{"title":"Semantics of Gesture","authors":"Cornelia Ebert","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-063057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-063057","url":null,"abstract":"Current formal semantic theories aim at capturing gestural semantic contributions and in particular their interplay with the semantics that stems from cooccurring speech. To grasp how gesture contributes meaning and interacts with speech, the information status of gesture is of prime importance. This article gives an overview of the different conceptions of the information status of gestures that have been put forth and discusses the empirical predictions and theoretical consequences that arise from the respective theories. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 10 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intensionality and Propositionalism","authors":"Kristina Liefke","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031522-104045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031522-104045","url":null,"abstract":"Propositionalism is the view that all intensional constructions (including nominal and clausal attitude reports) can be interpreted as relations to truth-evaluable propositional content. While propositionalism has long been silently assumed in semantics and the philosophy of language, it has only recently entered center stage in linguistic research. This article surveys the properties of intensional constructions, which require the introduction of fine-grained semantic values (intensions). It contrasts two ways of obtaining such values: through the introduction of either Russellian propositions or Frege-Church-style senses. The article identifies propositionalism with a specific variant of the Russellian strategy, reviews key arguments for propositionalism, and compares familiar varieties of propositionalism on the basis of instructive examples. It closes by discussing various challenges for propositionalism and suggesting a generalization of propositionalism that meets some of these challenges. Because of the association of propositions with semantic information, the article also addresses the more general question of whether all information content (including mental and pictorial content) is propositional. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 10 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135477651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Size of Clausal Complements","authors":"Susanne Wurmbrand","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031522-103802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031522-103802","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing mainly—but not exclusively—on data from Germanic, this article compares syntactic, morphological, and semantic approaches to size differences of complement clauses. Focusing on two phenomena that have been related to clause size reduction and truncation—Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) and restructuring—it is shown that their distribution is radically different and that clause size cannot be the main factor regulating both of these phenomena. This article provides a solution to this conflicting state of affairs and lays out an approach that builds on a fine-grained CP structure, including both syntactic and semantic categories, a reduced structure for infinitives, and a syntax–meaning mapping that predicts different minimal clause sizes for different semantic types of complements. Based on the distribution of ECM in Germanic, a tentative ECM hierarchy is suggested that follows implicational containment relations of an expanded CP. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 10 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136016367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can’t Believe It Went by So Fast","authors":"Hans Kamp","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031422-120012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031422-120012","url":null,"abstract":"This autobiographical sketch starts with my arrival as a PhD student at UCLA in 1965. It focuses on the most prominent line of my intellectual development, from work in Priorean tense logic for my dissertation and essays intended to fit within the framework of Montague Grammar to the discourse-oriented framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) and eventually to the unequivocally cognitive approach of Mental State Discourse Representation Theory (MSDRT), which is the core of my present view and work. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 10 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135393561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Linguistic Variation and Linguistic Inclusion in the US Educational Context","authors":"Christine Mallinson","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-121546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-121546","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines linguistic variation in relation to the critical social institution and social domain of education, with an emphasis on linguistic inclusion, focusing on the United States. Education is imbued with power dynamics, and language often serves as a gatekeeping mechanism for students from minoritized backgrounds, which helps create, sustain, and perpetuate educational inequalities. Grounded in this context, the article reviews intersecting factors related to linguistic variation that affect student academic performance. Empirical and applied models of effective partnerships among researchers, educators, and students are presented, which provide road maps to advance linguistic inclusion in schools within the broader social movement for equity in education. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 10 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73012714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Sociolinguistic Situation in North Africa: Recognizing and Institutionalizing Tamazight and New Challenges","authors":"Ali Alalou","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-054916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-054916","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews several issues that are important for understanding the sociolinguistic situation in North Africa, with an emphasis on Morocco. The article surveys the manner in which North Africa's sociolinguistic profile has evolved over the last two decades (2001–2021). The topics discussed here include the tumultuous and chaotic promotion of monolingualism and the relentless efforts to erase and expunge Amazigh identity from North Africa despite the region's long history of linguistic diversity. Based on an imported ideological slant, these attempts to erase Amazigh identity lasted for decades and contributed to the marginalization of Amazigh people and other minorized communities in the region.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91379056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Typology of Reciprocal Constructions","authors":"R. Nordlinger","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-064006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-064006","url":null,"abstract":"Reciprocal constructions involve a complex mapping of semantics onto morphosyntax, requiring multiple propositions to be overlaid onto a single clause and the permutation of semantic roles within the set of participants involved. This complexity challenges the standard processes relating predicates to situations, and thus languages arrive at a great diversity of solutions for how reciprocal situations are encoded within a single clausal structure. Recent typological work has showcased this diversity from different perspectives, but further work is needed to determine how different morphosyntactic and semantic properties interact and what implicational connections and correlations exist with other parts of the linguistic system. Theoretical typologies highlight the importance of reciprocal constructions for our understanding of grammatical structure crosslinguistically.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85536196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Homesign: Contested Issues","authors":"Sara A. Goico, L. Horton","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-060001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-060001","url":null,"abstract":"The term homesign has been used to describe the signing of deaf individuals who have not had sustained access to the linguistic resources of a named language. Early studies of child homesigners focused on documenting their manual communication systems through the lens of developmental psycholinguistics and generative linguistics, but a recent wave of linguistic ethnographic investigations is challenging many of the established theoretical presuppositions that underlie the foundational homesign research. Sparked by a larger critical movement within Deaf Studies led by deaf scholars, this new generation of scholarship interrogates how researchers portray deaf individuals and their communication practices and questions the conceptualization of language in the foundational body of homesign research. In this review, we discuss these contested issues and the current moment of transition within research on homesign.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88895740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Postcolonial Language Policy and Planning and the Limits of the Notion of the Modern State","authors":"Sinfree Makoni, Cristine Severo, Ashraf Abdelhay","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-052930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-052930","url":null,"abstract":"In this review, we discuss the limits of the concept of the modern nation-state to explore language issues in postcolonial contexts, as in Africa. We argue in favor of a revision of the history of the field of language policy and planning (LPP) and sociolinguistics, paying attention to how the colonial issue has been erased and downplayed. We first explore the colonial history of LPP and how this field contributed to frame African multilingualisms as problems to be solved. Second, we briefly discuss how the contemporary understanding of citizenship in Africa is entangled with the colonial history of a particular version of the state in Africa; we focus on Sudan as an example. We problematize the construct of “developing nation” inscribed in the methodological nationalism that characterizes the early LPP framework, which reverberates in contemporary public policies. By doing so, we advocate for a perspective of language that is historically and locally embedded, following a politics that recognizes the importance of Southern epistemologies to language studies.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135545605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language Across the Disciplines","authors":"Anne H. Charity Hudley, A. Clemons, D. Villarreal","doi":"10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-070340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-022421-070340","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews the study of language across disciplines. We focus on epistemological and methodological frameworks in the study of language broadly within linguistics departments and across disciplinary areas that concentrates on the organizational structure across departments, degree programs, organizations, and professions. We then emphasize emerging transdisciplinary trends in the study of language and communication. We highlight pressing research required to recenter humans and the human communicative experience. We use examples from lexical and morphological investigations to illustrate the complexity and relevance of the study of language across areas and paradigms.","PeriodicalId":45803,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87346074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}