He served as expert in many assessment committees and was member of the board of numerous accreditation procedures in Germany and abroad. Phone: +493319774152 Address: Universität Potsdam
Institut für Slavistik
Lehrstuhl für Slavische Sprachwissenschaft
Am Neuen Palais 10
D-14469 Potsdam
▲ Základní Směr lingvistiky mající své kořeny v pracích ✍Lenneberga (1967), který objevil úzkou v... more ▲ Základní Směr lingvistiky mající své kořeny v pracích ✍Lenneberga (1967), který objevil úzkou vazbu mezi myslí, mozkem a jazykovou schopností a dal nový impuls pro vysvětlení teorie jazyka; nejprominentnějším zástupcem je ✍Chomsky (1956), ✍Chomsky (1981) a následující práce. Od samého začátku se b. pokusila integrovat studium jazyka do studia obecných fyzikálních systémů za předpokladu, že – je-li teze, že jazyk je součástí " přírodního světa " , správná – je v konečném důsledku sama fyzikálním systémem a optimálně musí dodržovat stejné přírodní zákony a základní principy. Úkolem b. je taky vysvětlit vztah mezi vznikem jazyka a jeho evolucí, jeho variací a jeho komputační kapacitou. B. je tudíž studium biologie a vývoje jazyka a jeho komputačních a neuroligvistických základů. Jedná se o vysoce interdisciplinární obor, ve kterém spolupracuje lingvistika, biologie, neurologie, psychologie, matematika i další vědy, např. také archeologie. V posledních letech se na výzkumu podílí i č. jazykověda (Kosta, Zemková). Světová centra jsou uvedena na: http://biolinguistics.uqam.ca/. ▲ Rozšiřující Posunutím těžiště zkoumání na komplexní systém, který zahrnuje i poznatky přírodních věd, se lingvistika snaží vytvořit rámec, podle kterého můžeme pochopit základy jazykové schopnosti. Jednou z ústředních otázek Platónova Kratyla je otázka povahy a původu přirozeného jaz., jak a proč se jazyk vyskytuje pouze ve formě vnitřní gramatiky (Chomského I-grammar), neboli jazykového modulu (podle Chomského definice generativní gramatiky) species humana, a v žádném jiném sémiotickém systému (např. u savců, ptáků, lidoopů atd.) se nevyskytuje. Jazyková schopnost v užším smyslu se přitom chápe jako soubor sémiotických entit, v první řadě fonologických, morfologických a syntaktických pravidel, systému senzo-motorického (S-M) a systému konceptuálně-intencionálního (C-I), tj. logicko-sémantické součásti jazykového znaku, které nejsou specifické pouze pro přirozený jazyk, ale i pro jazyky typu gramatiky nekonečných stavů (infinite state models), na rozdíl od gramatik stavů konečných, který znázorňuje např. známý matematický model Markova. Jako příklad je možné ukázat následující deterministický konečný automat: Konečný automat (KA, též FSM z anglického finite state machine, či DFA z anglického deterministic finite automaton) je teoretický výpočetní model používaný v informatice pro studium vyčíslitelnosti a obecně formálních jazyků. Popisuje velice jednoduchý počítač, který může být v jednom z několika stavů, mezi kterými přechází na základě symbolů, které čte ze vstupu. Množina stavů je konečná (odtud název), konečný automat nemá žádnou další paměť kromě informace o aktuálním stavu. Konečný automat je velice jednoduchý výpočetní model, dokáže rozpoznávat pouze regulární jazyky. Konečné automaty se používají pro zpracování regulárních výrazů, např. jako součást lexikálního analyzátoru v překladačích. Tabulka 1: Gramatika (automaton) konečných stavů (podle Wikipedie) ● S = (S 0 , S 1 , S 2) ● Σ = (0, 1) σ ● stav 0 1 ● S 0 S 0 S 1 ● S 1 S 2 S 0
This paper is a revised version of my habilitation thesis which was concerned with Empty Categor... more This paper is a revised version of my habilitation thesis which was concerned with Empty Categories and GB-Theory-
Abstract
This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them wi... more Abstract
This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them with the terms “language mixing”, “interference” and “language change” from my previous work on the translation of Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. While the latter terms are pure ction – a kind of wordplay, taken from the real situation one hundred years ago in the multinational Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – the former terms are crucial for the present study of contemporary verbal interaction among young people in Berlin and Brandenburg. e analysis concentrates on the DFG Urban Voices project, which was conducted at six di erent locations in Germany, in cooperation with the State University of Saint Petersburg, collecting data on everyday speech among Russian immigrants in German cities. e analysis concludes that the mixing of languages is not a deviation from a norm, but rather the default case, and thus should be considered a new eld of research. Since Russian students use these forms of conversation not only among themselves but also with their parents and friends, this conversational style can become a new, broader form of conversation and trigger a language change in Russian-speaking interlocutors abroad. Keywords: language shi , language change, code-mixing, code-switching, conversational analysis, multilingualism, bilingualism, Russian migrants, urban styles
Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch wird beabsichtigt, den derzeitigen Wissens- und Problemstand der sl... more Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch wird beabsichtigt, den derzeitigen Wissens- und Problemstand der slavischen Sprachwissenschaft hinsichtlich der Beschreibung der Strukturen und Funktionen der slavischen Sprachen in synchroner und diachroner Sicht überblicksartig ausgewogen darzustellen. Je nach Thema wird auf einzelne Sprachen unterschiedlich eingegangen. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Darstellungen mit Handbuchcharakter ist dieses Handbuch keine Grammatik mit starrem Raster; auch sind Umfang, Weite des thematischen Spektrums und Beschreibungsmethode der aktuellen Forschung angepasst.
This volume provides an overview of current research priorities in the analysis of face-to-face-i... more This volume provides an overview of current research priorities in the analysis of face-to-face-interaction in Slavic speaking language communities. The core of this volume ranges from discourse analysis in the tradition of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis to newer methods of politeness research. A further field includes empirical and interpretive methods of modern sociolinguistics and statistical analysis of spoken language in casual and institutional talks. Several papers focus on a semantic or syntactic analysis of talk-in-interaction by trying to show how interlocutors use certain lexical, grammatical, syntactic and multimodal or prosodic means for the management of interaction in performing specific actions, genres and displaying negotiations of epistemic, evidential or evaluative stances. The volume is rounded out by contributions to the theory of politeness where strategies of face-work in casual as well as institutional discourse are analyzed, or in which social tasks entertained by code-switching and language alternation within the interaction of bilinguals are discussed.
Minimalism and Beyond
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teod... more Minimalism and Beyond
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teodora Radeva-Bork and Lilia Schürcks
Universität Potsdam / Indiana University, Bloomington
Hardbound – Forthcoming
ISBN 9789027208286 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
Title: Empty Categories in Slavic Languages. An Analysis of Empty Subjects and Empty Objects with... more Title: Empty Categories in Slavic Languages. An Analysis of Empty Subjects and Empty Objects within the Government-Binding-Framework.
Summary:
The central challenge for modern linguistic theory is to develop a model of Universal Grammar (hence, UG) that is, on the one hand, general enough to capture the universal features of natural languages, and on the other flexible enough to account for the variation among languages that is in fact observed. Moreover, insofar as UG is assumed to be part of the innate human endowment, the problem of linguistic variation becomes crucially related to the logical problem of how linguistic variation can be mastered by the language learner. One important conceptualization of this task is a parametric theory of linguistic variation which is designed to provide both a theory of linguistic typology and comparison as well as a theory of language acquisition.
The following paper is concerned with the syntax of Slavic clitics, drawing relevant generalizati... more The following paper is concerned with the syntax of Slavic clitics, drawing relevant generalizations across the array of West and South Slavic languages. The study concentrates on two contemporarily discussed ap- proaches of generative grammar, the Minimalist Program (MP) and the Optimality Theory (OT). Section 1 provides a short introduction, section 2 gives some basic facts on the phonological and prosodie require- ments of the grammar of clitics, section 3 is concerned with the morphosyntax of two types of clitics (simple and special clitics), whereas section 4 summarizes the Slavic data of different clitic classes. In section 5 some derivational approaches of a formal analysis of clitics in generative grammar are demonstrated. Section 6 presents an alternative analysis of clitics based on some recent results of the OT.
