Volume 71, Issue 4 -

This article shows that a hitherto unattested construction type – namely, adverbial subordinator prefixes – is in fact attested in several languages. While Dryer’s 659-language convenience sample does not turn up any clear example of such a construction, we argue that this is in part due to arbitrary coding choices that a priori exclude potential constructions of this type. In order to document the existence of adverbial subordinator prefixes, we present a number of languages with different genealogical and areal affiliations, each of which shows solid synchronic evidence for what appears to be a universally dispreferred feature. Furthermore, we identify some diachronic pathways through which adverbial subordinator prefixes grammaticalize.

In this paper, we give an account of dative functions in a number of Iranian languages from a typological perspective. To analyze the functionality of dative markers in the selected languages, we follow a semantic map approach and take Haspelmath’s map of dative functions as a typological grid to examine our data. We collected our data from descriptive grammars and, for Ossetic and Wakhi, from interviews. The data show that five additional connections should be added to the semantic map of dative functions; these connections are confirmed by data from at least three languages within the Iranian language family. The main semantic property for the dative in Iranian languages is indirect affectedness. Moreover, in some languages spatial functions of the dative are also attested. The distribution of dative functions is mainly explained by the preservation of the oblique case and the areal distribution. In addition, in some languages, a grammaticalization cycle is observed, as a result of which purportedly beneficiary markers are transforming into dative markers.

This article analyzes the categorial status of the wziąć gram – a construction that is composed of two consecutive inflected verbs: the minor verb wziąć ‘lit. take’ (V 1 ) and a major verb (V 2 ) – within the radial network of serial verb constructions (SVC). After comparing the wziąć gram with properties associated with the prototype of a SVC and its cross-linguistic instantiations, the author concludes that the construction can be regarded as a relatively canonical member of the SVC category. The gram complies with all the primary characteristics of the prototype of a SVC, and exhibits various secondary properties and phenomena that are associated with or accompany SVCs across languages. The position of the wziąć gram is canonical even though the Polish language utilizes verbal serialization only minimally and belongs to a geographic area that is scarce for systems with productive serialization. In this manner, Polish proves that verbal serialization is a grammatical device that is not unknown to Indo-European languages of Europe.

Adnominal alienability splits typically involve a coding asymmetry: inalienable possessive constructions are shorter (or zero-coded) and/or more bound than alienable possessive constructions. This has been explained using one of two functional principles: iconicity (possessive constructions reflect differential conceptual distance) or economy (possessive constructions are the result of differential usage frequency). Alienability splits may also affect the coding of arguments in action nominal constructions. For this phenomenon only the iconicity explanation has been invoked, using the semantic notion of control. In the present paper, we investigate the merits of the alternative economy explanation for the cross-linguistic distribution of (in)alienable possessive coding of arguments in such nominalizations. Based on typological and corpus data, we conclude that the economy explanation covers the widest variety of typological generalizations concerning split possessive coding, in both underived NPs and derived action nominals.