Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 55 Issue 2

Issue of Folia Linguistica

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available October 6, 2021

Articles

Open Access September 24, 2021

Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data

Cindy van Boven

Page range: 313-359

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Abstract

This study focuses on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). The aim is to offer a comprehensive description of nominal pluralization processes in the language, based on both corpus data and elicited data, taking into account potential phonological restrictions. The results reveal that NGT nouns can undergo several pluralization processes, the main ones being simple reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign at one location) and sideward reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign while moving the hand sideward). The choice of pluralization process depends on phonological properties of the base noun: (i) nouns that are body-anchored or involve a complex movement undergo simple reduplication; (ii) nouns articulated at the lateral side of the signing space undergo sideward reduplication; (iii) nouns articulated on the midsagittal plane can undergo both simple and sideward reduplication. Strikingly, the data show considerable variation, and all types of nouns can be zero-marked, that is, plural marking on the noun is not obligatory. The results further suggest that all nouns can undergo at least one type of reduplication. Thus, while phonological properties of the base noun influence the type of reduplication, they do not block reduplication altogether. Plural reduplication in NGT is therefore less constrained than has been reported for other sign languages, where certain noun types cannot undergo reduplication. This shows that reduplication – despite being iconically motivated – is subject to language-specific grammatical constraints.

July 26, 2021

‘Well, that’s just great!’: an empirically based analysis of non-literal and attitudinal content of ironic utterances

Holden Härtl, Tatjana Bürger

Page range: 361-387

Abstract

This study contributes to the ongoing debate about the informational status of attitudinal content with a focus on verbal irony. Specifically, we investigate where the different meaning components involved in ironic utterances are positioned in the dichotomy between primary and secondary content of utterances. After an analysis of the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of ironic meaning components and their linguistic expression, we show, based on experimental data, that ironic, non-literally asserted content is “less” at-issue than non-ironic, literally asserted content. Crucially, our findings also suggest that an ironic utterance’s non-literally asserted content is more at-issue than the attitudinal content expressed with an ironic utterance. No difference is observed between attitudinal content manifested as ironic criticism and content manifested as ironic praise. Our findings support the notion of at-issueness as a graded criterion and can be used to argue that verbal irony in general seems to be difficult to reject directly and treated as at-issue.

Open Access May 31, 2021

Aspectual cognate objects in Hungarian

Imola-Ágnes Farkas

Page range: 389-432

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Abstract

This paper examines aspectual cognate objects in Hungarian. Its main contribution lies in the syntactic and semantic analysis of three classes of accusative pseudo-objects, which are literally not cognate with the prototypical unergative verb they accompany but are demonstrated to be non-subcategorized and non-thematic elements that have the same role and the same syntactic and semantic properties as aspectual cognate objects in languages where these nominals are both semantically and morphologically related to the verb. In addition, the paper fills a typologically unexpected gap, considering that Hungarian, as a strong satellite-framed language, is predicted to have aspectual cognate object constructions.

May 31, 2021

Expressing intent, imminence and ire by attributing speech/thought in Mongolian

Benjamin Brosig

Page range: 433-483

Abstract

Quoted clauses in which an intention is declared are cross-linguistically known to develop into clauses that directly ascribe an intention to their subjects, and further into clauses that express the imminence of an event. In Khalkha Mongolian, several quotative constructions based on the quotative verb ge - have come to ascribe intention and then developed further semantic extensions: (i) The pattern - x ge -, featuring a fossilized Middle Mongol future-referring participial suffix, is used in a group of constructions that cover the semantic space between future time reference, intention (initially of the current speaker), and imminence. (ii) Quotational clauses ending in a particular tense-aspect-evidentiality suffix (including - n ) and subordinated by a linking converb ge-ž / ge-ed are often systematically ambiguous between quotation and their purposive, causal and concessive extensions. Noun phrases with similar properties additionally allow for (dedicational-)benefactive and (allocational-)functive uses. (iii) The pattern - n ge -, which in other Central Mongolic varieties resembles - x ge -, conveys the speaker’s disbelief and anger about an actor’s willful deeds when used in echo questions marked by - n=AA. Based on conversational corpus data, this paper tries to provide a comprehensive picture of Khalkha Mongolian constructions in which the speaker’s awareness of the subject’s speech or thoughts is reinterpreted as attributing intentions and their derived notions.

