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J. Melvinger u radu o supstandardnome prijedložnom infinitivu (1982.) ne spominje mogućnost infinitivne kondenzacije posljedičnih ustrojstava, ni prijedložnog ni besprijedložnog infinitiva, iako donosi primjere u kojima je riječ o infinitivnoj prijedložnoj konstrukciji koja je priložna oznaka posljedice, a ne priložna oznaka načina, kako ona tvrdi: Kožnata jakna smiješna, a šal oko vrata škaklja za poludjeti. Tu mogućnost ne spominje ni u svojoj disertaciji (iako navodi primjere koje mi razumijevamo kao posljedične konstrukcije), a ne navodi je ni M. Ivić.
Welchen Bedingungen unterliegt menschliche Kommunikation? Welche sprachlichen Mittel verwendet ein Sprecher um sicherzustellen, dass sein Zuhörer tatsächlich das versteht, was er kommunizieren möchte? Wie also »verpacken« wir wichtige und weniger wichtige Informationen im alltäglichen Diskurs? Diesen und anderen Fragen geht der SFB 632 »Informationsstruktur«, ein gemeinsames Forschungsunternehmen von Linguisten verschiedener Teildisziplinen der Universität Potsdam und der Humboldt-Universität, nach.
Auf der Grundlage der bisherigen Forschungsergebnisse zu Transfer und Interferenz wird die Übertragung sprachlichen Wissens in die Interimsprache in eine Theorie des Zweitspracherwerbs integriert. Transfer wird dabei als interlinguale Ausprägung der Generalisierung verstanden, eine Sichtweise, die die Untersuchungsergebnisse zu Bedingungen und Ursachen des Transfers in einen Erklärungszusammenhang mit anderen Phänomenen des Zweitspracherwerbs stellt. Darüberhinaus ermöglicht es diese Interpretation, eine Verbindung zu kognitiven Leistungen des Lerners beim Erstspracherwerb sowie beim Lernen überhaupt herzustellen.
This dissertation is concerned with the phenomenon of intervention effects, observed in three different domains: wh-questions, alternative questions (AltQ) and Negative Polarity Item (NPI) licensing. I propose that these three domains share some common properties, namely, they all involve focus-sensitive licensing, and are thus sensitive to an intervening focus phrase. The overview of the dissertation is as follows. In chapter 2, I discuss the phenomenon of intervention effects in wh-questions, brought to light in the discussion of German in Beck (1996), and Korean in Beck and Kim (1997). The basic idea of their analysis is that quantifiers block LF wh-movement. I show that intervention effects are observed in many other languages, too, suggesting that the intervention effect has a universal character. I then point out some problems with the analysis proposed by Beck (1996) and Beck and Kim (1997). In chapter 3, I propose a new generalization of the wh-intervention effects, namely that the core set of interveners, which is crosslinguistically stable, consists of focus phrases (and not quantifiers in general). Furthermore, I argue that the wh-intervention effect is actually an instance of the more general intervention effect, the "Focus Intervention Effect", which says that in a focus-sensitive licensing construction, no independent focus phrase may intervene between the licensor Op and the licensee XP. The underlying idea is that the Q operator is a focus-sensitive operator and that wh-phrases in-situ are dependent (i.e., semantically deficient) focus elements, which must be associated with the Q operator in order to be interpreted. An intervening independent focus operator precisely blocks that association. I further propose that the domain of focus-sensitive licensing includes not only wh-licensing, but also AltQ-licensing and NPI-licensing. In chapter 4, I show that alternative questions are also subject to the focus intervention effect, just like wh-questions. I provide evidence that the intervention effect in wh-questions and in alternative questions should receive a parallel analysis, in terms of focus-sensitivity. In chapter 5, I discuss a third construction which is sensitive to the focus intervention effect: the licensing of Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). I show that focus consistently blocks NPI licensing, with data from German and Korean. I propose that NPIs are also semantically deficient focus elements, which need to be associated with a NEG operator. Finally, chapter 6 summarizes the intervention effects and suggests some topics for future research into the precise nature of the intervention effect.
