Itamar Francez and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198744580
- eISBN:
- 9780191805837
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744580.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
Systematic variation in form between semantic equivalents across languages is a key explanandum of linguistic theory. Two contrasting views of the role of lexical semantics in the analysis of such ...
More
Systematic variation in form between semantic equivalents across languages is a key explanandum of linguistic theory. Two contrasting views of the role of lexical semantics in the analysis of such variation can be found in the literature: (1) uniformity, whereby lexical meaning is universal, and morphosyntactic variation arises from idiosyncratic differences in the inventory and phonological shape of language-particular functional material, and (2) transparency, whereby systematic variation in form arises from systematic variation in the meaning of basic lexical items. This volume contrasts these views as applied to the empirical domain of property concept sentences—sentences expressing adjectival predication and their translational equivalents across languages. Demonstrating that property concept sentences vary systematically between possessive and predicative form, the authors propose a transparentist analysis of this variation that links it to the lexical denotations of basic property concept lexemes. At the heart of the analysis are qualities: mass-like model-theoretic objects that closely resemble scales. The authors contrast their transparentist analysis with uniformitarian alternatives, demonstrating its theoretical and empirical advantages. They then show that the proposed theory of qualities can account for interesting and novel observations in two central domains of grammatical theory: the theory of lexical categories, and the theory of mass nouns. The overall results highlight the importance of the lexicon as a locus of generalizations about the limits of crosslinguistic variation.Less
Systematic variation in form between semantic equivalents across languages is a key explanandum of linguistic theory. Two contrasting views of the role of lexical semantics in the analysis of such variation can be found in the literature: (1) uniformity, whereby lexical meaning is universal, and morphosyntactic variation arises from idiosyncratic differences in the inventory and phonological shape of language-particular functional material, and (2) transparency, whereby systematic variation in form arises from systematic variation in the meaning of basic lexical items. This volume contrasts these views as applied to the empirical domain of property concept sentences—sentences expressing adjectival predication and their translational equivalents across languages. Demonstrating that property concept sentences vary systematically between possessive and predicative form, the authors propose a transparentist analysis of this variation that links it to the lexical denotations of basic property concept lexemes. At the heart of the analysis are qualities: mass-like model-theoretic objects that closely resemble scales. The authors contrast their transparentist analysis with uniformitarian alternatives, demonstrating its theoretical and empirical advantages. They then show that the proposed theory of qualities can account for interesting and novel observations in two central domains of grammatical theory: the theory of lexical categories, and the theory of mass nouns. The overall results highlight the importance of the lexicon as a locus of generalizations about the limits of crosslinguistic variation.
Itamar Francez and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198744580
- eISBN:
- 9780191805837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744580.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
The Introduction constructs the theoretical backdrop for the book by discussing two competing approaches to variation in the expression of translational equivalents. It begins by discussing the ...
More
The Introduction constructs the theoretical backdrop for the book by discussing two competing approaches to variation in the expression of translational equivalents. It begins by discussing the notion of translational equivalence, which underpins all work on morphosyntactic variation. It then lays out the two contrasting approaches: ‘uniformity’, and ‘transparency’, using them to frame a case study of variation in property concept sentences. Uniformity has it that the observed morphosyntactic differences reflect variation in the inventory and phonological realization of functional heads, but not in semantics, at least of open class elements. Transparency, by contrast, has it that the observed variation in form reflects variation in semantics.Less
The Introduction constructs the theoretical backdrop for the book by discussing two competing approaches to variation in the expression of translational equivalents. It begins by discussing the notion of translational equivalence, which underpins all work on morphosyntactic variation. It then lays out the two contrasting approaches: ‘uniformity’, and ‘transparency’, using them to frame a case study of variation in property concept sentences. Uniformity has it that the observed morphosyntactic differences reflect variation in the inventory and phonological realization of functional heads, but not in semantics, at least of open class elements. Transparency, by contrast, has it that the observed variation in form reflects variation in semantics.
Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640300
- eISBN:
- 9780748671380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640300.003.0016
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy
This chapter summarises the results of a study which departs from most previous work in dialectometry in several ways. Empirically, it draws on frequency vectors derived from naturalistic corpus data ...
More
This chapter summarises the results of a study which departs from most previous work in dialectometry in several ways. Empirically, it draws on frequency vectors derived from naturalistic corpus data and not on discrete atlas classifications. Linguistically, it is concerned with morphosyntactic (as opposed to lexical or pronunciational) variability. Methodologically, it combines the careful analysis of dialect phenomena in authentic, naturalistic texts to aggregational-dialectometrical techniques. Two research questions guide the investigation: First, on methodological grounds, is corpus-based dialectometry viable at all? Second, to what extent is morphosyntactic variation in non-standard British dialects patterned geographically? By way of validation, findings are matched against previous work on the dialect geography of Great Britain. The study draws on the Freiburg English Dialect Corpus, a naturalistic speech corpus sampling interview material from 162 different locations in 38 different counties all over the British Isles, excluding Ireland.Less
This chapter summarises the results of a study which departs from most previous work in dialectometry in several ways. Empirically, it draws on frequency vectors derived from naturalistic corpus data and not on discrete atlas classifications. Linguistically, it is concerned with morphosyntactic (as opposed to lexical or pronunciational) variability. Methodologically, it combines the careful analysis of dialect phenomena in authentic, naturalistic texts to aggregational-dialectometrical techniques. Two research questions guide the investigation: First, on methodological grounds, is corpus-based dialectometry viable at all? Second, to what extent is morphosyntactic variation in non-standard British dialects patterned geographically? By way of validation, findings are matched against previous work on the dialect geography of Great Britain. The study draws on the Freiburg English Dialect Corpus, a naturalistic speech corpus sampling interview material from 162 different locations in 38 different counties all over the British Isles, excluding Ireland.
