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Institute
Introduction
(2007)
Semantics
(2007)
Morphology
(2007)
Introduction
(2007)
The annotation guidelines introduced in this chapter present an attempt to create a unique infrastructure for the encoding of data from very different languages. The ultimate target of these annotations is to allow for data retrieval for the study of information structure, and since information structure interacts with all levels of grammar, the present guidelines cover all levels of grammar too. After introducing the guidelines, the current chapter also presents an evaluation by means of measurements of the inter-annotator agreement.
Information structure
(2007)
Traces
(2007)
Presupposition
(2007)
We consider evidentials embedded in complement clauses with new data from Bulgarian. For Tibetan, Garrett has shown that embedded evidentials are always shifted to the perspective of the reported speech. In Bulgarian, we show that such a shift is almost never possible. This shows that Bulgarian evidentials should not be analyzed as modals, but rather as presuppositional.
Compositionality
(2007)
Beyond unpluggability
(2007)
Für das Präpositionalattribut des Deutschen existieren bei einer Übertragung ins Ungarische vielfältige Übersetzungsvarianten. Die den deutschen Präpositionalphrasen entsprechenden Postpositionalphrasen und kasussuffigierten Nominalphrasen gehen in Attributsfunktion dem Kopf der Nominalphrase in der Regel voran und sind dann in partizipiale oder adjektivische Strukturen einzubetten. Die der deutschen Konstruktion entsprechende Postponierung dieser Attribute gewinnt allerdings in der modernen Standardsprache immer mehr an Raum. Gleichfalls lässt sich in einigen Textsorten eine Ausbreitung des sog. postpositionalen Adjektivs konstatieren. Lassen sich beide Phänomene gegebenenfalls als Symptome eines Nominalstils im Ungarischen werten?
Evaluating phonological status : significance of paradigm uniformity vs. prosodic group effects
(2007)
A central concern of linguistic phonetics is to define criteria for determining the phonological status of sounds or sound properties observed in phonetic surface form. Based on acoustic measurements we show that the occurrence of syllabic sonorants vs. schwa-sonorant sequences in German is determined exclusively by segmental and prosodic structure, with no paradigm uniformity effects. We argue that these findings are consistent with a uniform representation of syllabic sonorants as schwa sonorant sequences in the lexicon. The stability of schwa in CVC-suffixes (e.g. the German diminutive suffix -chen), as opposed to its phonetic absence in a segmentally comparable underived context, is argued to be conditioned by the prosodic organisation of such suffixes external to the phonological word of the stem.
Die Monografie befasst sich mit der scherzhaften Wortbildungseinheit -fex 'wer etwas in leicht übertriebener Art liebt, auf etwas versessen ist' (Kunstfex), nachgewiesen seit dem späteren 19. Jahrhundert im deutschen Sprachraum, herausgebildet aus überregional durch literarische Vermittlung bekannt gewordenen regionalsprachlichen (bayerischen und österreichischen) Komposita mit dem Substantiv Fex (Bergfex, Blüemlfex). Die Herkunft von Fex und damit auch von -fex ist bis heute ungesichert. Seit jüngerer Zeit nun wird |fex| in einen bestimmten etymologischen Zusammenhang mit dem lateinischen Suffix -i-fex (zu lateinisch facere 'machen') gebracht. |fex| wird auf das so genannte scherzlateinische Narefex zurückgeführt, das schon früher als Analogiebildung zu lateinischen Wörtern wie artifex und carnifex betrachtet wurde. Ungeachtet dieser problematischen etymologischen Herleitung stehen im