Inuktitut wird in der kanadischen Arktis, im Territorium Nunavut und in Arctic Quebec, von ca. 30.000 Menschen gesprochen und steht in einem Varietätenkontinuum mit den benachbarten Sprachen der Familie „Eskimo-Aleut“, deren Verbreitungsgebiet sich von Ostgrönland bis zur Nordostspitze Asiens erstreckt. Inuktitut ist eine polysynthetische Sprache und zeichnet sich durch uneingeschränkte morphologische Produktivität und Komplexität aus. Die vorliegende grammatische Skizze richtet ihr Augenmerk vorrangig auf diese synthetischen Prozesse, die sich keineswegs auf lexikalische Produktivität im Sinne einer ‚Wortbildung’ beschränken, sondern weitestgehend grammatisch konfigurierende Prozesse umfassen. Ausführlich behandelt werden auch die Kapazitäten der extrem differenzierten Flexionsparadigmen, insbesondere der Verbalflexion, die vollständige Propositionen konstituiert und durch die allein ein kohärenter Diskurs gewährleistet wird.
After the very well-organized Leiden conference for which we must be grateful to Tijmen Pronk, it seems appropriate for me to review some of the papers, as I did after the previous conferences in Zagreb and Copenhagen. The aim of this review is merely to point out some of the differences of opinion which require further debate.
Jagić o Maretiću
(2008)
U radu se nastoje prikazati i kontekstualizirati Dujmušićevi jezikoslovni doprinosi očuvanju hrvatskoga standardnog jezika. Puristički se radovi, među kojima je najzanimljiviji i najopširniji “Antibarbarus hrvatskoga jezika”, klasificiraju prema Thomasovoj (1991) kategorizaciji purističke djelatnosti. Dujmušić je zanimljiv ne samo zbog izazovne, potpune anonimnosti, nego i zbog toga što je u vrijeme opozicije između vukovskoga i antivukovskoga purizma bio na onoj slabijoj, antivukovskoj strani. Znanstvena je recepcija Dujmušićeva rada potpuno izostala, što znači da njegove jezikoslovne prinose valja i prikazati i evaluirati.
Judging by appearances : a study of human-oriented metonymic developments in the domain of dress
(2008)
U radu se iznosi pokušaj razvrstavanja glagola s elementom se u valencijskome rječniku hrvatskih glagola. Kao predložak poslužila je obrada iste vrste glagola u češkome elektroničkom valencijskom rječniku VALLEX, kao i prototipno-kontekstualna analiza povratnih glagola Branimira Belaja. Glagoli se razvrstavaju na temelju gramatičkih i semantičkih kriterija.
Ključne riječi: valencija; valencijski rječnik; glagoli sa se; element se kao čestica i kao zamjenica
In dieser Arbeit wird der Interrelation zwischen kulturellen, kognitiven und kommunikativ-sprachlichen Phänomenen nachgegangen. Kulturelles prägt nicht nur das enzyklopädische Weltwissen, sondern beeinflusst auch die Sprache als System und den Sprachgebrauch. Kulturelles Wissen manifestiert sich in den Bedeutungen bestimmter Lexeme, in kulturgeprägten Weltwissensrepräsentationen, als Handlungsmusterwissen und Verhaltensstereotypkenntnis, sowie in Präferenzen für die Selektion, Anordnung und Kombination von sprachlichen Systemelementen lexikalischer wie morphosyntaktischer Art zu Textsortenexemplaren. Die der Übersetzungstätigkeit daraus erwachsenden Schwierigkeiten werden differenziert durchleuchtet.
U radu će biti riječi o imenicama koje označuju mjeru i koje se redovito pojavljuju u akuzativu iako bi sintaktički na tome mjestu trebao doći koji drugi oblik. Učestalom upotrebom u akuzativnome obliku te imenice gube svoje osnovno morfološko obilježje – promjenjivost, a time i svoju nedvojbenu pripadnost imenicama kao vrsti riječi i nameću pitanje kako ih obraditi u rječniku.
