A study of how relic forms in languages serve as source material for analogical extension
Laura A. Janda University of North Carolina
Every inflected language carries seemingly useless morphological baggage in the form of irregular affixes in inflexional paradigms. Though often lost, under certain conditions such marginal morphemes can be recategorized and implemented to restore old or build new distinctions, becoming highly productive. The book applies Andersen's approach to language change in terms of motivated abductions (reinterpretations), combined with analysis of prototypes and categorial status according to cognitive linguistics. Three case studies are examined in detail:
1) The 1sg -m marker, limited to five athematic verbs in Late Common Slavic, now marks many or all verbs in some Slavic languages. Reconstruction of relevant verbal systems shows how phonological changes facilitated the abduction that the athematic verbs had a prototypical stem structure, promoting the spread of their characteristic morpheme.
2) The ß-stem declension was lost in Late Common Slavic, but its endings survived, spread paradigmatically (motivated by parallels in other paradigms), or semantically to create new distinctions. The latter mark items high and low (but not mid-range) on the FIGURE-GROUND scale, a hierarchy of distinctions crucial to the development of animacy.
3) The dual number was lost in most of Slavic, but some endings have become productive as markers of plural or virile (the latter also motivated by FIGURE-GROUND).
ISBN 9783895861017. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 01. 240pp. 1996.
Youri A. Poupynin Institute of Linguistic Studies, St.Petersburg
The Russian linguistics is gradually concentrated on the analysis of the Russian verb categories as a certain system. The study of the tense and the aspect in their connection already became traditional. The present work aims especially to research the Russian aspect and voice in the mutual connections. The book contains three parts. The interrelation of the aspect and the voice in the grammatical system of Russian (i.e. in the verb paradigm) is to be considered in the first part "Towards the problem of connections of grammatical categories: aspect and voice". The first part includes the following chapters: "Aspect and voice in the hierarchy of Russian verbal categories", "Symmetry and asymmetry in the paradigmatic intersection of aspect and voice", "Connections between the terminativity and the transitivity", "A field approach in the study of connections of grammatical categories".
The second and the third parts are devoted to the functional-semantic interaction of the aspect and the voice. The following approach to prove the functional-semantic interaction of grammatical categories is proposed in the book: one of the two given categories has to be treated as a source of semantic backgrounds whereas the second category has to be treated as a source of the semantic functions. The fact of the interaction would be established if the semantic functions of the second category change (are restricted, specified, expanded etc.) going through a certain semantic background represented of the first category. The high syntactic significance of the voice makes it to be considered as a source of the semantic backgrounds (active and passive) and, accordingly, the aspect has to be considered as a source of the semantic functions.
The second part deals with the imperfective functions on the passive and active background. Because in many Russian aspectological studies the semantic functions of the imperfective and the perfective are mainly illuminated on the material of active forms, the special attention is given to functioning of passive forms, while examples with the active forms are attracted for the contrastive analysis. The second part includes chapters devoted to specific features of the particular meanings of the imperfective aspect in the passive voice: meaning of the process, iterative meaning, qualitative meaning etc.
The third part includes chapters contained the study of the specific features of the particulars meanings of the perfective aspect in the passive voice: meaning of the completed event, meaning of the "vivid exemplification", summative meaning. Restriction or expansion of different aspectual functions in passive constructions (in comparison with active constructions) are especially noted and discussed.
ISBN 9783895860560. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 02. 170pp. 1999.
H. Schuster-Sewc
Gary H. Toops, trans., Wichita State University
Upper Sorbian is the fourth largest of the West Slavic literary languages. Together with its various dialects, it is spoken today by an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants of Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz), a region of the eastern German state of Saxony (Bundesland [Freistaat] Sachsen). The literary language is actively used in journalism, broadcasting, publishing, and the performing arts. The city of Bautzen/Budyšin, with a population currently estimated at 46,000 (only 2% of whom are Sorbs), is the center of Upper Sorbian literary, scholarly, and broadcasting activity.
Chapter 1 of the present volume provides an introduction to basic linguistic concepts from the viewpoint of Upper Sorbian. Chapter 2 provides an exhaustive description together with pictorial illustrations of both general and Upper Sorbian literary and dialectal phonology. Chapter 3 presents in both narrative and tabular form the complete morphology of the Upper Sorbian literary language together with notes on dialectal developments and current trends in colloquial usage.
