Search results

1

Motivating Certain Variation Patterns in Degree Constructions: Semantics Meets Grammaticalization

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Gergel R.

Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics

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2010

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vol. 46

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issue 1

27-49

EN

We analyze patterns of variation in degree constructions as ultimately semantically motivated (Beck et al. 2004);> more precisely, as rooted at the (structured) level of logical form via a parameter based on binding. The paper pursues two related objectives. First, we complement the sharp distinction between languages like Japanese vs. English with a case of a language that seems to be parametrically intermediate. We suggest that Modern Romanian is sensitive to largely the same configurations which are conspicuous in the Japanese/English split, but that it marks the relevant dependencies overtly. Second, we probe for the grammaticalization process of the pertinent functional items involved in marking degree dependencies by conducting a diachronic pilot study. In this part of the article, we analyze data from (literary) Old Romanian. We investigate the degree constructions at this stage of the language in preliminary fashion and point out that they display a particularly instable situation with regard to the diagnostics of the degree parameter discussed, a factor which may have enhanced the grammaticalization of the particular strategies under discussion and hence co-motivates the apparently idiosyncratic current distribution in the language.

2

Norber Cyffer & Georg Ziegelmeyer (eds.), When Languages Meet. Language Contact and Change in West Africa, “Topics in African Studies” 13, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2009, 160 pp.

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Pawlak N.

Studies in African Languages and Cultures

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2010

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issue 44

115-118

EN

A review of a book by Norber Cyffer & Georg Ziegelmeyer (eds.) "When Languages Meet. Language Contact and Change in West Africa".

3

The present participle and gender assignment in Swedish

100%

Skrzypek D.

Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia

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2021

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vol. 31

15-22

EN

The paper considers gender assignment of deverbal nouns, originally present participles, in Swedish. The perspective is diachronic. The corpus consists of a choice of Swedish texts from 1225-1732. The results show that nouns denoting entities ranking higher in the Animacy hierarchy show tendencies to be placed in the utrum gender (originally masculine and feminine genders) and nouns denoting mass, collective or abstract referents to be assigned neuter gender. This tendency is visible throughout the history of the Swedish language.

4

Ein weiterer Beitrag zur Diskussion über Anglizismen im Deutschen

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Kałasznik M.

Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław

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2021

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issue 19

501-506

EN

The debate about the use of Anglicisms in the German language is not a new topic. For a long time there has been a reflection on what the increasing proportion of English verbs means for German, although this phenomenon polarizes opinions in the public and among linguists. In this context, some fear a decline in the German language. Others see this tendency as a development and enrichment of the German language. This article intends to present the results of the 2020 published by Verlag Dr. Kovač a monograph by Katarína Seresová devoted to this topic. The aim is to reflect on the current state of the discussion regarding the use of Anglicisms in German. In her remarks, the author deals with the following aspects: 1) extra-linguistic factors that underlie the process of borrowing, 2) models and means of word formation, 3) integration of anglicisms, 4) influencing factors of English, 5) advantages and disadvantages of using Anglicisms, 6) Anglicism of the Year initiative, 7) influence of English on the German language. In the article, the results of Seresová’s considerations are presented and commented on against the background of previous research. It is then shown to what extent the monograph enriches the existing literature on the subject of Anglicisms in German and what contribution it makes to research in this area. On the basis of the monograph presented, it can be concluded that the question of Anglicisms in German is still topical, despite a rather extensive scientific description that it has received so far.

5

Backernagel is Wackernagel Lite. On the “P-Minus 2” Clitics of Santali

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Hock H. H.

Lingua Posnaniensis

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2013

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vol. 55

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issue 2

67-75

EN

Santali presents structures with subject clitics in “P minus 2” (P-2) position, before the final verb and enclitic on the preverbal element, a position called “Backernagel” by Kidwai (2005). P-2 is commonly considered to lack clear cross-linguistic support; moreover, while generative accounts can accommodate utterance-second position (P2) as adjunction to a left-peripheral projection, they have no ready way of accommodating P -2. The history and synchrony of Munda “P-2” have elicited several accounts. Anderson (2007) considers three possibilities: Reanalysis of Proto-Munda subject proclitics as enclitic; extension of postverbal object clitics to preverbal subject function; attachment of original resumptive pronouns to the preverbal element. I present evidence for a different hypothesis: The Santali Backernagel clitics originate as P 2 or classical Wackernagel elements. A more fine-grained definition of Wackernagel in terms of different prosodic domains (such as utterance/theme vs. rheme) permits the hypothesis that the apparent P -2 is still a W ackernagel position, but within the rheme rather than the entire utterance, and that within the rheme, the prosodically strongest, preverbal-focus element is the most attractive clitic host. I support my account with evidence from Santali and other Kherwarian languages (which offer traces of an original P 2 position) and parallel developments in Iranian (where the different stages in the development can be traced in greater detail). Backernagel, thus, is a subtype of Wackernagel, and there is no need to assume a typologically problematic P -2 position for Munda (or for various Iranian varieties).