This paper deals with Korean postpositions. They are treated as suffixes in recent lexicalist works. But they differ syntactically from suffixes and we will propose to treat them as clitics, i.e. words combining with a phrase in the syntax and attaching to its last lexical item in the phonology. We treat them as weak syntactic heads, taking into account their head properties and the syntactic similarity between the mother phrase and the host phrase. They take the latter as complement and share most of its syntactic properties. Revising the traditional classification, we divide postpositions into three subtypes: marking, oblique and semantic postpositions, based on their distributional properties, such as optionality, non-nominal marking and stacking, etc. Finally we show how our analysis can be described in the HPSG model.
This paper addresses a set of issues related to language documentation that are not often explicitly dealt with in academic publications, yet are highly important for the development and success of this new discipline. These issues include embedding language documentation in the socio-political context not only at the community level but also at the national level, the ethical and technical challenges of digital language archives, and the importance of regional and international cooperation among documentation activities. These issues play a major role in the initiative to set up a network of regional language archives in three South American countries, which this paper reports on. Local archives for data on endangered languages have recently been set up in Iquitos (Peru), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and in various locations in Brazil. An important feature of these is that they provide fast and secure access to linguistic and cultural data for local researchers and the language communities. They also make data safer by allowing for regular update procedures within the network.
Leksičke funkcije kao pokazatelji značenjskih odnosa u kolokacijskim svezama hrvatskoga jezika
(2008)
U radu se na primjerima kolokacijskih sveza hrvatskoga jezika analiziraju leksičke funkcije koje je unutar svojega teorijskoga modela značenje – tekst razradio Igor Meljčuk. Na uzorku od desetak leksičkih funkcija koje predstavljaju opće značenjske modele primjenjive u svim jezicima opisuju se značenjski odnosi na osnovi kojih nastaju kolokacijske sveze, dakle, jezične jedinice koje po svojoj strukturi nadilaze razinu jedne riječi, tj. leksema.
Die Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik im Rahmen der Germanistik in den letzten 50 Jahren ist durchaus wechselvoll: einer zunehmenden Abkühlung, ja Entfremdung auf der einen Seite steht auf der anderen das wachsende Interesse an gemeinsam fruchtbar zu beackernden Arbeitsfeldern gegenüber. Ein Streifzug durch die Jahrgänge der Siegener Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik (LiLi) seit den frühen 70er Jahren gibt davon ebenso Zeugnis wie aktuelle Projekte kritischer Kooperation (Kasten/Neuland/Schönert 1997, Hoffmann/Kessler Hrsg. 2003) oder der Versuch einer wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen Aufarbeitung des Verhältnisses der beiden Fächer durch das Marbacher Literaturarchiv (Haß/König Hrsg. 2003). Im folgenden Beitrag wird ein kurzer Blick auf die diesbezügliche Situation in der Schweiz geworfen und ein konzeptueller Zugriff auf mögliche Berührungspunkte exemplarisch skizziert.
Linguistik, Poetik, Ästhetik
(2008)
The paper briefly summarizes the proposal made in 1965 that "Poetic Competence" is the basis for creating and evaluating poetry. That this competence lives on, but is different from linguistic competence is exemplified by a close look at the segmental and supra-segmental, morpho-syntactic, lexical, and conceptual structure of Hölderlin's poem "An Zimmern", revealing a surprisingly complex and balanced structure of the apparently simple four lines. The second part of the paper discusses the question whether judgments about poetry are to be studied as based on the relation between specific properties of poems and persons. Finally the problem is raised, whether literary art is based on a specific Poetic Competence, or instantiates a general aesthetic ability applied to linguistic objects. This is construed as a speculative, but still empirical question.