Itamar Francez and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198744580
- eISBN:
- 9780191805837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744580.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter contrasts the uniformity and transparency approaches to explaining variation in the domain of property concept sentences, examining their respective predictions with case studies from ...
More
This chapter contrasts the uniformity and transparency approaches to explaining variation in the domain of property concept sentences, examining their respective predictions with case studies from Ulwa and Malayalam. Two ways of spelling out a uniformity-based analysis are exemplified, and contrasted with the transparency-based Lexical Semantic Variation Hypothesis, which is argued to be superior on empirical and theoretical grounds. The broader consequence is that not all morphosyntactic variation can be reduced to variation in morphophonology and functional vocabulary; differences in the meaning of open class lexical items exist, and give rise to deep differences in morphosyntactic expression of translational equivalents.Less
This chapter contrasts the uniformity and transparency approaches to explaining variation in the domain of property concept sentences, examining their respective predictions with case studies from Ulwa and Malayalam. Two ways of spelling out a uniformity-based analysis are exemplified, and contrasted with the transparency-based Lexical Semantic Variation Hypothesis, which is argued to be superior on empirical and theoretical grounds. The broader consequence is that not all morphosyntactic variation can be reduced to variation in morphophonology and functional vocabulary; differences in the meaning of open class lexical items exist, and give rise to deep differences in morphosyntactic expression of translational equivalents.
Britta Mondorf
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198709848
- eISBN:
- 9780191780158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198709848.003.0013
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
With the revived interest in variation there has been growing readiness to incorporate competing motivations into linguistic theory‐building. Previous work (Mondorf 2009a) has shown that English ...
More
With the revived interest in variation there has been growing readiness to incorporate competing motivations into linguistic theory‐building. Previous work (Mondorf 2009a) has shown that English comparatives are a showcase of grammatical variation, in which what looks like competing motivations at first glance turns out to be an emergent division of labour between synthetic and analytic means of expressing comparison. Analyticity is resorted to if explicitness is required because of an increased processing effort. Syntheticity is preferred in easy‐to‐process environments. This chapter discusses whether this claim extends to other synthetic–analytic contrasts: Spanish future alternation (comeré vs. voy a comer), English future alternation (She'll stay vs. She's going to stay), English genitive alternation (the topic's relevance vs. the relevance of the topic), English mood alternation (if he agree‐Ø vs. if he should agree) or German past tense alternation (sie brauchte…vs. sie hat…gebraucht), etc.Less
With the revived interest in variation there has been growing readiness to incorporate competing motivations into linguistic theory‐building. Previous work (Mondorf 2009a) has shown that English comparatives are a showcase of grammatical variation, in which what looks like competing motivations at first glance turns out to be an emergent division of labour between synthetic and analytic means of expressing comparison. Analyticity is resorted to if explicitness is required because of an increased processing effort. Syntheticity is preferred in easy‐to‐process environments. This chapter discusses whether this claim extends to other synthetic–analytic contrasts: Spanish future alternation (comeré vs. voy a comer), English future alternation (She'll stay vs. She's going to stay), English genitive alternation (the topic's relevance vs. the relevance of the topic), English mood alternation (if he agree‐Ø vs. if he should agree) or German past tense alternation (sie brauchte…vs. sie hat…gebraucht), etc.
Itamar Francez and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198744580
- eISBN:
- 9780191805837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744580.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
This concluding chapter highlighting outstanding issues related to its main topics, among these the notion of translational equivalence; the uniformity/transparency debate in the explanation of ...
More
This concluding chapter highlighting outstanding issues related to its main topics, among these the notion of translational equivalence; the uniformity/transparency debate in the explanation of morphosyntactic variation; the lexical semantics of lexical categories; and the nature of mass nouns. The book closes by situating the main issues against the broader issues of key import in the field, particularly the issue of linguistic diversity, and the various modes of explaining it.Less
This concluding chapter highlighting outstanding issues related to its main topics, among these the notion of translational equivalence; the uniformity/transparency debate in the explanation of morphosyntactic variation; the lexical semantics of lexical categories; and the nature of mass nouns. The book closes by situating the main issues against the broader issues of key import in the field, particularly the issue of linguistic diversity, and the various modes of explaining it.
