{"title":"Gender assignment in language contact","authors":"N. Levkovych","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper deals with an important aspect of the integration of loan nouns into the grammatical systems of languages attesting to grammatical gender, namely gender assignment. Traditionally, it is assumed that gender assignment takes place according to the internal assignment rules of the replica language. In many cases, however, the original grammatical gender is borrowed along with the source word. This is the case of gender copy which often takes place under special (sociolinguistic) conditions and is used as assignment strategy in languages to a different extent. A special focus of my study is on gender assignment and particularly gender copy in the contact of languages of different assignment types (formal vs. semantic). The empirical data comes from five European languages in different sociolinguistic situations, attesting to different assignment systems and of different language branches of two language families – Indo-European (Romanian, Slavic, and Indo-Arian) and Nakh-Daghestanian (Lezgic and Tsezic). The analysis shows that gender copy is possible mostly in the contact of languages of the same assignment type. In the contact of languages of the formal assignment type, gender copy often goes along with the formal adjustment of the loan word. Sociolinguistic circumstances play an important role as to the possibility and frequency of the occurrence of gender copy.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"25 65","pages":"235 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141699449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards a typology of specificational constructions","authors":"Natalia Logvinova","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present work is devoted to the syntax of specificational constructions with proper names within a typological perspective. The provided typology is based on the results obtained from the analysis of grammar descriptions and available corpus data for 94 languages. The paper discusses the morphosyntactic means that languages use to express specification, namely juxtaposition, attribution, and other less common strategies. It is shown that juxtapositional and attributive strategies are in competition in many of the sampled languages, so that certain expressions (for example, specificational constructions with the common noun ‘city’) prefer attributive-like coding, while others (especially constructions including personal names) show a clear tendency for juxtapositional coding cross-linguistically. Evidence from languages using an attributive strategy in specificational constructions shows that the common noun is generally the syntactic head of the construction. This conclusion contributes to the wide-scale discussion of the semantic grounds for headedness in specificational constructions. In addition, the paper shows that languages tend to place common nouns before personal proper names regardless of the word order used in specificational constructions with toponyms. This, as predicted, is correlated with the relative ordering of the head noun and its genitival dependent. The results of the present study also show that the constituent ordering in constructions with personal names implicationally depends on the order in constructions with toponyms.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"2 11","pages":"189 - 233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141700890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Celerative: the encoding of speed in verbal morphology","authors":"Guillaume Jacques","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While speed is a secondary parameter in some associated motion systems, some languages have verbal affixes dedicated to the encoding of speed – celerative markers. Celeratives can encode both quick and slow speed and are in some languages even the main or the sole way of expressing this meaning. However, some morphemes not only encode speed, but also other types of action manner, in particular hurry or suddenness, following colexification patterns also observed in the lexicon crosslinguistically. This paper provides a first overview of this category in the world’s languages, and more generally suggests that action manner constitutes a set of comparative concepts that can be be encoded morphologically.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"15 1","pages":"261 - 282"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141706374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Argument coding and the alignment type of Beria","authors":"Isabel Compes","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper describes the verbal argument coding by a system of person indexing and the alignment type of Beria. Beria is a Saharan language spoken in the Sudan and Chad. The data presented here is from the Wagi dialect. The person indexing system has been analyzed as exhibiting split-S alignment with two types of intransitive verb classes: agentive and patientive verbs. Patientive verbs – though mostly encoding one-participant events – are, however, formally transitive. This morphosyntax-semantics mismatch poses a challenge for the split-S analysis and calls for a reassessment of the transitivity status of the patientive verb class. The present study takes morphosyntactic facts into account that have not been considered in previous contributions. It provides evidence from the verbal number marking system which corroborates an analysis in terms of a split-S alignment type with typologically unusual features.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"38 3","pages":"283 - 313"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141702140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alex Stephenson, Maïa Ponsonnet, Marc Allassonnière-Tang
{"title":"‘Reflexemes’ – a first cross-linguistic insight into how and why reflexive constructions encode emotions","authors":"Alex Stephenson, Maïa Ponsonnet, Marc Allassonnière-Tang","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article presents the first study on reflexive expressions having lexicalized an emotional meaning, as in the English example enjoy oneself. Such lexicalized forms, which we call ‘reflexemes’, occur in a number of genetically unrelated languages worldwide. Here we interrogate the cross-linguistic distribution and semantics of reflexemes, based on a sample of 58 languages from 6 genetic groups throughout Europe, Australia, and Asia. Reflexemes exhibit uneven distribution in this sample. Despite the presence of reflexemes across all three continents, European languages generally display much larger inventories. Based on our language sample’s contrasts, we hypothesize that these disparities could be driven by: the form of reflexive markers; their semantic range, including colexifications with anticausative constructions; and their longevity, with ancient, cognate European markers fostering accumulation of reflexemes via inheritance and borrowing. As for semantics, reflexemes target comparable emotions across languages. Specifically, categories labelled ‘Good feelings’, ‘Anger’, ‘Worry’, ‘Bad feelings’ and ‘Fear’ are consistently most prevalent. These tendencies apply across our sample, with no sign of family- or continent-specific semantic tendency. The observed semantic distribution may reflect universal lexicalization tendencies not specific to reflexemes, perhaps combined with an emphasis on self-evaluation and other social emotions imparted by reflexive semantics.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"323 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140779680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Grammar and grammaticalization in Zapotec","authors":"N. Operstein","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The present study contributes to the empirical basis of grammaticalization theory by presenting a grammaticalization profile of Zapotec, a language family of Mesoamerica. The discussion centers around co-grammaticalization of lexemes and constructions, polygrammaticalization, interdependence between syntactic and prosodic conditioning of grammaticalization, and mutual feedback between grammaticalization and morphosyntactic typology.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"273 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140763883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The grammaticalization of noun affixes: a cross-linguistic study","authors":"Tim Zingler","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper investigates a type of empty morph that attaches to noun forms and that will be called “noun affix” here. Based on six case studies from unrelated African and American genera, I arrive at a diachronic typology of noun affixes that in many ways confirms and in other ways expands on the findings of Joseph Greenberg, whose work on the topic remains the yardstick. One claim is that noun affixes may emerge directly from gender markers and that this is reflected in the paradigm size of noun affixes. Furthermore, there is evidence for the idea that old noun affixes may be repurposed for the creation of phonologically minimal word forms. The main interest of this study is in what the development of noun affixes reveals about processes of grammaticalization. The current literature mostly focuses on the fact that grammaticalization is initiated by semantic changes (mostly semantic reduction) rather than by formal changes. This raises the question of whether semantic reduction is also completed before formal reduction. The noun affixes provide compelling evidence for this idea and thus suggest that empty morphs may arise via grammaticalization. This runs counter to approaches on which form and function erode in parallel.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"166 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140792397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When ‘still’ means ‘not yet’","authors":"Bastian Persohn","doi":"10.1515/stuf-2024-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2024-2002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this paper, I discuss the employment of expressions meaning ‘still’ to signal the negative counterpart of ‘still’, ‘not yet’, without an overt negator. I show that this phenomenon is found in languages from across the globe and that it surfaces in four recurrent types of environments, namely when a ‘still’ expression is used (i) without an overt predicate, (ii) with a less-than-finite and/or dependent predicate, (iii) with a predicate belonging to a specific actional class, or (iv) when the expression occupies a determined position in the clause. I lay out how each of these types finds a functional explanation and I also discuss some patterns of employment that build on these ‘still’-as-‘not yet’ uses.","PeriodicalId":511842,"journal":{"name":"STUF - Language Typology and Universals","volume":"163 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140784444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}