Search results for "Lotto"

The Greek Verb. Morphology, Syntax, Semantics. Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting on Greek Linguistics. Agrigento, October 1-3, 2009

2014

Despite the difficulties of reconstructing the grammar of a dead language, studying Ancient Greek offers new insights for linguistic theory. The morphological complexity of the Greek verb with its highly intricate inflectional system provide a valuable basis for an in-depth-analysis of the mechanisms which regulate the functioning of a language. Studies on the Ancient Greek verb have also contributed significantly to the reconstruction of the Indo-European language since the early history of Linguistics in the nineteenth century. The conservative features preserved in the oldest stages of Greek allow us to rely on a solid basis to which every linguist must refer in investigating a model of …

Etymology and conceptual metaphor; the case of 'in vain' in Greek and Latin

2015

The two Greek adverbs for 'in vain' have sill no good etymology above all because it is difficult to determine tje exact meaning of the connected roots. Yje Author takes into consideration the etymology proposed on the ground of phonetic laws and explains the meaning of the connected roots postulating a conceptual metaphor which is clear also in Latin and in Late Latin. The metaphor, grounded on the concept of a movement that is denied de facto, stremgthens the etymological conjectures.

Sulla codifica degli eventi di moto in greco omerico: il ruolo dell'aspetto lessicale

2017

This paper aims at investigating the encoding strategy of motion events in Homeric Greek. Based on Talmy’s theoretical framework (1985; 2000; 2007; 2009), this study focuses on a rather neglected topic on motion events description, i.e. the role of verbal inherent lexical aspect (Aktionsart). The analysis takes into account the occurrences of the verbs for run in the Iliad and the Odyssey. In particular, the verbs θέω, τρέχω, ἔδραμον show a non-random distribution with the co-occurring spatial particles as PATH-satellites. Textual data suggest that the [±telic] aspectual feature plays a fundamental role for both the entailment of the arrival of the FIGURE (the moving object) to the GROUND (…

Evidencialidad indirecta en aimara y en el español de La Paz. Un estudio semántico-pragmático de textos orales

2017

This study investigates the expression of the indirect evidential subdomain in two languages in contact, i.e. the northern variety of Central Aymara and the variety of Spanish spoken in La Paz (Bolivia). For this aim, the study uses first-hand data collected in La Paz and El Alto (Bolivia) during 2014 and 2015. Data was elicited through: the “Family Problems Picture” task (San Roque et al. 2012), formulated by the members of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and created specifically for the activation of cognitive categories such as evidentiality and mirativity; the “Pear Story” designed for Wallace Chafe, professor at the University of California, to collect narrative texts th…

Documenting Italo-Romance minority languages in the Americas. Problems and tentative solutions

2021

This article describes the process of preparation and implementation of a data collection enterprise targeting Italo-Romance emigrant languages in North and South America. This data collection is part of the ERC Microcontact project, which aims to understand language change in contact by examining the language of Italian communities in the Americas.

Aspetti della riflessione filosofica e linguistica nella Grecia antica

2016

Il volume si propone di rivisitare alcuni aspetti della riflessione linguistica nella Grecia antica. L'idea del lavoro, che raccoglie, rivisti e aggiornati, alcuni scritti nati dall'idea che una trattazione dei problemi relativi alla storia delle teorie linguistiche nell'ambito della cultura greca antica costituisce ancora oggi un'impresa, per dir così, tutt'altro che agevole. Se è infatti certo che la linguistica greca si inserisce nel più vasto filone della ricerca filosofica antica, non è men vero che le questioni che sorgono, una volta preso atto di tale 'filiazione', sono numerose e notevolmente complesse. Gettare luci su tali questioni non è facile, data la difficoltà innegabile di va…

The expression of additivity in the Alps: German auch, Italian anche and their counterparts in Gardenese Ladin

2019

Additive particles (e.g. English also) usually operate on a constituent (‘domain of association’) signaling that it has to be added to a list of items already introduced in the context or inferable. In addition, they can also exhibit a more grammatical function acting as a focused constituent itself or a modal particle. In the present contribution, we aim to provide a classification of the usage patterns and main grammatical functions of the additive item also in the standard languages spoken in the alpine region of Trentino-South Tyrol, i.e. German (auch) and Italian (anche) and in a regional language, Gardenese Ladin (belonging to the Rhaeto-romance group), which displays two forms: nce a…

Lingua dei Segni Italiana e Linguaggio Verbale nell'interazione tra genitori sordi e figli udenti

1997

Possession and volition in the development of modal meanings: a case-study from Sicilian

2019

This article analyses two Sicilian modal constructions involving vuliri 'want' + infinitive and aviri a ‘have to’ + infinitive. They are used to express modal values, both non-epistemic and epistemic, and futurity. Based on Langacker's Cognitive Grammar assumptions, we describe the semantic network associated with each modal, as well as their semantic overlap. In addition, we describe how modal values interact with temporal-aspectual inflection. Our analysis shows that the epistemic values of vuliri are quite peripheral, while aviri a shows a high degree of polysemy, both in the non-epistemic and in the more abstract epistemic domain. The non-epistemic-to-epistemic shifts depend on the cont…

Predicative Gerunds in Spanish and Catalan

2014

In this article I discuss an instance of microvariation in Catalan, which regards the distribution of predicative gerunds. It is proposed that the differences depend on restrictions on the movement of the verb: the more it is restricted, the less contexts will allow the use of gerunds. A crucial argument for this analysis comes from the comparison with Cinque's (1999) hierarchy of functional heads: in all Catalan varieties gerunds can express the aspectual values which are lower in the hierarchy. Conversely, only the varieties where gerunds are most widespread (Central Catalan) allow them to express also the higher aspectual values. In the last part of the article, I argue that there is an …