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This research was titled: (Seven Grammar) to explain these seven pillars and their importance, as they are considered among the basics of grammar. Grammatical sentences are not devoid of these pillars. Indeed, we do not find any Arabic word devoid of one of these pillars. Due to its importance and place in grammatical studies, the study with this title was an explanation of it, a definition of its meanings, and a statement of its rulings. By these (sevens) we mean (nominatives), although some grammarians see them as five, as will be mentioned later, just as there are other grammatical sevens, which are: (sentences that have no place in grammatical analysis), and (sentences that have a place in grammatical analysis), But the researcher here means by (grammatical sevens) the seven nominatives, and these nominatives are all (nouns), which do not contain (a verb or a letter), and they are: the subject, the predicate, the subject, the deputy subject, the noun kan and its sisters, the predicate inna and its sisters, and the subordinate to the nominative. Through the study, the researcher found that most grammarians begin these seven nominatives with (the subject), but we believe that beginning them with (the subject) is better. Because the subject comes first in the sentence in terms of order, so when we say: (Zaid is a scholar), we find the subject (Zaid) placed in the nominal sentence in first place, then the predicate (a scholar) comes in second place. As for (the subject), this is not the case. When we say: (Zaid the world came) we find the subject (Zaid) ranked second in the verbal sentence, and the verb (came) ranked first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the diachronic behaviour of the non-finite verbal (participial, gerundial) absolute construction (AC) in (pre)classical and modern Spanish translations from Latin, written between the 15th and the 18th centuries. It focuses on the convergence of and divergence between the ACs of the Spanish target texts and those of the Latin source texts, drawing on three types of translations: (i) Latin absolute constructions translated as Spanish absolutes (translated ACs), (ii) Latin absolute constructions translated as Spanish constructions other than absolutes (non-translated ACs) and (iii) Spanish absolute constructions that do not stem from Latin absolutes (ex-novo ACs). The article traces a diachronic evolution of the AC in terms of formal and functional equivalence, or creativity, and links the results to the cultural-historical context. The analysis shows that the nearly extinct, (pre)classical participial AC developed from a 'marked' Latin calque situated at the far end of the Communicative Distance pole to a less formal, gerundial AC, moving in the direction of Communicative Immediacy. This process of syntactic elaboration concurred with the AC's increased frequency and was caused by language-internal mechanisms such as structural priming and form/function overlap with gerundial free adjuncts (FAs). From the 15th century onwards, a growing tendency towards unbounded construals enabled the gerundial AC to become fully entrenched in early modern Spanish, which guaranteed the survival of this construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using written texts elicited from students with different proficiency levels, we studied the acquisition of nominal cases in Russian as a second language. We established the order in which cases were acquired (nominative, locative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, and dative), as well as certain characteristics of their acquisition trajectories. We argue that the order of acquisition is determined by two groups of factors: how essential a given case is for successful language use and how complex it is, both semantically and morphologically. Many important differences between first and second language acquisition were identified. The maturation of the case system was observed both in the number of correct forms participants produced and in error rates. The distribution of correct forms changed, gradually approaching that found for native speakers. With growth in proficiency, the incidence of different error types declined, and the relative frequency of errors more characteristic of first language acquisition increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiencer Subject Constructions are those constructions where the subject gets the theta role of an experiencer. In English, experiencer subjects always get the nominative case but in the most Indian languages, it gets dative case. Unlike other Indian languages, in Assamese, Oriya and Bengali, the experiencer subjects get genitive case. This seems to be a language specific phenomenon. These constructions normally contain a 'psych' verb which shows a change of one's mental state. It's not only restricted to show the change of mental state but also shows the change of physical state. The presence of dative subjects in other Indian languages and genitive subjects in Assamese, Oriya and Bangla contradicts Chomsky's claim that the experiencer arguments are marked with nominative case when it is realized as subjects (Chomsky 1981). This paper tries to investigate how and why the experiencer subjects in Assamese get genitive case within Lexical and Functional Grammar (LFG) approach. The paper discusses the subjecthood properties of the genitive subject whether it fulfills the properties or not. Later, this paper also shows where the genitive subject is originally generated and its movements under Minimalist Approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article discusses one of several reasons for the loss of augmentation in English absolute constructions (ACs): the emergence of the verbal gerund (VG) in - ing. The VG was from the start strongly associated with prepositional contexts (de Smet, 2008) and has been shown to have a history connected to the AC (Fanego, 2004). More specifically, the strong association between VGs and prepositions probably caused a reinterpretation of most prepositionally augmented ACs as VGs, resulting in a functional split (Fonteyn & van de Pol, 2016). Second, this paper illustrates how the what with -construction underwent a very similar development, albeit in the opposite direction. Indeed, it appears that the grammaticalization of with into an AC-marker (van de Pol & Hoffmann, 2016), and the resulting strong association between with and ACs, may have caused the formally similar what with -construction to be reanalyzed as an AC. As a result, this study serves as an example of how category borders are often gradient (see also Malchukov, 2004, 2006) and how such gradient boundaries may cause the (bidirectional) reanalysis of constructions close to the border, which in turn may impact the larger overarching constructions involved. • More augmentors were historically available, but with is the only common one in PDE. • The rise of the verbal gerund has influenced the development of augmented absolutes. • What with gerunds with overt subjects came to be reanalyzed as absolutes in PDE. • Additional PDE augmentors might develop to help process concessional absolutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Word order in Mandarin serves as an interface between syntax and pragmatics, which is exhibited through the role that word order in Mandarin plays in marking case as well as topics. • Mandarin shows a mixed case-marking pattern through word order, namely that nominative-accusative pattern coexists with ergative-absolutive pattern, both of which allow intra-clausal topics and extra-clausal topics. • It is the intra-clausal topics rather than the extra-clausal ones that are associated with case-marking patterns, and hence topic assignment in unmarked constructions of different case-marking patterns can be identified. • In light of the two case-marking patterns, context-independent topics in various constructions can be identified. The typological classification of Mandarin Chinese as an isolating language lacking inflection brings about a theoretical consideration that word order in Mandarin serves as an interface between syntax and pragmatics. This paper provides from typological perspective a unified framework to examine the role that word order in Mandarin plays in marking case as well as topics. The study finds that Mandarin exhibits a mixed case-marking pattern through word order, namely that nominative-accusative pattern coexists with ergative-absolutive pattern. Both of the two case-marking patterns allow intra-clausal topics and extra-clausal topics, and it is the intra-clausal topics rather than the extra-clausal ones that are associated with case-marking patterns. With respect to the intra-clausal topics, in nominative-accusative pattern, topic assignment in unmarked constructions is A/S oriented, whereas in ergative-absolutive pattern, topic assignment in unmarked two/three-argument constructions is post- bă P oriented, and topic assignment in unmarked one-argument constructions is preverbal-S oriented. In light of the two case-marking patterns, context-independent topics in various constructions can be identified, and thus the controversial issue of distinguishing topics from other arguments can be properly addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a resurgence of word‐based models of grammatical description in which implicational relations that exist between fully‐inflected wordforms can be exploited by speakers in the production of novel forms. Generally, word‐based models such as 'Word and Paradigm' (WP) have focused on describing the inflexional patterns exhibited by languages with more fusional structure, such as Latin, since they diverge most drastically from the 'morphemic ideal' in which meaning and form are in a one‐to‐one correspondence. However, consideration of the illative in Veps suggests that languages with more agglutinative inflexional structure (where sub‐word units which 'encode' particular functions can usually be clearly identified) are also consistent with a WP, rather than a morphemic or constructive, point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical argument marking systems have long been treated as exceptions in alignment typology since they do not follow the same logic as, for example, nominative-accusative systems in creating subsets of argument roles that are treated identically. A recent proposal by Witzlack-Makarevich and colleagues advocates for "exhaustive alignment" as a way around this problem. This paper applies this methodology to the present-day Guaykuruan languages (Kadiwéu, Mocoví, Pilagá, Toba) with three goals: firstly, it expands on the methodology, providing a proposal on how to apply the method to languages with split-intransitive characteristics. Secondly, the paper shows how alignment subsystems in languages with hierarchical alignment can provide additional evidence for the phylogenetic relations between languages. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how a construction-specific approach to alignment can uncover a greater degree of variety in alignment patterns, revealing that a number of Pilagá and Toba morphemes show {SA, O} vs. {SO, A} alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat is the property of Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Uhing (ERU) / Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides a contrastive analysis of middle constructions in Japanese and German. After having established that the middle construction in Japanese is not an independent construction, just like in German, it is claimed that in Japanese middle constructions the external argument stays in overt syntax as a dative subject, contrary to the claim by Lekakou (2005). However, in Japanese middle constructions the internal argument is assigned Nominative case, in the same way as in German, which results from the connection between Nominative case and Tense. Furthermore, it is pointed out that in Japanese middle constructions an adverb such as leicht 'easily' is not necessary, just like in middle constructions with lassen 'let' in German. This fact supports the claim by Lekakou (2005) that such an adverb is necessary in canonical middle constructions in German in order to recover the semantically implicit agent, since both in middle constructions in Japanese and in middle constructions with lassen 'let' the agent is syntactically present and is thus not needed to be recovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether Chinese-speaking L2 learners of Korean can acquire Korean causative constructions (i.e. morphological and analytic causatives) and make use of the relevant knowledge in real-time sentence comprehension. Korean morphological causatives allow the causee to be marked by an accusative case, but not by a nominative case. In contrast, Korean analytic causatives allow both accusative and nominative case marking for a causee. In an acceptability judgment task, L2 learners as a whole group (n = 60) failed to reject morphological causative sentences when the causee was marked by a nominative case. However, a subset of L2 learners (n = 28) showed targetlike performance, rejecting the infelicitous morphological causatives that involved a nominativemarked causee. In a self-paced reading task, the same subset of L2 learners did not show sensitivity to the infelicitous morphological causatives with a nominative-marked causee, indicating their limitations in applying the knowledge to real-time language processing. We discuss these findings from the perspectives of L2 learners' declarative and procedural knowledge of the Korean causative constructions and provide suggestions to teach the target constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the feature-based extension of Chomsky's approach to projection which entails some form of Spec-Head agreement and thus faces both theoretical and empirical problems. It states that Chomsky's original approach, coupled the application of the Spell-Out rule can account for the facts that motivated an analysis of Spec-Head agreement.

