https://hdl.handle.net/2123/93 2026-06-09T21:14:58Z 2026-06-09T21:14:58Z Rieschild, Verna Robertson https://hdl.handle.net/2123/274 2025-10-22T00:38:30Z 2006-03-09T00:00:00Z

Emphatic Repetition in Spoken Arabic Rieschild, Verna Robertson This paper identifies and explains Arabic emphatic repetition in ethnographic interviews against the general backdrop of an understanding of non-pragmatically motivated repetition in Spoken Arabic. It also considers the basic linguistic resources for expressing intensity in the lexicon and syntax and the significance of repetition as one of these resources. The latter part of the paper explains how these resources are drawn on in interaction and what other types of spontaneous immediate emphatic repetition occur. This approach allows for a nuanced interpretation of the salience of emphatic repetition in this spoken Arabic genre. The discussion contributes to our general understanding of the essence of repetition that allows it to be used as a productive interactive resource.

2006-03-09T00:00:00Z Arka, I Wayan https://hdl.handle.net/2123/138 2025-10-22T00:38:31Z 2005-10-21T00:00:00Z

Challenges and Prospect of Maintaining Rongga: an Ethnographic Report Arka, I Wayan Changes in the ‘ecology of languages’ after the independence of Indonesia have resulted in changes in the social, cultural and economic settings. These changes in turn have affected the well-being of indigenous languages and cultures right across the Indonesian archipelago. This has particularly been the case in the last thirty years under the harsh campaign of Indonesianisation through the rhetoric of pembangunan (development) in the New Order era of Soeharto’s regime. Smaller indigenous languages such as Rongga, a minority language on the island of Flores, are particularly vulnerable.

2005-10-21T00:00:00Z Gladkova, Anna https://hdl.handle.net/2123/109 2025-10-22T00:38:21Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

New and Traditional Values in Contemporary Russian: Natural Semantic Metalanguage in Cross-Cultural Semantics Gladkova, Anna Changes in value system of a society can find reflection in the semantic structure of a language. These differences can be studied on the basis of semantic comparison of value words – those that become a source of borrowing and words revealing traditional values. Contemporary Russian is characterized by introduction of several words from English that incorporate social values. This research was done on the basis of comparison of two pairs of words of this kind: to tolerate and empathy in English and their counterparts 'terpet’' and 'co_uvstvie' in Russian. Often words like 'tolerantnost’ (from to tolerate) and 'empatija' (from empathy) are treated as synonyms of those words of traditional Russian values. A detailed semantic analysis proves that these words in different languages incorporate different social attitudes as they are based on different background knowledge. This kind of semantic analysis requires a very sharp tool that is able to reveal these kinds of differences. The suggested semantic investigation was done with the help of Natural Semantic Metalanguage, which uses about 60 semantic primes, ruled by “grammar of combinability”. Using this method it becomes possible to explicate complicated semantic notions in a language free from cultural stereotypes. The studied words 'terpet’' and tolerate, 'co_uvstvie' and empathy have incorporated in their meanings different cultural attitudes, which nations have elaborated through ages. Tolerate and 'terpet’', empathy and 'co_uvstvie' being very close in the dimension they describe or deal with differ mainly in the background value knowledge that members of the society share. It means that semantic descriptions of value words are determined by the “background understanding” of the society or the community they function in. Value words give directions for behaving, but they are based on value assumptions of the society they function in. These assumptions become part of the semantic explication. A detailed semantic analysis of close pairs of words was able to reveal a more “rational” character of tolerate and empathy and a more “emotional” character of 'terpet’' and 'co_uvstvie'. Tolerate and possesses a more “social” character, and 'terpet’' has a more “private” character. Tolerate and empathy are more “outgoing, active, extraverted” while 'terpet’' and 'co_uvstvie' are more “passive, introverted”. These differences are very important revelations of cultural attitudes.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z McIlwain, Jillian Peterson, Peter https://hdl.handle.net/2123/103 2025-10-22T00:38:22Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Signalling Plurality in Learner English McIlwain, Jillian; Peterson, Peter Noun plurals in the conversational English of French and Polish adult learners of English have been analysed using descriptive and conceptual approaches. The data was collected over a period of eighteen months, during which time all learners showed some development in the signaling of plurality. However, the development followed different paths for different learners. Some showed increasing proficiency in the use of the regular plural morpheme in obligatory contexts, while others developed new structures for signaling plurality. None of the learners relied on the plural morpheme as the sole means of expressing noun plurality, and particular linguistic contexts were found to influence the use of plural markers. The findings of the current study are interpreted as supporting the symbolic approach to morphology and morpheme acquisition.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Lees, Aet https://hdl.handle.net/2123/113 2025-10-22T00:38:23Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