June 28, 2021

‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek

Noemi De Pasquale

Page range: 485-515

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the main constructions showing a covert encoding of Path of motion in Classical Greek (5th–4th century BC). Based on a corpus study of five texts belonging to different literary genres, it applies the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic approaches, such as the semantic typology of motion events and Construction Grammar, to the data from an ancient language, in order to address the non-compositional expression of Path. The results of the analysis reveal that, in addition to the overt morphosyntactic encoding of Path information, Ancient Greek resorts to more implicit patterns, in which coercion, meaning extension and inference play a crucial role. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional views on motion expression, this study shows that the encoding of spatial meaning is rarely committed to a single lexical or morphological tool within the clause, but rather it distributes across different linguistic units and results from their interaction with one another.

Open Access February 10, 2021

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

Alessandro Bigolin, Josep Ausensi

Page range: 517-546

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Abstract

We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death . This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

September 10, 2021

A metalinguistic analysis of the terminology of evidential categories: experiential, conjecture or deduced?

Satu Keinänen

Page range: 547-587

Abstract

While evidential categories have similar meanings and uses cross-linguistically, the names given to the categories tend to vary. This article surveys the terms for evidentials used in descriptive grammars of 51 languages that have at least three evidential categories. Comparing terms to find common terminological tendencies can provide useful insights into the descriptions of categories. There is great deal of term synonymy and term polysemy, but each evidential category has its typical terms that are semantically motivated. The term synonymy is the result of emphasizing different semantic aspects of the evidential categories, which leads to variable term choices. There is terminological overlap between categories involving sensory perception (i.e. visual, direct, and nonvisual sensory evidentials), inference, and second-hand information, which suggests that they may not always be considered sufficiently conceptually distinct to merit unique terms, especially when the terms for inferential and assumptive evidentials are frequently created from the same words. The variation of the terminology is also connected to how the understanding of evidentiality and relationship to other adjacent categories has developed.

Book Reviews

August 30, 2021

Ksenia Shagal: Participles. A typological study

Peter M. Arkadiev

Page range: 589-596

September 7, 2021

Dalrymple, Mary, John J. Lowe & Louise Mycock: The Oxford reference guide to Lexical Functional Grammar

Hannah Booth

Page range: 597-601

Open Access September 7, 2021

Tania Kuteva, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog and Seongha Rhee: World lexicon of grammaticalization

Yue Zhang, Lei Wang

Page range: 603-609

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September 8, 2021

Verena Schröter: Null subjects in Englishes: A comparison of British English and Asian Englishes

Iván Tamaredo

Page range: 611-616

August 30, 2021

Aline Godfroid: Eye tracking in Second Language Acquisition and bilingualism. A research synthesis and methodological guide

Yuanyuan Zhang

Page range: 617-621

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)

Volume 55 Issue 2

Issue of Folia Linguistica

Frontmatter

Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data

Abstract

‘Well, that’s just great!’: an empirically based analysis of non-literal and attitudinal content of ironic utterances

Abstract

Aspectual cognate objects in Hungarian

Abstract

Expressing intent, imminence and ire by attributing speech/thought in Mongolian

Abstract

‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek

Abstract

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

Abstract

A metalinguistic analysis of the terminology of evidential categories: experiential, conjecture or deduced?

Abstract

Ksenia Shagal: Participles. A typological study

Dalrymple, Mary, John J. Lowe & Louise Mycock: The Oxford reference guide to Lexical Functional Grammar

Tania Kuteva, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog and Seongha Rhee: World lexicon of grammaticalization

Verena Schröter: Null subjects in Englishes: A comparison of British English and Asian Englishes

Aline Godfroid: Eye tracking in Second Language Acquisition and bilingualism. A research synthesis and methodological guide