Grammatical category

It has often been claimed on the basis of discussions of referential or nominal metonymies that, unlike metaphor, metonymy has hardly any impact on grammar. The purpose of the present volume has been twofold. On the one hand, I have attempted to offer evidence against the above tacit assumption, i.e. to deliver further evidence of the involvement of metonymy in an intricate network of grammatical subsystems, not only in the nominal system (which means that other word classes can be the locus of metonymyic mappings, too). The data adduced in the volume support the view expressed in Barcelona (2002) that metonymy is wide-spread, which is true in grammar, too. Not only lexical meaning is affected, but also grammatical one, i.e. the value of lexemes for certain grammatical categories is affected in the course of metonymic mappings. I have shown, for example, that an inherently mass, non-count noun is recategorized as a count one due to metonymy, it is not only that the relationships between nouns in the number system change— this often goes hand in hand with the change of the range of determiners that the noun or nouns in question will accept. Similarly, when a proper noun is recategorized as a common one due to a chain of metonymies and metaphors, it not only takes determiners it is otherwise not found with, but it also often becomes perfectly countable and can now be used in the plural. All such, more or less regular, alternations in the grammatical behaviour of such sets of nouns can then considered to be manifestations of grammatical polysemy.Because most recent cognitive linguistic research on metonymy has been concerned with uncovering inferential processes underlying it as well as with stressing its conceptual nature and thus refuting the classical view stipulating that it is just a matter of transfer of lexical meaning, the focus has always been mainly on its referential nature, many of its other aspects receiving hardly any attention. Among these overlooked aspects of metonymy, there are not only numerous significant grammatical phenomena but also pragmatic ones, often interwoven with each other and with metonymy’ s lexical aspects. A second, more specific, objective has been to demonstrate the interaction of conceptual metonymy interacts with metaphor and other cognitive operations in a number of ways in shaping the grammatical systems. The results of the case studies presented in the three central chapters of the volume (6-8) seem to indicate that metonymy often precedes metaphor. It is also clear from my data metonymy is different from metaphor in that it affects whole grammatical categories or constructions (or constructions types) rather than just individual items. What is more, I have demonstrated that metonymy can work in chains and tiers, i.e. that grammatical phenomena may be motivated by a series of metonymic mappings, occasionally interspersed with other cognitive processes. If we recognize, on the basis of evidence adduced in the present volume, that metonymy has an important regulating or motivating role in grammar, we might think that the relation between metonymy and grammar is a case of one-way traffix because the former has been shown to trigger certain phenomena in grammar in the sense of making them possible or sometimes even necessary, grammar being infinitely plastic and therefore easily formed by metonymic processes. This is, however, a grossly simplified way of looking at things. While I have indeed shown here that metonymy is a far more ubiquitous and pervasive cognitive process than is generally thought, and that it permeates not only the lexicon, but the grammatical system as well, it would be worthwhile in future research to go the opposite direction and probe the limits of metonymy in grammar. In other words, we should also try to establish whether grammatical factors play a role in constraining the application of various types of metonymy.

In virtù dell'analisi dei testi linguistici di Benedetto Varchi, rimasti manoscritti fino all'Otto e al Novecento, si individuano le tappe in cui, in concomitanza con gli studi di testi aristotelici (la logica al primo posto), nell'autore dell'«Ercolano» prendevano corpo una solida definizione della natura del linguaggio e la determinazione delle strutture di una lingua. Applicata alla situazione linguistica coeva, l’analisi scaturita dallo studio delle lingue e dei testi classici ha portato Varchi a riflettere sulla complessità della lingua volgare e dei suoi registri, nonché a reinterpretare le teorie di Pietro Bembo.
Il punto di svolta nella formazione del pensiero linguistico varchiano è rappresentato dagli studi filosofici all’Università di Padova (1537-1541) e dalla riflessione sulla «Poetica», sulla poesia e sui generi letterari all’interno dell’Accademia degli Infiammati (1540-41). Cruciale (si sottolinea) è stato il momento degli interventi nel cenacolo patavino di Lombardi e di Maggi che leggevano la «Poetica». Il pensiero linguistico di Varchi che aveva preso avvio dal passo del «De interpretatione» di Aristotele (16a 3-4) si consolidava in forza della lettura del capitolo linguistico della «Poetica», commentato da Vincenzo Maggi, il quale nell’"explanatio" del brano aveva accentuato il criterio scrupolosamente grammaticale dell’esame condotto dal filosofo greco. Negli scritti di Varchi, che risalgono a quel periodo, molto prima dell'«Ercolano» (grammatiche del latino e del toscano, nonché gli abbozzi di un nuovo alfabeto per il volgare), si osserva una coerenza teorica nel porre in rilievo il fatto che le lingue sono prima di tutto parlate e l’uso corretto della lingua volgare si fonda sulla capacità di ben parlare. Da questo presupposto il Varchi muove nella sua teorrizzazione sul linguaggio, sul volgare letterario e sulla lingua d’uso.