We consider two alternatives for memory management in typed-feature-structure-based parsers by identifying structural properties of grammar signatures that may be of some predictive value in determining the consequences of those alternatives. We define these properties, summarize the results of a number of experiments on artificially constructed signatures with respect to the relative rank of their asymptotic cost at parse-time, and experimentally consider how they impact memory management.
The problem of vocalization, or diacritization, is essential to many tasks in Arabic NLP. Arabic is generally written without the short vowels, which leads to one written form having several pronunciations with each pronunciation carrying its own meaning(s). In the experiments reported here, we define vocalization as a classification problem in which we decide for each character in the unvocalized word whether it is followed by a short vowel. We investigate the importance of different types of context. Our results show that the combination of using memory-based learning with only a word internal context leads to a word error rate of 6.64%. If a lexical context is added, the results deteriorate slowly.
Metaphorization and selected translation techniques : the case study of "National Geographic"
(2008)
Rad je nastao iz potrebe da se opiše dubrovački pučki govor 17. i 18. st. Pri morfološkoj je analizi važno uzeti u obzir da se opisuje jezično razdoblje i područje podudarno s početkom formiranja današnjega standardnog jezika. Analiza postaje svrhovitom usporedi li se s rezultatima jezičnih studija razdobljā koja su joj prethodila i slijedila, do današnjega vremena.
Several articulatory strategies are available during the production of /u/, all resulting in a similar acoustic output. /u/ has two main constrictions, at the velum and at the lips. A perturbation of either constriction can be compensated at the other one, e.g wider constriction at the velum by more lip protrusion, wider lip opening by more tongue retraction. This study investigates whether speakers use this relation under perturbation. Six speakers were provided with palatal prostheses which were worn for two weeks. Speakers were instructed to make a serious attempt to produce normal speech. Their speech was recorded via EMA and acoustics several times over the adaptation period. Formant values of /u/-productions were measured. Velar constriction width and lip protrusion were estimated. For four speakers a correlation between constriction width and lip protrusion was found. A negative correlation between lip protrusion and F1 or F2 could sometimes be observed, but no correlation occurred between constriction size and either of the formants. The results show that under perturbation speakers use motor equivalent strategies in order to adapt. The correlation between constriction size and lip protrusion is stronger than in studies investigating unperturbed speech. This could be because under perturbation speakers are inclined to try out several strategies in order to reach the acoustic target and the co-variability might thus be greater.
The claim of this paper is that embedded definites can, despite the appearances, be accounted for on the uniqueness approach. Far from being a surprise, we argue that the behavior of embedded definites is actually expected once two independent facts are taken into account: the ability of noun phrases to take scope, i.e., to be interpreted in a different place from their syntactic position, and the interaction of presuppositions and scope-taking elements. Specifically, we analyze embedded definites as a case of inverse linking (Gabbay and Moravscik, 1974; May, 1977): the embedded definite takes scope over the embedding one. The presupposition of the embedded definite is weakened as a result of the independently motivated process of intermediate accommodation (Kratzer, 1989; Berman, 1991). In our case, this process transfers the presupposition of the embedding definite into the restrictor of the embedded one.
Like other scope-taking processes, inverse linking is generally taken to be subject to locality constraints: if a syntactic island, such as a finite clause boundary, intervenes in the path of a scope-taking element, then the resulting reading is unavailable or degraded (Rodman, 1976). Since our account views embedded definites as cases of inverse linking, we predict that inserting an island into an embedded definite, all else being equal, should lead to a similar degradation. We report results from an online survey with 800 participants that confirm this prediction.
Die deutschen Präteritoprasentia sind, indem alte Perfektformen das heutige Präsens stellen, aus mehreren Griinden als hochgradig irregular zu betrachten; hinzu kommt ein bisher nicht geklärter Umlaut bei vier (von heute sieben) dieser Verben: müssen, dürfen, können und mögen. Bisherige Erklärungsversuche werden diesem Problem nicht gerecht: Zwar versuchen sie durchaus, den Umlaut im Präsens zu motivieren, doch vermögen sie es nicht, sein ausschließliches Vorkommen im Plural des Präsens zu erklären. Hier wird für die These argumentiert, dass es sich um einen (verbalen) Pluralumlaut handelt, der insbesondere auch im Nominalbereich gang und gäbe ist und dort zur gleichen Zeit einen massiven Ausbau (Morphologisierung) erfährt. Damit handelt es sich um einen sog. transkategorialen Marker.
