Search

To determine how language is implemented in the brain, it is important to know which brain areas are primarily engaged in language processing and which are not. Existing protocols for localizing language are typically univariate, treating each small unit of brain volume as independent. One prominent example that focuses on the overall language network in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) uses a contrast between neural responses to sentences and sets of pseudowords (pronounceable nonwords). This contrast reliably activates peri-sylvian language areas but is less sensitive to extra-sylvian areas that are also known to support aspects of language such as word meanings (semantics). In this study, we assess areas where a multivariate, pattern-based approach shows high reproducibility across multiple measurements and participants, identifying these areas as multivariate regions of interest (mROI). We then perform a representational similarity analysis (RSA) of an fMRI dataset where participants made familiarity judgments on written words. We also compare those results to univariate regions of interest (uROI) taken from previous sentences > pseudowords contrasts. RSA with word stimuli defined in terms of their semantic distance showed greater correspondence with neural patterns in mROI than uROI. This was confirmed in two independent datasets, one involving single-word recognition, and the other focused on the meaning of noun-noun phrases by contrasting meaningful phrases > pseudowords. In all cases, areas of spatial overlap between mROI and uROI showed the greatest neural association. This suggests that ROIs defined in terms of multivariate reproducibility can help localize components of language such as semantics. The multivariate approach can also be extended to focus on other aspects of language such as phonology, and can be used along with the univariate approach for inclusively mapping language cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern natural language processing (NLP) methods provide ways to objectively quantify language disturbances for potential use in diagnostic classification. We performed computerized language analysis in speech samples of 82 Turkish-speaking subjects, including 44 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and 38 healthy controls (HC). Exploratory analysis of speech samples involved 16 sentence-level semantic similarity features using SBERT (Sentence Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Text) as well as 8 generic and 8 part-of-speech (POS) features. The random forest classifier using SBERT-derived semantic similarity features achieved a mean accuracy of 85.6 % for the classification of SSD and HC. When semantic similarity features were combined with generic and POS features, the classifier's mean accuracy reached to 86.8 %. Our analysis reflected increased sentence-level semantic similarity scores in SSD. Generic and POS analyses revealed an increase in the use of verbs, proper nouns and pronouns in SSD while our results showed a decrease in the utilization of conjunctions, determiners, and both average and maximum sentence length in SSD compared to HC. Quantitative language features were correlated with the expressive deficit domain of BNSS (Brief Negative Symptom Scale) as well as with the duration of illness. These findings from Turkish-speaking interviews contribute to the growing evidence-based NLP-derived assessments in non-English-speaking patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turkish nominalizer -(y)Iş demonstrates a broad spectrum of functions ranging from a deverbal word-formation device that forms lexicalized nouns with concrete and abstract meanings to an inflectional marker used in nominal clauses, especially in clausal complementation. In some uses, the item conveys manner semantics. While the item itself has been variously investigated and forms an established part of any Turkish grammar description, there is still a lack of consensus on its functional and semantic properties. This article investigates the morphosyntactic functions and the semantic features of the nominalizer -(y)Iş in light of the claims in the linguistic literature on the one hand, which include manner, countable events, factive imperfective, single instance of an event, direct reference to the inner process of an action, etc., and of examples from primary sources on the other, and evaluates the findings from the perspective of grammaticalization. It will be argued that the range of functions of this item and the fact that it seems to resist any straightforward analysis result from its transition from a derivational marker to an inflectional marker with tasks including complementizer functions, a process in which manner semantics will be argued to play a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Beserman, a new converb grammaticalizes from the possessive locative form of the locative noun in (o)ń-ńig. We show that the constructions with the converb have a clausal structure, while the constructions with the locative noun are mostly noun phrases, even if they include an indication of the agent and patient of the situation encoded by the locative noun. Semantically, the two types of constructions are also different. In the converb constructions the situations encoded by the main and the embedded clause must overlap, while with locative nouns this is not necessarily the case. The temporal reference of locative nouns is habitual/iterative, while converbs often have episodic (non-habitual) interpretation. The original locative noun denotes a reference to a fixed location where the situation usually takes place. In the constructions with the converb this meaning is bleached and generalized as an action which takes place in any possible location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown that comparisons of multiple learning stimuli which are associated with the same novel noun favor taxonomic generalization of this noun. These findings contrast with single-stimulus learning in which children follow so-called lexical biases. However, little is known about the underlying search strategies. The present experiment provides an eye-tracking analysis of search strategies during novel word learning in a comparison design. We manipulated both the conceptual distance between the two learning items, i.e., children saw examples which were associated with a noun (e.g., the two learning items were either two bracelets in a "close" comparison condition or a bracelet and a watch in a "far" comparison condition), and the conceptual distance between the learning items and the taxonomically related items in the generalization options (e.g., the taxonomic generalization answer; a pendant, a near generalization item; versus a bow tie, a distant generalization item). We tested 5-, 6- and 8-year-old children's taxonomic (versus perceptual and thematic) generalization of novel names for objects. The search patterns showed that participants first focused on the learning items and then compared them with each of the possible choices. They also spent less time comparing the various options with one another; this search profile remained stable across age groups. Data also revealed that early comparisons, (i.e., reflecting alignment strategies) predicted generalization performance. We discuss four search strategies as well as the effect of age and conceptual distance on these strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic feature production norms have several desirable characteristics that have supported models of representation and processing in adults. However, several key challenges have limited the use of semantic feature norms in studies of early language acquisition. First, existing norms provide uneven and inconsistent coverage of early-acquired concepts that