Zongfeng Xia, Fengguang Liu, Dániel Z. Kádár, Juliane House
{"title":"Ritual Small Talk in Chinese","authors":"Zongfeng Xia, Fengguang Liu, Dániel Z. Kádár, Juliane House","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00663","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this study, we examine ritual Small Talk in Chinese, which is a regretfully understudied phenomenon. We investigate recurrent pragmatic features of Chinese Small Talk in an audio-recorded corpus through the lens of speech acts. We interpret the use of speech acts with the aid of interaction ritual theory and linguistic politeness. As a case study, we examine instances of Small Talk taking place in the vicinity of a Chinese primary school where parents and grandparents engaged in casual phatic conversations to kill the time while waiting for the children. The study of our corpus of Small Talk conversations allows us to unearth linguaculturally embedded patterns of language use in a complex participatory setting where parents and grandparents interact in front of a school.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135201965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Small Talk in English and Chinese – A contrastive case study","authors":"J. House, D. Kádár, Laura Simoes","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00702","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we present a contrastive pragmatic analysis of Small Talk in English and Chinese. We use a radically minimal, finite and interactional system of speech acts to study DCTs conducted with U.S. American native speakers of English and native speakers of Chinese. Our analysis points to a number of important differences between Small Talk in the two linguacultures contrasted, such as a reliance on routines in English Small Talk, and an overall reliance on the speech act Remark in Chinese. The influence of the classic sociolinguistic variables Power and Social Distance for the enactment of Small Talk is also shown to be different in English and Chinese.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45875006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sabine Sommer-Lolei, Veronika Mattes, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, W. Dressler
{"title":"Acquisition and processing of word formation in German","authors":"Sabine Sommer-Lolei, Veronika Mattes, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, W. Dressler","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00633","url":null,"abstract":"Cognitive processing strategies can explain general word-formation preferences that influence the structures and their developments. They are based on simplicity, transparency, iconicity, salience, and frequency. We present and discuss evidence from our data on first language acquisition for how these cognitively based general preferences can explain the course of development of word formation and how they interact or compete. The analysis is based on the development of distributions of word formations in longitudinal data and panel data of child speech and their input from high and low socio-economic status families. In order to evaluate the productivity of a word-formation pattern in child speech, we applied the mini-paradigm criterion. Age-of-acquisition effects will be presented according to our own processing studies and to literature.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45556383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Folk conceptualisation of small talk: A view from a Japanese online discussion forum","authors":"Jun Ohashi","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00670","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores the perceptions of small talk shared by the users of a Japanese online community, seeking information on their expected speech and behaviour in small talk and factors contributing to positive/negative evaluations of small talk. The study investigates a discussion thread consisting of 73 responses to a contributor's request for advice on improving small talk capabilities from the perspectives of interaction ritual (Goffman 1967), balancing obligations (Ohashi 2008, 2013, 2021) and typology of speech acts (Edmondson & House 1981; House & Kádár 2022b).","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44047180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender variation in indeclinable inanimate nouns and gender markedness in modern Russian","authors":"Kirill Chuprinko, V. Magomedova, N. Slioussar","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00641","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, the results of a large web-corpus study on gender of Russian inanimate indeclinable common nouns are presented. In most cases, neuter is assigned to indeclinables as a default. However, morphophonological and semantic analogy may lead to feminine and masculine gender assignment. An extensive variation is observed in the whole group of indeclinables and for particular words, which is much larger than anything that can be found in indeclinable nouns. These data support the idea that both masculine and neuter genders have a special status in the Russian gender system (Magomedova & Slioussar 2023). Masculine tends to be chosen in case of conflicting gender cues. When there are no strong cues pointing to any gender, neuter is assigned as the default option. The results of the study are hardly compatible with various structural approaches to gender assignment, but can be accounted for in competition-based models.