Volume 50, Issue 2

Like other Balto-Slavic languages, Russian makes extensive use of verboids, a class of deverbal formations lacking inflectional and derivational markers. The use of verboids is characteristic of oral narration and is typically accompanied by gesture. This article surveys the properties of verboids based on data from the Russian National corpus. It shows that verboids bear a striking resemblance to ideophones and similar “expressive” words in other languages, presenting a typologically unusual case of verb-derived expressive words in a language with rich verbal morphology. It is argued that the peculiar behavior of Russian verboids should be analyzed with reference to their indexical, as opposed to purely symbolic, meaning: verboids differ from inflected verbs in not encoding general concepts, but rather pointing directly to particular instances of events. The indexical meaning helps account for a number of morphosyntactic properties that distinguish verboids from verbs, such as their incompatibility with negation and questions. Besides the restrictions shared with ideophones, Russian verboids are characterized by properties determined by the structure of Russian lexicon; in particular, they are shown to neutralize semantic distinctions encoded by Russian verbal morphology, as well as certain distinctions that can only be neutralized with some verbs in colloquial speech.

In this paper we propose a multiple-stage model for the development of interclausal adversative connectives, based on the qualitative and quantitative examination of the three Italian connectives però , tuttavia and mentre . The main purpose of this study is the identification of the respective roles played by frequency, syntax, and context in the development of the adversative function. In the analysis of each of the three diachronic paths at issue, we keep the semantic parameters separate from the syntactic ones, monitoring both the semantic (in)compatibility of each occurrence with the source and the target meaning, identifying three macro-types of contexts (incompatible with the target meaning, compatible with both the source and the target meaning, incompatible with the source meaning), and outlining the syntactic features characterizing each context type through the centuries. Our data show that, despite the differences, the three paths show a number of recurrent properties, which underline the central function of frequency in triggering and spreading the change and the importance of constructions as the units that speakers process, elaborate and innovate. Finally, based on the relative frequency of context types over time, we propose a four-stage model that describes the successive steps of development of the adversative function.

This study seeks to establish whether and at what age children's language production reflects relevant semantic differences between nongradable adjectives, on the one hand, and various classes of gradable adjectives, on the other hand. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of adjectives in spontaneous speech samples from Dutch-speaking children aged 2 to 7 and their caregivers show that children reveal some sensitivity to scalar structures already at age 2. From the outset of adjective production, toddlers use degree markers (comparatives, superlatives, degree adverbs) to modify only gradable, but not nongradable adjectives. By age 4, the proportions of degree markers within the class of gradable adjectives are clearly contingent on the type of scalar structure associated with an adjective. The patterns in child speech reflect frequencies in child-directed speech. However, the frequency of context-dependent adjectives in child speech across all age groups is lower than predicted by the input. Although very few errors were attested in the domain of degree modification, the errors seem to persist until age 6. At this age, the proportion of degree adverbs in child speech reaches the adult level. The results are consonant with the idea that children construe scales through exposure to linguistic input, rather than on the basis of pre-linguistic conceptual distinctions.

Little is known about the principles governing the extent to which nominal compounds are used. Adopting a contrastive perspective, this paper takes as its starting point the widely held assumption that German assigns a more important role to compounding than English. The notion of compound use is broken down into the three factors of (type and token) frequency, productivity and complexity. An analysis of newspaper and fictional language reveals an astonishing crosslinguistic difference in the interaction of frequency and complexity. The higher rate of German compared to English two-noun compounds decreases with increasing complexity to the point of overturning this ratio in favor of relatively more four-noun compounds in English than in German. This holds good for type and token frequency, expanding productivity as well as for both text genres. The consistency of the empirical results invites a structural explanation of the crosslinguistic difference. Two language-particular factors are invoked: general compound propensity and the range of typical compound types. The former explains the predominance of shorter compounds in German, the latter the predominance of longer compounds in English. German is argued to have a higher compound propensity than English while English allows a wider range of compound types than German. In particular, because English permits more nonlexicalized compounds and because the proportion of these items increases with compound size, the higher frequency of English compared to German overlong compounds is restricted to the upper end of the complexity scale. Table 5 (p. 285) was originally printed with an error. Please find the corrected version of Table 5 in the Erratum in Volume 50, issue 3 (or click here 10.1515/ling-2012-err-v50i2)

Light Warlpiri is a mixed language, with Warlpiri and Aboriginal English/Kriol as its sources. It was developed by a group who received codeswitched input in a baby talk register from when they were young. The innovating group conventionalized the input they received and developed morphosyntactic structures beyond those in the input. The development of Light Warlpiri shows that commonly occurring processes in language contact situations, codeswitching and re-analyses of existing forms, play an important role in the extreme outcome of the development of a mixed language, through a two-part process: a) an adult group directed codeswitched speech to children, and b) the children conventionalized and expanded the morphosyntactic structures they heard. The new code is an in-group language and did not emerge in order to indicate a new dual-cultural identity, but since its development it has come to signal the identity of young Warlpiri from Lajamanu.

The linguistic knowledge which is brought to bear in carrying out a complex task such as a narrative or route directions has been at the centre of a series of studies on language-specific patterns in the organization of information for expression. Analyses of oral and written texts in German, Standard Arabic, and Russian show different patterns in macro-structural organization and macroplanning that correlate with grammatical features of the respective languages. The findings for expository texts present evidence for a hierarchy of factors in the organization of information that are linked to grammaticalized temporal categories and their role in guiding options in perspective taking and information organization at text level. We assume that inflectional categories function as a scaffold in organizing content for expression since concepts that have paved their way into the grammar of a language will have prominence in language use, given their obligatory status in associated domains of reference. Global planning principles allow the speaker or writer to integrate knowledge from different sources on a systematic basis and thus meet constraints with respect to text coherence without having to solve core issues for each sentence anew.