6

Joachim Crass, Ronny Meyer (eds), Language Contact and Language Change in Ethiopia, "Topics in African Studies" 14, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2009, 120 pp.

100%

Łykowska L.

Studies in African Languages and Cultures

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2010

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issue 44

126-129

EN

A review of a book by Joachim Crass, Ronny Meyer (eds) "Language Contact and Language Change in Ethiopia".

7

Das "Gelobte Land": Zur Vernetzung semantischer Archaismen im mentalen Lexikon

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Ulrich W.

Colloquia Germanica Stetinensia

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2013

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issue 21

183-201

EN

The paper is to contribute to the description of language changes in the area of lexis. The subject of interest here are semantic archaisms: lexems and word groups which are not archaic with respect to the form but with respect to the meaning. Such archaisms are present, for instance, in the church songs of the 16th century. These songs are still sung during services nowadays. Are their texts properly understood by those who sing them? How do they understand the phrase “das gelobte Land” (promised land): as terra laudata or – in accordance with its etymology – terra promissa (the land promised by God) (the participle form is not derived from the verb loben but geloben)?

8

Want/omdat X en de vaagheid van de linguïstische categorieën

88%

Konvička M.

Neerlandica Wratislaviensia

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2018

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vol. 28

17-31

EN

In this article, I set out to demonstrate the inadequateness of traditional linguistic categories in light of ongoing language change. As a case in point, I analyse some of the syntactic properties of the Dutch want/omdat X construction. The erstwhile coordinating conjunction want ‘because’ and the subordinating conjunction omdat ‘because’ not only take clauses as complements, but nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, interjections, direct speech, and emoticons as well. I discuss three proposed analyses of the aforementioned constructions: an ellipsis, a preposition, or a category sui generis. Against the backdrop of these diverging proposals, I emphasise the need to understand linguistic categories such as parts of speech as intrinsically vague and prototypical. Moreover, I also briefly sketch the diachrony of want/omdat X and show that, contrary to frequent claims, it is not a recent innovation since its precursors can be found as early as in the 1960s.

9

Eine linguistische Annäherung an das Thema Sprachverfall. Mit Berücksichtigung der Frage, ob Sprachwandel Gegenstand des DaF-Unterrichts sein soll

88%

Foschi Albert M.

Glottodidactica

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2018

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vol. 45

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issue 2

105-118

DE

The concept of language decadence can be interpreted in different ways: as mixing of languages, language deterioration, or language loss. As linguists are aware, all these manifestations commonly attributed to so-called language decadence are actually phenomena of language change. The debate on language decadence, while fascinating to public opinion, is based upon an abstract inconsistent view of language as a perfect, immutable instrument, to be used according to precise rules. Nevertheless, it is unavoidable in foreign language instruction to refer to rules and to a manageable model of standard language. The transmission of awareness about language change can avoid the creation of myths about language decadence

10

The Place Of English In Germanic And Indo-European

88%

Shimomiya T.

Lingua Posnaniensis

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2008

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vol. 50

163-175

EN

A. Bammesberger’s article ‘The Place of English in Germanic and Indo-European’ (pp. 26–66) in Vol. 1 (The Beginnings to 1066) of The Cambridge History of the English Language (ed. Richard M. Hogg, Cambridge University Press, 1992) was reviewed rather unfavorably (review article of the volume by Richard D. Janda in World Englishes, vol. 14, 1995). This is a recast of the same topic in a different presentation, which can be justified as the proverb ‘So many cooks, so many dishes’ has it. The style of presentation follows that of the French linguist Bernard Pottier, whose principle is based on a set of short definitions with a couple of examples. The conclusion of the present paper is that English is the most “entgermanisierte” (the least Germanic) language, just as French is the most “entromanisierte” (the least Romanic) language, while Modern Icelandic, free from foreign influence, has remained the purest of all Germanic languages.

11

Po Narodowym Korpusie Języka Polskiego – zmiany w słownictwie polskim ostatniej dekady na przykładzie słów kluczowych

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Zawadzka-Paluektau N., Tomaszewska A., Wołoszyn J.