The Case of the Object in Early Estonian and Finnish Texts Lees, Aet The case of the object in Balto-Finnic languages alternates between accusative and partitive. In modern Finnish the accusative case is used more frequently than in Estonian. The present study looks at the usage in older texts, using a section of Bible translations in southern Estonian (1686), northern Estonian (1739) and Finnish (1642) as well as additional material in Estonian. In old Finnish the proportion of partitive objects was similar to modern Finnish, except for personal pronouns, which were predominantly partitive. The modern accusative case forms of the personal pronouns were introduced into the standard language in the 19th century. In southern Estonian the majority of objects were in the partitive case. In northern Estonian plural objects were often accusative (the plural accusative being homonymous with the nominative) and singular objects partitive. In many instances the opposite case has been used in a revised version of this translation, prepared in 1938. Possible reasons for the differences in development will be considered.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Pentland, Christina Laughren, Mary https://hdl.handle.net/2123/107 2025-10-22T00:38:24Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Distinguishing Prosodic Word and Phonological Word in Warlpiri: Prosodic Constituency in Morphologically Complex Words Pentland, Christina; Laughren, Mary Observations that the phonological word in Warlpiri does not map onto a single constituent in prosodic structure leads us to posit a three-way distinction between prosodic word (PWd), phonological word (PhonWd) and phonological phrase (PPh) in order to account for prosodic constituency in morphologically complex words. We will present evidence that stress is assigned at the level of the PWd, while accent is assigned at the level of the PPh. The PhonWd is the domain for the application of non-prosodic rules governing the distribution of articulatory gestures, e.g. regressive vowel harmony and suffixal allomorphy. Physical correlates of both stress and accent will be discussed. Nash (1986) defines the phonological word in Warlpiri as the domain of stress, vowel harmony and suffixal allomorphy; however, evidence of mismatches between the domains relevant for the application of stress, vowel harmony rules and case allomorphy in complex structures suggests that the PhonWd is distinct from both the PWd and the PPh. For example, regressive vowel harmony triggered by the PAST suffix /-rnu/ is blocked at the boundary between the preverb and verb in the string /pirri-kuju-rnu/ ‘scatter-throw-PAST’, which is defined by Nash (1986) as a single stress domain, thus indicating that the stress and vowel harmony domains are distinct. On the other hand, the nominal compound /wati-wiri-rli/ (lit. man-big-ERG) ‘big group of men’, while exhibiting the same stress pattern as the verbal compound /pirri-kujurnu/, is also the domain which determines suffixal allomorphy: compare with /wati wiri-ngki/ (lit. man big-ERG)‘a big man’. In the compound /wati-wiri-rli/ the morphemes /wati/ and /wiri/ are both PWds, and the compound itself is a PhonWd. In the phrase /wati wiri-ngki/, however, both constituent PWds are distinct PhonWds which combine to create a PPh. Furthermore, complex verbs may contain a consonant-final preverb which does not qualify as a PhonWd (no final vowel), although it does satisfy the requirements to qualify as a PWd (it contains a minimum of two moras or vowels), e.g. /jaarl-kujurnu/ ‘in the way throw-PAST’. While the inflected verb /kujurnu/ constitutes both a PWd and a PhonWd (representing the stress domain and vowel harmony domain respectively), the preverbs /pirri/ and /jaarl/ only constitute PWds which combine with the inflected verb to create a PPh.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Maclagan, Margaret Harlow, Ray King, Jeanette Keegan, Peter Watson, Catherine https://hdl.handle.net/2123/104 2025-10-22T00:38:21Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Acoustic Analysis of Maori: Historical Data Maclagan, Margaret; Harlow, Ray; King, Jeanette; Keegan, Peter; Watson, Catherine We present initial results of an acoustic analysis of the vowel system of a native speaker of Maori, RTH, who was born in 1885. RTH was recorded in 1947 by the Mobile Disc Recording Unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service and the tape forms part of the Mobile Unit (MU) Archive at the University of Canterbury. RTH speaks in Maori and translates his material into English, though the English contains sections of whakapapa (genealogy) which are almost pure Maori. In this paper, we compare analyses of his vowel system when he is speaking in Maori and in English and also when he is using Maori words during his translations into English. RTH would have learnt his Maori at a time when influence from English was minimal. This analysis is therefore the first step in providing a reference acoustic analysis for the Maori language and for establishing the long-term influence of English on the pronunciation of Maori and vice versa. The analysis of RTH will be combined with an analysis of the other Maori speakers included in the MU archive together with other first language Maori speakers born in the late nineteenth century.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Mushin, Ilana https://hdl.handle.net/2123/114 2025-10-22T00:38:22Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Second Position Clitic Phenomena in North-Central Australia: Some Pragmatic Considerations Mushin, Ilana Second position phenomena in North-central Australia: some pragmatic considerations. This paper presents a cross-linguistic investigation of the discourse-pragmatics of second position clitic attachment in seven languages of North-central Australia. The presence of (obligatory) pronominal enclitics constitutes an areal feature of Central-Northern Australian languages, from Western Australia to the Queensland Border. In some languages enclitics are described as primarily attaching to verbs (eg. Western Desert), others to the first ‘constituent’ (eg. Warlpiri). In many of these languages, pronominal clitics combine with tense, aspect and/or mood markers to form ‘clitic complexes’ (or ‘auxiliaries’), which may in turn have fixed clausal positions (eg. Warlpiri, Wambaya). Most investigations of clitic complexes have focussed on their formal properties, especially the range of phenomena that may function as clitic hosts, and the implications of different patterns of clitic attachment for syntactic description (eg. Simpson & Withgott 1986, McConvell 1980, 1996, Laughren 2002). While much of this work acknowledges that pragmatics plays a role in what motivates patterns of clitic attachment, these studies tend to go no further than to assign a label ‘focus’ to that which attracts the clitic complex. Here I explore what is meant by ‘focus’ by closely examining and comparing pragmatic relationships between the clitic complex and its host in the discourse of a number of languages. Such cross-linguistic work not only provides evidence for the pragmatic sensitivities of clitic complexes synchonically, but it also provides evidence for variations in their grammaticalisation status in individual languages.