ISBN 9783895860591. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 03. 270pp. 2nd edition. 1999.
Maria D.Voeikova Institute of Linguistics, St. Petersburg
Russian grammar system is penetrated with the idea of existence. Be-sentences are used for the expression of other categorial meanings such as possession, qualification, space and time localization etc. In fact we can quote Russian dialogues that consist only of Be-sentences.The expansion of Be-meaning and a short review of its studying in Russian forms the content of the first chapter of the manuscript. The second chapter deals with the semantic variety of existential constructions in literary language. It is based upon the functional-semantic approach and includes the analysis of Be-predicate in its grammar variants and the influence of contextual means. Telling somebody about the existence is usually an indirect speech act with a lot of implications. These special usages is the basis of the third chapter.
The first two chapters are based on the material of my dissertation that was published as a summary in Russian. More extended variant is prepared for the serie "Theory of Functional grammar" V.6. that is to be published in 1995. The third chapter represents quite a new material that was never published.
ISBN 9783895860577. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 04. 260pp. 2000.
Agentive Substantival Suffixes in Contemporary Standard Russian
Edna Andrews Duke University
Any serious analysis concerning the semantic structure of Contemporary Standard Russian [CSR] must necessarily come to terms with the system of lexical morphemes that play a central role in word-forming processes. Given the interrelationship between the categories of grammatical and lexical meaning that is expressed by suffixation in CSR, a reductionist approach is excluded. In the present work, suffixation in CSR is viewed as one component of the system of multifaceted sign interaction. The theoretical premises of this work are semiotic in the Jacobsonian and Peircian traditions. The corpus of analysis is restricted to agentive substantival suffixes.
While taking into account the more positive aspects of previous approaches to the analysis of word formation in CSR, this work is unique in engaging a range of theoretical and pragmatic issues that pertain to the interrelation of lexical and grammatical categories as they are realized in suffixation. The present analysis is based on four modes of presentation:
(1) Explication of the theoretical principles of semantic theory, including questions of classification, deixis, arbitrariness and semantic change; (2) A detailed analysis of the CSR agentive substantival suffixes; (3) Contrastive analyses of the system of augmentative and diminutive agentive substantival suffixes and their relevance in defining semiotic theory, the viability of iconicity in language change and meaning, and the role of interpretants; (4) A Russian-English glossary of substantives, organized by suffix.
The Russian-English glossary brings together from a broad range of sources forms that are used in both literary and colloquial CSR.
Edna Andrews is Director of the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Duke University. She is author of Markedness Theory: The Union of Assymetry and Semiosis in Language (1990), A Handbook of Russian Verbal Prefixes (1983).
ISBN 9783895860737. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 05. 250pp. 1996.
This work constitutes the first comprehensive study of the Balkan Slavic appellative forms of language. Forms of appeal are represented in the nominal system by the vocative, and in the verbal system by the imperative. In addition, they are rendered by a variety of emphatic particles, periphrastic expressions, and marked syntactic formulae. By interpreting standard and dialectal Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian forms, the author illustrates the interplay of the "Slavic" and the "Balkan" appellative elements, which have previously been largely neglected by scholars. Balkan Slavic appellative forms often vary according to the context of the speech event. This study incorporates principles of pragmatics and discourse analysis in explaining the usage of a given appellative form.
Chapter 1 introduces the appellative forms, surveys the published works, and discusses the methodology and data of this work. Chapter 2 presents an analysis of the standard forms in Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian, the three standard languages which frame the Balkan Slavic Sprachbund. Since the appellative forms are inherently linked with the speech act, they display a rich variety of dialectal-colloquial forms. These are discussed in chapter 3 (morphology) and 4 (syntax). Chapter 5 examines the "Balkanness" of the phenomena, and suggests that the conventional understanding of "Balkan" must be revised in light of the appellative isoglosses, which stretch far beyond the traditional "Balkan" territory into Montenegrin and Serbian dialects.
ISBN 9783895860584. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 06. 240pp. 1996.
