scholarly journals The system of processing verb inflection in Benson’s dictionary

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-232
Author(s):  
Sasa Marjanovic

From the perspective of the theory of lexicographic functions, this paper analyses in a metalexicographic manner the system of processing inflection data on the verbs of the Serbian language in M. Benson?s SerboCroatian-English Dictionary (BENSON 1993). The processing system is perceived through the prism of the needs of users whose native language is not Serbian in three situations: reception, production (which includes translation situations) and the situation in which the dictionary is used for gaining knowledge on verb inflection in the Serbian language. In the analysis of the dictionary, it has been noted that the processing system is made up of four lexicographic methods: 1) inflected forms of the verbs with a suppletive present base form and apophony in that base compared to the infinitive base form were included as headwords of particular dictionary entries with cross-references to the infinitive, but this was not done systematically and consistently; 2) as for the thematic verbs which are included in 36 separate accentual-conjugation types, type marks were provided with the verb, with cross-references to the introductory pages of the dictionary, where those marks were textually interpreted; 3) as for the thematic verbs which are not included in the aforementioned types, as well as all athematic verbs, inflection data were listed in the grammar section immediately after the headword; 4) for a smaller number of verbs, the model verb from which the inflection data should be analogically derived is listed in the dictionary entry itself. However, if a sound change in the present tense appears in verbs to which the third and fourth lexicographic method was applied, then a partial paradigm of the present tense in its full or shortened form was provided before the cross-reference to the typical verb in the form of a mark or a specific verb. The analysis showed that the first aforementioned lexicographic method meets the reception-related needs of the users of Benson?s dictionary. However, considering that it was not consistently applied, it does not satisfy those needs in all cases. The remaining three methods completely meet production-related needs, but it remains uncertain whether the applied methods are clear to the average user and, if so, to what extent. Therefore, the paper also offers a simplified version of Benson?s system of processing verb inflection, which would be more harmonized with the users? needs. However, Benson?s dictionary cannot serve as a handbook for gaining knowledge on verb inflection in the Serbian language, because the introductory pages and the grammatical appendix neither offer the rules on the formation of verb forms nor include complete paradigms of basic inflection types. The results of the analysis in the conclusion are applied to the draft of a new, proposed, French-Serbian dictionary, which additionally points to the advantages and shortcomings of applied lexicographic methods.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Felipe Guerrero-Beltran ◽  
Katarzyna I. Wojtylak

Abstract This paper aims to describe the morphosyntax and semantics of postpositions in Karijona, a Cariban language from Northwest Amazonia. The data, collected in the Karijona settlement of Puerto Nare (Colombia), were analyzed according to Basic Linguistic Theory and Cognitive Semantics. Like other Cariban languages, Karijona has a typologically unusual system of postpositions, which can cross-reference person and number, and form complex stems consisting of locative roots and locative suffixes. In terms of their semantics, the system distinguishes among spatial, relational, and ‘mental state’ postpositions. The first type encodes noun classification, orientation, and distance. While the second type has prototypical relational meanings, the third refers to cognitive and emotional states. This paper presents the first systematic description of the Karijona postpositions.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Jogilė Teresa Ramonaitė

This paper focuses on Lithuanian L2 verb forms that do not exist in the target language. The data is drawn from the Lithuanian L2 corpus and includes spontaneous speech data by 17 speakers of different L1s and all three acquisition varieties (pre-basic, basic and post-basic). The non-existent verb forms make only a small part of the overall verb forms used, however, when distinguished from occasional mistakes, the forms that indicate grammatical development that are analysed show notable systematicity among different speakers. Five distinct and most frequent formants are analyzed in detail, namely -u, -a, -o, -(i)au, ė, that are used by several speakers with seemingly similar function. The analysis reveals specific functions and discusses different factors that have an effect on the acquisition of these formants. In many cases frequency is an important factor, however, with formants -u and -ė transparency and regularity seem to have a stronger effect and thus facilitate the acquisition. Formant -a, being nearly the most common and extremely multifunctional (i.e. rather unmarked), is incorporated into the system firstly as part of the base form and holds this position till a very advanced stage of Lithuanian L2 acquisition. Verb stem type also has an effect with the regularly suffixed verbs being acquired the easiest, while the mixed type and the primary ones cause many difficulties for the speakers. Overall, the systematicity discovered shows the creative structuring of the interlanguage that only occurs more actively in the post-basic variety of acquisition.


Author(s):  
Andriy Botsman ◽  
Olga Dmytruk ◽  
Tamara Kozlovska

The stages that encompass the future tense development are singled out as discrete phenomena within the process of the Germanic language development. The Gothic verb system can serve as the background for the investigation of the tense transformations in question. The difficulties of tense examination in the Old Germanic languages were connected with some conceptions about the Indo-Iranian and Greek languages that used to dominate in the scientific circles for a long time. Those conceptions were based on Latin and Greek patterns and postulated the use of present, past and future tenses in all Indo-European languages. The above conceptions were ruined when the study of Tokharian and Hittite demonstrated the use of the present tense for the description of future actions. The idea of losing “the protolanguage inheritance” was proved wrong, and it was incorrect to transfer the complex tense system of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to other Proto-Indo-European languages. The examination of the tense differentiation in Gothic (as the main source of the Old Germanic language) demonstrates that the Gothic infinitive functioned as a no-particular-time unit, while personal verb forms were involved in performing tense functions. The Gothic present tense verbs represented present and future tenses and no-particular-time phenomena. Some periphrastic forms containing preterite-present verbs with the infinitive occurred sporadically. The periphrastic forms correlated with Greek and Latin patterns of the same future tense meaning. The periphrastic future forms in Gothic often contained some modal shades of meaning. The Gothic present tense functioned as a colony-forming archi-unit and a pluripotential (temporal) precursor. The periphrastic Gothic future forms are recognised as a monopotential (temporal) precursor with some modal meaning. The key research method used in the present article is the comparative historical method. The authors viewed it as the most reliable and appropriate for the study of tense forms.