This chapter provides a description of generative syntax as a discipline within Slavic linguistic... more This chapter provides a description of generative syntax as a discipline within Slavic linguistic research from a theoretical, methodological and scientific-historical viewpoint, including those descriptive models and theoretical approaches which are preferred in Slavic generative linguistics working within the Principles and Parameters framework (Chomsky 1995 passim). A general comprehensive description of generative syntax, syntactic levels and methods of description is followed by a short overview of the current state of the art and the goals and targets of syntactic theory and the description of some syntactically relevant categories (such as negation, see also Błaszczak in this volume, and clitics, see Franks) resulting from my own research on word order (see also Kosta/Schürcks on Word Order, Art. 63, in this volume). In chapter 2, I will introduce some basic notions of the Minimalist framework. I will concentrate on the question of how syntactic levels have to be represented ...
In: Witkoś, J. & S. Jaworski (eds.), New Insights into Slavic Linguistics. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 205- 220.
Ever since the pioneering work of John “Haj” Ross on “Inner Islands” in English (Ross 1984), it i... more Ever since the pioneering work of John “Haj” Ross on “Inner Islands” in English (Ross 1984), it is not quite clear how to explain facts such as the followings: (1) This mist can’t last, which Morpho and Hoppy (don’t) realize. (2) This mist can’t last, as Morpho and Hoppy (*don’t) realize. Whereas in (1) the embedded clause is introduced by the relative pronoun which that does seem to license a negation of the embedded clause, example (2) is a case of a restriction of negation in an as-clause. Why is this so? Are we facing an idiosyncratic English restriction or is there a Principle of UG that has to do with the structure of such clauses involved? In order to find an answer to this puzzling and challenging question, we shall analyze which- and as-clauses in Czech and German and we will also try to show that similar restrictions as in English, German and Czech can be found in Spanish, too.
his collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framewor... more his collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framework – Radical Minimalism. The development of such a framework, with a strong basis on mathematics and physics, was born out of the conviction that, if language is really a natural object, there is no a priori reason to study it in isolation from other natural systems. On the other hand, this work represents a significant simplification of the theory of displacement and so-called «empty categories» within the latest development of Chomsky’s Strong Minimalist Hypothesis, applying Occam’s razor and fulfilling Lakatos’ requirements for scientific evolution. Radical Minimalism thus accounts not only for the phenomena orthodox minimalism has explanations for, but also for empirical problems that have not yet been taken into consideration.
▲ Základní Směr lingvistiky mající své kořeny v pracích ✍Lenneberga (1967), který objevil úzkou v... more ▲ Základní Směr lingvistiky mající své kořeny v pracích ✍Lenneberga (1967), který objevil úzkou vazbu mezi myslí, mozkem a jazykovou schopností a dal nový impuls pro vysvětlení teorie jazyka; nejprominentnějším zástupcem je ✍Chomsky (1956), ✍Chomsky (1981) a následující práce. Od samého začátku se b. pokusila integrovat studium jazyka do studia obecných fyzikálních systémů za předpokladu, že – je-li teze, že jazyk je součástí " přírodního světa " , správná – je v konečném důsledku sama fyzikálním systémem a optimálně musí dodržovat stejné přírodní zákony a základní principy. Úkolem b. je taky vysvětlit vztah mezi vznikem jazyka a jeho evolucí, jeho variací a jeho komputační kapacitou. B. je tudíž studium biologie a vývoje jazyka a jeho komputačních a neuroligvistických základů. Jedná se o vysoce interdisciplinární obor, ve kterém spolupracuje lingvistika, biologie, neurologie, psychologie, matematika i další vědy, např. také archeologie. V posledních letech se na výzkumu podílí i č. jazykověda (Kosta, Zemková). Světová centra jsou uvedena na: http://biolinguistics.uqam.ca/. ▲ Rozšiřující Posunutím těžiště zkoumání na komplexní systém, který zahrnuje i poznatky přírodních věd, se lingvistika snaží vytvořit rámec, podle kterého můžeme pochopit základy jazykové schopnosti. Jednou z ústředních otázek Platónova Kratyla je otázka povahy a původu přirozeného jaz., jak a proč se jazyk vyskytuje pouze ve formě vnitřní gramatiky (Chomského I-grammar), neboli jazykového modulu (podle Chomského definice generativní gramatiky) species humana, a v žádném jiném sémiotickém systému (např. u savců, ptáků, lidoopů atd.) se nevyskytuje. Jazyková schopnost v užším smyslu se přitom chápe jako soubor sémiotických entit, v první řadě fonologických, morfologických