Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 42 Issue 3-4

Issue of Folia Linguistica

Contents
Journal Overview

February 16, 2009

Grammaticalization, subjectification and leftward movement of English adjectives of difference in the noun phrase

Tine Breban

Page range: 259-306

Abstract

This paper deals with grammaticalization and subjectification processes affecting adjectives in the English noun phrase (henceforth NP). It investigates Adamson's (2000) claim that grammaticalization in the NP is accompanied by movement of the grammaticalizing adjective to more leftward positions in the premodifying string. I will argue that this type of movement is implied in the concepts of grammaticalization (Traugott 1989, 1995) and subjectification (Langacker 1990, 1998, 1999) as they apply to the NP. I will then illustrate my argument with a semantic analysis of six adjectives of difference, different, distinct, divers(e), several, sundry and various , whose diachronic development is established on the basis of six corpus studies.

February 16, 2009

German Glide Formation and the suffix –esk

T. A. Hall

Page range: 307-329

Abstract

German Glide Formation converts /i/ to [j] before vowels, e.g. ‘Spain’, but the rule is consistently blocked in neologisms containing the suffix – esk , e.g. hippiesk [hrpiɛsk] / *[hrpjɛsk]. It is argued below that the underapplication of Glide Formation in such examples follows from a requirement that the stem in a derived word must be identical to the unaffixed base. The base in such examples will be shown to be a free-standing morpheme as opposed to a bound root. The analysis proposed will be shown to be supported in additional examples in which Glide Formation is blocked from applying to the [i] preceding the suffix – aner , but only if the suffix follows a free-standing morpheme, e.g. ‘adherent of Schumi (Michael Schumacher)’.

February 16, 2009

Explorations in automated language classification

Eric W. Holman, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, Dik Bakker

Page range: 331-354

Abstract

An earlier paper, to which some authors of the present paper have contributed (Brown et al. 2008), describes a method for automating language classification based on the 100-item referent list of Swadesh (1955). Here we discuss a refinement of the method, involving calculation of relative stabilities of list items and reduction of the list to a shorter one by eliminating least stable items. The result is a 40-item referent list. The method for determining stabilities is explained, as well as a method for comparing the classificatory performance of different-sized reduced lists with that of the full 100-item list. A statistical investigation of the relationship of lexical similarity of languages to their geographical proximity is presented. Finally, we test the possibility that information involving typological features of languages can be combined with lexical data to enhance classificatory accuracy.

February 16, 2009

Levels of description and constraining factors in meaning construction: an introduction to the Lexical Constructional Model

Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Ricardo Mairal Usón

Page range: 355-400

Abstract

This paper presents an outline of the Lexical Constructional Model , a meaning construction model that integrates insights from functional models of language (especially, Role and Reference Grammar) and Cognitive Linguistics (especially, Goldberg's Construction Grammar and Lakoff's Cognitive Semantics). The initial claim is that a theory of semantic interpretation should be constructed on the basis of two representational mechanisms, lexical and constructional templates, and two basic cognitive operations, subsumption and conceptual cueing, that specify in what ways meaning representations from different levels may interact. It is further shown that both lexical-constructional subsumption and purely constructional subsumption –at any stage of the meaning construction process– is regulated by an inventory of both internal and external constraints. Internal constraints involve the semantic units encoded in a lexical or a constructional template, while external constraints result from the possibility or impossibility of performing high-level metaphoric and/or metonymic operations on the items involved in the subsumption or cueing processes.

February 16, 2009

Grammaticalisation under Control: towards a functional analysis of same-subject identity-sharing

Debra Ziegeler

Page range: 401-451

Abstract

The notion of a missing or understood subject of infinitive and other non-finite clauses has been the topic of a vast enterprise of syntactic research for more than thirty years. It has also increasingly become the focus for discussion in semantic domains, with the tendency to determine control relations by the lexical nature of the verbs within their scope. The present study addresses the topic from a functionalist, grammaticalisation perspective, examining some examples from Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) in which subject Control relations appear to be absent. Within such enquiry, it is questioned what implications such examples may have for definitions of subject Control under a grammaticalisation account, and the relation of subject Control to subject selection in the complement. It is hypothesised that the presence of subject Control implies that the controlled subject must be selected by the complement verb and that the subject selection properties of the complement verb are determined by the level of grammaticalisation of the main verb. Furthermore, the presence of topic-prominent, rather than subject-prominent sentence structure in CSE underlies the contact influence most likely to contribute to the apparently reduced semantic relations holding between the verb and subject for speakers of that dialect.

February 16, 2009

Book reviews

Page range: 453-492

February 16, 2009

Acknowledgements

Page range: 493-493

February 16, 2009

Conference announcement: 42nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea

Page range: 494-494

February 16, 2009

Publications received

Page range: 495-496

February 16, 2009

Index to Volume 42

Page range: 497-498

About this journal

Objective
Folia Linguistica and Folia Linguistica Historica are the peer-reviewed journals of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE). Each volume consists of two issues of Folia Linguistica, one issue of Folia Linguistica Historica, and one Special Issue. Folia Linguistica is devoted to empirically based linguistic topics and covers all non-historical areas in the traditional disciplines of general linguistics. The journal welcomes work from various theoretical perspectives, but contributions should be directed towards a general linguistic audience, in other words the argument should be understandable to linguists with other theoretical backgrounds. The domain of interest of Folia Linguistica includes sociological, discoursal, computational and psychological aspects of language and linguistic theory. Other areas of central concern are grammaticalization, language typology, and variation within and across languages. Folia Linguistica Historica is exclusively devoted to empirically based diachronic linguistics of all language families (including both historical and comparative linguistics).

Topics
Folia Linguistica

non-historical areas in general linguistics
grammaticalization
language typology
language variation
language varieties
sociological, discoursal, computational and psychological aspects of language and linguistic theory

Folia Linguistica Historica

diachronic linguistics (including both historical and comparative linguistics)
linguistic reconstruction (both internal and external) and language phylogeny
computational approaches to linguistic variation and change

Article formats
Research articles, Review articles, Book reviews, Miscellanea (reports and discussion notes)