Abstract: Previous studies on Preferred Argument Structure have suggested (Du Bois 1987, 2002) and accepted (e.g. Goldberg 2004) specific cognitive motivations for PAS, namely that the general restriction of lexical arguments and new referents to the S and O roles facilitates the conceptually onerous task of referent introduction. In this paper, conversation data from English and Portuguese are analyzed. The data are generally inconsistent with the putative cognitive motivations for PAS presented in the literature. They suggest instead that PAS is most likely epiphenomenal and due to basic semantic and pragmatic factors, for example the correlation between human referents and given/non-lexical arguments, and the correlation between human referents and the A role.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Balearic Catalan. While definiteness and animacy can explain the distribution of DOM in other varieties of Catalan, in Balearic, the split between marked and non-marked objects is not dependent on inherent or referential properties of the object noun phrases, but determined by topicality. A preposition is consistently used to mark a subset of topical objects, namely those occurring in clitic left- and right-dislocation structures, which correspond to two kinds of hearer-known topics: shifting topics and continuing topics. The preposition does not occur, however, with hanging topics, which introduce discourse-new topical entities. In this way, a correlation can be found between formal properties and well-motivated discourse functions that explains the distribution of DOM in Balearic. Similar patterns can be found in other Romance varieties as well, thus suggesting that topicality is relevant to account for both intra- and interlinguistic variation in DOM.

Abstract: The “hybrid” prosodic systems described for several Caribbean creoles challenge typologies that dichotomize between “intonation languages” and “tone languages” or between “stress” and “pitch-accent” languages. A more nuanced differentiation emerges if languages are compared in terms of questions concerning tone inventory and tune-text alignment, such as: Are the tunes of short utterances composed primarily of tone patterns specified to contrast words or of intonation patterns that are morphemes in their own right? What determines tune-text alignment at the lowest levels of the prosodic hierarchy? Should tones be anchored to rhythmically prominent syllables within focused constituents? This paper explores these questions for several languages with “hybrid” prosodic systems including some where the hybrid nature cannot plausibly be attributed to language contact.

Abstract: In the study of word order typology, the SOVX word order pattern of Mande is often viewed as exceptional and explained diachronically as a “type in transition”. This paper argues against that view based on analysis of the sentence structure of Wan (Southeastern Mande). I show that the SOVX word order of Wan is a consequence of an unusual syntactic behavior of postpositional arguments, which do not form a syntactic constituent with their verb but instead appear in a fixed position outside of the VP. The analysis has typological implications, suggesting that the SOVX pattern of this kind should be treated separately from types where PP arguments are syntactically dependent on their verb.

Abstract: Taboo terms in certain English expressions and constructions are intensifiers, which have spread as a unit over time to various syntactic positions (Hoeksema & Napoli 2008). Here we look at the pragmatic coherence that has allowed such semantically disparate terms to be grammaticalized as a unit. We examine language using taboo terms in English with comparisons to Dutch, Italian, and other languages. The terms studied here regard religion, disease, sex, and bodily excretions. They exhibit common characteristics with cross-linguistic variation.

Abstract: This paper investigates the grammar and usage of one in Singapore English, which exhibits the influence of both Chinese and English, the two dominant languages in the multilingual ecology of Singapore English, as well as the influence of relevant linguistic universals. The grammar of one is essentially the grammar of Chinese de filtered through the morphosyntax of English one. The corpus data show that some one forms which are judged acceptable by native-speaker informants have nevertheless low frequency of use. I argue that usage plays an important role in the success of contact-induced grammatical innovation, and propose an exemplar-based model of relexification that provides a satisfactory explanation of the grammatical properties and usage patterns of one in Singapore English.

Abstract: Cases from Sranan are presented in order to illustrate the various processes and mechanisms involved in developments in a creole language that could be interpreted as grammaticalization. While we do find “ordinary” grammaticalization, substrate patterns sometimes provided a model. In the extreme case, where the development consists of a large shortcut, grammaticalization as a usage-based process is no longer at issue, but rather a kind of local relexification variously referred to as “calquing” (Keesing 1991), “apparent grammaticalization” (Bruyn 1996), or “polysemy copying” (Heine and Kuteva 2005). Yet other cases involve reanalysis of a lexifier form without grammaticalization (Detges 2000). Distinguishing between the various types of developments is essential both for understanding the processes shaping creoles, and for delimiting the concept of grammaticalization.

