Published since January 1, 1989

Probus

International Journal of Romance Linguistics

ISSN: 1613-4079

Editor-in-chief: W. Leo Wetzels

Impact Factor: 0.818

About this journal

Objective
Probus is a platform for the discussion of dichronic and synchronic research in the field of Romance linguistics, with special emphasis on phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and language acquisition. The journal aims to keep its readers abreast of the developments in Romance linguistics by encouraging problem-oriented contributions that combine a solid empirical basis with the insights provided by modern theoretical approaches. Studies in applied disciplines in any of the sub-areas mentioned above are welcome provided they contribute to a better understanding of the global architecture of the grammar or the concepts and principles that play a role therein.

Probus is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal of international scope.

Topics

phonology
morphology
syntax
semantics
pragmatics
language acquisition

Article formats
Research articles

> Information on submission process

Your Benefits

Your benefits:

State-of-the-art forum for research reports where the techniques of modern theoretical linguistics are applied to the resolution of problems in Romance linguistics
Useful medium for the exchange of ideas, explanations, and solutions aiming at a better understanding of the structure of Romance languages
Novel platform for the discussion of data from Romance linguistics
Rigorous peer-review

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Publication Ethics Statement

Volume 33 Issue 1

May 2021

Accessible May 8, 2021

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

Download PDF

Original Articles

April 9, 2021

Clause Structure and Illocutionary Force in Medieval Gallo-Romance: Clitic Position in Old Occitan and Early Old French Sentential Coordination

Bryan Donaldson

Page range: 1-32

Abstract

This paper analyzes the position of object and adverbial clitic pronouns in coordinated affirmative verb-first declaratives introduced by e(t) “and” in Old Occitan and early Old French, a context in which clitics are variably preverbal or postverbal. An empirical study reveals that this variation is principled and reflects semantico-discursive properties in the same way in these two related and grammatically similar medieval Gallo-Romance varieties. On a theoretical level, I posit that preverbal clitics occur when conjunction occurs at the TP level, and postverbal clitics occur when conjunction occurs at the CP level, and that the choice of clause structure (TP vs. CP) for second conjunct clauses depends on illocutionary force, which in turn depends on discourse coherence relations and the semantics of verba dicendi (verbs of utterance).

March 29, 2021

Analogical Levelling in the Majorcan Catalan Demonstrative System

Emanuela Todisco, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes, Kenny R. Coventry

Page range: 33-56

Abstract

Demonstratives are cross-linguistically widespread expressions. The use of demonstratives is flexible due to their semantic elasticity, which allows them to describe more or less extensive regions or referents in a communicative scenario. The constant remapping between demonstratives and referents might lead to a restructuring of the deictic system itself in accordance with the parameters affecting its use. To that end, we analyzed the structural changes affecting demonstratives in Majorcan Catalan by analysing whether speakers use three or two terms ( aquest/aqueix/aquell vs. aquest/aquell ) to convey spatial information. We also assessed whether any change in the adnominal/pronominal forms mirrored locative adverbs reduction. We elicited the production of demonstratives in 36 simultaneous Majorcan/Spanish bilinguals via a psycholinguistic experiment and we found two main results. First, simultaneous bilingual speakers do not extensively use the term aqueix to convey information related to physical distance. Second, the pronominal/adnominal reduction from three- to two-terms differs from the adverbial reduction. In the first case, aqueix is dropping out of the system, while locative adverbs present a shift with substitution of açí for aquí . Overall, our results shed new light on how the Majorcan Catalan demonstrative system is structured and explain structural changes in terms of ‘analogical levelling’ in paradigmatic relations.

April 29, 2021

Word Prosody in Lung’Ie: One System or Two?

Ana Lívia Agostinho, Larry M. Hyman

Page range: 57-93

Abstract

Creole languages have generally not figured prominently in cross-linguistic studies of word-prosodic typology. In this paper, we present a phonological analysis of the prosodic system of Lung’Ie or Principense (ISO 639-3 code: pre), a Portuguese-lexifier creole language spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe. Lung’Ie has produced a unique result of the contact between the two different prosodic systems common in creolization: a stress-accent lexifier and tone language substrates. The language has a restrictive privative H/Ø tone system, in which the /H/ is culminative, but non-obligatory. Since rising and falling tones are contrastive on long vowels, the tone must be marked underlyingly. While it is clear that tonal indications are needed, Lung’Ie reveals two properties more expected of an accentual system: (i) there can only be one heavy syllable per word; (ii) this syllable must bear a H tone. This raises the question of whether syllables with a culminative H also have metrical prominence, i.e. stress. However, the problem with equating stress with H tone is that Lung’Ie has two kinds of nouns: those with a culminative H and those which are toneless. The nouns with culminative H are 87% of Portuguese origin, incorporated through stress-to-tone alignment, while the toneless ones are 92% of African origin. Although other creole languages have been reported with split systems of “accented” vs. fully specified tonal lexemes, and others with mixed systems of tone and stress, Lung’Ie differs from these cases in treating African origin words as toneless, a quite surprising result. We consider different analyses and conclude that Lung’Ie has a privative /H/ tone system with the single unusual stress-like property of weight-to-tone.