Cilj je rada Prezentska osnova u opisu hrvatskih glagolskih vrsta i razreda u glagola za izražavanje emocija prikupljanje svih potvrđenih glagola za izražavanje emocija hrvatskoga jezika unutar jednog rada i njihovo razvrstavanje prema pravilima pojedinih gramatika o glagolskim vrstama i razredima. Nastojalo se uvidjeti postoji li kakva leksička i morfološka povezanost u izražavanju ugodnih i neugodnih emocija, s osvrtom na kognitivnu lingvistiku.
Rad je koncipiran kao deskriptivni pragmatički priručnik koji kroz sinkroniju prikazuje razvrstavanje svih glagola za izražavanje emocija hrvatskoga jezika prema pojedinim gramatikama.

Cilj je rada Prezentska osnova u opisu hrvatskih glagolskih vrsta i razreda u glagola za izražavanje emocija prikupljanje svih potvrđenih glagola za izražavanje emocija hrvatskoga jezika unutar jednog rada i njihovo razvrstavanje prema pravilima pojedinih gramatika o glagolskim vrstama i razredima. Nastojalo se uvidjeti postoji li kakva leksicka i morfoloska povezanost u izražavanju ugodnih i neugodnih emocija, s osvrtom na kognitivnu lingvistiku. Rad je koncipiran kao deskriptivni pragmaticki prirucnik koji kroz sinkroniju prikazuje razvrstavanje svih glagola za izražavanje emocija hrvatskoga jezika prema pojedinim gramatikama. Među literaturom koja se bavi tematikom emocija, izabrana je ona koja cjelovito opisuje cijeli dijapazon emocionalnih stanja, a to je ona Zorana Milivojevica: Emocije. Iz njegove knjige preuzeti su termini koji kao vrsti rijeci pripadaju imenicama. Tim imenicama su zatim pronađeni glagolski ekvivalenti koji izražavaju emocije i kojima je određena vrijednost:...