Deutschen gebildete Wörter auf -fex (Küchenfex) und aus dem Lateinischen ins Deutsche entlehnte (Pontifex), auch im Deutschen und anderen europäischen Sprachen gebildete Wörter auf -i-fex (Gillifex, Zotifex, Spinifex und Tubifex) im heutigen Deutsch eigentümlich nebeneinander. Semantische Ähnlichkeiten scheinen sich mitunter zu zeigen (Versifex vs. Reimfex). Zunächst konnotative, dann integrative formale Eindeutschungen von Wörtern auf -i-fex verwischen die weitere Unterscheidung beider Gruppen (die Pluralformen Artifexe, Dramatifexe, Hexametrifexe, Pontifexe, Tubifexe und Versifexe vs. Steinfexe statt der Formen auf -i-fices). Es ist denkbar, dass deutende Sprachteilhaber von nur einer Gruppe von Wörtern bei gegebener Fugenvarianz ausgehen - wie sie bei fortschreitender Integration von Lehnkombinemen für deutsche Lehn-Wortbildungsprodukte nachweisbar ist (Bieriothek, Comicothek vs. Donnerthek, Rockthek). Die Arbeit versucht, die Entwicklung der beiden Wortbildungseinheiten -fex und -i-fex im Deutschen darzustellen und einen wortgeschichtlichen, dokumentationsgestützten Überblick über die relevanten Lehnwörter und (Lehn-)Wortbildungsprodukte zu geben. Inhalt: Register. Überblick. 1.-fex und -i-fex, eine Art etymologischer Dublette? 1.1 Lateinische Wörter mit dem Suffix -i-fex. Deutsche Lehnwörter aus dem Lateinischen und Neulateinischen mit dem Segment |ifex|. 1.2 Das Kombinem -i-fex in deutschen (europäischen) Lehn-Wortbildungsprodukten. 1.3 Ungeklärte frühe deutsche Wortbildungsprodukte mit der Sequenz ...fex. 1.4 Fex, Kürzung aus Narefex als „gesunkenem Kulturgut“? „Scherzlateinischer“ Ausgangspunkt Narefex für die Herausbildung des oberdeutschen Lexems Fex und in der Folge der deutschen Wortbildungseinheit -fex ‘wer etwas in leicht übertriebener Art liebt, auf etwas versessen ist’? 1.5 Das Substantiv Fex in oberdeutschen Regionalsprachen. 1.6 -fex- und -i-fex-/|ifex| Wörter. Ihre ‘Übereinstimmungen’. 1.6.1 Zufällige semantische Ähnlichkeit. 1.6.2 Bedingte weitere formale Übereinstimmung. Pluralformen der Sequenz ...fexe. 1.6.3 Mögliche scherzhafte Zusammenbildung. 2. Artikel- und Belegteil für alle Gruppen von Wörtern der Sequenz ...fex (in chronologischer Ordnung). 3. Anmerkungen. 4. Literatur. 5. Quellenverzeichnis. 6. Siglen für die Komponenten der Materialbasis
On est parti ici du constat qu’il était impossible à Blanchon de poser les réflexes réels des schèmes tonals des thèmes nominaux du proto-bantou en wumvu de Malinga, à partir du moment où il s’interdisait, sur le plan méthodologique, d’observer le principe d’identité des niveaux de correspondance entre le proto-bantou et le wumvu de Malinga, c’est-à-dire niveau structurel proto-bantou égale niveau structurel wumvu. Nous nous sommes donc attelé dans la section 1 de cette étude à fixer la structure mélodique et tonale des substantifs du wumvu de Malinga, avant de donner les correspondances tonales entre les deux langues à la section 4. Il nous a paru également vicieux de la part de l’auteur d’avancer une explication, fûtelle historique, sur les faits de tonalité observés dans cette langue, dès lors qu’on ne possédait aucune étude quelconque sur la tonalité de cette dernière. Nous avons donc consacré la section 2 de ce travail à l étude des différents processus tonals relevés dans les substantifs du wumvu de Malinga. Dans la section 3, nous avons été amené à mettre en évidence l’incidence de l’accent dans le traitement de la tonalité de cette langue bantoue du Gabon, montrant par là les limites de l’hypothèse explicative de Blanchon. Enfin, en terme de perspective, on ne peut qu’appeler à la réalisation d’une description complète du wumvu de Malinga, afin que son étude historique ne soit que meilleure.