Neobjavljeni autografi basna Đure Ferića (1739-1820) u odnosu prema dubrovačkoj pisanoj tradiciji
(2008)
U radu se prikazuju rezultati istraživanja neobjavljenih hrvatskih rukopisa dubrovačkoga latinista Đure Ferića, odnosno otkrića dvaju dosad nepoznatih autografa njegovih basna. Interpretacija rukopisa kao dijela dubrovačke literarne i jezičnopovijesne tradicije temeljni je cilj istraživanja, a polazište je usporedba grafijskih, pravopisnih i jezičnih osobitosti spomenutih autografa s leksikografskim i jezikoslovnim izvorima 17. i 18. stoljeća te jezikom kanonskoga pisca starije hrvatske književnosti Ivana Gundulića.
Ključne riječi: Đuro Ferić; autografi; dubrovačka pisana tradicija
Za svojega kratkoga boravka u Petrogradu 1912. I. Milcetic; opisao je bogatu Bercicevu zbirku glagoljickih rukopisa i tiskanih knjiga iz Ruske nacionalne knjižnice, ali nije stigao podrobno prouciti svaki sastavni dio Berciceve grade. U Milceticevu opisu kodeksa br. 1 (Klimantovicev zbornik, 1514.) spominje se prolog Muke, ali se ne upozorava da se u nastavku toga prologa nalazi ulomak iz srednjovjekovnoga prikazanja sa scenom Judine izdaje Isusa. Ta je scena u srednjem vijeku ponajviše uznemiravala puk jer se tada od svega najviše mrzila laž, izdaja i prijetvornost. U radu se opisuju i prvi put objavljuju ulomci nepoznate redakcije Muke Isuhrstove iz petrogradske Berciceve zbirke (sign. Bc 1), koji predstavljaju za sada najstariji zapisani prolog i scenu hrvatskoga srednjovjekovnoga prikazanja pasionske tematike. Stihovi ulomaka usporeduju se s mladom ciklickom Mukom Spasitelja našega iz glagoljickoga Zbornika prikazanja (1556.), s kojom se u korpusu hrvatskoga srednjovjekovnoga pjesništva ti ulomci najviše podudaraju.
Broj njemackih posudenica u hrvatskome jeziku je manji nego što bi se moglo ocekivati, s obzirom na to da je višestoljetna politicka i kulturna povezanost Hrvatske s habsburškom državom uvjetovala izravni dodir njemackoga i hrvatskoga jezika. Razlog je tome jezicna politika koja se svjesno odupirala snažnom utjecaju njemackoga jezika na hrvatski, dajuci u standardnome jeziku prednost hrvatskim rijecima. U supstandardnom jeziku se, medutim, održao veci broj njemackih posudenica, iako za te rijeci postoje hrvatski ekvivalenti. U ovome ce se radu preispitati odnos njemacke posudenice i njezine domace zamjene, tj. u kojoj mjeri je hrvatski ekvivalent uspješna zamjena njemackoj posudenici kao i to o cemu sve ovisi ta uspješnost.
Non-restrictive relative clauses (NRRCs) can modify constituents which undergo 'pragmatic enrichment' when they appear in answers to questions. For example, in an interchange like: 'A: What did Jo think? B: That you should say nothing, which is surprising.' What B says is surprising is that 'Jo thinks ...' On the face of it, this might seem problematic for approaches to NRRCs which assume 'syntactic integration' and to support an 'orphan' analysis, where NRRCs are combined with purely conceptual representations. In this paper we examine a range of elliptical and anaphoric phenomena, and show that this conclusion is misplaced. In fact, the phenomena argue strongly in favour of a syntactically integrated analysis.