1979 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Sprigg
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  

Tibetan orthography looks phonetically challenging, to say the least; and one may well wonder whether such tongue-twisting combinations as the brj of brjes, the blt- of bltas, or the bst- of bstan ever did twist a Tibetan tongue, or whether the significance of these and other such orthographic forms might not have been morphophonemic in origin, with the letters r, l, and s in the syllable initial of forms such as these serving to associate these past-tense forms lexically with their corresponding present-tense forms; e.g. Viewed in relation to Tibetan orthography the past-tense forms of a class of verbs in the Golok dialect seem to support this hypothesis. Table 1, below, contains a number of examples of Golok verbs in their past-tense and present-tense forms to illustrate a type of phonological analysis suited to that view of the r syllable-initial unit in the Golok examples, and, indirectly, in the WT examples too (the symbols b and b will be accounted for in section (B) below).


2014 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEWIS FALLIS

In this article I claim that the Greek philosopher Xenophon, in the third book of his Memorabilia, catalogues six—and perhaps the six—essential and enduring forms of human ambition. Most treatments of ambition depict the phenomenon as monolithic; or, at best, as dichotomous. That is, ambition is understood as a single trait or passion shared by all ambitious people, its manifestations differing only according to circumstance; or, alternatively, as a trait or passion with one good (or high) form and one bad (or base) form. Little attention is paid to an enterprise of cataloguing various types of human beings as embodying distinct forms of ambition, forms which a political community must tolerate or encourage, channel or confront, in different ways. This enterprise is best carried out through the dialectical approach, in which the personality of a particular interlocutor emerges in light of, and in response to, Socratic scrutiny.


2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Zonneveld

This article examines the arguments for, and rejects, the proposal by Ackema and Neeleman (2003) that the behavior of the Dutch 2nd person singular pronoun jij in inverted structures should be explained as morphosyntactic allomorphy, conditioned by “initial” prosodic phrasing prior to Spell-Out. First, by neutralizing (under inversion) the distinction between 2sg. and 1sg. present tense verb forms, the proposal makes an incorrect prediction for a well-known class of “strong” verbs. Second, “initial” prosody does not appear to condition the process. Benmamoun and Lorimer's (2006) “overapplication” data for this phenomenon are shown to result from an incorrect interpretation of “d-weakening” verbs.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Klaus Laalo

This paper is a preliminary overview of the early acquisition of verb inflection in Finnish. The analysis of the first verb forms concentrates on two children, but background material from other children is also used. The analysis of the first miniparadigms concentrates on one girl (Tuulikki).  


Author(s):  
Olga N. Morozova ◽  
◽  
Svetlana V. Androsova ◽  

Imperative sentences in Evenki and Orochon are undoubtedly a challenging issue of their grammar and phonetics. The aspects, on which researchers' opinions diverge, include grammar tense, neutral and inverted word order and prosodic arrangement of the sentences. It is the only type of sentences with the verb in sentences-initial position. Among 14 imperative verb forms (they change in 2 tenses with varying names, 3 persons and 2 numbers; some of them have inclusive and exclusive forms), 2nd-person forms in the Present Tense are characterized by the highest frequency of occurrence. This paper reports the results of an acoustic study of pitch movement in Evenki and Orochon imperative sentences depending on the number of words, syllables and the word order. The following results were obtained. In the Evenki material, two- and three-word syntagmas were characterized mostly by rise-fall pitch pattern while one-word syntagmas could have both rise-fall and fall patterns. Four-syllable-one word syntagmas' pattern was pitch declination while two- and three-syllable-one-word syntagmas could have both rise-fall and declination patterns with similar frequency of occurrence...


2004 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
Natalia Vladimirovna Gagarina ◽  
Dagmar Bittner

The study examines the hypotheses that the acquisition of the finite verb is an indispensable and linking constituent of the development of SVO utterances. Four apparently separate or at least separable processes are analysed over 6 months in one Russian and one German child: a) the emergence of verbs in the child’s utterances, b) the occurrence of correctly inflected (finite) verb forms, c) the development of multi-component utterances containing a verb, and c) the emergence of (potential) subjects and objects. Russian and German exhibit rich verb morphology, and in both languages finiteness is strongly correlated with inflectional categories like person, number and tense. With both children we find a correlation in the temporal order of these four processes and – what is more relevant for our study – a dependency of a certain development on the utterance level on the emergence of finite verbs. Further, our investigation shows that language-specific development comes in to play already when children start to acquire verb inflection and becomes more contrastive when we observe the onset of the production of the SVO utterances.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Amer Fael Balhaf

This paper attempts to introduce a linguist who didn’t obtain the fame and fortune, Rafeea Bin Salamh Alabdi, known as (Damath), the companion and the narrator of Abu Obaidah Muammar bin Almuthanna; from whom he narrated and learned the language, events, history, and genealogy, by means of narrating on one hand, and through writing down his books on the other one. This study consists of three sections, introduction and a conclusion. The first section is about Damath: his name, nickname, surname, pedigree, his relationship with Abu Obaidah, his features, rank and then his death. The second section is about his narrations (topics of his narrations, his references, quotations and their linguistic values). The third section is about a grammatical issue linked to implied (ān) with the present tense preceded by fa, waw or Aw focusing on the opinions of the grammarians about the problem and on the general principles which had been applied in this implication. The study concluded with important findings such as introducing an unknown linguist to the researchers in the linguistics and grammatical fields, in acknowledgement of his scientific heritage and linguistics contribution.


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