La présente étude revisite la liste des langues bantoues du Gabon contenues dans la classification des langues bantoues de Guthrie (1967 - 1971), en y ajoutant une nouvelle langue, des nouveaux dialectes, et pour la première fois des sous dialectes. Prenant en compte les acquis des classifications antérieures des langues bantoues du Gabon, elle revient sur les propositions de codification de Maho (2003,2006 et 2007) visant à ajouter des nouvelles langues et de nouveaux dialectes dans la liste de Guthrie sans remettre en question le système de codification établi par ce dernier. Des nouvelles propositions sont formulées ici qui réanalysent ou réaménagent les modèles de codification avancés par cet auteur, tout en se portant en faux contre une sacralisation inavouée de la classification de Guthrie qui viserait à mettre ses propositions d’indexation des langues bantoues à l’abris de toute modification ou réaménagement. Enfin, la présente classification revient sur un certain nombre de dénominations et de problèmes orthographiques des noms de langues relevées dans les anciennes classifications, pour proposer des corrections qui tiennent comptent soit du bon sens, soit du point de vue des locuteurs ou des conventions de notation des langues bantoues arrêtées par les linguistes de l’Ecole de Tervuren.
Jan Snyman papers
(2007)
Biographical history and context: Professor Jan Snyman spent most of his life researching the lesser known and marginalised San languages of Botswana and South West Africa (now Namibia). Together with O. Kohler, E. Westphal and A. Traill, he pioneered linguistic studies on these endangered languages of Africa. He contributed significantly in collection of the data that helped classify and understand the grammar of San languages. Snyman also wrote several grammars in the form of monographs and notes on these languages. By the time he died, in 2002, a draft for the Tshwaa and Kua languages had been completed. Content: Linguistic, phonetics and orthography research materials including fonts for phonetic languages. Covering dates: 1967-2000
When we pay close attention to the prosody of Wh-questions in Japanese, we discover many novel and interesting empirical puzzles that would require us to devise a much finer syntactic component of grammar. This paper addresses the issues that pose some problems to such an elaborated grammar, and offers solutions, making an appeal to the information structure and sentence processing involved in the interpretation of interrogative and focus constructions.
The paper explicates the notions of topic, contrastive topic, and focus as used in the analysis of Hungarian. Based on distributional criteria, topic and focus are claimed to represent distinct structural positions in the left periphery of the Hungarian sentence, associated with logical rather than discourse functions. The topic is interpreted as the logical subject of predication. The focus is analyzed as a derived main predicate, specifying the referential content of the set denoted by the backgrounded post-focus section of the sentence. The exhaustivity associated with the focus and the existential presupposition associated with the background are shown to be properties following from their specificational predication relation.
The recognition of the prosodic focus position in German-learning infants from 4 to 14 months
(2007)
The aim of the present study was to elucidate in a study with 4-, 6-, 8-, and 14-month-old German-learning children, when and how they may acquire the regularities which underlie Focus-to-Stress Alignment (FSA) in the target language, that is, how prosody is associated with specific communicative functions. Our findings suggest, that 14-month-olds have already found out that German allows for variable focus positions, after having gone through a development which goes from a predominantly prosodically driven processing of the input to a processing where prosody interacts more and more with the growing lexical and syntactic knowledge of the child.
The paper investigates focus marking devices in the scarcely documented North-Ghanaian Gur language Konkomba. The two particles lé and lá occur under specific focus conditions and are therefore regarded as focus markers in the sparse literature. Comparing the distribution and obligatoriness of both alleged focus markers however, I show that one of the particles, lé, is better analyzed as a connective particle, i.e. as a syntactic rather than as a genuine pragmatic marker, and that comparable syntactic focus marking strategies for sentence-initial constituents are also known from related languages.
