This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the conceptual structure of pluractionality, a b... more This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the conceptual structure of pluractionality, a bundle of functions denoting the plurality of events. By conducting a multidimensional scaling analysis on 366 marking strategies from the 183-language sample in Mattiola, Simone (2019. Typology of pluractional constructions in the languages of the world. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins), a spatial model is presented showing the semantic distance of pluractional functions as Euclidean distance. This quantitatively induced conceptual space differs in some way from the space proposed by Mattiola (2019) comprising data from only a small fraction of the sample. The analysis reveals that the conceptual space could be interpreted as defined by two prominent dimensions: a vertical dimension that represents the boundedness of events and a horizontal dimension that represents participant-oriented versus event-oriented plurality.
In Athabascan languages, verbal morphological structure does not follow the cross-linguistically ... more In Athabascan languages, verbal morphological structure does not follow the cross-linguistically more common and stable ‘layered’ order: derivational and lexical affixes are not necessarily closer to the stem than inflectional affixes. While the emergence of the Athabascan order is understandable through different layers of grammaticalization (Mithun 2011), the question of why this order is relatively stable in the language family has not yet been satisfactorily answered. The distributional properties of cognate Athabascan morphemes reveal historical tendencies for fusion and reordering that suggest that affixes remain in or change their position depending on the semantic relevance to other affixes, not necessarily to the stem alone, as Bybee’s (1985) morphological theory would predict. An additional factor for the stability of non-layered structure of morphemes is the high degree of semantic generality found in affixes between the stem and other lexical and derivational affixes.
The lexical nature of Ket agreement patterns makes it difficult to describe them based on grammat... more The lexical nature of Ket agreement patterns makes it difficult to describe them based on grammatical relations and morphosyntactic alignment.
The Ket language of Siberia defies the theory of grammatical relation setting.
Talk held at StuT... more The Ket language of Siberia defies the theory of grammatical relation setting.
Talk held at StuTS in Hamburg (November 19-23 2014)
This presentation introduces an integrated fusional-agglutinative glossing convention for annotat... more This presentation introduces an integrated fusional-agglutinative glossing convention for annotating the Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives, featuring over 10,000 Diné words. Designed for accessibility to educators and scholars, the approach adheres to three principles: 1) Do not change the shape of morphs while segmenting; 2) Keep number of categories and morphs in a manageable range, and do not merge or split them; and 3) Segment as much as possible, assign as much meaning as possible.
This conference paper illustrates how the typologically rare 'non-layered' morpheme structure in ... more This conference paper illustrates how the typologically rare 'non-layered' morpheme structure in Athabascan languages is diachronically stabilized by inter-morphemic relations of semantic relevance and generality.
In this paper I propose an argument based on prosody for why unpredictable argument marking is to... more In this paper I propose an argument based on prosody for why unpredictable argument marking is tolerated in the verbal morphology of Ket.
This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the conceptual structure of pluractionality, a b... more This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the conceptual structure of pluractionality, a bundle of functions denoting the plurality of events. By conducting a multidimensional scaling analysis on 366 marking strategies from the 183-language sample in Mattiola, Simone (2019. Typology of pluractional constructions in the languages of the world. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins), a spatial model is presented showing the semantic distance of pluractional functions as Euclidean distance. This quantitatively induced conceptual space differs in some way from the space proposed by Mattiola (2019) comprising data from only a small fraction of the sample. The analysis reveals that the conceptual space could be interpreted as defined by two prominent dimensions: a vertical dimension that represents the boundedness of events and a horizontal dimension that represents participant-oriented versus event-oriented plurality.
In Athabascan languages, verbal morphological structure does not follow the cross-linguistically ... more In Athabascan languages, verbal morphological structure does not follow the cross-linguistically more common and stable ‘layered’ order: derivational and lexical affixes are not necessarily closer to the stem than inflectional affixes. While the emergence of the Athabascan order is understandable through different layers of grammaticalization (Mithun 2011), the question of why this order is relatively stable in the language family has not yet been satisfactorily answered. The distributional properties of cognate Athabascan morphemes reveal historical tendencies for fusion and reordering that suggest that affixes remain in or change their position depending on the semantic relevance to other affixes, not necessarily to the stem alone, as Bybee’s (1985) morphological theory would predict. An additional factor for the stability of non-layered structure of morphemes is the high degree of semantic generality found in affixes between the stem and other lexical and derivational affixes.