Poradnik Językowy

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2023

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vol. 803

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issue 4

28-45

EN

The paper reports on the results of an examination of changes in Polish lexis over the past decade. Two different, multi-million corpora spanning the years 2011–2022 were contrasted with a subset of the balanced National Corpus of Polish, which covers the period until 2010. To this end, keyword analysis was employed, and words that are particularly characteristic of the more recent set of texts, compared to the older corpus, were automatically extracted. This allowed us to identify the most salient lexical trends which differentiate the language of the last decade from the one recorded in the National Corpus of Polish, and which point to significant extralinguistic socio-cultural, economic, and political shifts across time.

12

Partitiivi laienemine aspektituks objektikaandeks

88%

Hint M.

Mäetagused

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2017

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vol. 69

153-180

EN

The language-specific rules for expressing grammatical aspect in Estonian by the use of case forms of grammatical object were first described by Eduard Ahrens (1803–1863) in his “Grammatik der Ehstnischen Sprache Revalschen Dialektes” (1853). In the Estonian language the perfective aspect is expressed by the nominative and genitive cases of the object, and imperfective aspect by the partitive case of the object. During the last 150 years since Ahrens’s grammar, and later a grammar by Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann (“Grammatik der Ehstnischen Sprache ...”, 1875) the rules covering the usage of these cases for expressing aspect have been elaborated into a detailed syntactic theory. Nowadays, however, the situation is gradually changing: under the influence of Indo-European languages the partitive case seems to occupy more and more the role of Indo-European accusative as a common case for grammatical object, leaving aside and neutralizing the expression of aspect.

13

Młodzi Kaszubi i język – dylematy mikropolityki językowej

88%

Dołowy-Rybińska N.

Lud

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2014

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vol. 98

253-276

EN

The article is based on participatory observation and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2012 with young Kashubs (aged 16-25). The research carried out has combined a cultural (anthropological) and a sociolinguistic viewpoints. The language policy not only concerns important bottom-down acts and laws established by the state and by minority activists, but is also based on people’s everyday practices, such as their choice of language. This is why activists responsible for the minority language policy should make use of the ethnographic methodology which would make the minority members the subject of the research. Their experiences related with using the minority language, attitudes toward their language and culture can be an important component and indicator for policy decision-makers. This article presents the statements of young Kashubs referring to their culture and language, difficult experiences related to the prohibition of speaking Kashubian, and the language shift which emerged with the coming into force of the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and the Regional Language. The teaching of the Kashubian language in schools is one of the most important achievements of the language policy – although, in the opinion of young people, it is a challenge. Young Kashubs tell about the decisions they took concerning their language and what motivated them to use the language of their ancestors. They speak about their attitude towards the Kashubian culture and its stereotypical, folkloristic image.

14

Understanding Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas

88%

Hannan K.

Research in Language

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2007

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vol. 5

147-163

EN

Based on several decades of personal interaction with Texas speakers of Czech, the author's article attempts to correlate social change with some specific stages of language obsolescence and language death. Many instances of language change in that community, as well as cultural and social change, may be explained by the linguistic model known as the wave theory. One hundred and fifty years passed between the introduction of Czech and the death of that language in Texas. From the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, the Czech-Moravians represented a closed community in which individuals defined their identity primarily by the Czech language, ethnicity, and culture. In the final five decades of the twentieth century, as the social template representing Texas speakers of Czech disintegrated, spoken Czech ceased to function as a living language, and much of the ancestral culture connected with the language was lost. Today some among the elderly, described as semi-speakers, terminal speakers, or "rememberers" of language, retain a limited knowledge, but the ancestral language now has only a symbolic function.

15

Understanding Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas

88%

Hannan K.

Research in Language

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2007

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vol. 5

147-163

EN

Based on several decades of personal interaction with Texas speakers of Czech, the author’s article attempts to correlate social change with some specific stages of language obsolescence and language death. Many instances of language change in that community, as well as cultural and social change, may be explained by the linguistic model known as the wave theory. One hundred and fifty years passed between the introduction of Czech and the death of that language in Texas. From the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, the Czech-Moravians represented a closed community in which individuals defined their identity primarily by the Czech language, ethnicity, and culture. In the final five decades of the twentieth century, as the social template representing Texas speakers of Czech disintegrated, spoken Czech ceased to function as a living language, and much of the ancestral culture connected with the language was lost. Today some among the elderly, described as semi-speakers, terminal speakers, or ‘‘rememberers’’ of language, retain a limited knowledge, but the ancestral language now has only a symbolic function.

16

NEOGRAMMARIAN FERDINAND: A NATURAL HERMENEUTICS OF MÉMOIRE SUR LE SYSTÈME PRIMITIF DES VOYELLES DANS LES LANGUES INDO-EUROPÉENNES

88%

Haładewicz-Grzelak M.