are typically produced and assessed in children under the age of three, which is a time of tremendous growth of early vocabulary skills. Second, it is difficult to assess the degree to which young children may be familiar with normed features derived from these adult-generated datasets. Third, it has been difficult to adopt standard methods to generate semantic network models of early noun learning. Here, we introduce Feats—a tool that was designed to make headway on these challenges by providing a database, the Language Learning and Meaning Acquisition (LLaMA) lab Noun Norms that extends a widely used set of feature norms McRae et al. Behavior Research Methods37, 547–559, (2005) to include full coverage of noun concepts on a commonly used early vocabulary assessment. Feats includes several tools to facilitate exploration of features comprising early-acquired nouns, assess the developmental appropriateness of individual features using toddler-accessibility norms, and extract semantic network statistics for individual vocabulary profiles. We provide a tutorial overview of Feats. We additionally validate our approach by presenting an analysis of an overlapping set of concepts collected across prior and new data collection methods. Furthermore, using network graph analyses, we show that the extended set of norms provides novel, reliable results given their enhanced coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I offer a critical reflection on the production of "tinnitus maps" as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council project, Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts. Influenced by both methods and critiques of sound mapping, tinnitus maps mark an attempt to creatively document the relationship between aurality, context and place. Tinnitus maps depart from sound mapping's focus on the aural specificity of "proper noun" places, instead depicting tinnitus as a mode of aurality. This article situates these maps in relation to the practices and discourses of acoustic ecology: a field that has been associated with and been influential for various methods of sound mapping. I posit that tinnitus maps serve to amplify the exclusions created by acoustic ecology's aesthetic moralism and investment in normate aurality, while also offering novel insights into tinnitus' spatial and relational constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degrammaticalisation is an oft‐dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo‐Romance indefinite, covelle, a polarity‐sensitive item roughly translating as 'anything' which originated from a Latin free relative with Free‐Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo‐Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th‐century Gallo‐Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier 'thing'. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol cvël is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led cvël to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for 'thing', co(n)sa, into a wh‐word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item gnit. The development of covelle in Romagnol represents a well‐documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verb generation is among the most frequently used tasks in presurgical mapping. Because this task involves many processes, the overall brain effects are not specific. While it is necessary to identify the whole network involving noun comprehension or semantic retrieval and lexical selection to produce the verb, isolation of those components is also crucial. Here, we present data from four patients undergoing presurgical brain mapping. The study implied a reanalysis of magnetoencephalography data with a recategorization of the used items. It aimed to extract the task component that relies on the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). The task could be applied with higher specificity when targeting frontal areas. For that, we based item classification on the selection demands imposed by the noun. It is a robust finding that the IFG carries out this selection and that a quantitative index can be calculated for each noun, which depends on the selection effort (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1997; 94(26):14792–14797, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1998; 95(26):15855–15860). Data showed focality and specificity, with a correlation between this derived index and source activations in the inferior frontal gyrus for all patients. Strikingly, we detected when the right‐hemisphere homologue area was involved in the selection process in two patients showing reorganization or language right lateralization. The present data are a step towards a dissection of broad specific tasks frequently used in presurgical protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Existing evidence has shown that adjectives modulate the grasp-compatibility effect elicited by object nouns. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of syntax on the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns in a grasp-compatibility task. We assessed two languages with different syntactic rules, Italian in Experiment 1 and English in Experiment 2. In both experiments, an adjective-noun pair was shown on the screen. The adjective was always in a pre-nominal position and denoted either a disadvantageous quality of the object graspability (e.g., sharp) or the object colour (e.g., reddish). Participants had to categorize the object nouns as natural or artifact, performing a precision or a power reach-to-grasp movement. On different trials, the grasp response was compatible or incompatible with the grip typically used to manipulate the object indicated by the noun. In Experiment 1 (Italian language) the adjective-noun order violated the syntactic order and no difference emerged between reaction times on compatible and incompatible trials (no grasp compatibility effect). In Experiment 2 (English language), the adjective-noun order followed the syntactic rule. Results showed a grasp-compatibility effect when a colour adjective was presented before a natural object noun. When a disadvantageous adjective preceded an artifact or a natural object noun, an inverted grasp-compatibility effect emerged with slower responses on compatible than incompatible trials. Taken together, these findings suggest that adjectives can shape the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns of graspable objects only when the syntax is correct. Results are discussed with respect to embodied cognition theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence suggests that perceptual‐motor simulations are often constitutively involved in language comprehension. Call this "the simulation view of language comprehension". This article applies the simulation view to illuminate the much‐discussed phenomenon of copredication, where a noun permits multiple predications which seem to select different senses of the noun simultaneously. On the proposed account, the (in)felicitousness of a copredicational sentence is closely associated with the perceptual simulations that the language user deploys in comprehending the sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient word recognition is important to facilitate reading comprehension. Two important factors influence word recognition—word frequency (WF) and contextual diversity (CD)—but studies have not reached consistent conclusions on their role. Based on previous studies, the present study strictly controlled the anticipation of sentence context on target words. In the context of the semantic incongruence of Chinese sentences—that is, when the context is equivalent and low in anticipation of the target noun—CD effects were found on late processing indicators of the eye movement data of parafoveal words, and the CD feature of