Abstract: This essay analyzes the grammatical category of inalienable possession by examining the interaction of morphosyntatic forms, semantic features, pragmatic functions, and discourse frequencies. Using data from Q’eqchi’-Maya, it is argued that inalienable possession may be motivated relative to two dimensions: (1) whatever any person is strongly presumed to possess (identifiability); (2) whatever such personal possessions are referred to frequently (relevance). In regards to frequency, inalienable possessions are compared with possessed NPs, and possessed NPs are compared with all NPs, in regards to grammatical relation, information status, animacy rank, and semantic role. In regards to identifiability, it is argued that inalienable possessions are like deictics and prepositions in that they guide the addressee’s identification of a referent by encoding that referent’s relation to a ground; and inalienable possessions are different from deictics and prepositions in that the ground is a person and the referents are its parts or relations.

Abstract: Saramaccan, a maroon creole of Suriname, shows evidence of having a split lexicon where the majority of its words are marked for pitch accent but an important minority are marked for tone. The basic origins of this split would appear to be clear: pitch-accented words represent transfer of a European-like accent system, while tonal words represent transfer of an African-like tone system. If this is the right account, its apparent simplicity raises an important question: Why didn’t it happen more often? While a definitive answer cannot yet be given, it is suggested that a likely explanation is that the split lexicon was not a product of creolization but, rather, the result of a restricted kind of language mixing, which took place after marronage, and that this mixing was employed as a means of establishing a distinct speech variety for the nascent Saramaccan community.

Abstract: Causal clauses introduced by yīnwei in Chinese can have either an initial position or a final position with regard to the main clause. While traditional grammars have treated the initial sequence as the default form, numerous discourse-based studies have shown just the opposite. However, few have attempted to explain why both sequence orders exist and why they have skewed distribution patterns across discourse registers. In this paper we use a telephone conversation corpus and a written Chinese corpus as data and provide a comprehensive analysis of the usage patterns. Our main findings are that final and initial causal clause sequences are ostensibly two different linguistic constructions, functioning as an interactional device and an information-sharing device, respectively. Quantitative distributional disparities are seen as a function of the discourse utilities of the linguistic devices in question and the communicative demands of different registers. From a cross-linguistic perspective, our findings raise questions about the ways in which universal and language-specific properties of clause sequencing can be better understood.

Abstract: Perfects of the type I have my dinner eaten are a well-known feature of Irish English dialects. They can be linked to a functionally similar construction in Irish, of the type ta mo dhinnear ite agam (literally “is my dinner eaten at-me”), but also to earlier constructions in Standard English. The issue has sometimes been treated as a competition between two seemingly mutually exclusive explanations, a “substrate” and a “retentionist” hypothesis. This dichotomy can be overcome on the basis of a model of “contact-induced grammaticalisation” (Heine/Kuteva 2005): an existing source structure in the receiving language (English) expands along normal paths, but under a triggering effect of a contact language (Irish), ultimately leading to an apparent duplication of a foreign model. Empirical data comes from historical 18th/19th century corpus material. It provides evidence about the chronology and sociolinguistic setting in which the relevant changes took place. It supports a scenario where both Irish-English bilingualism and exposure to the English source constructions played crucial roles.

Abstract: This paper develops a semantic approach to the study of “reciprocity” — an area increasingly seen as central to linguistic typology. “Reciprocal” and “reflexive-reciprocal” constructions from five languages — English, Russian, Polish, French and Japanese — are analyzed in considerable detail. The different, though interrelated, meanings of these constructions are explicated, and the proposed explications are supported with linguistic evidence. The paper challenges current approaches which tend to lump formally and semantically distinct constructions under one arbitrary label such as “RECIP”, and it seeks to show how linguistic typology can be transformed by joining forces with rigorous cross-linguistic semantics. It also challenges the Nijmegen School approach, which privileges extensionalist “video-clipping” over conceptual analysis. The analysis presented in the paper demonstrates the descriptive and explanatory power of the NSM methodology. The results achieved through semantic analysis are shown to be convergent with hypotheses about “shared intentionality” put forward by Michael Tomasello and colleagues in the context of evolutionary psychology, and to throw new light on social universals (“human sociality”).