a syntaktických pravidel, systému senzo-motorického (S-M) a systému konceptuálně-intencionálního (C-I), tj. logicko-sémantické součásti jazykového znaku, které nejsou specifické pouze pro přirozený jazyk, ale i pro jazyky typu gramatiky nekonečných stavů (infinite state models), na rozdíl od gramatik stavů konečných, který znázorňuje např. známý matematický model Markova. Jako příklad je možné ukázat následující deterministický konečný automat: Konečný automat (KA, též FSM z anglického finite state machine, či DFA z anglického deterministic finite automaton) je teoretický výpočetní model používaný v informatice pro studium vyčíslitelnosti a obecně formálních jazyků. Popisuje velice jednoduchý počítač, který může být v jednom z několika stavů, mezi kterými přechází na základě symbolů, které čte ze vstupu. Množina stavů je konečná (odtud název), konečný automat nemá žádnou další paměť kromě informace o aktuálním stavu. Konečný automat je velice jednoduchý výpočetní model, dokáže rozpoznávat pouze regulární jazyky. Konečné automaty se používají pro zpracování regulárních výrazů, např. jako součást lexikálního analyzátoru v překladačích. Tabulka 1: Gramatika (automaton) konečných stavů (podle Wikipedie) ● S = (S 0 , S 1 , S 2) ● Σ = (0, 1) σ ● stav 0 1 ● S 0 S 0 S 1 ● S 1 S 2 S 0
This paper is a revised version of my habilitation thesis which was concerned with Empty Categor... more This paper is a revised version of my habilitation thesis which was concerned with Empty Categories and GB-Theory-
Abstract
This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them wi... more Abstract
This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them with the terms “language mixing”, “interference” and “language change” from my previous work on the translation of Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. While the latter terms are pure ction – a kind of wordplay, taken from the real situation one hundred years ago in the multinational Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – the former terms are crucial for the present study of contemporary verbal interaction among young people in Berlin and Brandenburg. e analysis concentrates on the DFG Urban Voices project, which was conducted at six di erent locations in Germany, in cooperation with the State University of Saint Petersburg, collecting data on everyday speech among Russian immigrants in German cities. e analysis concludes that the mixing of languages is not a deviation from a norm, but rather the default case, and thus should be considered a new eld of research. Since Russian students use these forms of conversation not only among themselves but also with their parents and friends, this conversational style can become a new, broader form of conversation and trigger a language change in Russian-speaking interlocutors abroad. Keywords: language shi , language change, code-mixing, code-switching, conversational analysis, multilingualism, bilingualism, Russian migrants, urban styles
Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch wird beabsichtigt, den derzeitigen Wissens- und Problemstand der sl... more Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch wird beabsichtigt, den derzeitigen Wissens- und Problemstand der slavischen Sprachwissenschaft hinsichtlich der Beschreibung der Strukturen und Funktionen der slavischen Sprachen in synchroner und diachroner Sicht überblicksartig ausgewogen darzustellen. Je nach Thema wird auf einzelne Sprachen unterschiedlich eingegangen. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Darstellungen mit Handbuchcharakter ist dieses Handbuch keine Grammatik mit starrem Raster; auch sind Umfang, Weite des thematischen Spektrums und Beschreibungsmethode der aktuellen Forschung angepasst.
This volume provides an overview of current research priorities in the analysis of face-to-face-i... more This volume provides an overview of current research priorities in the analysis of face-to-face-interaction in Slavic speaking language communities. The core of this volume ranges from discourse analysis in the tradition of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis to newer methods of politeness research. A further field includes empirical and interpretive methods of modern sociolinguistics and statistical analysis of spoken language in casual and institutional talks. Several papers focus on a semantic or syntactic analysis of talk-in-interaction by trying to show how interlocutors use certain lexical, grammatical, syntactic and multimodal or prosodic means for the management of interaction in performing specific actions, genres and displaying negotiations of epistemic, evidential or evaluative stances. The volume is rounded out by contributions to the theory of politeness where strategies of face-work in casual as well as institutional discourse are analyzed, or in which social tasks entertained by code-switching and language alternation within the interaction of bilinguals are discussed.