parafoveal words led to a significant parafoveal‐on‐foveal effect. However, none of these results were found in the semantically reasonable (semantic congruence) context. The results suggested that high CD words are better at adapting to unexposed or learned contexts, which was not the case for high WF words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a quantitative study of the genitive and nominative/accusative plural inflections in Owun's gloss (Rushworth2) to the Rushworth Gospels in comparison with Aldred's gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels. It focuses on three inter-paradigmatic analogical changes attested in Rushworth2: (1) the extension of genitive singular -es from the a-stems to other noun classes, (2) the spread of nominative/accusative plural -as from masculine a-stems to neuter a-stems and other declensions and (3) the extension of genitive plural -ena from the weak nouns to a-stems. The main aim of this article is to establish the scale on which these analogical changes are found in Rushworth2. The results are compared with those obtained in the study of Lindisfarne to determine the degree of similarity between the two glosses with regard to these processes and shed light on the question of whether Owun copied from Aldred or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As most other sign languages, Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) makes use of verbal classifiers for the purpose of spatial predication. However, a thorough study of the Asian SignBank shows that these same classifier handshapes occur in 76% of all HKSL nouns. In this paper, I argue that these classifier handshapes embedded in nouns are in fact noun classifiers. Under the framework of Distributed Morphology, classifier handshapes are underspecified roots in root compounds which can be assigned the nominal category when merged with a nominal functional head in syntax. The function of these classifiers is to identify, and categorize a discourse referent, and they are full-fledged classifiers according to standards set by the general linguistic literature on classifiers. In addition to verbal and noun classifiers, I also briefly show how HKSL uses mensural numeral classifiers to intervene between mass nouns and numerals within the NP. Taken together, this means that HKSL employs three different types of classifiers: verbal, noun, and numeral classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current report is to study the effects of language distance on noun and verb processing in bilingual speakers. We recruited two groups of bilingual speakers: one group spoke two typologically distant languages (Cantonese and English) and the other group spoke two typologically similar languages (Mandarin and Cantonese). Participants named object and action pictures in their first language. We controlled psycholinguistic properties of words such as frequency, AoA, imageability, name agreement, visual complexity, familiarity, and participants' bilingual language experiences. Our findings revealed a significant role for language distance. We observed a difference between noun and verb processing in the similar language pair (Mandarin–Cantonese) due to interference induced by language similarity. However, in the distant language pair (Cantonese–English), the difference disappeared because of the lack of cross-language interference. Our findings support that current and future models of bilingual language processing should take into account the effects of language distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilinguals experience processing costs when comprehending code-switches, yet the magnitude of the cost fluctuates depending on numerous factors. We tested whether switch costs vary based on the frequency of different types of code-switches, as estimated from natural corpora of bilingual speech and text. Spanish–English bilinguals in the U.S. read single-language and code-switched sentences in a self-paced task. Sentence regions containing code-switches were read more slowly than single-language control regions, consistent with the idea that integrating a code-switch poses a processing challenge. Crucially, more frequent code-switches elicited significantly smaller costs both within and across most classes of switch types (e.g., within verb phrases and when comparing switches at verb-phrase and noun-phrase sites). The results suggest that, in addition to learning distributions of syntactic and semantic patterns, bilinguals develop finely tuned expectations about code-switching behavior – representing one reason why code-switching in naturalistic contexts may not be particularly costly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years an increasing scepticism has arisen concerning the Deuteronomistic character of the Book of the Four (Hos, Amos, Mic, Zeph). Many themes and motifs have been regarded as "inspired" by or "oriented" towards the Deut and DtrH, but not exclusively Dtr. redaction. Hosea 1*, the beginning of the composition, however, has been neglected in this respect. Unlike 2 Kgs 9–10, which reflects a positive view of Jehu's fulfilment of Yhwh's command at Jezreel, Hos 1 condemns him for the bloodguilt at the same place. The discrepancy is often explained through different theological backgrounds. In contrast, this article shows that both thematically (the end of the Jehuites) and in terms of phraseology ("harlotry," idioms with the noun "blood," "bow," symbolic use of the verb "lift up," nouns belonging to the semantic field of riding), there is a close literary connection between Hos 1* and 2 Kgs 9–10. Thus, for good reasons Hos 1* can be considered Dtr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that learning a known-and-unknown word combination leads to greater learning than learning an unknown word alone (Kasahara, 2010, 2011). These studies found that attaching a known adjective to an unknown noun can help learners remember the unknown noun. Kasahara (2015) found that a known verb can serve as an effective cue to remember an unknown noun in a known-and-unknown combination. To examine useful cues to learn unknown verbs, this study compared verb (unknown) + noun (known) combinations to verb (unknown) + adverb (known) combinations. Additionally, we explored how learners' vocabulary size would affect the known-and-unknown two-word combination learning to deepen our understanding of the characteristics of students who benefit from combination learning. The participants in each group learned 18 two-word combinations consisting of the same unknown target verbs and different known cues (nouns or adverbs). The participants were provided with a five-minute learning phase and two immediate recall tests: a Single Word Test, to write down the L1 meanings of the targets, and a Combination Test, to write down the L1 meanings of the combinations. The same two tests were administered one week later. The results showed that known nouns were better cues for learning unknown verbs than known adverbs. It was also found that participants with a larger vocabulary size benefited more from two-word combination learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspect markers (AMs), temporal adverbs (TAs) and temporal nouns (TNs) are used by young Mandarin-speaking children to express time. However, the factors that affect the relative acquisition trajectories of these categories remains unclear. Accordingly, this study adoptsWeist's time-concept model to examine the patterns of acquisition between and within the above three categories of temporal markers in the Mandarin system of time. Specifically, temporal markers were extracted from language samples obtained from 82 Mandarin-speaking children aged 2 to 5years, who were divided into three groups by age. The results indicated that the token counts and the type