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Kawashima, Kumiko https://hdl.handle.net/2123/100 2025-10-22T00:38:23Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Interpersonal Relationships in Japanese and Australian Women's Magazines: A Case Study Kawashima, Kumiko Women’s magazines have been a focus of research in various disciplines, and such research has made use of different methodologies as well as taking diverse approaches. This paper analyses texts selected from an Australian women’s magazine 'Cleo' and its Japanese equivalent 'With' by using Systemic Functional Linguistics as a core methodology. The texts were chosen from topic areas such as love relationships, finance and diet/exercises, and all take forms of advice giving. The lexico-grammatical analysis of the texts focused on investigation of the ways these texts construct the relationship between the writer and the reader, which has revealed interesting features in the Japanese texts that did not appear in the English texts.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Ballard, Elaine Starks, Donna https://hdl.handle.net/2123/102 2025-10-22T00:38:20Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Liquids: Laterals and Rhotics or Much More? Ballard, Elaine; Starks, Donna In phonology the classic division within the sonorant consonants is between nasal and liquid. Nasals by the nature of their articulation are easy to define and have generated a substantial literature (Cohn 1993, Piggott 1992, Huffman & Krakow 1993 among many others). Liquids are by contrast more difficult to define, demonstrate greater phonetic variability and there is far less literature on this class of segments,(Dixon 1972, Bhat 1975, Walsh Dickey 1997). This paper explores whether liquids can be defined both phonologically and phonetically and explores the link between representation and realisation of these sounds. In our discussion, we pay particular attention to the category “liquid” considering recent work on liquids (Walsh Dickey,1997 ) and how they elucidate our understanding of sonorants. We also present our own data from Woods Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in Canada. The data from this language raises interesting issues concerning potential mismatches between phonetics and phonology. This language traditionally lacks a liquid in its phonemic inventory and has clear evidence for a voiced dental fricative patterning as a non-nasal sonorant. Our findings suggest that non -nasal sonorant consonants need not be restricted to liquids and propose a number of possibilities as to the categorisation of these segments. We end our paper with a number of research questions that need to be addressed; In phonology the classic division within the sonorant consonants is between nasal and liquid. Nasals by the nature of their articulation are easy to define and have generated a substantial literature (Cohn 1993, Piggott 1992, Huffman & Krakow 1993 among many others). Liquids are by contrast more difficult to define, demonstrate greater phonetic variability and there is far less literature on this class of segments,(Dixon 1972, Bhat 1975, Walsh Dickey 1997). This paper explores whether liquids can be defined both phonologically and phonetically and explores the link between representation and realisation of these sounds. In our discussion, we pay particular attention to the category "liquid" considering recent work on liquids (Walsh Dickey,1997 ) and how they elucidate our understanding of sonorants. We also present our own data from Woods Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in Canada. The data from this language raises interesting issues concerning potential mismatches between phonetics and phonology. This language traditionally lacks a liquid in its phonemic inventory and has clear evidence for a voiced dental fricative patterning as a non-nasal sonorant. Our findings suggest that non -nasal sonorant consonants need not be restricted to liquids and propose a number of possibilities as to the categorisation of these segments. We end our paper with a number of research questions that need to be addressed; n phonology the classic division within the sonorant consonants is between nasal and liquid. Nasals by the nature of their articulation are easy to define and have generated a substantial literature (Cohn 1993, Piggott 1992, Huffman & Krakow 1993 among many others). Liquids are by contrast more difficult to define, demonstrate greater phonetic variability and there is far less literature on this class of segments,(Dixon 1972, Bhat 1975, Walsh Dickey 1997). This paper explores whether liquids can be defined both phonologically and phonetically and explores the link between representation and realisation of these sounds. In our discussion, we pay particular attention to the category “liquid” considering recent work on liquids (Walsh Dickey,1997 ) and how they elucidate our understanding of sonorants. We also present our own data from Woods Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in Canada. The data from this language raises interesting issues concerning potential mismatches between phonetics and phonology. This language traditionally lacks a liquid in its phonemic inventory and has clear evidence for a voiced dental fricative patterning as a non-nasal sonorant. Our findings suggest that non -nasal sonorant consonants need not be restricted to liquids and propose a number of possibilities as to the categorisation of these segments. We end our paper with a number of research questions that need to be addressed