Minimalism and Beyond
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teod... more Minimalism and Beyond
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teodora Radeva-Bork and Lilia Schürcks
Universität Potsdam / Indiana University, Bloomington
Hardbound – Forthcoming
ISBN 9789027208286 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
Title: Empty Categories in Slavic Languages. An Analysis of Empty Subjects and Empty Objects with... more Title: Empty Categories in Slavic Languages. An Analysis of Empty Subjects and Empty Objects within the Government-Binding-Framework.
Summary:
The central challenge for modern linguistic theory is to develop a model of Universal Grammar (hence, UG) that is, on the one hand, general enough to capture the universal features of natural languages, and on the other flexible enough to account for the variation among languages that is in fact observed. Moreover, insofar as UG is assumed to be part of the innate human endowment, the problem of linguistic variation becomes crucially related to the logical problem of how linguistic variation can be mastered by the language learner. One important conceptualization of this task is a parametric theory of linguistic variation which is designed to provide both a theory of linguistic typology and comparison as well as a theory of language acquisition.
The following paper is concerned with the syntax of Slavic clitics, drawing relevant generalizati... more The following paper is concerned with the syntax of Slavic clitics, drawing relevant generalizations across the array of West and South Slavic languages. The study concentrates on two contemporarily discussed ap- proaches of generative grammar, the Minimalist Program (MP) and the Optimality Theory (OT). Section 1 provides a short introduction, section 2 gives some basic facts on the phonological and prosodie require- ments of the grammar of clitics, section 3 is concerned with the morphosyntax of two types of clitics (simple and special clitics), whereas section 4 summarizes the Slavic data of different clitic classes. In section 5 some derivational approaches of a formal analysis of clitics in generative grammar are demonstrated. Section 6 presents an alternative analysis of clitics based on some recent results of the OT.
This chapter provides a description of generative syntax as a discipline within Slavic linguistic... more This chapter provides a description of generative syntax as a discipline within Slavic linguistic research from a theoretical, methodological and scientific-historical viewpoint, including those descriptive models and theoretical approaches which are preferred in Slavic generative linguistics working within the Principles and Parameters framework (Chomsky 1995 passim). A general comprehensive description of generative syntax, syntactic levels and methods of description is followed by a short overview of the current state of the art and the goals and targets of syntactic theory and the description of some syntactically relevant categories (such as negation, see also Błaszczak in this volume, and clitics, see Franks) resulting from my own research on word order (see also Kosta/Schürcks on Word Order, Art. 63, in this volume). In chapter 2, I will introduce some basic notions of the Minimalist framework. I will concentrate on the question of how syntactic levels have to be represented ...
In: Witkoś, J. & S. Jaworski (eds.), New Insights into Slavic Linguistics. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 205- 220.
Ever since the pioneering work of John “Haj” Ross on “Inner Islands” in English (Ross 1984), it i... more Ever since the pioneering work of John “Haj” Ross on “Inner Islands” in English (Ross 1984), it is not quite clear how to explain facts such as the followings: (1) This mist can’t last, which Morpho and Hoppy (don’t) realize. (2) This mist can’t last, as Morpho and Hoppy (*don’t) realize. Whereas in (1) the embedded clause is introduced by the relative pronoun which that does seem to license a negation of the embedded clause, example (2) is a case of a restriction of negation in an as-clause. Why is this so? Are we facing an idiosyncratic English restriction or is there a Principle of UG that has to do with the structure of such clauses involved? In order to find an answer to this puzzling and challenging question, we shall analyze which- and as-clauses in Czech and German and we will also try to show that similar restrictions as in English, German and Czech can be found in Spanish, too.
his collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framewor... more his collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framework – Radical Minimalism. The development of such a framework, with a strong basis on mathematics and physics, was born out of the conviction that, if language is really a natural object, there is no a priori reason to study it in isolation from other natural systems. On the other hand, this work represents a significant simplification of the theory of displacement and so-called «empty categories» within the latest development of Chomsky’s Strong Minimalist Hypothesis, applying Occam’s razor and fulfilling Lakatos’ requirements for scientific evolution. Radical Minimalism thus accounts not only for the phenomena orthodox minimalism has explanations for, but also for empirical problems that have not yet been taken into consideration.