This paper presents a direct continuation of preceding corpus-linguistic research on complex sentence constructions with temporal adverbial clauses in a cognitive and usage-based framework (Diessel 2008; Hampe 2015). Working towards a more systematic construction-based account of complex sentences with before-, after-, until- and once-clauses in spontaneously spoken English, Hampe (2015) hypothesised that the morpho-syntactic realisations of configurations with initial adverbial clauses systematically diverge from those of configurations with final ones as a reflection of the specific functionality of each and that usage properties that are found across instantiations with a coherent functional load are retained in the schematisations creating constructions. This paper employs a multinomial regression in order to test to which extent each of eight closely related complex-sentence constructions with either initial or final before-, after-, until- and once-clauses can be predicted from the realisation of a few key morpho-syntactic properties of the respective adverbial and matrix clauses involved. The results support an analysis of complex-sentence constructions as meso-constructions that are not only specific about the subordinator and the positioning of the adverbial clause, but also retain "traces" of characteristic usage properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of word formation intensively studied during all periods of the development of linguistics have not lost their relevance at the present time, since word formation is the most important means of replenishing the vocabulary of the language. The vocabulary of the language is in a state of almost continuous development, reflecting the changes that happen in all areas of people's lives and activities. The continuous process of creating new words in a language is a complex cognitive process that takes place under the influence of extralinguistic factors, nevertheless it follows the existing prototypes used by analogy in accordance with structural models. Speaking of the word formation model, we mean a certain set structure that has a generalized categorical meaning and develops a number of other hierarchically related lexical meanings, implying not only a structure, but also certain semantics. The word-formation model is at the beginning of the word-forming process, determining how the initial elements of the language build a new name. Of particular interest for research in this regard are the derived words that are formed from the stems with semantics of quantity. As is known, the names of numerals are not formed from other parts of speech, but they themselves freely participate in the word-formation of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs and other parts of speech. In Tatar linguistics there are practically no special studies concerning the numerals as a nominative base of the Tatar language system. The need to study the names of numerals as an independent motivational unit of language determines the relevance of this work. The results of the research can be used to work out lecture courses in general linguistics, lexicology, morphology, word formation of the Tatar language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two restrictions regarding agreement with nominative arguments in Icelandic DAT-NOM constructions. The first is the reported asymmetry in intervention effects in mono-clausal versus bi-clausal environments. The second regards the well-known Person Restriction that prohibits agreement with non-3rd person arguments. It is argued that both of these phenomena can be viewed as instances of cumulative constraint interaction, where less important constraints in the grammar 'gang up' to block some higher constraint. In order to account for this, I adopt a model of syntax with both weighted constraints and serial optimization that is known as Serial Harmonic Grammar in the phonological literature. It will be demonstrated that such a system can offer a more principled analysis of the construction-specific nature of the aforementioned phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Back in the 1970s, Kazuko Inoue observed that some active sentences in Japanese allow a prepositional subject. Along with impersonal sentences pointed out by S.-Y. Kuroda, such examples suggest that the nominative subject is not an obligatory element in Japanese sentences. While this observation supports the hypothesis that important characteristics of the Japanese language follow from its lack of (forced-)agreement, Japanese potential sentences require the nominative ga on at least one argument. The present article argues that the nominative case particle ga is semantically vacuous even where a ga-marked phrase is indispensable or the ga-marked phrase is construed as exhaustively listing. Stative predicates require a ga-marked phrase because they can ascribe a property to an argument only by function application. The exhaustive listing reading arises by conversational implicature when the presence of a ga-marked phrase signals that a topic phrase is being avoided. The discussion leads to a semantic account of subject honorification whereby the honorification only concerns the semantic content of the predicate, and does not involve agreement with the subject. It is also shown that sentences with a prepositional subject allow zibun only as a long-distance anaphor, which indicates that they do lack a subject with the nominative Case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is suggested that the replacement of the nominative by the oblique form in Danish subject complements happened as a part of major structural changes taking place in Middle Danish. The major structural changes in question involve the shift from a case-rich to a case-poor language in Early Middle Danish/Late Middle Danish, and