Papers by Alexander Krasovitsky
The Italian Journal of Linguistics, 2020
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The notion of 'short term morphosyntactic change' can be used to characterise changes in ... more The notion of 'short term morphosyntactic change' can be used to characterise changes in the use of forms in a short period of time even when the forms themselves have changed relatively little. The Short Term Morphosyntactic Change (STMC) Databases explore change in six different morphosyntactic phenomena in Russian over a 200 year period from 1801-2000. Nouns in predicate position with the copular byt´ ('to be') may take either the nominative or the instrumental case. The nominative is the case originally used in the predicate. The instrumental is the innovation, which has expanded dramatically over the last two centuries. The accepted view is that predicate nouns with more specified temporal, referential or evidential properties favour the instrumental (Nichols 1981, Timberlake 2004). These properties may be linked to the semantics of the predicate noun (animacy, concreteness) and aspects of clause structure (such as the tense/mood of the copula, word order, and t...
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Languages change by gaining and losing word forms over time, but an equally significant role in t... more Languages change by gaining and losing word forms over time, but an equally significant role in their history is played by subtle shifts in the function of existing forms. Investigating such developments requires us to analyse patterns of use in large amounts of historical data, but such data are simply unavailable for most languages. Russian is a happy exception. It is a language with a rich and relatively stable system of inflectional morphology. Yet while the system of forms has changed relatively little, the use of these forms has undergone a remarkable degree of change over the last 200 years, a period for which a substantial quantity of varied material is available. The database is the product of a project funded by the Arts and Humanties Research Council (grant number RG/AN4375/APN18306); a full list of project outputs may be found at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/SMG/STMC/ By investigating a corpus of literary texts created between 1801 and 2000 (10 million words in total), we...
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Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 22, 2019
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Russian Linguistics
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This paper considers the transition from consistent phonemic distinction to consistent neutraliza... more This paper considers the transition from consistent phonemic distinction to consistent neutralization of /a/ and /o/ in unstressed syllables following hard consonants, as found in one Arkhangelsk dialect. The dialect in question presents three types of individual systems: (i) one where the phonemes /a/ and /o/ are consistently discriminated, (ii) one where these phonemes are consistently neutralized and (iii) a transitional type which presents a competition between models (i) and (ii). Our study shows that a shift of articulatory zones of the phonemes /a/ and /o/ is a key factor contributing to the loss of okan'je. The articulatory shift leads to overlapping of the respective articulatory zones, thus reducing the acoustic and perceptual contrast between the phonemes in question. This, in combination with a considerable quantitative reduction, drives the development of neutralization in unstressed syllables. At the same time, our analysis of the most archaic vowel system of the three types specified above rules out quantitative reduction as the sole factor at play, as consistent okan'je can be shown to occur in a system with a strong quantitative reduction of unstressed syllables.
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Diachronic Slavonic Syntax. Gradual Changes in Focus (Wiener Slawistischer Almanach - Sonderbände 74), pp. 109-119. , 2010
The paper addresses the evolution of predicate agreement in Russian over the last two centuries. ... more The paper addresses the evolution of predicate agreement in Russian over the last two centuries. Analysis of a large corpus of literary works from the 19th and 20th centuries reveals two diachronic patterns, one involving the gradual generalization of an innovative form while the other type, which is less common, involves undulating variation with no observable historical trend. We analyse the conditions that underlie both types of diachronic behavior and show that although conditions which disfavor certain morphosyntactic variants need not preclude historical change, the course of a dischronic process may be suspended if it is in serious conflict with other morphosyntactic mechanisms.
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In: Martin Everaert, Simon Musgrave and Alexis Dimitriadis (eds) The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT] 41), 117-153. , 2009
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Morphology 21.573–592, 2011
We present a corpus-based study of variation in case assignment of the direct object of negated v... more We present a corpus-based study of variation in case assignment of the direct object of negated verbs in Russian over the past 200 years. Superficially the system of case forms available over this relatively short period has remained largely the same, but the way in which certain cases are used has been radically altered. This is particularly apparent in the treatment of the direct object of negated verbs. We argue that various semantic factors have been involved in bringing about this change, and that the role and significance of these factors has been changing over the period under investigation. This has implications for our understanding of the role of semantics in case assignment.
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Russian …, Jan 1, 2008
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Russian in Kamchatka: prominent features in the view of linguists and speakers, 2006
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The Use of …, Jan 1, 2009
In this chapter we consider databases which have been constructed to in-vestigate particular ling... more In this chapter we consider databases which have been constructed to in-vestigate particular linguistic phenomena. Data entered into a database with little thought or attention to its categorisation are at best useless, and in the worst case harmful if used to make spurious ...
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Morphology, Jan 1, 2011
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The paper addresses the evolution of predicate agreement in Russian over the last two centuries. ... more The paper addresses the evolution of predicate agreement in Russian over the last two centuries. Analysis of a large corpus of literary work from the 19th and 20th centuries reveals two diachronic patterns, one involving the gradual generalization of an innovative form while the other type, which is less common, involves undulating variation with no observable historical trend. We analyze the conditions that underlie both types of diachronic behaviour and show that although conditions which disfavour certain morphosyntactic variants need not preclude historical change, the course of a diachronic process may be suspended if it is in serious conflict with other morphosyntactic mechanisms.
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Russian …, Jan 1, 2008
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Electronic resources by Alexander Krasovitsky
The online database presents regional variation in Russian, a language of tremendous geographic b... more The online database presents regional variation in Russian, a language of tremendous geographic breadth and of remarkable linguistic diversity. Multilevel annotation is applied to a large set of audio data recorded in a wide range of locations, from Siberia and Far East to Southern Russia. This will lead to models of possible interaction between phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, discourse and socio-linguistic factors. The corpus with a search engine is presented online at www.rureg.de and all materials including high quality audio recordings are available for download. The project has been funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is carried out at the
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Papers by Alexander Krasovitsky
Electronic resources by Alexander Krasovitsky