The lexical nature of Ket agreement patterns makes it difficult to describe them based on grammat... more The lexical nature of Ket agreement patterns makes it difficult to describe them based on grammatical relations and morphosyntactic alignment.
The Ket language of Siberia defies the theory of grammatical relation setting.
Talk held at StuT... more The Ket language of Siberia defies the theory of grammatical relation setting.
Talk held at StuTS in Hamburg (November 19-23 2014)
This presentation introduces an integrated fusional-agglutinative glossing convention for annotat... more This presentation introduces an integrated fusional-agglutinative glossing convention for annotating the Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives, featuring over 10,000 Diné words. Designed for accessibility to educators and scholars, the approach adheres to three principles: 1) Do not change the shape of morphs while segmenting; 2) Keep number of categories and morphs in a manageable range, and do not merge or split them; and 3) Segment as much as possible, assign as much meaning as possible.
This conference paper illustrates how the typologically rare 'non-layered' morpheme structure in ... more This conference paper illustrates how the typologically rare 'non-layered' morpheme structure in Athabascan languages is diachronically stabilized by inter-morphemic relations of semantic relevance and generality.
In this paper I propose an argument based on prosody for why unpredictable argument marking is to... more In this paper I propose an argument based on prosody for why unpredictable argument marking is tolerated in the verbal morphology of Ket.
An approach to second position clitics unifying semantic and formal properties under a usage-base... more An approach to second position clitics unifying semantic and formal properties under a usage-based functionalist framework.
proper names in Mapudungun are considered by differential object marking, but not by co-argument ... more proper names in Mapudungun are considered by differential object marking, but not by co-argument sensitive marking.
This presentation contrasts two different members of the proposed Na-Dené-Yeniseian family (Navaj... more This presentation contrasts two different members of the proposed Na-Dené-Yeniseian family (Navajo, Ket) and focuses on the similarities and differences that show up in the behavior of inflectional morphemes. The continuum of inflection and derivation/grammar and lexicon is addressed by the property of "thematicity" that emerges when grammatical and lexical morphemes constructionalize. The genetical question is not answered here, but the conclusions that arise by comparing these two languages could also be discussed in historical linguistics, namely, why and how thematicity emerges.
Stable complexity: verbal inflection in prominent and frequent environments environments, 2023
Despite presenting challenges for speakers, complex linguistic features such as lexically conditi... more Despite presenting challenges for speakers, complex linguistic features such as lexically conditioned inflection (LCI) persist across different languages. LCI forms part of not entirely predictable paradigms which require lexeme-specific knowledge to master. Moreover, LCI remains one of the oldest morphological phenomena in certain languages. Previous research has linked the persistence of such complexity to language-external factors like geographic and social circumstances of speech communities.
This dissertation delves into the question whether language-internal properties are associated with the distribution of inflectional complexity. LCI is compared with other inflectional paradigms across 41 genetically and geographically distant languages. The study shows that LCI is mostly found in phonologically prominent syllables and obligatory paradigms, suggesting that its persistence is attributable to the interaction of different levels of language structure. These findings underscore the relevance for usage-based theories to integrate structural effects into the factors that stabilize morphological complexity.
Uploads
Talk held at StuTS in Hamburg (November 19-23 2014)
Talk held at StuTS in Hamburg (November 19-23 2014)
This dissertation delves into the question whether language-internal properties are associated with the distribution of inflectional complexity. LCI is compared with other inflectional paradigms across 41 genetically and geographically distant languages. The study shows that LCI is mostly found in phonologically prominent syllables and obligatory paradigms, suggesting that its persistence is attributable to the interaction of different levels of language structure. These findings underscore the relevance for usage-based theories to integrate structural effects into the factors that stabilize morphological complexity.