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47485296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inflectional classes without class features","authors":"J. Don, F. Bergsma, A. Merkuur, Meg Smith","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00630","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we propose a comprehensive account of the paradigms of Frisian verb-classes. Verb-classes in Frisian are an example of a more general phenomenon of inflectional classes that we encounter in many natural languages across the major word classes. Members of different inflectional classes show different paradigms. Traditionally, inflectional classes have been analyzed using class-features (see e.g., Marzi et al. 2020). However, such features suffer from being ad hoc devices that seem to have no other function in the grammar than to code this difference. In the present analysis we propose that the verb stems from different classes show a difference in size. Using phrasal spell-out, we will show that these stems differ in the amount of morpho-syntactic structure that they may realize, rendering class-features superfluous.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41382251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Smaller syntax for English stative passives: A first report","authors":"David Embick","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00644","url":null,"abstract":"One of the basic questions in the theory of morphology concerns the nature of word formation: how morphemes are assembled into larger objects, and—crucially—whether there are distinct systems in which this occurs (lexicon versus syntax), or just one. Stative (a.k.a. “adjectival”) passives like opened in the opened door, or flattened in the metal is flattened, have provided an interesting testing ground for questions of this type. Following a period in which such passives were argued to be formed lexically, much subsequent work has developed the idea that they are derived syntactically, in fully phrasal structures. This paper examines a number of properties of English stative passives which raise problems for a fully phrasal treatment. These include (but are not limited to) (i) modification asymmetries relative to eventive passives; and (ii) interactions with un-prefixation. The generalizations that are revealed suggest that stative passives are built syntactically, but without phrasal internal structure: what I call small(er) syntax. Importantly, small structures are not tantamount to a lexical analysis; I provide a direct comparison that argues that the evidence favors the smaller type of approach. The argument for small structures has implications for the syntax of Roots that are introduced throughout the discussion.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45587743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The reanalysis of /ɡ/ as a verb class marker: An exaptation case within the Catalan 2nd conjugation","authors":"Manuel Badal","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00629","url":null,"abstract":"In Old Catalan, some verbs like beure ‘to drink’ display a velar consonant in the forms that come from Latin perfectum, such as 3sg.prt *ˈbibwit > bec [ˈbek] ‘s/he drank’. This velar was initially a perfect marker. However, the consonant spread analogically from perfective to imperfective forms through an exaptation process. In the present paper, we compare two different verb classes, and prove that the existence of syncretism between the first and third persons of the present indicative (1sg.prs.ind beu [ˈbew] ‘I drink’ vs. 3sg.prs.ind beu [ˈbew] ‘s/he drinks’) is a factor that accelerates the analogical process of velarization.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46326245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sound patterns, frequency and predictability in inflection","authors":"A. Cser","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00620","url":null,"abstract":"The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Latin verbal inflection from two interrelated points of view. It looks at conditional entropy relations within the present paradigm to see how these relate to the textual frequency of the individual forms; and it seeks to answer the question to what extent the phonological form of stems and endings has the potential to lead to ambiguity in morphological marking. The latter issue is approached from the angle of the information content that word forms taken in themselves have about their morphological status. The broader question of potential ambiguity is broken down into two separate questions: one concerns stems where intra-paradigmatic ambiguity would be possible; the other concerns stems that include phonological material that could itself be interpreted as a morphological marker. The absence of potential ambiguity in the first sense, and its severe restriction in the second sense is interpreted here as an emergent mechanism to enhance the information content of verb forms.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45825584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The expression of constituent negation in Udmurt: From scope-ambiguous to scope-transparent constructions","authors":"E. Asztalos","doi":"10.1556/2062.2023.00655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2023.00655","url":null,"abstract":"The study claims that contemporary Udmurt has two main strategies for expressing a ‘constituent negation reading’. Standard Udmurt makes use of inverse-scope constructions involving sentential negation, i.e. a morphosyntactically negated predicate and a pragmatic focus in the scope of negation. The other strategy involves the negator ńe borrowed from Russian, which immediately precedes the negated constituent and combines with a predicate in the affirmative form. Ńe-constructions are analysed as instances of focus negation, with a FocP dominated by a right-branching NegP. The evolution of transparent-scope constructions and of a head-initial NegP are analysed as concomitants of the SOV-to-SVO change of Udmurt.","PeriodicalId":37594,"journal":{"name":"Acta Linguistica Academica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44434453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}