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Collins, Peter https://hdl.handle.net/2123/101 2025-10-22T00:38:27Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Exclamative Clauses: A Corpus-based Account Collins, Peter This paper aims to complement the accounts of exclamative clauses presented in both the large reference grammars of English (e.g. Quirk et al. 1985; Biber et al. 1999; Huddleston and Pullum 2002), and in the more theoretically-oriented literature (e.g. Elliott 1974; Michaelis and Lambrecht 1996; and Zanuttini and Portner 2003).by providing a comprehensive description of their structural and semantic properties. Findings are reported from an empirical study of exclamative clauses in English, based on a 9,600,000-word collection of written and spoken corpora which yielded 2061 tokens. Although writers sometimes accept sentences of the type "Is syntax easy!, They were so rude!, The things he eats! ", and "It's amazing how calm he is!" as exclamatives, it will be argued that the class must be restricted to constructions with an initial exclamative phrase containing "what" (as modifier) or "how" (as modifier or adjunct), insofar as it is only in these that the illocutionary force of exclamatory statement has been grammaticalised. A number of tendencies are revealed by the corpus-interrogation, including: the occurrence of ambiguity resulting from the structural similarity between exclamative and interrogative clauses, especially in the case of subordinate exclamatives; the reduction of exclamative clauses - particularly "what"-exclamatives - to just the exclamative phrase; and, the relative favouring of how-exclamatives in formal, written discourse.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z McGregor, William B https://hdl.handle.net/2123/108 2025-10-22T00:38:27Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Frs. Herman Nekes and Ernest Worms' Dictionary of Australian Languages, Part III of 'Australian Languages' (1953) McGregor, William B Frs. Herman Nekes and Ernest Worms’ monumental Australian languages consists of five parts, of which three are dictionaries. These account for the bulk of the work, some 775 of 1067 pages, the remainder being about two-thirds grammar and one third texts. Part III, Dictionary native languages — English (a paradigmatic syntax) has some 630 typescript pages, amounting to over 9,000 headwords, in a range of Australian languages, with particular focus on those of the Dampier Land peninsular and nearby areas, most of which are represented by 1,500-2,000 entries. This is a singular document, both in conceptualisation, and because it presents some of the only extant information on various moribund and almost moribund languages (e.g. Jabirrjabirr, Nimanburru). The structure of the dictionary will be described both at the macro-level of organisation and contents (lexeme selection) and the micro-level of entry format; these will be linked to the authorsÂ’ notions of morphology, syntax, semantics, and etymology. The dictionary will be situated in relation to contemporary lexicography, and will be evaluated in terms of the quality of scholarship it represents, and its significance to modern concerns.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Gardner, Rod https://hdl.handle.net/2123/115 2025-10-22T00:38:31Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Acknowledging Strong Ties between Utterances in Talk: Connections through 'Right' as a Response Token Gardner, Rod Right is a response token in English that has been little studied. Its main uses in Australian English (and British English) are different from North American Englishes. The data used for this study was primarily a dietetic interview at an Australian hospital of 46 minutes, which was fully transcribed. A larger corpus of Australian, British and American data supplemented this core data set. The distinctiveness of the Australian/British use is to acknowledge that the talk to which it is responding is in a strong dependent relationship with some prior talk. This is most typically a rhetorical relationship (cf. Mann, Matthiessen and Thompson, 1992) such as one of contrast, expansion/exemplification or of cause and effect, though other rhetorical relationships have been found. Right is also used to acknowledge citations of some talk from earlier in the interaction. This study adds to our understanding of the common set of response tokens in English, which include Uh huh/Mm hm, Mm, Yeah/Yes, Oh, Okay and Alright. It has emerged that each of these is used in distinctive, if complex ways, dependent most crucially on their prosodic shape, their sequential placement and the timing of the utterance. The wider significance of the study of such tokens is that they are amongst the few vocalizations in talk that reveal the stance of a listening participant (at that point in the talk).