the changing of the status of the subject of the sentence in Late Middle Danish/Early Modern Danish. As one outcome, the distribution of the case forms of personal pronouns changed from being primarily following the traditional syntactic-semantic principle of conveying semantic roles and syntactic functions to following principles pertaining to information structure with notions like theme and rheme, prominence and focus/anti-focus. The approach is functional-structural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japanese, desiderative (and potential) predicates derived from transitive verbs allow their direct object to be marked with the nominative marker ga, instead of the expected accusative marker o. This article argues that the nominative/accusative alternation in a desiderative construction has an information-structural implication. Nominative-marking on the object indicates its focushood, i.e., that it is either the focus of the utterance or part thereof, whereas accusative-marking has no such information-structural bearing. This claim is motivated by the observation that the direct object of a desiderative predicate resists nominative-marking when it is not adjacent to the predicate (“adjacency effect”). Under our account, the adjacency effect can be regarded as a variety of the garden-path effect, stemming from the discrepancy between the default (expected) locus of the focus and the pragmatic information conveyed by nominative-marking. With three sets of experimental data (from two acceptability judgment experiments with written stimuli and one rating experiment with auditory stimuli), we demonstrate that (i) the adjacency effect is real, and (ii) it can be mitigated by prosodic or contextual cues signaling the focushood of the object. The second finding conforms well to our hypothesis that the adjacency effect is a processing-based phenomenon, rather than a reflection of a purely syntactic constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to investigate and contrast the transitive and ergative verbs in English and Arabic languages. It also shows the similarities and differences regarding transitivity and ergativity. This study comprises eleven sections: introduction, objective of the study, questions of the study, significance of the study, transitivity versus ergativity, English ergative verbs, Arabic ergative verbs, analysis (comparison) and finally a conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on introspection (i.e. the researcher's own intuition and judgment) has been the normal practice particularly in generative linguistics. However, especially when faced with crucial data for the development of a linguistic theory or for the right characterization of a linguistic phenomenon, it is important to rely on more scientific data. Against this background, this paper conducts two acceptability judgment tests and shows that none of the claims made in the literature as to the alternation between – key and – tolok and the alternation between the nominative and the accusative case with respect to Korean resultatives is so accurate. By methodologically relying on a number of subjects and taking into consideration both the factor of whether there is a distinct nominative-marked NP from what the main verb is predicated of and the factors of the category of the main predicate and the category of the – key /– tolok predicate, the experiment on the key - tolok alternation reveals that, generally, – key and – tolok can alternate with each other only when the – key /– tolok predicate is a verb. Meanwhile, by taking into consideration not only the factor of the category of the key -predicate but also the factor of whether the NP thematically predicated of by the key -predicate is also thematically an argument of the main verb, the experiment on the nominative-accusative alternation shows that the alternation is truly allowed only when the key -predicate is formed with an adjective plus the – ci suffix and that the use of the accusative case is the norm in co-argument key -sentences and the use of the nominative case is the norm in non-co-argument key -sentences. Through these two case studies, this paper stresses the importance of not relying purely on the researcher's own introspection in linguistic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a discussion of some aspects of reader response. It attempts to track the development of various theories: from the view of the text as an entity set in stone, through structuralist and phenomenological arguments, to the point where the text becomes a virtual dimension. But not only is the importance of the text within the literary whole under review; what happens when the reader reads is considered, as is the location, indeed the very existence, of the author. Importantly, illustrations of how reader response theories assist readings of literature within the classroom, in order to achieve meaning, are included here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Vulgar Latin, the nominative and the accusative are used as neutral forms of nouns to replace the oblique cases, whose meaning and functions they can duly acquire. In this paper, I analyse the examples of such uses in the epigraphic corpus of early and late Lusitania, with special attention to the development of the Ibero-Romance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a new approach to compounds, arguing that compositional descriptions do not efficiently account for their formation, and emergence. We interpret the emergence of participle-noun (PTCP-N) compounds from phrases as guided by a complex schematization process which makes varied instantiations possible and results in the emergence of schematic constructions. The phenomenon's variability is demonstrated by a corpus study of Hungarian compounds with érintõ- ('touch.PTCP, touching'), whereas the role of schematization is confirmed by the findings of a questionnaire study. By subjecting our corpus data to both quantitative and qualitative analysis (relying on Cognitive Grammar), we describe the rich variability of érintõ-N compounds. In addition, a questionnaire study was used to confirm the emergence of schematic constructions, their entrenchment and the hypothesis of passive construal being a key motivating factor behind compounding. Employing the control cycle model of Cognitive Grammar, we propose a comprehensive account for the emergence of compounds with a PTCP initial component. Whichever participant is profiled, the cycle is always implemented in the case of compounds with an initial PTCP. Thus, this model describes the emergence of compounds as a process in which semantic