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Article published In: Areal Effects on Argument-Coding Patterns
Edited by Daria Alfimova, Kirill Kozhanov and Sergey Say
[Studies in Language 49:4] 2025
► pp. 894–921

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Lability in Balkan Slavic

ORCiD logo with link | Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
ORCiD logo with link | University of Helsinki
ORCiD logo with link | Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Published online: 19 December 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23062.mak
Abstract
The article assesses claims made in the previous studies regarding the increase in the number of identical transitive and intransitive verbs with patient-like arguments, that is, patientively labile (P-labile) verbs, in Macedonian in comparison with the other South Slavic languages. Based on an extensive sample of 130 varieties from different parts of the South Slavic dialectal continuum, this study confirms the observations regarding increased lability in Western and some Southeastern Macedonian dialects. Additionally, outside the labile hotbed, lability remains low with relatively homogenous patterning.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Valency alternations and lability in South Slavic
  • 3.Data & methods
    • 3.1Design of the questionnaire
    • 3.2Counting the index of lability
    • 3.3The sampled varieties and data collection
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Quantitative analysis
    • 4.2Qualitative analysis
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (27)
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Alfimova, Daria, Kirill Kozhanov & Sergey Say
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2025. Labile Verbs in Modern Albanian: A Preliminary Corpus-Based Study. Journal of Contemporary Philology, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, B Koneski Faculty of Philology 8:1 ► pp. 67 ff. DOI logo

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