Acta Neophilologica

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2014

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vol. XVI/1

27-40

EN

While “de Saussure” is in fact THE name that has always been automatically brought up at any mention of “linguistics” and “semiotics”, that scholar might be nevertheless the most enigmatic and tantalizing persona in the history of linguistics. In retrospective, whenever there was a question of criticizing de Saussure, he was referred to as a Neogrammarian, and whenever the aim was to praise him – as a structuralist [Jankowsky 1972: 185]. Following e.g. Percival [1981], Jakobson [1973] or Koerner [e.g. 1989], this paper challenges the usually taken for granted view that it was de Saussure who founded modern linguistics and takes an alternative look on de Saussure’s oeuvre from the point of view of the Neogrammarian school. Through a personal hermeneutic reading of the only book that de Saussure published and approved for publication (Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes, 1879), I will argue that de Saussure’s monograph, within the ambit of epistemological premises, is a mutiny on many levels against the phonological world of his times. In this way, the discussion contributes to a larger project pointing to misapprehensions in Neogrammarian achievements, which are assumed to ensue from the contemporary emphasis on the revolutionary aspects of linguistic paradigms over their evolutionary development [cf. also Pociechina 2009; Kiklewicz 2007, 2014].

17

Slovensko-romanski jezički kontakt na primeru dve pojave iz rezijskog

88%

Runić M.

Slavia Meridionalis

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2018

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vol. 18

EN

Slavic-Romance language contact: the case of two phenomena in Resian This paper investigates the mechanisms of language contact in shaping two aspects of Resian nominal and clausal syntax, the quantifier karjë ‘many, much’ and the rise of subject clitics. Resian is a definitely endangered Slavic variety spoken by not more than 1000 speakers in the Italian Alps, which has been in intense contact with Romance (Friulan and Italian) for centuries. It is well known that language contact is the principal trigger for language change (Kroch, 2001). The contact, indeed, has been readily invoked in some descriptive work on Resian (Skubic, 2000) to account for the observed Romance-like traits of Resian grammar. In order to account for the observed changes, which point to the direction of developing Romance-like traits, I propose instead a scenario which relies on the interplay of both internal and external causes (along the lines of Heine and Kuteva, 2005), with the initial trigger being provided internally (e.g. phonological changes, structural gaps). Słowiańsko-romański kontakt językowy na przykładzie dwóch zjawisk z dialektu rezjańskiego W artykule przeanalizowano mechanizmy kontaktu językowego w kształtowaniu się dwóch aspektów składni nominalnej i zdaniowej Rezjan – funkcjonowanie kwantyfikatora karjë ‘wiele, dużo’ oraz tworzenie się klityk. Rezjański jest silnie zagrożonym dialektem słowiańskim używanym przez nie więcej niż 1000 osób w Alpach włoskich, które od wieków pozostawały w intensywnym kontakcie z ludnością romańską (posługującą się językiem friulskim i włoskim). Wiadomo, że kontakt językowy jest głównym czynnikiem powodującym zmiany w idiolekcie (Kroch, 2001). O kontakcie międzyjęzykowym mówi się w wielu opisach gramatycznych, np. w Skubic, 2000, gdzie przedstawiono zaobserwowane romańskie cechy gramatyki dialektu rezjańskiego. Analizowane w artykule sytuacje potwierdzają tezę, że konstrukcje rozwinięte na skutek kontaktu językowego są nie tylko rezultatem wpływu zewnętrznego, ale także procesów wewnątrzjęzykowych (za Heine i Kuteva, 2005) – początkowe „wyzwalacze” zazwyczaj pochodzą z systemu rodzimego (np. zmiany fonologiczne, luki strukturalne).

18

(Dis)kontinuita češtiny 16.-18. Století na příkladu hláskosloví

75%

Šimeckova M.