This paper deals with the conditions under which singular definites, on the one hand, and universally quantified DPs, on the other hand, receive interpretations according to which the sets denoted by the NP-complements of the respective determiner vary with the situations quantified over by a Q-adverb. I show that in both cases such interpretations depend on the availability of situation predicates that are compatible with the presuppositions associated with the respective determiner, as co-variation in both cases comes about via the binding of a covert situation variable that is contained within the NP-complement of the respective determiner. Secondly, I offer an account for the observation that the availability of a co-varying interpretation is more constrained in the case of universally quantified DPs than in the case of singular definites, as far as word order is concerned. This is shown to follow from the fact that co-varying definites in contrast to universally quantified DPs are inherently focus-marked.
Prosodic focus in Vietnamese
(2007)
This paper reports on pilot work on the expression of Information Structure in Vietnamese and argues that Focus in Vietnamese is exclusively expressed prosodically: there are no specific focus markers, and the language uses phonology to express intonational emphasis in similar ways to languages like English or German. The exploratory data indicates that (i) focus is prosodically expressed while word order remains constant, (ii) listeners show good recoverability of the intended focus structure, and (iii) that there is a trading relationship between several phonetic parameters (duration, f0, amplitude) involved to signal prosodic (acoustic) emphasis.
Phonology and intonation
(2007)
The encoding standards for phonology and intonation are designed to facilitate consistent annotation of the phonological and intonational aspects of information structure, in languages across a range ofprosodic types. The guidelines are designed with the aim that a nonspecialist in phonology can both implement and interpret the resulting annotation.
Three dimensions can be distinguished in a cross-linguistic account of information structure. First, there is the definition of the focus constituent, the part of the linguistic expression which is subject to some focus meaning. Second and third, there are the focus meanings and the array of structural devices that encode them. In a given language, the expression of focus is facilitated as well as constrained by the grammar within which the focus devices operate. The prevalence of focus ambiguity, the structural inability to make focus distinctions, will thus vary across languages, and within a language, across focus meanings.
This paper presents the results of a production experiment on the intonation of sentences containing a negative polarity item (NPI) in Tokyo Japanese. The results show that NPI sentences exhibit a focus intonation: the F0-peak of the word to which an NPI is attached is raised, while the pitch contour after the NPI-attached word is compressed until the negation. This intonation pattern is parallel to that of wh-question, in which the F0 of the wh-phrase is raised while the post-wh-contour is compressed until the question particle.
This paper surveys a range of constructions in which prosody affects discourse function and discourse structure.We discuss English tag questions, negative polar questions, and what we call “focus” questions. We postulate that these question types are complex speech acts and outline an analysis in Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) to account for the interactions between prosody and discourse.
The aim of this paper is to validate a dataset collected by means of production experiments which are part of the Questionnaire on Information Structure. The experiments generate a range of information structure contexts that have been observed in the literature to induce specific constructions. This paper compares the speech production results from a subset of these experiments with specific claims about the reflexes of information structure in four different languages. The results allow us to evaluate and in most cases validate the efficacy of our elicitation paradigms, to identify potentially fruitful avenues of future research, and to highlight issues involved in interpreting speech production data of this kind.
While the Information Structure (IS) is most naturally interpreted as "structure of information", some may argue that it is structure of something else, and others may object to the use of the word "structure". This paper focuses on the question of whether the informational component can have structural properties such that it can be called "structure". The preliminary conclusion is that, althoughthere are some vague indications of structurehood in it, it is perhaps better understood to be a representation that encodes a finite set of information-based partitions, rather than structure.
In a first step, definitions of the irreducible information structural categories are given, and in a second step, it is shown that there are no invariant phonological or otherwise grammatical correlates of these categories. In other words, the phonology, syntax or morphology are unable to define information structure. It is a common mistake that information structural categories are expressed by invariant grammatical correlates, be they syntactic, morphological or phonological. It is rather the case that grammatical cues help speaker and hearer to sort out which element carries which information structural role, and only in this sense are the grammatical correlates of information structure important. Languages display variation as to the role of grammar in enhancing categories of information structure, and this variation reflects the variation found in the ‘normal’ syntax and phonology of languages.