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Charters, A. Helen https://hdl.handle.net/2123/105 2025-10-22T00:38:25Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Processing Grammatical Functions of Mandarin Locative Structures Charters, A. Helen Pienemann (1989) argues that transfer of information from a Verb to its Subject, is more demanding than transfer within Nominal phrases because the former combines information from separate ‘iterations’ of conceptual structure, and the latter does not. I use data from a longitudinal study of Mandarin SLA to argue that, in fact GF assignment is a more significant contributor to processing demands than any conceptual separation of the Subject and verb. The evidence comes from possessive, locative and relative clause structures. Under Pienemann's account, the first two, which are purely nominal structures, should emerge earlier than RCs, where a GF must be transferred across a VP boundary. In fact, de-marked possessives and intransitive RCs are among the first nominal structures to emerge whereas de-marked locatives and transitive RCs emerge much later, even given intensive instruction (Zhang, 2002). If Pienemann’s basic premise is correct, and emergence times reflect processing demands, then the purely nominal locatives involve processing demands comparable to those of transitive RCs. I argue that the relevant factor is argument structure, and the information transfer involved in the assignment of GFs, not lexical category or conceptual divisions.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Jäger, Andreas https://hdl.handle.net/2123/111 2025-10-22T00:38:28Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

The Cross-Linguistic Function of Obligatory 'do'-Periphrasis Jäger, Andreas The aim of this paper is to give a descriptive account of the range of functions that can be associated with obligatory ‘do’-periphrasis cross-linguistically based on a sample of 80 languages. A preliminary typological discussion of the cross-linguistic properties of this phenomenon can be found in Van der Auwera (1999). Section 2 discusses crosslinguistically identifiable criteria for ‘do’-periphrasis. In section 3 some examples are provided to show that the range of functions associated with obligatory periphrasis is limited and can be accounted for in terms of a four-way typology. Section 4 compares obligatory ‘do’-periphrasis with cases of optional use of ‘do’-periphrasis in languages outside the sample. Since languages with optional ‘do’-periphrasis often allow similar functional associations, it is proposed that the functional types argued for in this paper represent domains in which ‘do’-periphrasis is likely to become grammaticalized.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Baker, Brett https://hdl.handle.net/2123/112 2025-10-22T00:38:34Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