counts of temporal markers were significantly higher among the older children, who were also more capable of using more categories of temporal markers, and were more likely to use multiple markers in single utterances. Of the three categories of temporal marker, AMs emerged earliest, and the participants' repertoires of AMs stopped expanding sooner than their TA and TN repertoires did. As measured by token use, AMs were mastered earliest. Within each of the three categories, the acquisition of temporal-marker subgroups also varied according to two semantic features: temporal remoteness and specificity. The findings were consistent with Weist's principles, and suggest that languagegeneral time concepts (content) and language-specific syntactic properties (form) interact to shape the acquisition of temporal markers by Mandarin-speaking children, with the additional role being played by the semantic features of temporal remoteness and specificity within each category. Theoretical and clinical implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a computational‐level model of language production in terms of a combination of information theory and control theory in which words are chosen incrementally in order to maximize communicative value subject to an information‐theoretic capacity constraint. The theory generally predicts a tradeoff between ease of production and communicative accuracy. I apply the theory to two cases of apparent availability effects in language production, in which words are selected on the basis of their accessibility to a speaker who has not yet perfectly planned the rest of the utterance. Using corpus data on English relative clause complementizer dropping and experimental data on Mandarin noun classifier choice, I show that the theory reproduces the observed phenomena, providing an alternative account to Uniform Information Density and a promising general model of language production which is tightly linked to emerging theories in computational neuroscience. A model based on a combination of information theory and control theory predicts availability/accessibility effects in language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Nominal Style" by Mathilde Hennig deals with the concept of nominalization in the German language. It explains how verbs and attributes can be transformed into nouns through nominalization. The book is aimed at students of German studies and offers a thorough analysis of example sentences and their comprehensibility after nominalization. However, it emphasizes that not all nominal groups are productive and that not everything can be expressed in a nominal way. [Extracted from the article]

Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that act as the predicate, as 'made the suggestion' in I made the suggestion that she join. They are frequent, variable, and ambiguous across texts, as well as language-specific in their lexical and syntactic properties. The article examines patterns of negation with δίκην δίδωμι 'to pay the price for one's actions', ὅπλα ἔχω 'to be armed', and συμμαχίαν ποιέομαι 'to ally up' in classical literary Attic. Syntactically and lexically, support-verb constructions can behave like a word or like a syntagm. A word does not have an internal syntax but only an external one; a syntagm has an internal syntax. Negation in support-verb constructions can be achieved either morpho-syntactically or lexically as long as the syntagm character has not faded. Morpho-syntactically, support-verb constructions can be negated by drawing on their external or their internal syntax. Lexical negation can be achieved by means of negative verbs of realisation indicating a zero-degree of multiplication. If available for a support-verb construction, lexical negation appears to add a nuance of intensity; morpho-syntactic negation appears primarily in contrastive contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of original data from Moksha Mordvin (Finno‐Ugric), I argue that some languages have nominal concord even though modifiers of the noun generally do not show inflection. Evidence for the presence of concord comes from nominal ellipsis, under which inflection is phonologically realized and restricted in the same way as regular nominal concord. To account for the distribution of concord exponents, I develop a model that allows features to be present in syntax but avoid realization. In particular, I propose that (i) Spellout applies to a node as soon as its Merge and Agree features are satisfied and (ii) Agree features are by default illegible at PF and need to undergo an operation called Probe Conversion in order to become accessible to PF processes. The distribution of features then follows from the relative timing of Spellout and Probe Conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deixis is the thing referred to by linguistic units outside the text or the discourse. The act of demonstrating or indicating the elements of a state through gestures or linguistic units is called deixis. Deictic is the name given to linguistic elements such as pronouns, demonstrative nouns and adverbs, which refer to the personal, spatial or temporal aspects of a speech act and which are, therefore, all directly related to the context surrounding its act of communication. Since the references of the deicitc expressions can only be identified within the context of actual communication, the subject is considered as a part of the pragmatics. This study aims to analyse the demonstrative nouns used in the Qur’anic verses within the context of deixis and types of deixis, which are research areas of pragmatics, and to identify the types of deixis used in the Qur’an. This study also aims to provide insight into how to present the references of demonstrative nouns, especially in Qur’anic translations, to be understood correctly by the readers. This is because the translations of the Qur’an are presented in written form, and the references of the deictic units are not expressed clearly in some of them. In this case, it is assumed that the reader might have difficulty understanding the meanings of the deictic such as “this, to this, these”. This study, firstly by studying deixis and its types from the modern linguistics and pragmatics resources, aims to form a conceptual framework. After the first chapter, upon which the main problem of the study will be built, is completed, the demonstrative nouns are analysed in terms of their structural and referential aspects within balāg̲h̲a and tafsīr sources, classical Arabic language nahw sources being in the first place. After the obtained data is analysed, their references are determined by associating the demonstrative nouns in Qur’anic verses with types of deixis, anaphora and cataphora. In this direction, firstly, the demonstrative nouns in the Qur’an will be identified, and the type of deixis will be explained by providing one example for each one of the demonstrative nouns in terms of their referential variety. For this purpose, this study highlights the demonstrative nouns which cannot be directly understood but only can be identified by checking the context. That is, the demonstrative nouns that take adjectives or are adjectives themselves will not be included in the scope. The references to these nouns existing in the verses will be specifically analysed within the classical tafsīr works. This study is significant as it reveals the references of demonstrative nouns by analysing the types of deixis in order to understand the Qur’an more accurately. Though there are various studies regarding demonstrative nouns, there are no studies found analysing the references of these nouns according to their types of deixis. With this study, it is understood that classical tafsīrs mention the deixis, types of deixis, and the references anaphora and cataphora for demonstrative nouns. As the demonstrative nouns, which are deictic elements, are used to point to all types of living and non-living creatures, they are considered indefinite things. It is understood that for the other interpreters, the vagueness can only be eliminated by considering pragmatic factors such as the speaker, listener and the context of communication. Twenty types of demonstrative nouns were used for a total of 1047 times in 89 different surahs. These demonstrative nouns are as following: “ ،هاتين ،هذان ،هذا ،ذا demonstrative that fact The .”