Human manual action exhibits a differential use of a non-dominant (typically, left) and a dominant (typically, right) hand. Human communication exhibits a pervasive structuring of utterances into topic and comment. I will point out striking similarities between the coordination of hands in bimanual actions, and the structuring of utterances in topics and comments. I will also show how principles of bimanual coordination influence the expression of topic/comment structure in sign languages and in gestures accompanying spoken language, and suggest that bimanual coordination might have been a preadaptation of the development of information structure in human communication.
We argue that the standard focus theories reach their limits when confronted with the focus systems of the Chadic languages. The backbone of the standard focus theories consists of two assumptions, both called into question by the languages under consideration. Firstly, it is standardly assumed that focus is generally marked by stress. The Chadic languages, however, exhibit a variety of different devices for focus marking. Secondly, it is assumed that focus is always marked. In Tangale, at least, focus is not marked consistently on all types of constituents. The paper offers two possible solutions to this dilemma.
Focus presuppositions
(2007)
This paper reviews notions related to focus and presupposition and addresses the hypothesis that focus triggers an existential presupposition. Presupposition projection behavior in certain examples appears to favor a presuppositional analysis of focus. It is argued that these examples are open to a different analysis using givenness theory. Overall, the analysis favors a weak semantics for focus not including an existential presupposition.
Focus expressions in Foodo
(2007)
This paper aims at presenting different ways of expressing focus in Foodo, a Guang language. We can differentiate between marked and unmarked focus strategies. The marked focus expressions are first syntactically characterized: the focused constituent is in sentence-initial position and is second always marked obligatorily by a focus marker, which is [...] for non-subjects and N for subjects. Complementary to these structures, Foodo knows an elliptic form consisting of the focused constituent and a predication marker [...]. It will be shown that the two focus markers can be analyzed as having developed out of the homophone conjunction n[...] and that the constraints on the use of the focus markers can be best explained by this fact.
This paper discusses how focus change s prosodic structure in Tokyo Japanese. It is generally believed that focus blocks the intonational process of downstep and causes a pitch reset. This paper presents experimental evidence against this traditional view by looking at the prosodic behavior of Wh words, which receive focus lexically in Japanese as in other languages. It is demonstrated, specifically, that the focused Wh element does not block downstep although it receives a much higher pitch than its preceding element. This suggests that presence of lexical focus does not trigger pitch reset in Japanese.
The aim of this paper is to outline the means for encoding information structure in Yucatec Maya. Yucatec Maya is a tone language, displaying a three-fold opposition in the tonal realization of syllables. From the morpho-syntactic point of view, the grammar of Yucatec Maya contains morphological (topic affixes, morphological marking of out-of-focus predicates) and syntactic (designated positions) means to uniquely specify syntactic constructions for their information structure. After a descriptive overview of these phenomena, we present experimental evidence which reveals the impact of the nonavailability of prosodic alternatives on the choice of syntactic constructions in language production.
Contrastive focus
(2007)
The article puts forward a discourse-pragmatic approach to the notoriously evasive phenomena of contrastivity and emphasis. It is argued that occurrences of focus that are treated in terms of "contrastive focus", "kontrast" (Vallduví & Vilkuna 1998) or "identificational focus" (É. Kiss 1998) in the literature should not be analyzed in familiar semantic terms like introduction of alternatives or exhaustivity. Rather, an adequate analysis must take into account discourse-pragmatic notions like hearer expectation or discourse expectability of the focused content in a given discourse situation. The less expected a given content is judged to be for the hearer, relative to the Common Ground, the more likely a speaker is to mark this content by means of special grammatical devices, giving rise to emphasis.
