Jul 2026· Language and Linguistics Compass· Vol 20· 0 citations· 62 references
Abstract
This paper is a state of the art paper on the linguistic phenomenon ‘semi‐lexicality’. We discuss what a semi‐lexical item is, namely an item which is typically considered to be from a lexical, open class (noun, verb, adjective) but which shows morphosyntactic and/or semantic properties that are usually associated with elements from functional, closed classes (quantifiers, auxiliaries, etc.), and its theoretical relevance for the field of generative linguistics. In the first part of the paper, we relate the notion of semi‐lexicality within generative linguistics to the notions of fuzziness and gradience in the fields of cognitive and functional linguistics. In the second part, we discuss earlier and later approaches to semi‐lexicality within the generative framework. In the third part, we discuss the connection between grammaticalisation and semi‐lexicality, with a particular focus on recent generative approaches which explicitly tie these two notions together in one formal analysis.
This article uses frame semantics, the concept of a communicative frame, us-age-based construction grammar theory, and a corpus-based quantitative methodology to examine the characteristics of constructions in Polish that contain adverbial complements (ACs), the noun rzecz ‘thing’, and the quasi-participle ujmując ‘expressing/putting’. The author analyzes examples of this construction found in the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) to understand its structural, semantic, distributional, and discourse-related features. In addition, the study identifies ACs that are strongly and weakly associated with this construction, and those that are more or less dependent on it. The research shows that this construction is often combined with various categories of ACs, each corresponding to distinct semantic and communicative frames. Furthermore, it has been observed that this construction is motivated by a specific conceptual metaphor, appears in different language registers, takes various forms, and serves multiple functions in discourse.
This article presents a corpus-based approach toward a lexical typology of verbs in European languages, based on a comparison of the meanings of the most frequent verbs classified into semantic fields. The comparison is made in two steps. Among the twenty most frequent verbs, there is a set of grammatical verbs that top the list (with a few exceptions): ‘be’, ‘have’ and modals meaning ‘can’ and ‘must’. Among the lexical verbs, there are nine nuclear verbs with meanings that are distributed between the most basic verbal semantic fields (indicated within parentheses): ‘go’, ‘come’ (Motion); ‘give’, ‘take’ (Possession), ‘make’ (Production), ‘say’ (Verbal communication), ‘see’ (Perception), ‘know’ (Cognition), ‘want’ (Desire). Comparisons are made in two ways based on the rank order of the verbs according to descending frequency and according to a frequency measure, based on a logarithmic scale. As a second step, the comparison is extended to the 100 most frequent verbs. The result is compared to the inventories of simple verbs in some non-European languages with a very restricted number of such verbs. The frequency-based comparisons are complemented with the result of corpus-based contrastive studies of selected aspects of the semantic structure of the semantic fields to which the nuclear verbs belong.
Å. Viberg· Linguistic Typology at the C...· 0 citations
This dissertation carves a twofold stream: it seeks (a) to make fresh headways into the hermeneutic of John 5:19-30 and its eschatology and (b) to demonstrate the exegetical potency of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Cognitive Linguistics (CL). The methodological stream of this dissertation flows from the recent integration of modern linguistic approaches into the study of the biblical text and from the revitalization of verbal aspect as a grammatical and linguistic category. Verbal Aspect Theory (VAT) provides a needed corrective to the limited temporal view that standard grammars have imputed on the Greek verb in the last 200 years. This temporal view, equating tense-form with time, has constricted the otherwise full range of the semantic values of the Greek verb-form. This verbal description has thereby led to an inadequate appreciation of the verbal structure, semantics, and eschatology of John 5:19-30.
Besides the historical framework of Jewish apocalyptic, three perspectives on John’s eschatology have been offered. Albert Schweitzer stressed future eschatology based on a temporal understanding of the Greek verb, drawing especially from the Synoptic Gospels. Charles H. Dodd and Rudolf K. Bultmann emphasized present eschatology. The majority of scholarship has postulated present-and-future eschatology in John. All these are precarious offerings, however, being drawn from the inadequate appreciation of the Greek verb structure espoused by standard grammars.
This study offers an understanding of John 5:19-30 that better reflects the nuances of its eschatology and, through the insights of VAT, is more solidly grounded on the NT Greek verbal structure. Furthermore, SFL and CL keep the study of this exegesis sensitive to John’s use of language to embed and highlight contextual dimensions in the pericope’s linguistic units. Thus, the study shows how John linguistically portrays Jesus as the primary defining participant and conceptual foci of the pericope’s discourse and eschatology. Furthermore, the study shows how John linguistically presents Jesus’s self-understanding within the Father-Son relationship as shaping the thought world of the periscope. This study thereby demonstrates the exegetical potency of VAT, CL, and SFL offering, at the same time, a comprehensive and a minutely nuanced hermeneutic of the biblical text.
Abstract: The nominalisation mechanism of English verbs is quite particular for phrasal verbs. In addition to the verb standard nominalisation process which goes through the suffixation of –ing to the verb, phrasal verbs have another nominalisation mode. Some nominalized forms have the particle in a pre-verbal position whereas some have the particle in a post-verbal position. Some do not even have a noun form deriving from the particle position. As regarding the two formers, the two patterns i.e. verb – particle and particle – verb forms are contradictory to the uniformity of constraints in one single language. The existing two patterns in English phrasal verb structure raise some questions. Does English admit two structures for particle-verb noun forms? If not, what is the base structure for nominalised forms? What is then the constraint that forces the particle to precede or follow the verb root? Within a Minimalist perspective, especially in a syntactic approach, I will show in this paper that both patterns are derived from only one common minimal structure. The structural difference is due to the focus feature of the verb.
Keywords : Phrasal verb, particle, root verb, feature, nominalisation
It is suggested that the state is a systemic, context-dependent morphosyntactic mechanism that selects grammatical templates across synthetic languages and constitutes one instance of a broader class of syntactically conditioned dependencies that also includes agreement and grammatical case.
This paper investigates the role of semantic features of noun and adjective bases in determining the grammatical behaviour of Ancient Greek denominal and deadjectival verbs in *‐
ye/o
‐. The paper adopts a lexicalist framework (Rappaport Hovav & Levin 1998) and examines how the event schema, actionality, telicity and voice of derived verbs are influenced by the mass/count, concrete/abstract, animacy and agentivity properties of the base. After providing a semantic classification of ancient Greek denominal and deadjectival verbs (Clark & Clark 1979), the paper shows that the mass/count feature interacts with verbal telicity, though not as proposed by Harley (1999, 2005). A ±
mass/count
noun derives atelic/telic verbs depending on the event schema into which it is embedded, rather than directly on the mass/count distinction. The abstractness of the base restricts the range of compatible event schemas, with consequences on the actionality and the voice of derived verbs. Animate bases can be inserted only into
agent
/
quality
event schemas, characterised by ambiguity between a stative and an eventive reading and variability in the voice marking. Overall, the study demonstrates that the semantic features of the base play a central role in shaping the grammatical behaviour of ancient Greek denominal and deadjectival verbs.
Carolina Marescotti· Transactions of the Philolog...· 0 citations
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