December 25, 2020

On the Syntax of French Qu’est-ce que Clauses and Related Constructions

Jean-Yves Pollock

Page range: 95-149

Abstract

In the Romance domain, French is unique in having homophonous interrogative, exclamative and relative constructions sharing the same Que+est+ce+que string. The main goal of this article is to shed light on this enigmatic sequence. It will do so by investigating the rarely studied syntax of que, combien and ce que exclamatives and relatives and will show that the sequence initial Que in their Que+est+ce+que counterparts is the covert duplicate of the subsequent exclamative and relative ( ce+ ) que clauses. The article extends the main features of this analysis to all Qui, quand, où, … +est-ce que questions by showing that the ce que string following est in such questions is to be analysed, despite the spelling conventions of Modern French, as the complex complementiser of headless relatives. As the article proceeds, various questions concerning the syntax of similar clauses in other Romance languages are raised and the uniqueness of French is argued to be tied to the defective properties of est in these three constructions. Finally, its appendix extends and shows the fruitfulness of Kayne's ideas concerning the ce que complex determiner.

April 15, 2021

Simple Monotransitive and Complex Dative Alternation Predicates in Spanish Monolingual Child Acquisition Data

Silvia Sánchez Calderón

Page range: 151-179

Abstract

This work analyzes the acquisition of simple and complex constructions in Spanish monolingual children’s data. It examines the emergence and the role played by adult input in child production of simple monotransitive constructions when compared to two types of complex predicates that undergo dative alternation (DA), namely, a/para- datives and dative-clitic doubled (DCLD) structures. In order to shed light on these issues, we have analyzed data from Spanish monolingual children and from the adults that they interact with, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk [Dataset], 3rd edn. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://childes.talkbank.org (accessed 20 October 2019)). The results show that there is an order in the onset of simple and complex predicate constructions, as reflected in the earlier emergence of monotransitives when compared to DA constructions. The latter also show a subsequent order of first occurrence, namely, DCLDs before a/para- datives. Thus, the degree of syntactic complexity seems to have played a role in the acquisition of simple and complex constructions, as measured by the number of Case assignment relations between the verb and its internal argument(s). Moreover, the differences in the Spanish monolingual children’s incidence of the three structures under analysis do not appear to be explained by the relative frequency of exposure in the adult input.

Ahead of Print / Just Accepted

Ahead of Print / Just Accepted

Volume 33 (2021)

Issue 1

Volume 32 (2020)

Volume 31 (2019)

Volume 30 (2018)

Volume 29 (2017)

Volume 28 (2016)

Volume 27 (2015)

Volume 26 (2014)

Volume 25 (2013)

Volume 24 (2012)

Volume 23 (2011)

Volume 22 (2010)

Volume 21 (2009)

Volume 20 (2008)

Volume 19 (2007)

Volume 18 (2006)

Volume 17 (2005)

Volume 16 (2004)

Volume 15 (2003)

Volume 14 (2002)

Volume 13 (2001)

Volume 12 (2000)

Volume 11 (1999)

Volume 10 (1998)

Volume 9 (1997)

Volume 8 (1996)

Volume 7 (1995)

Volume 6 (1994)

Volume 5 (1993)

Volume 4 (1992)

Volume 3 (1991)

Volume 2 (1990)

Volume 1 (1989)

5-year Impact Factor	0.852
Cite Score	0.8
European Reference Index for the Humanities
Impact Factor	0.818
Journal Citation Indicator	0.89
SCImago Journal Rank	0.241
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	0.843

Submit

Submission
Articles for consideration for publication by Probus should be sent as an attachment to m.coler@rug.nl in PDF format. The accompanying email body should include the author(s) name, affiliation, and paper title, along with an abstract of no more than 150 words, including also five keywords.

Your benefits of publishing with us

Rapid online publication ahead-of-print with short turnaround times
Optional open access publication
Accepted papers will be published online first as DOI-citable, forward-linked articles for quickest possible visibility for the scientific community
Every article easily discoverable because of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and comprehensive abstracting and indexing services
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Submission process

Author submits manuscript to the Editorial Assistant
Double-blind peer review process
Rapid decision on the submission. The reviews and the Editors' decision are sent to Author
If the paper is accepted, the Author has the option to publish it open access
Publication online and in print

Please note

Probus only considers original manuscripts written in English which have less than 90,000 characters (including empty spaces)
The manuscript should have minimal formatting. It should be written in 12 point font and 1.25 inch margins on all sides. All text must be double-spaced (including abstract, notes, interlinear glosses and references). Non-English words should appear in italics
Once the article is accepted, the author must revise the article to conform to the De Gruyter Mouton journal style sheet
Prospective authors should check the de Gruyter Publication Ethics Statement
Accepted articles may be published as
Our Repository Policy allows you to distribute 30 PDF copies of your published article to colleagues (the PDF has to include the information that it is an author's copy). Please also feel free to distribute the link to the online abstract
If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ for authors

Hybrid Open Access

In this journal, authors have the option to publish their article under an open access license. Open Access allows you as an author to retain copyright and share your findings with colleagues and interested parties worldwide without any restraints.
Please note that authors from institutions with which we have a transformative agreement can publish open access without paying an article processing charge (APC). More information on the eligible institutions and articles can be found under the "Funding and Support" tab here.

Editorial

Editor-in-Chief
W. Leo Wetzels
Department of Linguistics
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
e-mail: w.l.m.wetzels@vu.nl

Co-Editors
Rafael A. Núñez-Cedeño
Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese (M/C315)
University of Illinois at Chicago
601 S. Morgan Street
Chicago, IL 60607-7117
USA
e-mail: rnunez@uic.edu

Jairo Nunes
FFLCH – Universidade de São Paulo
Departamento de Lingüística
Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto 403
São Paulo SP 05508-900
Brazil
e-mail: jmnunes@usp.br

Editorial Assistant
Matt Coler
Department of Linguistics
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
e-mail: probus@degruyter.com

(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 1613-4079
Print ISSN: 0921-4771
Type: Journal
Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
First published: January 1, 1989
Publication Frequency: 2 Issues per Year
Audience: Theoretical linguists and researchers in the field of Romance linguistics