New evidence is provided for a grammatical principle that singles out contrastive focus (Rooth 1996; Truckenbrodt 1995) and distinguishes it from discourse-new “informational” focus. Since the prosody of discourse-given constituents may also be distinguished from discourse-new, a three-way distinction in representation is motivated. It is assumed that an F-feature marks just contrastive focus (Jackendoff 1972, Rooth 1992), and that a G-feature marks discoursegiven constituents (Féry and Samek-Lodovici 2006), while discoursenew is unmarked. A crucial argument for G-marking comes from second occurrence focus (SOF) prosody, which arguably derives from a syntactic representation where SOF is both F-marked and G-marked. This analysis relies on a new G-Marking Condition specifying that a contrastive focus may be G-marked only if the focus semantic value of its scope is discourse-given, i.e. only if the contrast itself is given.
This article takes stock of the basic notions of Information Structure (IS). It first provides a general characterization of IS — following Chafe (1976) — within a communicative model of Common Ground (CG), which distinguishes between CG content and CG management. IS is concerned with those features of language that concern the local CG. Second, this paper defines and discusses the notions of Focus (as indicating alternatives) and its various uses, Givenness (as indicating that a denotation is already present in the CG), and Topic (as specifying what a statement is about). It also proposes a new notion, Delimitation, which comprises contrastive topics and frame setters, and indicates that the current conversational move does not entirely satisfy the local communicative needs. It also points out that rhetorical structuring partly belongs to IS.
Die Problematik des sprachkommunikativen Umgangs mit dem Kulturphänomen "Phraseologie" ist im Falle zwei- bzw. mehrsprachiger Diskursgemeinschaften bisher kaum ins Blickfeld der Forschung geraten. Daher konzentriert sich der vorliegende Aufsatz auf Aspekte phraseologischer Sprachverwendung in einem komplexen Konrakt-, Konvergenz- und Integrationsraum von mehreren Sprachen und Kulturen und möchte zur Modelierung bi- bzw. multilingualen Diskursverhaltens im Hinblick auf die Phraseologie beitragen, indem er ein breites Spektrum von enmpirischen Manifestationsklassen bzw. -typen kommunikativen Synkretismus und sprachlicher Hybridität erfasst, systematisiert, beschreibt und evaluiert. Diese Forschungsfrage erlangt auch insofern eine besondere Bedeutung, als sich die Mehrschichtigkeit bilingualer Variationsdimensionen gerade anhand der Phraseologieverwendung aspektreich eruieren Iässt.
Der vorliegende kurze Beitrag [hat] das Ziel, im diskutierten Problemrahmen konstitutive Aspekte der Horizonte, Konturen und Fluchtlinien einer dezidiert inter- bzw. transkulturellen Ausrichtung der Sprachwissenschaft anzudeuten und zu hinterfragen, ihre disziplinären Wege und Blickfelder anzulegen sowie über ein inter- bzw.transkulturelles ,,Paradigma" als "interkulturelle Linguistik" im Hinblick auf Profil, Tragfähigkeit und Reichweite zu reflektieren. All das soll dann zu einer extensionalen und intensionalen Bestimmung einer "interkulturellen Linguistik" hinführen.
Ein aktuelles Handbuch der empirischen Sozialforschung stellt fest: „Die meisten Theorien in den Sozialwissenschaften sind relativ ungenau formuliert und beziehen sich auf nicht exakt definierte Begriffe“ (SCHNELL/HILL/ESSER 2005: 11). Die Linguistik – so auch die Sprachgermanistik – sollte aus dieser Kritik produktive Konsequenzen ziehen und dezidierte Anstöße für eine theoretisch fundierte und empiriegestützte Begriffs- und Konzeptbildung von IKK erarbeiten. Nicht zuletzt mit der Intention, dass die IKK als Phänomentyp kein „weicher“ Forschungsgegenstand mehr bleiben darf und dementsprechend die IKK-Forschung nicht mehr als „weiche“ Wissenschaft gelten sollte.