هؤلاء، ذلك، ذانك، ذلكما، ذلكم، تلك، ذلكن، هذه، أولئك، أولئكم، أولاء، كذلك، كذلكم، هاهنا هنالك، ثم nouns are used so often in the Qur’an prove that these nouns are quite important in understanding the Qur’an. This study addresses the verses with demonstrative nouns in terms of types of deixis as part of pragmatics by referring to classical tafsīr and linguistic sources. It has been determined that demonstrative nouns in the Qur’an make personal, spatial or temporal references, discourse deixis, anaphora and cataphora, however, they do not perform as social deixis. It has been concluded that identifying the references of demonstrative nouns is quite important in understanding and interpreting the Qur’an correctly. It is also understood that the methods to determine the references of demonstrative nouns by the sources used in the study have pragmatic characteristics. It is observed that the references of the demonstrative nouns are not presented in certain Qur’an translations. In this context, it has been concluded that stating the references of these nouns in written form for the translation of the Qur’an into different languages is vital for these references to be understood correctly. It has also been concluded that it is a requirement in terms of pragmatics to consider the references of the deictic elements mentioned, especially in the primary source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study seeks to clarify various ways in which metonymy can affect the meaning of Persian noun-noun nominal compounds. An analysis of 280 endo- and exocentric Persian noun-noun nominal compounds reveals that as far as the role of metonymy in the construction of meaning is concerned, this cognitive mechanism can affect the meaning of Persian nominal compounds in four ways as follows: a) metonymical modifier, b) metonymical head, c) metonymical head and modifier, and d) metonymic nominal compounds as a whole. While the pattern of metonymical modifier only affects the meaning of endocentric compounds, the other three patterns function in the meaning of exocentric compounds. This study substantiates Brdar and Brdar-Szabo's (2013) and Brdar's (2017) assertion that metonymy may either act upon the constituents of the compound, i.e., before compounding (the first, second, and third pattern), or the compound as a whole, i.e., after the combination of constituents (the fourth pattern). It is also argued that the metonymical relationship between head and modifier cannot be regarded as a pattern. If such an argument was plausible, non-figurative endocentric compounds would also be metonymical and compounding would basically require the functioning of metonymy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first survey of verbal affixes encoding the day period ('at night','in the morning' etc.) or the yearly seasons ('in winter' etc.) when the action takes place. It introduces the term 'periodic tense' to refer to this comparative concept, explores the attested paradigms, their interactions with other verbal categories (including the more usual deictic tense), and investigates their diachronic origins. It shows that periodic tense markers are not restricted to incorporated nouns of time period but constitute a highly grammaticalized verbal category in some languages, which can redundantly co-occur with free adverbs or nouns indicating time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with how English deverbal nouns with the suffix -ing have been imported into Italian. The focus is on the semantic characteristics of these borrowed nouns in Italian and, in particular, on the question of whether they have been borrowed not as simple sign-concept pairings but with argument and event structure. In previous research, it has been claimed that argument and event structure need to be licensed by some overt functional element. Hence, borrowed deverbal nouns should have argument structure and event structure only if they have an overt affix, in other words, only if the forms are not borrowed holistically as unsegmented words but retain internal morphological structure, implying that morphological borrowing of the affix has occurred. When a foreign affix combines with native bases of the recipient language, this is often considered an important criterion for morphological borrowing, which is clearly not the case for the suffix -ing in Italian. Here, it will be shown that contrary to expectation, numerous occurrences with argument and event structure may be found in a large Italian web corpus for a sample of English deverbal nouns ending in -ing, borrowed into (certain registers) of Italian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepositional form and function in Irish, as in other Modern Celtic languages, are topics of much significance. In Modern Irish numerous simple prepositions not only form compounds with possessive forms of personal pronouns but additionally marshal an impressive array of 'conjugated' forms corresponding to the various grammatical persons. Prepositions also play a crucial role in indicating aspect and are involved in passive/ reflexive roles with the verbal noun. This paper offers an overview of the functioning of a selection of important prepositions in the language and provides examples by way of illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many other Oceanic and Kanak languages of New Caledonia, Zuanga-Yuanga [ZY] has classifiers restricted to the possession of nouns denoting food, drink, animals and plants; it also has dichotomous direct and indirect adnominal possessive constructions, which are generally labeled inalienable or alienable in the Oceanic literature. These terms refer to a distinction between close versus distant structural marking, which do not strictly correlate with lexical-semantic categories. For instance, kinship nouns are split over the two types of constructions, distinguishing reference from address kinship terms, not in terms of semantic distinctions between close versus distant kinship types. The split for body-part nouns is between directly possessed dedicated terms and indirectly possessed metaphorical body terms, not in terms of permanent versus removable parts, or temporary body properties. In ZY possessive constructions correlate with fairly strict possessee noun classes belonging to one single structural class (directly or indirectly marked). Only a limited number of nouns denoting parts-of-whole have alternate constructions expressing different semantic relations to the possessed noun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the nature and behavior of independent, bound and deverbal nouns at various levels of linguistic organization in Harakmbut (isolate, Peru), and assesses the explanatory potential of the alienability contrast for the data observed. While the distinction between bound and independent nouns is to a great extent motivated by the conceptual distinction between inalienably and alienably possessed items, the behavior of bound and independent nouns in adnominal possession is not. Whereas independent (and deverbal) nouns use a genitive-marked two-word construction, bound nouns can use the same one, when keeping their noun prefix, or they can use a genitive-marked one-word construction, in which they drop their prefix. It is thus