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Parasynthetic compounding
No full textThis article presents a theoretical account of the morphologicalphenomenon known as parasynthesis in compounding, i.e. a word formation process consisting in the merger of two lexical stems (forming a non-attested compound) with a derivational affix. The present analysis aims at showing that a constructionist account, recently developed within the Construction Morphology framework to explain the relevant phenomenon in some Germanicand Romance languages, cannot be successfully applied to a crucial set of Slavic data. The thesis defended here, although confined to the Slavic domain and especially suggested by some challenging cases of compounding, is that a configurational analysis of these compound-affixed forms, implyinga severe mapping between the morpho-syntactic and semantic structure is not only able to explain the Slavic data, but also improves our comprehension of synthetic compounding in Slavic and other I.E. languages. The implementation of the analysis shares some of the theoretical assumptions and formalsolutions of the morphological model outlined by Ackema and Neeleman (2004)
On the interpretation of nominals: Towards a result-oriented verb classification
No full textThe present paper explores the interpretation of deverbal nominalizations obtained from transitive verbs by means of those suffixes conventionally named in the literature as 'transpositional'. It is traditionally acknowledged that these nominals are ambiguous between a process/event interpretation and a result one. In the former case the nominalizing suffix simply changes the category of the verb without affecting its semantics; in the latter case the nominal is assumed to acquire a specific, highly idiosyncratic or unpredictable meaning, loosing its connection to verb semantics.
The leading hypothesis of the present analysis is that it is possible to predict whether a verb can give rise to a result nominal on the basis of its semantics. On a more general line, we point out that the overall interpretations nominals can display are strongly determined by the semantics of the verbs which nominalizing suffixes are attached to
Introduction
No full textThe 'Introduction' is a presentation of the book that collects the contributions presented at the international congress held at the University of Bologna in January 2007, where leading scholars of different persuasions and interests offered an up-to-date overview of the current status of the research on linguistic universals. Each contribution is briefly presented and framed in its speficic domain and in the broader debate concerning generative-formal vs. functional-typological approaches to the exploration of unity and diversity in the realm of languages
Universals and semantics
No full textThis contribution proposes a view of linguistic semantics as a set of mental computations defined on a suitably restricted inventory of interpreted features borrowed from conceptual structures external to the language organ. These features enter both a lexical and a syntactic computation. Semantic universals can be identified regarding the nature of these featural primitives, the nature of the lexical computation, the nature of the mapping between syntactic categories and notional categories, the role of grammatical features in pre-encoding interpretive operations. It is argued that consensus about semantic universals can be reached cutting across the artificial divide between functionalist and formalist approaches to human languag
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The evolution of Latin word (dis)order
No full textThe evolution from Latin to Romance languages involves a typological
shift from SOV to SVO order where the change in Object position seems to be anticipated by a gradual construction-by-construction reorientation of constituent order. As a matter of fact, since Early Latin coexisting patterns determine a kaleidoscopic surface complexity that makes it difficult to reduce this language to a coherent system. On the assumption that the typology of word order flexibility is closely intertwined with the diachrony of word order change, this paper investigates the factors influencing grammatical variation and change by discussing both the sources that give rise to the various constructions and the mechanisms governing the choice between alternative orders at different stages. The results will show that, in some cases, grammatical variation depends on processes that are partially independent of the OV/VO dichotomy, and that typological regularities and irregularities in word order typology can be diachronically motivated
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Result nominals: A lexical semantic investigation
No full textThis article deals with semantically ambiguous event/result
nominalisations and is aimed at showing and explaining why only certain classes of base verbs yield the relevant semantic ambiguity in their derived nominals, while other classes only give unambiguous event nominals. In particular, the focus of the investigation is on the lexical semantic characterisation of the base verbs and, more specifically, on the identification of those structural and conceptual semantic properties that are indispensable for yielding a result nominal. We accordingly propose a verbal taxonomy crucially based on the ontological concept of 'result', and formally represent the nominalisation process by means of the theoretical apparatus proposed by
Lieber (2004). Specifically, we contend that the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of result nominals can be derived through an accurate lexical decomposition of the base verbs and of the suffixes, and by implementing the co-indexation mechanism that drives the nominalisation process
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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