SPACE AND TIME IN RUSSIAN presents a detailed semiotic analysis of the preposition-case pairings that communicate spatial or temporal locus in Russian and provides an integrated, formalized description of this part of the Russian language.
Part one of the book proceeds through spatial preposition on a case-by-case basis. As each set of prepositions is analyzed, a preliminary description is provided at three degrees of sophistication: a distinctive feature matrix in a semi-Jakobsonian manner (singulary rather than binary features), an algebraic formula, and a relational network. Part two of the book turns to the temporal expressions. Part three provides an integrated description of both spatial and temporal expressions and shows applications to teaching Russian and to cognitive semantics.
ISBN 9783895861765. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 08. 264pp. 1998.
This comprehensive study of relative clauses in Serbo-Croatian begins with the selection and description of properties of such relative clauses as are most frequently realized in various languages, including Serbo-Croatian. These properties can therefore be considered to belong to typical representatives of the relative clauses. The author then analyses formal constituents of the antecedent which determine the realization of the relative clause as restrictive or non-restrictive. The non-typical relative clauses (e.g. free relatives, extraposed relatives), the differentation of inflected from uninflected relativizer (used with personal pronouns), adverbial relativizers, and the replacement of the participle by the relative clause in Serbo-Croatian are also described in this study. The corpus composed of texts from the journalistic, bookish, administrative-legal, and scientific styles has shown that several interesting on-going changes can be perceived with regard to the most typical relative pronoun in Serbo-Croatian. One of them is the extension of the animate masculine into the inanimate (and increasingly into the neuter) of the pronun as a means of morphologically disambiguating the subject and object. The other change concerns the possessive genitive of the pronoun. The study is supplied with examples, charts, and an extensive bibliography. [written in German]
ISBN 9783895865732. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 10. 180pp. 1999.
Register variation and language standards in Czech
Neil Bermel Sheffield University
This 35-45,000-word monograph, accessible to both Slavists and general linguists, addresses "larger questions raised by Czech register/code variation in a cross-linguistic perspective.
Czech can be described as a quasi-diglossic language situation, with a standard language that has no native speakers, and an interdialect that has no currency as a communicative standard. The author reviews research surrounding the "standard Czech – common Czech” divide, as well as current work on language varieties, and concludes that both schools promote descriptions favoring separate codes that interact in defined manners.
The study makes use of an original 30,000-word coded corpus to examine a problematic area along the varietal faultline -- dialogue in belletristic texts -- and suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, the strict lines drawn between Czech's "standard” and "common” varieties are no longer as relevant as they were. Data from contemporary Czech testifies instead to the gradual crumbling of diglossia and the development of these two varieties into a single code with graduated features showing formality and informality and having some discourse functions. The received view of Czech -- and of language varieties overall -- is shown in this instance to hinder our understanding, rather than facilitating it.
This research supports other recent reevaluations of the received view in language contact and bilingualism studies, and shows how they can be applied to quasi-diglossic situations like the Czech one.
ISBN 9783895866128. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 13. 220pp. 2000.
The Evolution of Fixed Stress in Slavic is the first book-length treatment of the development of fixed stress systems in the Slavic languages. The complex system of morphological stress found in the ancestral language has been replaced in a number of the contemporary languages by phonologically fixed stress (e.g. initial as in Czech, penultimate as in Polish or antepenultimate as in Macedonian). The details of this major morphological innovation have remained unclear, as there is no textual evidence. Instead, this book address this problem through dialect geography, looking at areas where the transition from free to fixed stress is still discernible as a dialect continuum.
Three languages in which fixed stress arose independently are examined, namely Kashubian (West Slavic), Macedonian (South Slavic) and the Carpathian dialects of Ukrainian (East Slavic). Each area is treated as a separate case study, with the prosodic and morphological factors leading to fixed stress clearly distinguished. The formal analysis is in terms of Optimality Theory, which allows for a graphic portrayal of the interaction of prosody and morphology . It is evident that the decisive prosodic factor is a prosodically motivated ban on final stress, which triggers a chain of morphological innovations, remarkably similar in all three cases. This book should be of interest to Slavists, and to all linguists interested in diachronic accentology.
ISBN 9783895866302. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 15. 260pp. 1999.
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