Determination of the grammatical category is one of the problems faced by the lexicographers. Multifunctional words -words that show characteristics of more than one word class- make this task more difficult. Multiplicity of the function may be the result of ambiguity of lexical categories and interrelationship between them. Lakoff (1986) believes category membership is a matter of degree and words can be more or less member of a category. Neustupny (1966) speaks of marginal elements in each class that belong to the given class, but realize functions proper to another. According to Neustupny, these words are divided into two groups: peripheral elements, those which are characterized by features of another class but still belong to the given class, and the boundary elements which is not clear whether they belong to the given or to the opposite class (Balterio, 2007, p. 71). Some processes, such as ellipsis, polysemy and conversion can also cause that words to perform different functions. However, each of these processes has a different effect on the words that distinguishing these processes is not always easy. Some such as conversion change the lexical category of the word while the others such as ellipsis are a kind of syntactic simplification that occur only in certain circumstances. However, what should be considered in lexicography and recording lexical entries is the process of word formation that creates new words or change the grammatical category of the already- existing words. It is crucial to note that the membership of a word in another word-class is possible only if it can accept all the functions and behaviors of that word-class and can appear in all possible positions for that word-class. Therefore, different criteria, syntactic, semantic and morphologic, should be regarded. Syntactically, the word must be able to appear in all possible positions and functions for the new category. Morphologically, it must be able to accept all inflectional affixes of the new category. Semantically, the meaning of the word in the new category should be related to its meaning in the previous category or be defined on it. To distinguish ellipsis, Adams (1973, p. 19) suggests a semantic specification criterion. He believes when an adjectival noun refers to a specific and limited semantic field, what happens is the process of shortening or ellipsis that is a kind of syntactic simplification and not a word formation process such as conversion. However, sometimes the words derived from the processes such as ellipsis, as a result of extensive use by speakers, are entirely independent and accepted in the new category. In such a case, recording both lexical categories for these words is recommended. Finally, diachronic and synchronic criteria are used in distinguishing homonymy, polysemy and conversion. Lyons (1995, p. 58) and Huddleston (1993, p. 105) suggest the etymological and semantical criteria for differentiating between homonymy and polysemy. Polysemous words are said to be semantically related and have the same etymology, but homonymous pairs are said to be semantically unrelated and have different etymological sources. In addition, part of speech for the polysemous words is the same, but for the homonymous words can be the same or different. Converted words, such polysemous pairs have the same etymology and different but related meanings. The difference between these two is part of speech: converted words have different parts of speech but part of speech of the polysemous words is the same. In this research, some problems of lexicographers in this field have been examined and attempts have been made to find solution to overcome them. To achieve this aim, multifunctional words from a dictionary (Sokhan) were collected and studied. Statistical society of this research included all words listed in this dictionary, among them multifunctional words were picked as the sample. The research method was description and content analysis. Data in this research were indexed using Microsoft Excel 2010. Recorded items were 2459 words divided in different groups according to the recorded grammatical categories. The group of adjective-noun that is studied in this research was the biggest one with 1172 words. The members of this group semantically referred to different concepts, so were divided into semantic subcategories such as color terms, numbers terms, curses and offensive terms (which were nouns referring to the animals or unpleasant things or adjectives with negative connotation), words referred to nationality or ethnicity, profession terms and sundry words (which referred to various concepts that could not be included in one group). These data were analyzed in an interpretive way. Results showed numbers and colors are only adjectives the application of which as their name is the result of the anaphoric ellipsis and cannot be considered multifunctional words. Profession terms, although defined in this dictionary as members of adjective-noun group, do not show any adjectival behaviors. These words in another dictionary (Farsi-e-Emrouz) are only defined as noun. Ethnic terms morphologically simple or derived both are defined as adjective-noun in this dictionary. However, the simple ones are only noun and the derived ones are adjectives which are made by adding suffix "-I" to the end of simple ones. These adjectives can be used as nouns to refer to people or languages, so can be considered multifunctional words.  Besides, offensive terms defined in this dictionary as both adjective and noun are only nouns or adjectives which are metaphorically used to address people. Finally, members of the sundry group have undergone various processes such as ellipsis or polysemy. Functional changes of the words after ellipsis are not recorded in other dictionaries. As conclusion, most of the functional changes are the result of different phenomena some of which are only a kind of syntactic simplification and should be ignored by lexicographers.

Статья посвящена взаимодействию и иерархии грамматических категорий в языке гбан (< южные манде, Кот-д’Ивуар), а также в теоретическом плане.
В первой части рассматриваются зафиксированные в гбан случаи взаимодействия категорий между собой, а также с некоторыми периферийными единицами.
Вторая часть статьи посвящена проблеме иерархического обобщения взаимодействия грамматических категорий. Предлагается уточнение некоторых теоретических положений. В частности, вводится противопоставление симметричных и асимметричных случаев взаимодействия и даются определения более дробных типов взаимодействия, относимых к этим двум классам.
Предлагается  метод построения конкретно-языковых иерархий взаимодействующих категорий. Путём применения этого метода к данным гбан выявляется предполагаемая иерархия грамматических категорий этого языка.

This paper examines the interaction and the hierarchy of grammatical categories in Gban (< South Mande, Côte d’Ivoire), as well as from the theoretical perspective.
The first part describes the discovered cases of interaction of grammatical categories in Gban (among themselves and also with some peripheral elements).
The second part of the paper focuses on the question of how we can hierarchically generalize the interaction of grammatical categories. An elaboration of some theoretical points is made, including a proposed division between symmetrical and asymmetrical interaction (together with a characterization of which cases belong to which class.
A method is proposed to build language-specific hierarchies of grammatical categories. By applying this method to the data of Gban, a possible hierarchy of this language’s grammatical categories is established.