This paper investigates the role of Hunsrückisch, a dialect spoken by German descendents in South Brazil, in regard to the performance of high school students in the proficiency exam Deutsches Sprachdiplom (DSD-I). The article will first discuss the concept of bilinguism and then analyzes the performance of bilingual students (Portuguese/German) from the Instituo de Educação Ivoti in DSD-I exams over the last 5 years.
Friedrich Schlegel's lasting contribution to linguistics is usually seen in the impact that his book "Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier" from 1808 left on comparative linguistics and on the study of Sanskrit. Schlegel was one of the first European scholars to have studied Sanskrit extensively and he made a number of translations of Sanskrit literature into German which make up one third of "Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier". Schlegel's book is widely regarded as a founding document both of comparative linguistics and of indology, a fact which is quite remarkable in light of the development of Schlegel's thought after this text. His interest in Indian studies ceased more or less directly with the publication of this work, while his thoughts on language became more and more suffused by transcendental philosophy.
Aramaic is not among the oldest Semitic languages in a strictly chronological sense, but among those languages which are still spoken today, it has the longest continuous written tradition. The existing written documents span a period of three millennia and thus enable us to study language history in a long-term perspective. It is very important, in this respect, that the latest stage of development of Aramaic, Neo-Aramaic, still exists in a multitude of spoken varieties which can be studied in vivo. We can thus describe the phonetics and phonology of the modern varieties with more precision than is possible for the older language stages, which in turn enables us to draw conclusions on diachronic sound change. Likewise, we can study morphology and syntax not only from recorded texts, but we also have recourse to native speakers in order to clarify doubtful points. Thus the latest stage of Aramaic casts a strong light back into the past. It is therefore most unfortunate that many Aramaicists and Syrologists show so little interest in this living heritage.
Alexopoulou (2008) argues that Greek provides new evidence for the concept of binding illusions that was hypothesized by Fox and Sauerland (1996). Of special interest from my perspective is Alexopoulou’s argument that binding illusions arise not only with existential and universal quantifiers, but also with negative and interrogative quantifiers. The purpose of this note is to speculate on how to account for these kinds of binding illusions semantically building on Alexopoulou’s argument. In the following I refer to Alexopoulou’s (2008) paper as BIRG (Binding Illusions and Resumption in Greek) and to Clitic Left-Dislocation as CLLD. BIRG’s argument is based on the generalization concerning CLLD in Greek. Generally, a left-dislocated noun phrase cannot bind a pronoun in its clause in Greek.
In this paper it is argued that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency to avoid voiced sibilant affricates. This tendency is explained by appealing to the phonetic properties of the sounds, and in particular to their aerodynamic characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence it is shown that conflicting air pressure requirements for maintaining voicing and frication are responsible for the avoidance of voiced affricates. In particular, the air pressure released from the stop phase of the affricate is too high to maintain voicing which in consequence leads to a devoicing of the frication part.
In this paper it is argued that several typologically unrelated languages share the tendency to avoid voiced sibilant affricates. This tendency is explained by appealing to the phonetic properties of the sounds, and in particular to their aerodynamic characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence it is shown that conflicting air pressure requirements for maintaining voicing and frication are responsible for the avoidance of voiced affricates. In particular, the air pressure released from the stop phase of the affricate is too high to maintain voicing which in consequence leads to a devoicing of the frication part.
This paper deals with the variable position of adjectives in the Romanian DP. As all other Romance languages, Romanian allows for adjectives to appear in both prenominal and post-nominal position. In addition, however, Romanian has a third pattern: the so-called cel construction, in which the adjective in the post-nominal position is preceded by a determiner-like element, cel. This pattern is superficially similar to Determiner Spreading in Greek. In this paper we contrast the cel construction to Greek DS and discuss the similarities and differences between the two. We then present an analysis of cel as involving an appositive specification clause, building on de Vries (2002). We argue that the same structure is also involved in the context of nominal ellipsis, the second environment in which cel is found.
