cameroon spread into the seven (7) sub-branches of the Niger-Congo phylum: Ekoid, Mambiloid, Mamfe, Mbam, Narrow Bantu, Wide Grassfields, Yemne-Kimbi. As a productive strategy in the world’s languages, and considering the evidence that the African language are either under-described, poorly described or not described at all, investigations into the forms, structures and functions of relative clauses and relativization start filling the gap of the absence of analytical descriptive works on the topic. The papers dwelt on the construction of relative clauses, their structure and constraints, their morphosyntactic properties, how they are used to give prominence to topics or participants that are thematic in a given discourse, and to mark the boundaries of units of text, and the formal characteristics of restrictive relative clause constructions. The findings generated so far constitute an endless tank for many fields of hyphenated linguistics including general linguistics, cognitive linguist, applied psycholinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, cognitive psychology, linguistics and pragmatics.

Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas
Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas

Author: Bernard Comrie

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 902720683X

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Patterns of relative clause formation tend to vary according to the typological properties of a language. Highly polysynthetic languages tend to have fully nominalized relative clauses and no relative pronouns, while other typologically diverse languages tend to have relative clauses which are similar to main or independent clauses. Languages of the Americas, with their rich genetic diversity, have all been under the influence of European languages, whether Spanish, English or Portuguese, a situation that may be expected to have influenced their grammatical patterns. The present volume focuses on two tasks: The first deals with the discussion of functional principles related to relative clause formation: diachrony and paths of grammaticalization, simplicity vs. complexity, and formalization of rules to capture semantic-syntactic correlations. The second provides a typological overview of relative clauses in nine different languages going from north to south in the Americas.