The Domain of Phonological Processes Baker, Brett In many Australian languages, stress rules appear to apply to every suffix independently, before they are subjected to word-level phrasing (1). This pattern is difficult to account for whether we derive it in Lexical Phonology (e.g. Poser 1986) or in Optimality Theory (e.g. Pensalfini 2000), since we cannot derive it by applying stress rules to incrementally larger domains which include the stem. The problem appears to lie with our assumptions about how words are built up, and how they are subjected to phonological processes. The usual assumption about word structure is that it is built up in layers from the root, like an onion. In phonology, rules are assumed to apply to domains which minimally include the root. They cannot apply to affixal domains without the root. Here, I defend an alternative view of word structure: one based on adjacent, rather than nested, domains. In this model, outputs from the lexicon are independently subjected to rules of metrical stress assignment, as in (2). The domain of metrical stress is therefore not the (grammatical/distributional) word, but each productive morpheme within the word. Note that syllabification must be applied to the whole form rather than the individual parts, since some affixes apparently begin in clusters. However, we need to allow for inter-word syllabification anyway because of other word sandhi and word syllabification effects. One example of such a pattern applying to word-initial geminates has been described for Swiss German (Kraehenmann 2001). Similar patterns are found in Oceanic languages such as Leti (Hume, Muller & van Engelenhoven 1997). One sidebranch of phonology did investigate the possibility of domains external to the root: ‘prosodic phonology’ (e.g. Nespor & Vogel 1986). This theory was developed in part as an account of 'bracketing paradoxes', where the prosodic structure did not seem to reflect the morphological derivation of a word. The Australian patterns are amenable to a prosodic phonology account. However, prosodic phonology is a declarative model — anything can be potentially declared to be a prosodic domain — and hence over-generates patterns. The model argued for here makes a stronger and more constrained claim: only morphemes which on independent grounds can be shown to be elements of the lexicon may constitute a domain for phonological processes.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Jarkey, Nerida Iwashita, Mami https://hdl.handle.net/2123/110 2025-10-22T00:38:34Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Setting the Scene: A Comparative Study of the '-te aru' Construction and the Attributive Passive in Japanese Jarkey, Nerida; Iwashita, Mami Broadly speaking, the ‘-te aru’ construction and the ‘attributive passive’ construction in Japanese are both de-transitivized, stative constructions that serve to set the scene for the ongoing discourse. In many cases, the constructions can be substituted for one another, and native speakers often find it difficult to identify a clear difference in meaning between the two. Previous research on these constructions, however, has ignored their functional similarities, and has attempted to explain their uses quite separately. In this paper we identify and account for the basic functions of these two constructions, as well as their similarities and their differences. We start by considering them in the context of a far more widely discussed, and more frequently used, derived stative construction in Japanese, a construction that involves an intransitive rather than a transitive verb root. We go on to consider examples of these two de-transitivized stative constructions, starting with cases in which they seem to be virtually interchangeable, and then refining our understanding of their functions by considering cases in which they cannot be substituted for one another. Our basic findings relate to the degree of semantic transitivity of the two constructions. Although the -te aru construction has previously been characterized as describing perfect aspect, and as not allowing an overt Actor (Martin 1975, Miyagawa 1988 and Hasegawa 1996), when we compare it with the ‘attributive passive’, we find that it is comparatively the more transitive, and thus more agentive of the two. The ‘attributive passive’, on the other hand, is highly objective and stative. Nevertheless, the fact that the verb root in this construction, as in the -te aru construction, is transitive rather than intransitive means that the relevance of an Actor to the state described can still be detected.

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z Calude, Andreea S https://hdl.handle.net/2123/106 2025-10-22T00:38:34Z 2005-10-10T00:00:00Z

Reflexive - Middle and Reciprocal - Middle Continua in Romanian Calude, Andreea S In Romanian, the middle marker se is employed to encode five distinct situation types: reflexive, reciprocal, (medio-)passive, inchoative and impersonal. The principal aim of the present research is to identify the relationships among the different uses of the marker and to put forward explanations for them within a cognitive framework. The discussion presented is limited to the semantic properties of middles. This work provides an insight into Romanian itself, as well as a contribution to theoretical accounts of middle systems in general. Following theories developed by Faltz (1985), Geniusien? (1987), Haiman (1983), Kemmer (1993), Maldonado (1992) and Manney (2000), a synchronic account of the Romanian Middle Domain is given. Our findings show that the semantic property of low elaboration of events (introduced by Kemmer 1993) constitutes the common denominator among the different uses explored. For instance, the Romanian middle construction: (1) Copilul se piapt?n?. child MIDDLE brushes ‘The child brushes (her/his hair).’ involves low elaboration since the event expressed exhibits relatively low distinguishability of participants, the Patient is backgrounded, and the verb (se piept?na ‘brush one’s hair’) denotes what is typically a self-directed event. One innovative aspect of the research concerns the uncovering of formal and semantic continua between certain Romanian middles situation types, namely natural reflexives and natural reciprocals, and their non-middle counterparts (prototypical reflexives and prototypical reciprocals, respectively). This sheds light on the interaction between the various middle categories comprising the Middle Domain for the case of Romanian and raises several open questions regarding middle systems cross-linguistically, such as: do any other middle systems exhibit continua among their middle categories, and, if so, which middle types are they and are these the same as the ones found in Romanian?

2005-10-10T00:00:00Z