This paper investigates the relation between TT-MCTAG, a formalism used in computational linguistics, and RCG. RCGs are known to describe exactly the class PTIME; simple RCG even have been shown to be equivalent to linear context-free rewriting systems, i.e., to be mildly context-sensitive. TT-MCTAG has been proposed to model free word order languages. In general, it is NP-complete. In this paper, we will put an additional limitation on the derivations licensed in TT-MCTAG. We show that TT-MCTAG with this additional limitation can be transformed into equivalent simple RCGs. This result is interesting for theoretical reasons (since it shows that TT-MCTAG in this limited form is mildly context-sensitive) and, furthermore, even for practical reasons: We use the proposed transformation from TT-MCTAG to RCG in an actual parser that we have implemented.
On the role of syntactic locality in morphological processes : the case of (Greek) derived nominals
(2008)
The paper is structured as follows. In section 2, I briefly summarize the facts on English and Greek nominalizations. In section 3, I discuss English nominal derivation in some detail. In section 4, I turn to the question of licensing of AS in nominals. In section 5, I turn to the issue of the optionality of licensing of AS in the nominal system.
In the late seventies, Bernard Comrie was one of the first linguists to explore the effects of the referential hierarchy (RH) on the distribution of grammatical relations (GRs). The referential hierarchy is also known in the literature as the animacy, empathy or indexibability hierarchy and ranks speech act participants (i.e. first and second person) above third persons, animates above inanimates, or more topical referents above less topical referents. Depending on the language, the hierarchy is sometimes extended by analogy to rankings of possessors above possessees, singulars above plurals, or other notions. In his 1981 textbook, Comrie analyzed RH effects as explaining (a) differential case (or adposition) marking of transitive subject ("A") noun phrases in low RH positions (e.g. inanimate or third person) and of object ("P") noun phrases in high RH positions (e.g. animate or first or second person), and (b) hierarchical verb agreement coupled with a direct vs. inverse distinction, as in Algonquian (Comrie 1981: Chapter 6).
Direct quotation raises three major problems for grammatical modelling: (i) the variety of quoted material (which can be a non linguistic behavior, or a sign in a different language), (ii) the embedding of an utterance inside another one, (iii) a special denotation, the content of the quotation being the utterance itself. We propose a unary rule, which turns the quoted material into a linguistic sign whose content is itself a behavior, which entertains a resemblance relation to the behavior demonstrated by the speaker. Syntactically, direct quotation comes in two varieties: it can be the complement of a quotative verb, or constitutes a head sentence, modified by an adjunct containing a quotative verb whose complement is extracted and identified with its local features.
German linking elements are sometimes classified as inflectional affixes, sometimes as derivational affixes, and in any case as morphological units with at least seven realisations (e.g. -s-, -es-, -(e)n-, -e-). This article seeks to show that linking elements are hybrid elements situated between morphology and phonology. On the one hand, they have a clear morphological status since they occur only within compounds (and before a very small set of suffixes) and support the listener in decoding them. On the other hand, they also have to be analysed on the phonological level, as will be shown in this article. Thus, they are marginal morphological units on the pathway to phonology (including prosodics). Although some alloforms can sometimes be considered former inflectional endings and in some cases even continue to demonstrate some inflectional behaviour (such as relatedness to gender and inflection class), they are on their way to becoming markers of ill-formed phonological words. In fact, linking elements, above all the linking -s-, which is extremely productive, help the listener decode compounds containing a bad phonological word as their first constituent, such as Geburt+s+tag ‘birthday’ or Religion+s+unterricht ‘religious education’. By marking the end of a first constituent that differs from an unmarked monopedal phonological word, the linking element aids the listener in correctly decoding and analysing the compound. German compounds are known for their length and complexity, both of which have increased over time—along with the occurrence of linking elements, especially -s-. Thus, a profound instance of language change can be observed in contemporary German, one indicating its typological shift from syllable language to word language.