Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (8)
- Working Paper (6)
- Part of a Book (5)
- Book (1)
Keywords
- Südkaukasische Sprachen (6)
- Lasisch (5)
- Verb (5)
- Deutsch (4)
- Bewegung (3)
- Gefühl (3)
- Raum (3)
- Raumvorstellung (3)
- Deutsche Gebärdensprache (2)
- Grammatik (2)
Publicationstate
- Postprint (2)
- Veröffentlichungsversion (1)
Reviewstate
- (Verlags)-Lektorat (1)
- Peer-Review (1)
Publisher
- De Gruyter (3)
- Institut für Deutsche Sprache (2)
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität (1)
- Niemeyer (1)
- Oxford University Press (1)
- Widmaier (1)
Nomen und nominales Syntagma
(1995)
In this article, we discuss the meaning and use of positional verbs in the South-Caucasian language Laz. Positional verbs are defined as those verbs which — in combination with one of several locational verbal prefixes (preverbs) — may appear in the basic construction that functions as an answer to a “where” question, the so-called basic locative construction (BLC). Within this class of verbs, we pay particular attention to those positionals which are used regularly in our data to describe the configuration of inanimate movable objects. Laz is shown to be a multiverb language, i.e., a language that uses a comparatively large set of verbs in the BLC. The fourteen verbs in question are PRV-dgun ‘stand’, PRV-ren ‘stand’, PRV-zun ‘lie’, PRV-xen ‘sit, stay’, PRV-bɣun ‘be located as mass’, PRV-mpiy ‘be spread’, PRV-sun ‘be smeared’, PRV-tun ‘cover’, PRV-bun ‘hang’, PRV-nʒoy ‘stick, be stuck’, PRV-n un ‘be dipped’, PRV- abun ‘stick to, be sticky’, PRV- orun ‘be bound’, PRV-gzun ‘burn’. The semantics and the use of these verbs are described in some detail including nontypical configurations, which trigger variation among speakers due to alternative categorizations and prototype effects.
This paper gives an overview of the means of expression which are used in descriptions of spatial scenes in Laz. With motion verbs, Laz uses the satellite-framed strategy with motion-manner conflation in the verbal root. Path information is given in preverbal satellites. With respect to locative expressions it belongs to the multi-verb-type languages. Hence, considering the lexical properties of the verb roots, Laz is a rather ordinary language. However, with respect to the semantics of its spatial case system and the semantics of the satellites, i.e. its system of spatial preverbs, it will be shown that Laz is typologically rather unusual.
Psych-verbs have been a touch-stone to linking-theories, which assume that case selection is determined by thematic roles. Though psych-verbs share the same thematic grid (experiencer and stimulus), they show different case frames. Different syntactic (structural) and semantic (event- or causal structure) approaches exist, but at least in German we will show that none of the several approaches to psych-verbs cover all differences and similarities of the several formal classes of psych-verbs in that language. In this paper we argue that the case selection of psych-verbs does not depend on their psychical reading at all. While Functional Expressivity requires that different thematic roles are expressed by different forms, Lexical Economy states that lexical entries should be minimally, i.e. verbs should only provide one case frame. Thus, the case frame of a verb must be compatible to the thematic requirements of all readings of this verb. Researchers paid little attention to the fact that polysemy is characteristic for psych-verbs. Psychverbs have (or have had) other, more specific readings, as well, and occasional psychical readings are possible for most verbs. According to the proto-role approach of Dowty (1991) and its modifications by Primus (1999b, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c), case selection is determined by the grade of agentivity or patientivity of arguments. Concrete readings have stronger agents and patients and make therefore stronger restrictions to case selection, and the psychical reading of a verb is always compatible with this reading. Thus, the case selection of psych-verbs is not affected by its psychical reading.
The article deals with morphosyntactic, semantic, and prosodic characteristics of depictive secondary predication in Laz. We show that Laz adjunct expressions generally cannot be divided into depictive and adverbial constructions on the basis of their morphosyntactic properties. We also deal with some prosodic characteristics of adjuncts expressing manner and state, and discuss to what extent depictive expressions may be delimited from manner adverbials on the grounds of intonational patterns.
In this paper we will investigate the meaning and use of positional verbs in colloquial Standard German. Positional verbs are defined as those verbs which may appear in the basic construction that functions as an answer to a “where”-question, the so-called Basic Locative Construction (BLC). Within this class of verbs, we focus on those positionals which are used to describe the configuration of inanimate movable objects. We will demonstrate that German exhibits the characteristics of a positional (or “multiverb”) language, i.e., a language that uses a comparatively large set of verbs in the BLC. The ten positionals used most frequently in our data are stehen ‘stand’, liegen ‘lie’, hängen ‘hang’, lehnen ‘lean’, stecken ‘be in tight fit, be stuck’, klemmen ‘be stuck, be jammed’, kleben ‘stick by means of glue’, haften ‘adhere’, schwimmen ‘be afloat in liquid’, and schweben ‘be afloat’. We will identify the conditions under which the positional verbs are used and provide a semantic characterization for each of them, paying particular attention to alternative categorizations, fuzzy boundaries and prototype effects.
This paper deals with the constructional variation of emotion predicates in Estonian. It gives an overview on the constructional types, including information of their quantitative distribution. It is shown that one characteristic of Estonian is the formation of pairs of converses, i.e. pairs of emotion verbs, which have the same emotion semantics but different argument realisation patterns. These converses are based on derivational morphology such as the causative morphem –ta ‘CAUS’. Causative derivation has been adduced in the theoretical literature as support for the assumption that the cross-linguistically wide-spread constructional variation in emotion predicates has its origin in a difference of the causal structure in the verbal semantics. This paper shows that the data of Estonian contradicts this assumption.