The main aim of this book is to address a fundamental question in linguistics, namely why languages are similar and why they are different. The study proposes that languages are fundamentally similar when they encode the same meanings in their grammatical systems and that languages are different… read more
The present volume deals with hitherto unexplored issues on the interaction of morphology and syntax. These selected and invited papers mainly concern Cushitic and Chadic languages, the least-described members of the Afroasiatic family. Three papers in the volume explore one or more typological… read more
Edited by Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Adam Hodges and David S. Rood
From the refinement of general methodology, to new insights of synchronic and diachronic universals, to studies of specific phenomena, this collection demonstrates the crucial role that language data play in the evolution of useful, accurate linguistic theories. Issues addressed include the… read more
This book proposes a framework for describing languages through the description of relationships among lexicon, morphology, syntax, and phonology. The framework is based on the notion of formal coding means; the principle of functional transparency; the notion of functional domains; and the notion… read more
The importance of reflexive markers in the study of language structure cannot be underestimated: they participate in the coding of the argument structure of a clause; in the coding of semantic relations between arguments and verbs; in the coding of the relationship between arguments; in the coding… read more
The theoretical issues addressed in the present volume are semantic and cognitive properties of reciprocal events, syntactic properties of reciprocals, and the relationship of reciprocals to other grammatical categories. Several papers discuss the history of reciprocal constructions, offering… read more
Volume 1: The importance of reflexive markers in the study of language structure cannot be underestimated: they participate in the coding of the argument structure of a clause; in the coding of semantic relations between arguments and verbs; in the coding of the relationship between arguments; in… read more
The general objective of the study is systematic examination of the processes involved in the formation and evolution of complex sentence constructions in a group of genetically related languages. The Chadic language group, at about 140 languages, constitutes the largest and most diversified branch… read more
The volume consists of papers prepared for the International Symposium of Chadic Linguistics (Boulder, Colorado, May 1-2, 1987). Although the papers are representative of the current work being done in the field of Chadic linguistics, they also reflect the current and past interests and… read more
The present study answers the following questions: why the semantic roles of agent or patient are often unmarked; why other semantic roles, such as benefactive, stative locative, goal, or source, are unmarked when used with some verbs and marked when used with other verbs; and why semantic… read more
The aim of this study is to advocate one of the aims of linguistic typology, viz. the discovery of how languages are similar or different with respect to the functions they encode and consequently for the development of a typology based solely on the functions encoded in the grammatical systems… read more
Heine and Kuteva (2004) list ‘reflexive’, ‘middle’, and ‘reciprocal’ as functions grammaticalized from the noun ‘body’ across languages. The present study, based on data from Pero (West Chadic), demonstrates the grammaticalization of one additional function, namely that of indicating that the… read more
The aim of this study is to demonstrate that Proto-Chadic had a category ‘locative predication’ that was formally and semantically distinct from all other predications in the language. The proposed hypothesis, combined with the principle of functional transparency (Frajzyngier & Shay 2003), allows… read more
This paper investigates a strategy other than the one currently implemented in the CorpAfroAs project, allowing cross-linguistic comparison among multiple-language corpora. It involves comparing a database of functional domains and subdomains across languages. The underlying principle is that… read more
Aprioristic approaches to typology, whether based on assumptions about cognition or real-world reference or on categories exhibited in a single language or groups of languages, are likely to overlook important functions that just happen to lie outside of the aprioristically assumed categories. The… read more
The emergence of many grammatical categories cannot be explained in terms of the semantic properties of the source and the target or in terms of other cognitively based processes or language use such as metaphor, metonymy, usage and frequency of use. The term ‘grammaticalization’ refers here to the… read more
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the existence of the category ‘comment clause’ whose range of use by far exceeds the traditional comment-on-topic category. In addition to a topicalized noun, the comment clause may have in its scope an element in focus, an adverbial phrase, and most… read more
In Classical Chinese, there were four first person pronouns: wu2, wo3, yu2, yu3, and a zero-pronoun1 with the following functions: wu2 was the default marking the speaker; wo3 coded contrast between the speaker and others; yu3 was used when talking about the speaker in connection with heaven,… read more
The paper aims at providing an expanded model of grammaticalization, where the term is understood as the process through which a language develops grammatical means of coding various formal, semantic or pragmatic functional domains. It thus subsumes the traditional scope of grammaticalization, but… read more
The general aim of the study is an exploration into the meaning of a grammatical form and the proofs of its meaning. The scope of this study is the form referred to as the “progressive aspect” in English. The absence of an imperative progressive is used as a heuristic tool in the determination of… read more
