Volume 66, Issue 4

The topic of this article is the structural similarity of neighboring languages belonging to two different branches of the Germanic languages.The German-Danish border region is characterized by longitudinal language contact between West and North Germanic varieties which have developed common features not to be found in other varieties of these languages spoken outside the contact area. These shared features are results of contact and/or of language shift(s). This paper focuses on convergence in verb phrases. Nine examples of different aspects of verbal convergences are presented covering mainly semantic and syntactical code-copying.

The object of this paper are the linguistic means used in Lithuanian to express predicative Possession. The possessive constructions are individuated and described, as along with the semantic constraints that favor or disfavor their use. It is claimed that the evidence provided in this paper confirms what Činčlej (1990) stated: Lithuanian should be considered as occupying a transitional position between the have- and the be -languages, contra Isačenko (1974), who considered it as a pure have -language. The role that language contact may have played in determining the Lithuanian way of expressing Possession is also considered.

This paper examines two different strategies found in direct object encoding on the basis of a sample of 159 languages. In particular, this paper deals with the differences between symmetric (i.e. the alternation between two or more overt markers) and asymmetric (i.e. the alternation between a zero and one of more overt markers) alternations. The investigation is aimed at determining whether there are any evident cross-linguistic regularities with respect to the factors involved in these two kinds of alternation. It will be argued that the difference in the formal realization of direct object encoding is related to the distinct functions that these two structures perform cross-linguistically.While asymmetric alternations are regulated by referential properties of the direct object referent, symmetric alternations are governed by parameters related to verbal semantics, such as affectedness and boundedness, polarity, and quantification.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how Romani has integrated nouns borrowed from various languages during its history with regard to grammatical gender. First the gender system of Romani is characterized in contrast to the European languages it was in contact with, and which were the most important changes Romani underwent concerning gender marking. In the following sections, the assignment of gender to various loan layers is discussed, pre-European (Iranian and Armenian), Greek, Slavic, Romanian, Hungarian, and German, among them non-gender, three-gender and two-gender languages. Greek appears to have had the most profound influence on Romani gender morphology. Concerning Romani Mixed dialects, attention is payed to the changes that took place in the inherited, Indic, layer.