integration between the components occurs as part of a more abstract process of schematization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finnish has both nominative and genitive objects. The two cases are normally in a complementary distribution based on the local syntactic context (Jahnsson's Rule). The pattern breaks down in nonfinite clauses where the conditioning is non-local and the cases may occur in free variation. This puzzling pattern can be understood if we make the following assumptions: (i) structural case distinguishes the external argument from other arguments; (ii) structural case assignment is cyclic. In our optimality-theoretic analysis the choice of case is determined by the interaction of markedness constraints that apply cyclically and faithfulness constraints that protect case assigned on prior cycles. Non-locality arises because faithfulness is violable; free variation arises because constraint conflicts can be resolved in multiple ways. In addition to categorical well-formedness contrasts the analysis predicts degrees of well-formedness in cases of free variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we show that in Spanish and Polish, the distribution of dative Experiencers in the sentence is influenced by factors pertaining to argument structure as well as to information structure. From an argument-structure point of view, they are claimed to be generated in VP, in a position higher than the nominative subject, and hence it is the closest candidate to move to spec-TP and satisfy the EPP under T. From an information-structure perspective, dative Experiencers occur first only in two situations, namely when they are part of the broad focus that the whole sentence performs or when they function as topic. However, different tests will tear Spanish and Polish DEs apart with respect to their "subject" properties, which will ultimately be derived from the syntactic position they target when they are used in all-focus sentences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der vorliegende Aufsatz ist dem Gebrauch des sog. Nominativus Absolutus im Latein gewidmet. Es handelt sich dabei um ein partizipiales Syntagma im Nominativ, dessen grammatikalisches Subjekt anders als das des übergeordneten Satzes ist (z.B. Fulg.myth. 3,8quam arborem pater gladio percutiens, Adon exinde natus est). Obwohl diese Konstruktion in zahlreichen, v.a. das Substandard- und Spätlatein betreffenden Studien Erwähnung fand, ist sie seit fast hundert Jahren keiner analytischen Besprechung unterzogen worden. Unsere Untersuchung verfolgt zwei mit einander eng verknüpfte Ziele: (a) zum einen sollen die kennzeichnenden Merkmale des Syntagmas besprochen werden, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von pragmatischen, semantischen und syntaktischen Aspekten; (b) zum anderen soll dessen Evolution in Diachronie dargelegt werden, wobei eine allmählich ausgeprägtere Unabhängigkeit gegenüber der übergeordneten Prädikation nachgewiesen werden soll. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Old Lithuanian texts (16-17 century), there are more than a hundred definite forms of adjectives and participles with unshortened pronominal ending -jie in the masculine nominative plural, e. g. baiſuſghie 'the dreadful (errors)' or mirßtąghie 'the dying' instead of modern Lithuanian forms like gerieji 'the good'. Stang (1966: 237) supposed a complementary distribution - '-ji stands after -ie-, -jie in the other cases' - and explained the shortening as dissimilation process. However, dissimilation provides a solution only for -ie-ji, whereas in Stang's framework -jíe with acute intonation should generally have been shortened in polysyllabic forms. It can be shown that the complementary distribution stated by Stang holds true for Old Lithuanian in general. Dissimilation seems to be the best explanation for *-ie-jie > -ie-ji, but it remains uncertain if this process affected other paradigmatic forms as well. It is proposed that definite forms became grammaticalized after monosyllabic forms with íe and úo underwent circumflexion. Only after subsequent univerbation, dissimilation or Leskien's Law took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accusative clitic pronouns are acquired later than both nominative and reflexive pronouns in typically developing French-speaking children. However recent research suggests that not all these clitics are equally difficult, 3rd person accusative clitics (ACC3) being more problematic than 1st and 2nd person. In this study, we explored three properties which could make ACC3 complex: (1) gender marking, (2) discourse-participant independent reference, and (3) optionality in spoken French. We have created specific experiments assessing the role of each of these properties in clitic acquisition in 41 French-speaking children aged 4–8. Results show that all three properties play a role in making ACC3 complex, with the strongest influence coming from gender marking. Implications of these results are discussed in light of previous related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relation between the grammar and the basic notions of information structure, focusing on Korean - (n)un and (contrastive) focus. It has been claimed that - (n)un marks contrastive focus (CF) in certain contexts. However, no consensus exists on in which context(s) it can mark CF. Moreover, the very claim that - (n)un is used to mark CF itself has been sometimes questioned and refuted. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this issue by providing a new analysis of the relation between - (n)un and (contrastive) focus. Based on a language- and theory-independent definitions of focus, contrast, and CF, and a detailed investigation of the information structure of the relevant phenomena at issue, the main claim of this paper is that - (n)un marks relationally old information and thus cannot mark (contrastive) focus, which is necessarily relationally new by definition. How it is possible for - (n)un to mark relational givenness will be discussed based on the comparison of its inherent meaning and that of the Korean nominative marker -i/ka. Also, the standard understanding of the notion of relational givenness-newness will be critically examined in the course of unveiling the nature of the relation between - (n)un and (contrastive) focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several languages, non-nominative experiencers tend to appear early on in utterances, which frequently triggers deviations from the preferred word order. These observations are based on linearization preferences, which in most cases involve gradient levels that cannot be