argued that there is no alienability split in adnominal possession, that is, there is no coding split according to which bound nouns behave fully differently from independent nouns. This is supported by the finding that bound nouns (unlike independent and deverbal ones) also show the same choice between a two-word and a one-word coding strategy in non-possessive adnominal modification. In noun-noun compounding, the data merely reveal different preferences of bound and independent nouns for the N1 versus N2 position; here deverbal nouns behave identically to bound nouns in dropping their prefix in N2. In noun incorporation, finally, the relevance of the alienability contrast is similar to that for the two-way noun class system. Inalienable semantics (and morphological boundness) could be argued to determine the incorporability of nouns, but there are also exceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the adnominal possessive construction of Mandinka (a West Mande language spoken in Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau), the possessor NP may be simply juxtaposed to the possessee or flagged by the postposition lá. This coding split shows unusual properties in comparison with most of the languages having formally similar coding splits. Crucially, any noun can be modified by an unflagged possessor, depending on the semantic nature of the possessor and of its relation to the possessee. The present-day distribution of the two constructions cannot be analyzed as reflecting an alienability contrast, nor can the alienability contrast account for the emergence of this coding split. The data analyzed in this study suggest that the lá-construction initially referred to situations where the possessor determines the location of the possessee, but is grammaticalized differently depending on the grammatical nature of the head noun and the semantic nature of the modifier. The Mandinka data also show the limits of explanations in terms of discourse frequency, and the need to admit that semantic features such as animacy and control may play a crucial role in the genesis of coding splits in the adnominal possession construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an original analysis of possession in Mojeño Trinitario, an Arawak language, teasing apart the levels of lexical possessive noun classes, morphological derivation between noun classes, and adnominal possessive constructions. The three possessive noun classes (obligatorily prefixed, optionally prefixed and non-prefixable) do not exactly correspond to the three possessive noun classes of the traditional analysis of Arawak languages, as in the analysis proposed here some of the traditionally called "alienable" nouns, i.e. nouns occurring as either possessed or unpossessed, are classified as non-prefixable nouns because they need some additional derivational morphology to be prefixable. The two adnominal possessive constructions (basic, through prefixation and modification; and indirect, via a generic possessive noun) are described, and their distribution is discussed. The article then addresses the question of how the notion of "alienability contrast" could explain the phenomena described, at either the lexical or phrasal level. In the process, it offers frequency counts on how often nouns of the different possessive classes occur as possessed in discourse, and it discusses whether the three noun classes are open or closed classes. It concludes that the alienability contrast is at best only a partial explanation for the expression of possession in Mojeño Trinitario. This article ends by developing how this innovative account of possession in Mojeño Trinitario applies to other Arawak languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we are presenting a database structure to encode the phenomenon of differential possession across languages, considering noun possession classes and possessive constructions as independent but linked. We show how this structure can be used to study different dimensions of possession: semantics, noun valence, and possessive constructions. We present preliminary survey results from a global sample of 120 languages and show that there is a universal semantic core in both inalienable and non-possessible noun classes. Inalienables are centered on body parts and kinship. Non-possessibles are centered on animals, humans, and natural elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on possession marking in Piaroa, a Jodï-Sáliban language spoken along the Middle Orinoco River on the Venezuelan-Colombian border. Based on a corpus of first-hand fieldwork data and building on previous descriptions of Piaroa possession, I show that Piaroa nouns can be divided into four main possessive noun classes based not only on the alienability (i.e., obligatorily possessed vs. optionally possessed) contrast but also based on construction types (i.e., directly possessed vs. indirectly possessed). This article thus contributes to our crosslinguistic understanding of possession constructions and possessive noun classes by showing that alienability is not a sufficient criterion to account for the different possessive classes and splits in Piaroa adnominal possessive constructions, which require positing two concurrent but distinct systems of possessive classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support‐verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot, for example, to make a suggestion in I made the suggestion yesterday. The article examines direct‐object structures with support‐verb constructions in Greek documentary papyri from fourth‐ to mid‐seventh‐century Egypt. By the fourth century, Greek and Egyptian (at this stage called Coptic) had co‐existed in Egypt for about a millennium and the latter was gaining ground. The article focusses on the support‐verb‐construction families surrounding ἐξουσίαν exousian 'power' and ἐγγύην egguēn 'surety' as well as on a selection of structures with ποιέομαι poieomai 'to do'. The article finds that direct‐object structures in the data sample have differing explanations. Direct‐object patterns are a marginal pattern in classical Greek already, such that some patterns can be explained by inheritance or the extension of a pattern to new contexts. However, some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. The syntax of support‐verb constructions in Greek does not run counter to the verbal syntax otherwise, which may aid the fact that they do not introduce systemic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Words direct visual attention in infants, children, and adults, presumably by activating representations of referents that then direct attention to matching stimuli in the visual scene. Novel, unknown, words have also been shown to direct attention, likely via the activation of more general representations of naming events. To examine the critical issue of how novel words and visual attention interact to support word learning we coded frame‐by‐frame the gaze of 17‐ to 31‐month‐old children (n = 66, 38 females) while generalizing novel nouns. We replicate prior findings of more attention to shape when generalizing novel nouns, and a relation to vocabulary development. However, we also find that following a naming event, children who produce fewer nouns take longer to look at the objects they eventually select and make more transitions between objects before making a generalization decision. Children who produce more nouns look to the objects they eventually select more quickly following the naming event and make fewer looking transitions. We discuss these findings in the context of prior proposals regarding children's few‐shot category learning, and a developmental cascade of multiple perceptual, cognitive, and word‐learning processes that may operate in cases of both typical development and