Slavia Occidentalis

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2020

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issue 77/1

123-133

EN

A majority of the earlier scholarly publications (literary and linguistic) contain negative assessments of the Czech language from the 17th and 18th centuries. This valuation is in accordance with the political, social, religious and cultural developments in Bohemia after the battle of White Mountain (Bílá hora) on 8 November 1620. Following the battle, the Habsburg Monarchy was established and Bohemia was yet again subjected to the Catholic Church. The function of the Czech language was limited with German becoming the main language spoken by the Bohemian aristocracy and city dwellers. German was the official language and, along with Latin, the language of science. As a result of the functional restrictions, Czech books were printed in limited literary fields, especially religious, historical and practically-oriented texts. The language in which they were written was described as degraded, unstable and incorrect. It was connected with the decline of the standard language, deformed by dialectisms, neologisms and an enormous number of loan words from German. However, is this interpretation of the Czech language from the 17th and 18th centuries correct? I have analysed over 100 prints from the 16th to the 18th centuries, focusing on four phonological phenomena: prothetic v-, dipthongisation ú- > ou- and ý (í) > ej and the change é > í. These changes occurred in texts from the 16th century (or even earlier), then some of them were repressed (ej, í in word ending, prothetic v-) or fixed as a part of Czech print (initial ou-, v- by words stabilized with this nonetymological consonant). It is evident that 1) there was continuous development instead of discontinuity, 2) the earlier negative estimation of the Czech language after 1620 was inaccurate. It is imperative to investigate the Czech language from a historical perspective in detail, without prejudice or ideology.

19

Buried Treasure in the Tyndale Corpus: Innovations and Archaisms

75%

Bell Canon E.

Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies

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2016

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issue 25/2

151-165

EN

The translations and polemical texts that make up the Tyndale Corpus are filled with linguistic buried treasure: lexical innovations, syntactic archaisms, metalinguistic com- mentary, and features related to language and dialect prejudice. The use of computer corpus analysis can reveal and illuminate what makes Tyndale different from other writers of his time, and why he is so important to the history of English and the modern religious register. Examining the patterns hidden in his work does not prevent us from appreciat- ing the beauty of his writing as some literary scholars might suggest. Instead, it al- lows us to better understand the approach he took to his work. This paper summa- rizes and exemplifies Tyndale’s contributions to English historical linguistics. The methodology involves reviewing previous scholarly assessments of Tyndale’s work, examining in detail his particular lexical and syntactic choices using text and cor- pus computer software, and, most especially, allowing William Tyndale to speak for himself.

20

Language Encounters: Toward a Better Comprehension of Contact-Induced Lexical Change in Colonial Nahuatl

75%

Olko J.

Politeja : Pismo Wydziału Studiów Miedzynarodowych i Politycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego

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2015

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issue 7(38)

35-52

EN

The extensive corpus of colonial Nahuatl texts lights on almost every sphere of colonial life and cross‑cultural interactions between the Europeans/Spaniards and the indigenous world. This corpus contains rich language data related to contact‑induced change that reveal a simultaneous, prolonged use of neologisms and loanwords, a widespread “Nahuatlization” of foreign terms as well as adoption of Spanish ideas and cultural stereotypes. The linguistic phenomena discussed in the present paper focus on lexical change, neologization, meaning change, borrowing and the creation of calques. These language innovations reveal the nuances of the complex process of cross‑cultural translation, the receptivity of European influence, the domestication of the new and the survival of traditional language resources.

Refine search results

Motivating Certain Variation Patterns in Degree Constructions: Semantics Meets Grammaticalization

Norber Cyffer & Georg Ziegelmeyer (eds.), When Languages Meet. Language Contact and Change in West Africa, “Topics in African Studies” 13, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2009, 160 pp.

The present participle and gender assignment in Swedish

Ein weiterer Beitrag zur Diskussion über Anglizismen im Deutschen

Backernagel is Wackernagel Lite. On the “P-Minus 2” Clitics of Santali

Joachim Crass, Ronny Meyer (eds), Language Contact and Language Change in Ethiopia, "Topics in African Studies" 14, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2009, 120 pp.

Das "Gelobte Land": Zur Vernetzung semantischer Archaismen im mentalen Lexikon

Want/omdat X en de vaagheid van de linguïstische categorieën

Eine linguistische Annäherung an das Thema Sprachverfall. Mit Berücksichtigung der Frage, ob Sprachwandel Gegenstand des DaF-Unterrichts sein soll

The Place Of English In Germanic And Indo-European

Po Narodowym Korpusie Języka Polskiego – zmiany w słownictwie polskim ostatniej dekady na przykładzie słów kluczowych

Partitiivi laienemine aspektituks objektikaandeks

Młodzi Kaszubi i język – dylematy mikropolityki językowej

Understanding Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas

Understanding Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas

NEOGRAMMARIAN FERDINAND: A NATURAL HERMENEUTICS OF MÉMOIRE SUR LE SYSTÈME PRIMITIF DES VOYELLES DANS LES LANGUES INDO-EUROPÉENNES

Slovensko-romanski jezički kontakt na primeru dve pojave iz rezijskog

(Dis)kontinuita češtiny 16.-18. Století na příkladu hláskosloví

Buried Treasure in the Tyndale Corpus: Innovations and Archaisms

Language Encounters: Toward a Better Comprehension of Contact-Induced Lexical Change in Colonial Nahuatl