Abstract: The theory of creole genesis developed in Lefebvre (1998 and related work) is formulated within the framework of the processes otherwise known to play a role in language genesis and language change in general, that is, relexification, grammaticalisation and reanalysis. This paper evaluates the respective contribution of these processes to creole genesis and development. The following issues are taken up. Can functional categories undergo relexification? Is the process at work in creole genesis best characterised as relexification or as transfer? Can there be cases of partial relexification? Are grammaticalisation and reanalysis distinct processes? Is keeping them separate useful in studying creole genesis and development? How are these three processes articulated with respect to each other in creole genesis and development?

Abstract: This paper looks at the relations between tone and features from other phonological subsystems in Papiamentu. It proposes that the interaction of tonal features with features from stress and intonational subsystems provides important clues about the typological classification of Papiamentu as a tone language. Moreover, the taxis of tones, or their organization in the string, also provides a better understanding of this language. Papiamentu fits the description of tone-restricted languages but also exhibits features of intonational systems.

Abstract: This paper gives clear synchronic evidence for the origin of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in Emerillon, a Tupi-Guarani language. SVCs in that language result from a gerundive construction after the loss of both a subordinator and an indexation pattern specific to dependent clauses. After a short review of the general literature on the origins of SVCs and their similarity to converbs (of which Tupi-Guarani gerundives may be considered a subtype), the author gives a detailed account of the Emerillon SVCs. Strong arguments then show that Emerillon serial verbs (superficially comparable to independent verbs) originate from a 'deranked' dependent clause. The paper ends with some discussions on clause linkage, comparing more specifically SVCs and converbs on the morphological, syntactic and functional levels.

Abstract: "Words" may be independently defined and identified in Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Western Tani) in terms of relatively consistent and functionally well-motivated sets of phonological and grammatical criteria. However, these criteria very often fail to converge upon identification of the same formal unit; instead, we frequently find phonological "words" which consist of two grammatical "words", and grammatical "words" which consist of two phonological "words", etc. The resulting "mismatch" between "phonological words" and "grammatical words" in Galo is argued to be theoretically non-trivial, in that its existence is capable of explaining a variety of otherwise seemingly disparate facts in the synchronic and diachronic organization of Galo grammar. The facts from Galo thus support a view of language in which "word" is independently defined in phonological and grammatical terms, and in which neither type of "word" necessarily corresponds to (or is projected by) the other. Although there might be said to exist a very generalized functional pressure towards "unification" of "phonological words" and "grammatical words", such a pressure would not be expressible as a formal constraint on language grammar.

Abstract: The predicative possessive construction in Amharic exhibits a mismatch in grammatical coding: the possessor receives object marking on the verb while the overt NP exhibits phenomena associated with nominative case in Amharic. This article investigates the mismatch in light of its historical development as attested in archaisms found in proverbs and old Biblical texts, examines both overt and covert syntactic properties of the possessor today, and also considers evidence from other related constructions. The possessive construction developed from the existential construction where the possessor corresponded to a locative/recipient and today shows evidence of developing subject status.

Abstract: Using diachronic corpus data, this article examines the grammaticalization of three Korean aspectual markers, progressive ‑ko iss‑, resultative ‑e iss‑, and anterior ‑ess‑. It demonstrates that the three Korean aspectual markers emerged from the same source ‑e is(i)‑, which in the 15th C expressed both resultative and progressive meanings. This finding goes against Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca’s (1994) proposition that perfective and imperfective markers follow separate grammaticalization paths. In addition, the finding confirms that Shirai’s (1998) proposal about the murky distinction between perfective and imperfective domains also holds true in the diachronic development of aspectual markers.

Abstract: This paper investigates the preferred argument structure in Tsou, and the extent to which such a preference pattern is shaped by the interaction among mention type, valency role and activation status. Two significant findings emerge from the data. Strikingly, Ss and Os in discourse are not the most preferred loci for introducing new information. In addition, lexical NPs in Tsou are not a dispreferred form for encoding given information, and pronominals are restricted to occurring only with specific valency roles. Since lexical As are shown to occur with a higher proportion than those in other languages, they cannot strictly be said to be avoided in Tsou discourse. The morphosyntactic properties in Tsou are argued to add a critical fourth dimension to the three-way interaction of mention type, valency role and activation status to shape the final form of preferred argument structure in discourse.