language delay. Research Highlights: Examined how novel words guide visual attention by coding frame‐by‐frame where children look when asked to generalize novel names.Gaze patterns differed with vocabulary size: children with smaller vocabularies attended to generalization targets more slowly and did more comparison than those with larger vocabularies.Demonstrates a relationship between vocabulary size and attention to object properties during naming.This work has implications for looking‐based tests of early cognition, and our understanding of children's few‐shot category learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the evolution of the distributive double noun (quivis) in biblical Hebrew. This construction developed from an asyndeton in Classical Biblical Hebrew (e.g., איש איש) into a syndeton in Late Biblical Hebrew (e.g., איש אויש), a process that makes it an important diachronic marker in classifying and analyzing these two varieties of the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book, titled "Cross-Categorial Classification: Nouns and Verbs in Eegimaa," explores the noun and verb classification system of Eegimaa, an African language of the Jóola group. The book consists of eight chapters and two appendices, covering topics such as verb classification systems, morphological analysis of nouns and verbs, and the semantic motivations behind noun and verb classification. The author argues that Eegimaa uses the same morphosyntactic mechanism to classify non-finite verbs and nouns, and highlights the analogy between the nominal and verbal domains. This book provides valuable insights into the classification systems of nouns and verbs in Eegimaa and contributes to our understanding of similar systems in related languages. [Extracted from the article]

This article deals with simulative derivations, meaning 'pretend (to be) X', where X stands for a verb or a noun. It shows that these derivations have three main origins: incorporation, denominal derivation and combination of reflexive and causative. It also systematically discusses the corresponding analytic constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human behavioral studies have consistently indicated a preference for subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) over object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs) in sentence production and comprehension. Some studies have further shown that this preference can be influenced by the semantic properties of head nouns, particularly animacy. In this study, we use AI language models, specifically GPT-2 and ChatGPT 3.5, to simulate human sentence generation. Our primary goal is to evaluate the extent to which these language models replicate human behaviors in sentence production and identify any divergences. We tasked the models with completing sentence fragments structured as 'the,' followed by a head noun and 'that' (The reporter that ...). We varied the semantic property of head nouns such that they are all animate (the secretary that ...) in Study 1 and are either animate or inanimate (the musician/book that ...) in Study 2. Our findings reveal that in Study 1, both GPT models exhibited a robust SRC bias, replicating human-like behavior in relative clause production. However, in Study 2, we observed divergent behavior between the models when head nouns were inanimate, while consistency was maintained when head nouns were animate. Specifically, ChatGTP 3.5 generated more ORCs than SRCs in the presence of inanimate head nouns. These results, particularly those from ChatGPT 3.5, closely mirror human relative clause production patterns. Our study highlights the potential of language generative language models as efficient and versatile corpus simulators. Furthermore, our findings contribute to the evolving field of AI linguistics, shedding light on the capacity of AI generative systems to emulate human-like linguistic patterns in sentence production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article follows the situations involving predictability of phonological alternations, considering their large number. The difficulty of delimiting a radical (variable) common to forms from the same paradigm, the possibility of several ways of segmentation in the case of some nouns, the existence of morphological allomorphs lead to a complex system of alternations. Linguistic material is organized according to the morphonological conditioning that is the basis of the distribution in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction situates our special issue's focus on care, as concept and practice, within several lineages of feminist scholarship to grapple with the difficulties of the present moment. Over the past four decades of feminist scholarship and practice, notions of care and caring, as noun and verb, have had great traction across disciplinary divides, spurring debates about power and positionality while challenging binaries of equality and difference, public and private, the rational and irrational, and paid and unpaid labor. It is in the differing institutional, national, and community contexts explored in this issue that new perspectives on the complexity of care and caring emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to designate the functional use of case suffix +lA in dialects of Giresun and its region and the role of each function in the syntax. In the functional approach, the case is determined not according to the suffixes the noun takes, but according to the tasks which it is assigned in the sentence. The +lA case suffix examples used in our study were determined by scanning the work called Giresun İli ve Yöresi Ağızları prepared by Demir and Aydoğdu (2009). All the examples in which the detected +lA suffix is used have been evaluated by Daşdemir (2015) on the basis of the case categories created according to the functions and tasks in the syntax in accordance with the functional approach. As a result of the study, the outcome that the case suffix +lA is used in 7 different functions was reached. According to the frequency of usage, these functions are as follows: the instrumental case, commutative case, qualitative case, reciprocal case, genitive case, causative case and locative of time case. The tasks they undertake in these functions are determined as case adverb, instrumental object, reciprocity object, commutative object, genitive object, case object, cause object, time object and designation/qualifying adjective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypocoristics have received considerable interest from phonologists in recent decades, particularly within the Optimality-theoretic literature. While most of these analyses have been situated in parallelist OT, I claim that this architectural choice entails hidden complexities. It is cross-linguistically common for multiple hypocoristics to be formed from a single proper noun, e.g., Matthew → Matt/Matty. In this case, parallelist OT must resort to co-phonologies to avoid ranking paradoxes, which results in significant analytical complexity. By contrast, I argue in this paper that a stratal analysis is crucial for capturing multiple patterns of Hypocoristic Formation (HF) within a single architecture. I present here data of disyllabic hypocoristics from Standard Chilean Spanish. These hypocoristics are derived from the proper nouns by means of two separate anchoring sites: to the left edge of the full name, or to prominence in the full name, i.e., the tonic syllable. In addition, hypocoristics may be prosodically- or morphologically-driven: they may solely be formed by truncating the material of the proper noun, or, in the latter case, there may also be additional suffixal material provided. These data, therefore, lend themselves to a four-way categorisation. I show that this categorisation can be fully accounted