Volume 45, Issue 1

One of the most disputed issues in Iranian linguistics involves the analysis of light verb constructions (LVC). In Persian, a large number of different actions are expressed through a small set of basic action verbs used as light verbs (LV) combined with a semantically restricted but open class of preverbal elements. The current analysis addresses the problem of compositional meaning in Persian LVCs. In the present study, semantic properties of these constructions are explored in order to shed some light on the organization of the system and thus to better understand how Persian speakers interpret and create new verbs. By mapping islands in the semantic space of Persian verbs, patterns of productivity along with their semantic restrictions will be uncovered. These constructional patterns are based on semantic and pragmatic features of the constituent elements of LVCs. The Persian verbal system involves structures that occur between the lexicon and the grammar, and the semantics of these structures emerges from constructional structure and not directly from individual lexemes.

The general distinction between morphology and syntax is widely taken for granted, but it crucially depends on a cross-linguistically valid concept of ‘(morphosyntactic) word’. I show that there are no good criteria for defining such a concept. I examine ten criteria in some detail (potential pauses, free occurrence, mobility, uninterruptibility, non-selectivity, non-coordinatability, anaphoric islandhood, nonextractability, morphophonological idiosyncrasies, and deviations from bi-uniqueness), and I show that none of them is necessary and sufficient on its own, and no combination of them gives a definition of ‘word’ that accords with linguists' orthographic practice. ‘Word’ can be defined as a language-specific concept, but this is not relevant to the general question pursued here. ‘Word’ can be defined as a fuzzy concept, but this is theoretically meaningful only if the continuum between affixes and words, or words and phrases, shows some clustering, for which there is no systematic evidence at present. Thus, I conclude that we do not currently have a good basis for dividing the domain of morphosyntax into morphology and syntax, and that linguists should be very careful with general claims that make crucial reference to a cross-linguistic ‘word’ notion.

This paper examines the potential parallel between the ontogenetic and historical processes of grammaticalization of existential there . Taking Christopher Johnson's (Constructional grounding: The role of interpretational overlap in lexical and constructional acquisition, University of California, Berkeley, 1999, Constructional grounding: On the relation between deictic and existential there -constructions in acquisition, 2001, Developmental reinterpretation in first language acquisition, 2005) analysis of Child English as a starting point, the article tests the relevance of his theory of constructional grounding or developmental reinterpretation to the diachronic evolution of existential there -constructions in the earliest stages of the English language. The data show that, as in the case of child language acquisition, the existential pattern ( There's a dog in the yard ) is historically grounded in the deictic construction ( There's the dog running around ) and that double-locative overlap structures played a key role in the process of change.

Sri Lanka Malay has innovated a prominent and productive copula, which sets it apart from other descendents of colloquial Malay varieties. This copula has developed from the verb dhaathang ‘to come’, which is a grammaticalization path not yet attested in the literature. This article describes the forms and functions of this copula and shows that it cannot be traced to any of the main input languages of Sri Lanka Malay (Trade Malay, Tamil, Sinhala). Comparing the Sri Lanka Malay case to attested grammaticalization paths, this article concludes that the grammaticalization of COME to a copula is less surprising when assuming intermediate stages of ‘resultative’ and ‘stative’. These subpaths are illustrated by a variety of Creole and non-Creole languages.

This study claims that analytical causative constructions in Modern Swedish realized by the causal predicates få ‘get’, komma ‘come’, ha ‘have’, förmå ‘induce’ and låta ‘let’ express different types of causation. The constructions are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively with respect to the central verbs (the causal and effected predicates) and their arguments (the Causer, Causee and Affectee). The quantitative analysis reveals that the verbs få and låta are the most frequent causal predicates, whereas the verbs komma, ha and förmå are relatively marginal. Constructions with låta are distinct from the other constructions, both syntactically and semantically. In the qualitative part of the study, the construction type is examined within the general theoretical framework of Functional Grammar (Dik, The theory of Functional Grammar. Vol. 1: The structure of the clause, Mouton de Gruyter, 1997a, The theory of Functional Grammar. Vol. 2: Complex and derived constructions, Mouton de Gruyter, 1997b), which is used to describe the semantic properties of the main participants and the aktionsart of the verbs involved. It transpires that a number of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic differences are responsible for the actual choice of one causal predicate over another in a particular context. The different causal predicates are also shown to express different types of causation, namely, direct causation, indirect causation, involuntary causation and causation according to the billiard ball model.

The article examines the role of conceptual fields and semantic relations in predicting the meaning of novel context-free converted words. To this end, it addresses three basic questions: first, whether there are prediction-related regularities between objects falling within a particular conceptual field (and the corresponding names for these objects) and the general semantic relations between converting and converted naming units; second, whether there are prediction-related associations between a particular conceptual field and the Predictability Rate (PR) and the Objectified Predictability Rate (OPR) of most predictable readings of novel conversions; third, whether there is any association between the semantic fields and the PR and OPR values within selected conceptual fields. A sample of six conceptual fields is considered, looking at lexicographic evidence and speaker competence (native and non-native). The findings suggest that some conceptual fields show semantic relation regularities in actual conversions while others do not, and that the semantic regularities of potential conversions tend to match those of actual conversions.

Drawing on data from a sample of 111 languages, this study examines whether certain segments occur with a higher frequency in terms for ‘nose’, ‘lip’, and ‘tooth’ than would be expected if the form–meaning correspondence were fully arbitrary. It is found that this is indeed the case for ‘nose’ and ‘lip’: cross-linguistically, terms for ‘nose’ contain a higher than average number of nasals, and terms for ‘lip’ are more likely than other vocabulary items to contain a bilabial stop. The upshot is, then, that there is a cross-linguistic tendency for these investigated meanings to be designated by terms with a sound-symbolic component. While intuitively appealing, the motivation for this tendency is far from clear, and the article concludes with some speculations concerning the cause of this phenomenon.