ABSTRACT The paper offers a description of Slavic word order systems from the viewpoint of formal... more ABSTRACT The paper offers a description of Slavic word order systems from the viewpoint of formal typology based on notions such as syntactic type, parametric settings, basic and derived order, linearization constraints, constituency, movement, spell-out, cliticity, clitic clusters, syntax-prosody interface, and grammaticalization.The aim is to classify Slavic word order systems with clitics on the basis of syntactic constraints without dependence on hypotheses about language-specific properties of prosodically deficient elements and to provide a viable typological classification, which can be verified by data from other world’s languages.
This contribution is organized as follows: in section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Pr... more This contribution is organized as follows: in section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English as compared to Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head movement. In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way. I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformu-lated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990:chap-ter 2). Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of syntactic representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic structure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.
Summary:
This contribution is organized as follows: In section 1, I propose a formulation of the... more Summary:
This contribution is organized as follows: In section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English, as compare dto Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head-Movement. In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way. I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformulated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990: chapter 2). Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic strucure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.
Chapter 6 of: In: Peter Kosta, Leere Kategorien in den nordslavischen Sprachen. Zur Analyse leere... more Chapter 6 of: In: Peter Kosta, Leere Kategorien in den nordslavischen Sprachen. Zur Analyse leerer Subjekte und Objekte in der Rektions-Bindungs-Theorie, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (Habil-Schrift, 679 S.).
In: Peter Kosta, Linguistische Studien zur Translation literarischer Texte (München: Sagner, 1986... more In: Peter Kosta, Linguistische Studien zur Translation literarischer Texte (München: Sagner, 1986 - Diss.). Leere Kategorien in den nordslavischen Sprachen. Zur Analyse leerer Subjekte und Objekte in der Rektions-Bindungs-Theorie, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (Habil-Schrift, 679 S.).
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This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them with the terms “language mixing”, “interference” and “language change” from my previous work on the translation of Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. While the latter terms are pure ction – a kind of wordplay, taken from the real situation one hundred years ago in the multinational Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – the former terms are crucial for the present study of contemporary verbal interaction among young people in Berlin and Brandenburg. e analysis concentrates on the DFG Urban Voices project, which was conducted at six di erent locations in Germany, in cooperation with the State University of Saint Petersburg, collecting data on everyday speech among Russian immigrants in German cities. e analysis concludes that the mixing of languages is not a deviation from a norm, but rather the default case, and thus should be considered a new eld of research. Since Russian students use these forms of conversation not only among themselves but also with their parents and friends, this conversational style can become a new, broader form of conversation and trigger a language change in Russian-speaking interlocutors abroad.
Keywords: language shi , language change, code-mixing, code-switching, conversational analysis, multilingualism, bilingualism, Russian migrants, urban styles
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teodora Radeva-Bork and Lilia Schürcks
Universität Potsdam / Indiana University, Bloomington
Hardbound – Forthcoming
ISBN 9789027208286 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
e-Book – Forthcoming Ordering information
ISBN 9789027270061 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
The Minimalist Program is just that, a “program.” It is a challenge for syntacticians to reexamine the constructs of their models and ask what is minimally needed in order to accomplish the essential task of syntax – interfacing between form and meaning. This volume pushes Minimalism to its empirical and theoretical limits, and brings together some of the most innovative and radical ideas to have emerged in the attempt to reduce Universal Grammar to the bare output conditions imposed by these conceptually necessary interfaces. The contributors include both leading theoreticians and well-known practitioners of minimalism; the papers thus both respond to broad questions about the nature of human language and the architecture of grammar, and provide careful analyses of specific linguistic problems. Overarching issues of syntactic computation are considered, such as the role of formal features, the mechanics of movement and the property of displacement, the construction of words and phrases, the nature of Spell-Out, and, more generally, the forces driving operations. The volume has the potential to reach a wide audience, favoring inter-theoretical debate with a concise state-of-the-art panorama on Minimalism and advances about its future developments.