This paper is concerned with the cultural reality characterised by the cmmunication within bi- or multilingual groups, in comparison to monolingual comniunication. In other words, such groups use their varieties of language differently. In this respect the paper deals with a culture of multilingualisrn, with a primary aim of highlighting subtly the characteristics end structure of the bi- or multilingual way of speaking. In particular, the predominant goal of this study is to emphasize respects of the "mixed" speech behaviour (the bilingual inode of discourse); and of innovations in speech and communication of transcultural bi- or multilingualism utilizing the example of the German as a minority language in Hungary. On the basis of the research it has become clear that linguistic variations and differentes should not be viewed automatically as individual mistakes but as a reaction to a new conununicative challenge. The conclusions for the discipline of "applird lingusitics" encompass that: all outcornes of communicative dynamic processes on the system of language concerning monolingual as well as bilingual language behaviour (inclusive of both "natural" and "artificial" bi- or multilingualism), should be considered more subtly both in theory and practice. In addition these outcomes must be analysed and heuristically described within an integrated frame.
We adopt Markert and Nissim (2005)’s approach of using the World Wide Web to resolve cases of coreferent bridging for German and discuss the strength and weaknesses of this approach. As the general approach of using surface patterns to get information on ontological relations between lexical items has only been tried on English, it is also interesting to see whether the approach works for German as well as it does for English and what differences between these languages need to be accounted for. We also present a novel approach for combining several patterns that yields an ensemble that outperforms the best-performing single patterns in terms of both precision and recall.
We investigate methods to improve the recall in coreference resolution by also trying to resolve those definite descriptions where no earlier mention of the referent shares the same lexical head (coreferent bridging). The problem, which is notably harder than identifying coreference relations among mentions which have the same lexical head, has been tackled with several rather different approaches, and we attempt to provide a meaningful classification along with a quantitative comparison. Based on the different merits of the methods, we discuss possibilities to improve them and show how they can be effectively combined.
The renowned Grimm Dictionary (1854-1961) makes the statement that the German copula sein (to be) is “the most general and colourless of all verbal concepts” (der allgemeinste und farbloseste aller verbalbegriffe). A more concise summary of the linguistic issues surrounding the copula is hardly possible. These two properties (and the latent tension between them!) make copulas a particularly interesting and vexing subject of linguistic research. Copulas appear to be almost colourless, i.e., devoid of any concrete meaning, thus leading to the question of why such expressions exist at all, not only in German but in the majority of the world’s languages. And at the same time copulas presumably provide the best window into the core of verbal concepts thereby telling us what it actually means to be a verb – at least in a language like German or English. While there is a rather rich body of research on copulas in philosophical and formal semantics including several in-depth studies on the copular systems of individual languages, copulas have received comparably little attention from a typological perspective. The monograph of Regina Pustet sets out to fill this gap. She presents an extensive cross-linguistic study of copula usage based on a sample of 154 languages drawn from the language families of the world. The analysis is embedded in the theoretical framework of functional typology. The study aims at uncovering universal principles that govern the distribution of copulas in nominal, adjectival, and verbal predications. Its major objective is the development of a “semantically-based model of copula distribution” (p.62) by means of which the presence vs. absence of copulas can be motivated through the inherent meaning of the lexical items they potentially combine with. Drawing mainly on the work by Givón (1979, 1984) and Croft (1991, 2001), who provide a functional foundation of the traditional parts of speech, Pustet identifies four semantic parameters which, if taken together, are claimed to support substantial generalisations on copula distribution – within a given language as well as crosslinguistically. These parameters are DYNAMICITY, TRANSIENCE, TRANSITIVITY, and DEPENDENCY. Pustet goes on to argue – and this is in fact the driving force behind the overall monograph – that the distributional behaviour of copulas, in turn, yields a useful methodology for developing a general approach to lexical categorization. Thus, in the long run Pustet aims at contributing to a better understanding of the traditional parts of speech, noun, adjective, and verb by defining them in terms of “semantic feature bundles, which can be arranged in [a] coherent semantic similarity space” (p.193).