Volume 58, Issue 3

This paper investigates prosodic and contextual differentiation strategies between preverbal past tense negator neva and adverb never in Hawai‘i Creole. It aims to demonstrate differing syntactic restrictions and advocates for treating these words as two distinct morphemes. The analyses are based on phonological data gathered from interviews uploaded onto YouTube by Hawaiiverse, a Local podcast. As demonstrated through spectrogram analyses, HC néva (=ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ) is marked by a stressed accent on its first syllable and prominence on word-initial /n/, whereas neva  (=ᴅɪᴅɴ’ᴛ) is marked by a lack of these features under typical circumstances. This suggests that Hawai‘i Creole morphophonology depends more on stress-timed features than previously researched (cf. syllable-timed features). Neva - néva ambiguity may arise when stress does not clearly indicate which word is being used, and when context cannot be relied upon to distinguish meaning. By exploring these intricacies, this investigation offers insight into how future researchers may approach analysing other English-lexified creoles (and varieties of English) which also use never as a preverbal past tense negator.

The Chinese language is defined on the basis of Chinese characters, which stabilize monosyllabic root morphemes across the countless varieties. As subsyllabic linguistic forms such as derivational morphology can hardly be represented by Chinese characters, compounding is preferred over derivation in Chinese. Compounds do not have fixed word boundaries. The wordhood of compounds pertains to the level of conventionality in language use, which is a continuum instantiated by synchronic gradience and diachronic gradualness. A perennial archaizing aesthetics further complicates the determination of Chinese words by preserving classical linguistic forms in formal and literary writing, thus making every synchronic stratum heterogeneous by blurring the distinction between historical strata. Therefore, the boundaries of words have always been fluid in native speakers’ mental lexicon.

The Chinese sequence yǒu rén [exist person] is both the minimal existential-presentational construction and the functional equivalent of indefinite pronouns in encoding indefinite human reference. This dual characteristic prompts the question of whether yǒu rén functions as a presentational construction comparable to similar forms in other languages. Building on a literary corpus of Chinese contemporary novels, this study aims to determine if yǒu rén displays the behavioral properties of presentational constructions. First, presentational yǒu rén constructions are distinguished from both locative-existential and generic-existential ones based on a set of features including predicate selection in the coda, presence and function of the locative expression, and the co-dependent interpretation of the nominal rén . Next, the discourse function of yǒu rén is examined by assessing its contrast with regular nonpresentational sentences and the anaphoric potential of the entity it introduces. While establishing the boundaries between the three construction types, the study also analyzes the co-expression pattern observed within a gradient and compositional approach.

Generative syntax was built on the foundations of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, and IC methods and heuristics were an important tool in the early days of the generative enterprise. However, developments in the theory entailed a departure from some fundamental IC assumptions: we will argue that structural descriptions in contemporary generative grammar (transformational and non-transformational) define not constituents, but strictly ordered sequences closer to arrays . We therefore define and characterise IC approaches to syntax as opposed to what we will call Array-Based (AB) approaches. IC grammars define distributional generalisations, and proper containment and is-a relations between indexed distributionally defined categories. AB grammars, in contrast, define strictly ordered sequences of categories. In this paper we introduce and define the fundamental properties of IC grammar, and the changes in the generative theory that introduced arrays in phrase structure. We argue that it is crucial to distinguish between IC and AB grammars when evaluating the empirical adequacy of structural descriptions used in current syntactic theorising, as structures in AB and IC grammars represent different relations between expressions and may be better suited for different purposes.

The article lists 26 toponyms that are characteristic and common in the entire Carpathian region. They have been selected according to their toponymic classification (mostly oronyms, hydronyms, and oikonyms), and their etymology. These toponyms are commonly observed in the parts of the Carpathian Mountains located in Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. As the basis for the toponymic analysis, we accepted a common appellative of Romanian or Slavic origins. Migrations of peoples of Slavic and Romanian (Vlach) origin had a significant influence on the dissemination of these toponyms, mainly due to pastoral transhumance and the so-called Vlach colonization. The toponyms were analyzed in semantic and structural terms. The list presents a variety and richness of regional forms which may be encountered in different Carpathian dialects as a legacy of ancient language contacts.

Gender inflection for animated nouns in Italian presents challenges influenced by societal pressures and linguistic structure, especially in morphologically complex words like compounds. The study investigates gender inflection distribution in compounds with capo - compared to other nouns (i.e., occupations traditionally performed by women, by men, and the word capo in isolation), exploring the interplay of social, etymological and morphological factors. 192 native Italian speakers inflected masculine nouns to feminine forms after hearing the stimulus. Results reveal that respondents’ attitudes towards gender-fair language significantly determine the use of feminine, indicating a complex interplay between linguistic structures and social perceptions. Despite historical resistance, the word capa in isolation shows increasing acceptance, challenging entrenched norms. In compounds, capo - element’s gender inflection appears more resistant due to morphological complexity, with an interaction with number. This study advances our understanding of gender inflection, with implications for broader conversations about gender representation and language inclusivity.

In recent years, numerous publications on onomatopoeia have discussed this class of words either separately or as a part of a broader class of ideophones. Those focused on onomatopoeia usually provide a language-specific description primarily based on phonological, morphological and/or syntactic characteristics. Semiotically oriented papers generally discuss the nature of onomatopoeia against the background of Saussure’s conception of arbitrariness. What is missing is the representation of onomatopoeia in the main semiotic models. Therefore, this paper outlines the fundamental semiotic models and adapts them to capture the class of onomatopoeia. The paper covers Saussure’s dyadic model of linguistic sign, the triadic models of Peirce and Ogden and Richards, and a cognitive onomasiological model proposed by Horecký. The latter’s advantage is that it is a dynamic model with potential for adaptation to various word-formation processes, including onomatopoeia-formation.