determined precisely through singular intuitions. This article presents a crosslinguistic experimental study on languages with different word order properties (German, Greek, Hungarian, and Korean), offering precise estimates for the effects of experiencer objects on linearization. The findings reveal a strong effect of case in the sense that dative experiencers appear more frequently early in an utterance than accusative experiencers. Based on the specific properties of the investigated languages, we are revising previous hypotheses about the source of the dative/accusative asymmetry and conclude that the asymmetry relates to phrase-structural differences. Accusative experiencers are fronted more frequently than patients of canonical transitive verbs. We argue that this phenomenon relates to a preference for selecting experiencers as aboutness topics, which explains the fact that experiencer-first structures appear in syntactic constructions that may be triggered by aboutness. The results show that the experiencer-first principle interacts with properties of the syntactic structure. The differences between languages can thus be traced back to the basic properties of syntactic typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PRO coindexation of converbs and participles in South Asian Languages along with Subject Identity Constraint (Subject Control) violation has been studied by Subbarao (2012) and Murthy (1994). I present the analysis of Medieval Rajasthani data focusing on two construction types - constructions consisting of converbs and participles. I compare my findings on Rajasthani with previous analyses of the Hindi language. I demonstrate that PRO coindexation in Medieval Rajasthani is more strict than in Hindi. Participles are coindexed with a subject or a direct object of the main clause while converbs are most often subject-oriented. Subject Identity Constraint (Subject Control) violation in Medieval Rajasthani (MR) occurs in constructions consisting of participles and converbs. Subject Identity Constraint may be violated in MR in sentences denoting cause and effect and time relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject-predicate agreement system in Icelandic appears to show sensitivity to the morphological marking of case, instead of the syntactic position of the argument to be agreed with. Furthermore, agreement with the Nominative object appears to be optional and may be disrupted by an intervening Dative argument. This article contributes to the existing discussion by proposing a new empirical generalization about the nature of Long-Distance Agreement ( lda), i.e., agreement which occurs in a bi-clausal environment, and its interaction with Dative interventions. Based on the new data from an Icelandic variety called Icelandic B, I argue that lda takes place only if the intervening Dative argument undergoes independently motivated A-movement to the edge of vP. The core idea is that the locus of agreement with the Nominative object is v-its Case licensor: lda arises only if v can probe the Nominative argument in the absence of the Dative argument. The proposed analysis thus accounts for the Icelandic patterns in a strictly derivational and locality-based manner, without any recourse to post-syntactic operations, optionality in agreement or significant modifications in the theory of $$\phi $$ -feature Agree, thus restoring the Icelandic agreement system to normalcy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the English speech production of some Chinese speakers of English, gender confusions are likely to occur regarding 3rd person singular nominative, possessive, objective cases and their reflexive pronouns. What's more, some mispronunciations tend to take place somewhat regularly by Cantonese and some non-Cantonese speakers of English. The causes of such spoken gender anomalies and pronunciation errors are tentatively probed into and some suggestions are proposed. Ultimately, some corrective measures are suggested to rectify these oral slips and mispronunciations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated interpretive (i.e. semantic and pragmatic) properties in Korean Multiple Nominative/Subject Constructions (MNCs/MSCs), through an experimental syntactic study. An experiment was designed to test key properties (i.e., characteristic property and newsworthy property) of MNCs/MSCs in Korean that have been regarded as contributing to felicity of MNCs/MSCs (Yoon 2004, 2007, 2009). Forty Korean native speakers were tested over Acceptability Judgment Task. The test materials were composed of 60 Korean sentences representing the two interpretive properties of MNCs/MSCs - characteristic property of Sentential Predicate (SP) and newsworthiness of Major Subject (MS). Overall results showed that Korean native speakers seem to treat MNCs/MSCs with both characteristic SP and newsworthy MS more felicitous than the sentences in less than ideal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One fundamental question stands out in Multiple Nominative Constructions (MNCs) literature: how are the so-called Major Subjects (Kuroda 1986, Yoon, 2007) licensed? The goal of this paper is to bring a new perspective on this licensing issue. This paper proposes that Major Subjects in various types of Korean MNCs (i.e., Adjunct MNCs, Possessive MNCs and Oblique MNCs) are introduced and licensed by a specific functional head called an ‘Applicative’ head whose main function is to introduce an ‘additional/applied' argument that is not lexically selected by a main predicate (Pylkkänen 2002, Cuervo 2003). This paper specifically argues that Korean applicative head s-selects only state/property-denoting phrases as its complements. The welcome result of this proposal is that three different types of MNCs receive a uniform treatment: for possessive MNCs, a high Appl selects either a property-denoting VP or a (resultant) state-denoting VP. For oblique MNCs, a low Appl selects a property-denoting NPs. Finally, for adjunct MNCs which I argue are root modal sentences, a high Appl selects a modalized/stativized VP as its complement. The applicative head relates these NPs/VPs to Major Subjects and uniformly assigns a holder role to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the history of pronouns in various regional forms of Malagasy and proposes a reconstruction of Proto-Malagasy pronouns. Four sets of pronouns are reconstructed for Proto-Malagasy: a default nominative set marked with Ø, a topicalized nominative set in which 1st person pronouns are marked with a form *i, a genitive set marked with *=n-, and an oblique set marked with *an=. The development of