for within a stratal architecture, and without the need for additional co-phonologies. Within the analysis, I locate each of the anchoring sites within the lexical phonology: edge-anchoring occurs at the stem level, along with syllabification and stress assignment, while prominence-anchoring occurs at the word level. In this way, the input to edge-anchoring at the stem level comprises a string of segments, while the input to prominence-anchoring at the word-level contains prosodic units up to the foot, which permits word-level HF to anchor to prominence. I further posit that prosodic- and morphologically-driven HF are caused through the passing of hypocoristic morphemes from the morpho-syntax to the phonology. Purely prosodic HF is triggered through a null or covert morpheme, while morphological HF triggered by an overt one. The hypocoristic morphemes themselves are stored as diacritics in the proper nouns' lexical entries. Furthermore, the constraints that select the hypocoristic forms as optimal are sensitive to the presence of this hypocoristic morpheme, which is reflected in tableaux through indexing. When a hypocoristic morpheme is present in the input of a proper noun to a particular stratum, these highly-ranked indexed constraints select a corresponding hypocoristic form as optimal. If the hypocoristic morpheme is absent, these constraints do not assign violations, and the proper noun is instead (vacuously) found optimal. This analysis thus unifies two distinct patterns of HF in one phonological grammar through the inclusion of indexed-constraints and the serial derivation in a constraint-based architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language comprehension system preferentially assumes that agents come first during incremental processing. While this might reflect a biologically fixed bias, shared with other domains and other species, the evidence is limited to languages that place agents first, and so the bias could also be learned from usage frequency. Here, we probe the bias with electroencephalography (EEG) in Äiwoo, a language that by default places patients first, but where sentence‐initial nouns are still locally ambiguous between patient or agent roles. Comprehenders transiently interpreted nonhuman nouns as patients, eliciting a negativity when disambiguation was toward the less common agent‐initial order. By contrast and against frequencies, human nouns were transiently interpreted as agents, eliciting an N400‐like negativity when the disambiguation was toward patient‐initial order. Consistent with the notion of a fixed property, the agent bias is robust against usage frequency for human referents. However, this bias can be reversed by frequency experience for nonhuman referents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second language (L2) learners make gender errors with possessive pronouns. In production, these errors are modulated by the gender match between the possessor and possessee noun. We examined whether this so‐called match effect extends to L2 comprehension by attempting to replicate a recent study on gender predictions in first language (L1) German speakers (Stone, Veríssimo, et al., 2021). By comparing Spanish and English learners of L2 German whose languages have different possessive constraints, we were able to examine whether the match effect was modulated by the participants' L1. A first experiment suggested that predictions and match effects were absent in setups with complex visual displays. A second experiment with simpler displays successfully elicited predictions and match effects, but their size was comparable in Spanish and English speakers, inconsistent with crosslinguistic influence. We interpret our results as evidence that processing difficulties with possessives result from memory interference that impacts both L1 and L2 comprehenders. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in non‐technical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider two asymmetries reported in the literature on word prosodic systems: the tendency to allow more prosodic contrast in nouns than in verbs and the tendency to avoid stress on functional material. We focus on the interaction between these two tendencies and propose a formal mechanism to handle this interaction couched in Optimality Theory. In a case study on a group of standard Serbo-Croatian varieties that have predictable stress in verbs but contrastive stress in nouns, we develop an analysis of predictable and morphologically conditioned stress assignment. Our analysis features a family of constraints militating against stress on non-lexical material on three different levels: stress on inflection proper (*Infl-Stress-1), stress on non-lexical material in the locality domain of inflection (*Infl-Stress-2), and stress on non-lexical material altogether (*Infl-Stress-3). Analyzing a class of prosodically exceptional denominal and borrowed verbs, we show that lexical-category effects exist between and within categories: denominal verbs allow exceptional preservation of nominal stress, which leads to additional prosodic contrast in this class of verbs. Finally, we explore the option of subsuming exceptionally contrast-preserving borrowed verbs under denominal verbs, offering arguments in favor of the hotly debated view from the literature that verbs are universally borrowed as denominal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a corpus study investigating the distribution of the three grammatical cases in Estonian (nominative, genitive, partitive) and the factors affecting the interpretation of syntactic role for nouns marked in these cases. Unlike previous studies, which have focussed on the properties of grammatical relations, we take the perspective of morphological case, and investigate the relative frequency of each case in both written and spoken corpora, according to the encoded grammatical roles, referential properties (animacy, number, countability) and syntactic context (word order, transitivity), as well as probing the differences according to register. We find that each case is prototypically, but not reliably, associated with a particular grammatical role, and that a cluster of features are available to assist speakers in identifying the function of a case-marked noun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pronouns are words that replace nouns, represent them by person, sign or question, and can be used like nouns. It is known that personal pronouns, which are used as substitutes for the names of persons, are not as suitable for word formation by taking derivationality as nouns, and these pronouns are evaluated in traditional grammar books in two groups: I, you, he (singular); we, you, they (plural). It is also explained by researchers that possessive morphemes, which are known to occur after the plurality morpheme and before case morphemes, form some structures that change the general morpheme order of Turkish (root + derivational suffix + inflectional suffix). In this study, it is aimed to examine the structures in which possessive morphemes, which differ from the general order, appear before the +{lI4K} morpheme, which is one of the busiest derivational morphemes of Turkish and is included under the heading of morphemes deriving names from nouns; the function of this morpheme +(A) göre (according to) in its use with personal nouns and the pronoun/noun (+possesive) + {lI4K} structure that comes to some species names and proper names with the same function. The examples in the written language were determined using the Turkish National Corpus (TUD), the Turkish Lexicography Corpus (TSD) and e-books. The sentences in which the constructions derived with this morpheme, which function +(A) göre (according to) and are used as determiners, are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]