[Language Faculty and Beyond, 11] Expected September 2014. vi, 414 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production | © John Benjamins
Summary:
The central challenge for modern linguistic theory is to develop a model of Universal Grammar (hence, UG) that is, on the one hand, general enough to capture the universal features of natural languages, and on the other flexible enough to account for the variation among languages that is in fact observed. Moreover, insofar as UG is assumed to be part of the innate human endowment, the problem of linguistic variation becomes crucially related to the logical problem of how linguistic variation can be mastered by the language learner. One important conceptualization of this task is a parametric theory of linguistic variation which is designed to provide both a theory of linguistic typology and comparison as well as a theory of language acquisition.
For more cf. the abstract page 619 passim.
This paper takes up the notions of code-switching and code-mixing and compares them with the terms “language mixing”, “interference” and “language change” from my previous work on the translation of Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. While the latter terms are pure ction – a kind of wordplay, taken from the real situation one hundred years ago in the multinational Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – the former terms are crucial for the present study of contemporary verbal interaction among young people in Berlin and Brandenburg. e analysis concentrates on the DFG Urban Voices project, which was conducted at six di erent locations in Germany, in cooperation with the State University of Saint Petersburg, collecting data on everyday speech among Russian immigrants in German cities. e analysis concludes that the mixing of languages is not a deviation from a norm, but rather the default case, and thus should be considered a new eld of research. Since Russian students use these forms of conversation not only among themselves but also with their parents and friends, this conversational style can become a new, broader form of conversation and trigger a language change in Russian-speaking interlocutors abroad.
Keywords: language shi , language change, code-mixing, code-switching, conversational analysis, multilingualism, bilingualism, Russian migrants, urban styles
Radicalizing the Interfaces
Edited by Peter Kosta, Steven L. Franks, Teodora Radeva-Bork and Lilia Schürcks
Universität Potsdam / Indiana University, Bloomington
Hardbound – Forthcoming
ISBN 9789027208286 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
e-Book – Forthcoming Ordering information
ISBN 9789027270061 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00
The Minimalist Program is just that, a “program.” It is a challenge for syntacticians to reexamine the constructs of their models and ask what is minimally needed in order to accomplish the essential task of syntax – interfacing between form and meaning. This volume pushes Minimalism to its empirical and theoretical limits, and brings together some of the most innovative and radical ideas to have emerged in the attempt to reduce Universal Grammar to the bare output conditions imposed by these conceptually necessary interfaces. The contributors include both leading theoreticians and well-known practitioners of minimalism; the papers thus both respond to broad questions about the nature of human language and the architecture of grammar, and provide careful analyses of specific linguistic problems. Overarching issues of syntactic computation are considered, such as the role of formal features, the mechanics of movement and the property of displacement, the construction of words and phrases, the nature of Spell-Out, and, more generally, the forces driving operations. The volume has the potential to reach a wide audience, favoring inter-theoretical debate with a concise state-of-the-art panorama on Minimalism and advances about its future developments.
[Language Faculty and Beyond, 11] Expected September 2014. vi, 414 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production | © John Benjamins
Summary:
The central challenge for modern linguistic theory is to develop a model of Universal Grammar (hence, UG) that is, on the one hand, general enough to capture the universal features of natural languages, and on the other flexible enough to account for the variation among languages that is in fact observed. Moreover, insofar as UG is assumed to be part of the innate human endowment, the problem of linguistic variation becomes crucially related to the logical problem of how linguistic variation can be mastered by the language learner. One important conceptualization of this task is a parametric theory of linguistic variation which is designed to provide both a theory of linguistic typology and comparison as well as a theory of language acquisition.
For more cf. the abstract page 619 passim.
This contribution is organized as follows: In section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English, as compare dto Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head-Movement.
In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way.
I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformulated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990: chapter 2).
Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic strucure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.
Keywords: Anti-Caausatives, Argument-Structure-Ordering Principle, Causative Alternation (CAL), Distributed Morphology (DM), Event Semantics, Lexical Functional Grammar (LF), Mental Lexicon, Minimalist Program (MP), Montague Grammar, Unaccusatives, Thematic Hierarchy, Mirror Principle, Functional Hierarchy, Universal Grammar (UG).