some pronouns is shown to provide clues for the internal classification of Malagasy varieties. The Proto-Malagasy pronouns are also compared with external references and higherorder reconstructions, namely pronouns from the closely related Southeast Barito languages in Borneo and Proto?Malayo-Polynesian. Finally, an attempt is made to reconstruct Proto-Southeast Barito pronouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the nature of morphological ergativity through the ergative/split-S system of Basque. We show that in Basque ergative case and agreement reflect structural rather than inherent Case: Agree/Move rather than selection. Evidence comes from the core distinctions between these dependency types, including ergative-absolutive alternations due to absolutive Exceptional Case Marking of external arguments and raising-to-ergative of internal arguments. In consequence, structural Agree/Case systems cannot be reduced to a nominative-accusative basis with an inherent ergative, as has been proposed. Our investigation sheds light on the nature of structural ergativity in Basque. First, ergativity like nominativity comes from the T-system, whereas absolutivity and accusativity are in the v-system. Second, ergative agreement can occur under unbounded c-command through Agree, like nominative, accusative, and absolutive case and agreement, but ergative case requires movement to Spec,T, bearing out the ergative as a 'marked' structural Case. Third, structural Agree/Case systems are parametrizable to give both ergative and accusative alignments and islands of exceptionality within each. We develop a theoretical account of these results in the Agree framework of the Principles-and-Parameters approach, building on previous theories of structural ergativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to revise the interpretation of the -o appearing in some Mycenaean month names as a thematic genitive singular ending. This -o would be an alternative to regular -o-jo that has been considered a remnant of the IE ablative. However, the data point to a syntactic blend of nominative of rubric and temporal genitive in the most relevant cases. Accordingly, Mycenaean thematic month names ending in -o should be read as nominatives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this present article is to contribute to the study of the evolution of compound tenses in Spanish by collocating it in the Iberian Romance context. We examined whether the process of the gradual decline of the participle agreement in transitive verbs and the use of the auxiliary 'ser' (be) in intransitive ones show parallelisms in the three representative Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula. The analysis of an old trilingual corpus consisting Catalan, Portuguese and Spanish texts shows that the Spanish ones, as early as the fifteenth century, show the innovation of not matching the participle and that it also maintains the use of 'ser' in the perfect of intransitive verbs, while the other two languages still preserve the state they had in the Middle Ages. The data indicates that the two processes are not strictly correlated and that Spanish overtook the neighboring peninsular languages only in the case of removing the concordance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article surveys some leading generative ideas about agreement and case, and connects them to several universal and near-universal observations noted by typologists. It begins with the familiar fact that adjectives can agree with noun phrases in number and gender but not in person, whereas verbs can agree in person as well—depending on the structure. From there it moves to the fact that verbs typically do not agree with their objects unless they also agree with their subjects. Several possible types of agreement with objects are then identified and distinguished, and some substantive similarities between object agreement and subject agreement are noted. It is shown that both subject agreement and object agreement are sensitive to the case morphology borne by the noun phrase (dative versus accusative, ergative versus nominative) in some languages but not in others, and the implications of this result for the assignment of case are considered. In all, the discussion covers four known linguistic universals in the area of agreement and case, and proposes three new ones. These are all explained in terms of two universal properties of the agreement relation and one parameter. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper offers a comprehensive lexical-semantic account of Mandarin resultative verb compounds (RVCs). On this account, the complex thematic relations expressed by RVCs result from different interactions of the individual thematic relation expressed by each component of the compound and the composite thematic relation expressed by the whole compound, and from the different ways of realizing the Causer and the Causee. This lexical-semantic account has theoretical implications for the relation between the Agent and the Causer and for the division of labor between syntax on the one hand and semantics (and pragmatics) on the other. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The semantic function of the ...bei passive sentence has been characterized in various ways. It has been claimed by some scholars that its primary function is to indicate that the referent of the subject, the speaker or the hearer is adversely affected by the action, event or state represented in the sentence. It has also been claimed that the construction can sometimes be used neutrally, without any adversity implications. It has further been claimed that it can sometimes be used with positive implications. But little attempt has been made in the past to show exactly when the construction acquires which of these three implications (i.e., adversative, neutral, and positive). This paper attempts to answer that question. It proposes that the semantic/discourse function of the bei-passive sentence is to indicate that the referent of the subject, the speaker (or the person whose point of view (s)he is representing) or the hearer receives a major impact which is above a certain threshold from the action, event, or state represented in the sentence. The impact can be either direct, as is the case with high-impact verbs (e.g., ... da 'hit', ... kaichu 'fire'), indirect (as is the case with low or no impact verbs such as ... kanjian 'see', ... hen 'hate'), or both. It shows that a generalization that is based on 'EITHER a major direct impact OR a major indirect impact' does not work. It proposes that the semantic/discourse function of the