Search results for "grammatica"
showing 10 items of 182 documents
Areal Typology and Grammaticalization
1996
Grammaticalization processes in East and mainland South East Asian languages show remarkable areal parallels within the domain of the verb and the noun. Since language contact increases processes of reanalysis it supports grammaticalization and its cross-linguistic similarity. Grammaticalization processes are governed by attractor positions (cf. 1.1.3.) and pathways of grammaticalization (cf. 1.1..4.). The former is a good parameter for making areal distinctions, the latter is of areal relevance only within the domain of the verb. Because of attractor positions, grammaticalization processes are not necessarily slow and gradual. The distribution of attractor positions relative to each other …
Two ways to reformulate: a contrastive analysis of reformulation markers
2003
The aim of this paper is to present a contrastive analysis of reformulation markers in English, Spanish and Catalan. The study is based on a corpus of expository prose (mainly academic writing). The analysis shows coincidences in the sources of the markers and differences in the variety of forms expressing reformulation as well as in their frequency of use. Assuming that grammaticalization processes such as those leading to the creation of connectives have their roots in discourse, parallel differences are expected to be found in text construction. The present paper argues that the differences identified in the grammar of English vs. those of Spanish and Catalan can be associated with two d…
neutering neuter – grammatical gender and the dehumanisation of women in German
2021
Grammatical gender in German has traditionally been described as a rather arbitrary system (Helbig and Buscha 1988). This is not the case in regard to terms of person reference, where natural gender assignment is the norm: Masculine and feminine grammatical gender largely correlate with the extralinguistic assignment of male and female gender. Neuter gender predominantly denotes inanimate entities (Köpcke and Zubin 1996, 2009). The use of neutral gender in reference to women nevertheless has a long history in German, usually with pejorative connotations (Köpcke and Zubin 1996, 2009). Historically, this can be illustrated in relation to nouns, pronouns and articles: 1 By neuter nouns denotin…
Progressive and habitual aspects in Central Mande
2004
This paper examines the marking of progressive and habitual aspects in a cluster of closely related languages (Central Mande) and in a number of dialects in one of these languages (Manding) within the framework of grammaticalization theory. It is shown that the habitual forms go back to a generalization of the progressive aspect and that the progressive forms do derive from locative periphrastic constructions. Furthermore, evidence is provided for the fact that the evolution of progressives in Central Mande occurs in morphological cycles and that the various synchronic progressive constructions can be classified into different layers of grammaticalization. Finally, the consequences of the d…
The development of the Englishbe+ V-ende/V-ingperiphrasis: from emphatic to progressive marker?
2014
Author's version of an article in the journal: English Language and Linguistics. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1360674314000148 The article discusses the grammaticalization of the be + V-ende/V-ing periphrasis as a progressive marker. On the basis of quantitative data, it is claimed that the periphrasis started out as an emphatic alternative to the simple tenses. Its length, unusualness and optionality made it well suited as an emphatic marker. In the Early Modern English period (c. 1500–1700), the periphrasis was reinterpreted as an emphatic progressive marker. The prototypical – so-called focalized – use of the construction gradually became obligatory (f…
English translation of the Quran by women: the challenges of “gender balance” in and through language
2011
This paper aims to explore and discuss how women translators of the Quran have dealt with the patriarchal linguistic elements in the source text by focusing on two main challenges of translation. First the problem of gender agreement differences between the target and the source language. Because Arabic is highly gendered and English is not, many feminine nouns, pronouns and verbs become invisible in English and as result the “gender balance” created in original could be lost in the translation. The second challenge they face lies in the use of masculine nouns and pronouns in the generic sense, which as many feminists argued assumes generic human to be male and excludes the “human woman.” T…
Abstract Syntax as Interlingua: Scaling Up the Grammatical Framework from Controlled Languages to Robust Pipelines
2020
Abstract syntax is an interlingual representation used in compilers. Grammatical Framework (GF) applies the abstract syntax idea to natural languages. The development of GF started in 1998, first as a tool for controlled language implementations, where it has gained an established position in both academic and commercial projects. GF provides grammar resources for over 40 languages, enabling accurate generation and translation, as well as grammar engineering tools and components for mobile and Web applications. On the research side, the focus in the last ten years has been on scaling up GF to wide-coverage language processing. The concept of abstract syntax offers a unified view on many oth…
Revisión de la categoría «adverbio» en español
2009
Among all word classes, the adverb is the worst defined and studied grammatical category. All grammarians accept that this category includes very heterogeneous elements, which come from very different origins and have very different functions. There is thus an urgent need to review this grammatical category. With this work, I intend to find an answer to the following questions: How the grammatical theory on the adverb has been developed? Which have been the mistakes of the grammatical tradition by producing a theory on the adverb? What should we actually understand by an adverb? How can we order, in a proper and reasonable way, the elements which are presently grouped in the so called «adve…
The morpheme gender effect.
2008
In three experiments we explored the mental representation of morphologically complex words in French. Subjects were asked to perform a gender decision task on morphologically complex words that were of the same gender as their base or not. We found that gender decisions were made more slowly for morphologically complex words made from a base with an opposite gender compared to words for which the gender of the base matches that of the derived noun. Similar results were obtained for words that are pseudo-morphologically complex while no effect was observed for non-morphological embedded words. Our results suggest that during gender identification of derived and pseudo-derived words, morphem…
Serial Verb Constructions
2009
The present article aims to give a survey of the typology of serial verb constructions (SVCs) and the criteria that are needed for defining them. For that purpose, it starts with a detailed account of Aikhenvald and Dixon (2006) and their comprehensive cross-linguistic account of SVCs. In a critical discussion of this approach, this article will then address the following three issues. (i) The concept of single eventhood is a more general concept from which a number of Aikhenvald and Dixon's (2006) criteria can be iconically derived. The macro-event property and time-positional operators (Bohnemeyer et al. 2007) provide a good basis for a more coherent definition of what makes an event as f…