bei-passive sentence is to indicate that the SUM of the direct and indirect impacts that the referent of the subject, the speaker (or the person whose point of view (s)he is representing) or the hearer receives is at or above the threshold for a major impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This remark argues for the Case-theoretic concept of Case as a syntactic licensing requirement of DPs related to their case morphology, against alternatives where DPs need no syntactic licensing, or where their case morphology is unrelated to it. The argument is made from constraints on combining exceptional Case marking (ECM) and the double object construction, where there is a single object Agree/Case locus for two DPs. The mechanisms and nature of Case are briefly examined. The appendix sketches an extension to wager-class ECM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Degrammaticalization has been characterized as a composite change involving gains in morphosyntactic autonomy or phonetic and/or semantic substance. Such a definition is suggestive of a change (or set of changes) which may profitably be explored from a construction grammar perspective. In this article, we consider two cases of degrammaticalization, using ‘morpheme-based’ and ‘construction-based’ parameters. We relate this to wider issues in grammaticalization research, for instance, the differences between accounts of grammaticalization which focus on reduction, and those which focus on expansion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we argue for an approach to grammatical case that treats case-marking not as the passive realisation of other morpho-syntactic properties of a construction, but as bringing its own independent contribution to the construal of a clause, through inference over possibly underspecified semantic content of a case-marker in context. We take as case studies two instances of Differential Case-Marking: the partitive alternation in Estonian and differential uses of the marker ko in Hindi/Urdu. For Estonian, it is argued that the partitive case is semantically partitive even in alternation in grammatical contexts with nominative and genitive. From this assumption, we derive the various construals of the partitive as indicating indefinite quantity or imperfective aspect and show how other uses of the case, including after negation, may be traced to the basic partitive interpretation. We also argue that the completive interpretations of nominative and genitive derive from contrast with the partitive reading, rather than as being encoded in the case marking itself. With Hindi/Urdu 'dative' maker ko, we argue how pragmatic inference can operate also over grammatical levels to explain the uses of the marker with human direct objects, to specify definiteness of inanimate direct objects and, in alternation with ergative ne, deontic modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show the grammatical properties that distinguish ergative languages from nominative languages. It is assumed that the parameter that contrasts both types of languages has to do with the activation of the inherent ergative Case, which is assigned only in ergative languages. This means that this Case is never present in nominative languages. Additionally, it is argued that split systems tend to appear only in morphologically ergative languages as opposed to what happens in syntactically ergative languages, which do not exhibit splits. In line with this, tripartite case systems are predictable in morphological ergative languages. On the other hand, syntactically ergative languages tend to be more uniform in the sense that the nominative Case is usually assigned both to transitive objects and to intransitive subjects. This explains the reasons why there is a tendency in syntactically ergative languages for the absolutive arguments to exhibit a syntactic behavior commonly associated with the behavior of subject in accusative languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Ancient Greek grammar, specifically noting aspects of paradigm and morphology, using the work "On Prosody in General," by Herodian. It comments on the "word-and-paradigm" approach in Ancient Greek grammatical theory and considers its impact on the nominative singular, cases, and numerals. Other topics explored include Pseudo-Arcadius' Epitome, inflection, and grammatical numbers.

Abstract: The paper provides a historical and areal investigation of the North Russian perfect, often referred to as the “possessive perfect”. This perfect is encoded by a periphrastic predication consisting of a copular auxiliary and a past passive participle in an invariant form; the non-prototypical subject is case-marked with an adessive-like PP while the object is assigned the nominative or, in some varieties, accusative case; contrary to several scholars there is no trace of ergativity. As to the diachrony, the paper represents a case study on the rise of non-prototypical subjects and the development from subjects to objects. The historical investigation of the perfect reveals that etymologically it is neither related to the possessive construction of the mihi est type (as has been commonly assumed before) nor to a passive. Instead, the development out of a patient-oriented resultative construction based on the copula with a predicative resultative participle is suggested. The adessive-like PP (often functioning as a new dative in East Slavic) enters this construction as an adverbial referring to a participant that is physically or mentally affected by the resultant state but develops later exclusively the meaning of the agent of the preceding action and, subsequently, acquires behavioral subject properties. The areal perspective of the investigation reveals two hotbeds of expansion. First, the early sequence of changes leading from the patient-oriented resultative construction to the impersonal perfect with a number of syntactic active properties, and encompassing such languages as Polish, all East Slavic, Baltic and Fennic languages, seems to have been influenced by Polish. Second, the later developments consisting of the incorporation of the free-dative-like adverbial into the construction, the acquisition of agent meaning, and subsequently, subject properties has been instigated by North Russian. From North Russian dialect area this construction spread to such languages as Standard Russian, Estonian, Karelian, Votian and Latvian with a decreasing degree of grammaticalization. Both areal and diachronic perspectives allow equilibrating areal and internal triggers for the described developments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]