abstract: ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the copular/locative and existential predications in Arabic. The main focus is on the typology and syntax of the existential predications. The negation of such predications reveals interesting results. The Negative Existential Cycle (Croft, 1991) is a model that describes the process by which verbal negators arise from existential negators. I discuss data of existentials and negative existentials from Standard Arabic, Saudi Arabic dialect, and Gulf Pidgin Arabic. I argue for canonical vs. non-canonical word orders in copular/locative and existential sentences, respectively. I examine the grammaticalization path of the existentials from their locative content in each language form. Then, I investigate the syntactic word order of the copular/locative and existential constructions in each variety. I investigate the negation of the existential construction in each variety. First, Standard Arabic is shown to be at stage A in the Negative Existential Cycle. The Hijazi and Najdi Arabic spoken by elders show further developments. Hijazi Arabic appears to be at stage B, while Najdi Arabic appears to be at stage B and an intermediate stage B ~ C. Second, I show that in Saudi Arabic the negative existential has been extended to the verbal domain. Saudi Arabic is at stages A, B, and B ~ C, while Qassimi Arabic is at stages A and B. Third, I show that the existential construction in Gulf Pidgin Arabic is only negated by the negative existential predicate, while the verbal sentences are negated by the negative existential and the verbal negator. Therefore, Gulf Pidgin Arabic is at stages B and C in the Negative Existential Cycle. Finally, I discuss the syntax of copular/locative and existential predications in each variety. I propose a unified syntactic structure. Existential and possessive predications are analyzed as inverse copular sentences (Moro, 1997) as opposed to the canonical copular/locative sentences. The unified structure accounts for the agreement facts, such as partial vs. full agreement in existential and copular/locative predications, respectively. The data investigated here will contribute to Arabic comparative and historical linguistics. More Arabic dialects’ data is needed to determine their stages in the Negative Existential Cycle. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

Cette étude vise à fournir une description détaillée de l’évidentialité en anglais dans une approche contrastive avec le tibétain. Elle repose sur un corpus spécialement recueilli au Tibet et en Angleterre (TSC et CSC/LAC, 2010-2012, 10 h.). Le tibétain possède un système évidentiel complexe et grammaticalisé dont la description peut fournir une grille d’analyse préliminaire pour notre étude de l’évidentialité en anglais. Des exemples authentiques et des données quantitatives issus du corpus nous permettent d’illustrer et de compléter les descriptions du groupe verbal tibétain dans plusieurs travaux pionniers antérieurs à la présente recherche (Tournadre & Sangda Dorje 1998) afin de poser les bases de la sémantique évidentielle. Les marqueurs évidentiels qui émergent dans les parties tibétaine et anglaise du corpus sont examinés afin de déterminer les paramètres qui motivent leur utilisation. Les marqueurs tibétains sont principalement grammaticaux et intégrés à des paradigmes syntaxiques : copules, suffixes verbaux et enclitiques. Les marqueurs évidentiels anglais sont lexicaux ou semi-grammaticaux : verbes de perception, verbes de cognition, verbes de discours, modaux, adverbes, conjoints, parenthétiques et marqueurs de discours (Nuyts 2001a, Cappelli 2007, Sanders & Sweetser 2009, Mortensen 2010, Whitt 2010, Gisborne 2010, Miller 2008, Boulonnais 2010, Gurajek 2010, Kaltenböck et coll. 2011, Heine 2013). Cette description de l’évidentialité en tibétain et en anglais nous permet d’analyser les conséquences d’un rendu grammatical ou lexical de cette notion (Talmy 2000, Bybee et coll. 1994, Nuyts 2001a, Boye & Harder 2009). Des analyses quantitatives et qualitatives du corpus contrastif et sur large corpus illustrent les différences de complexité, d'optionalité, de fréquence, de restriction sémantique, de prise en charge, de statut informatif, et de stratégie de discours dans les deux systèmes.Enfin, nous réévaluons la dichotomie, souvent considérée comme acquise, entre évidentialité grammaticale et lexicale (Aikhenvald 2004). Nous avançons que les marqueurs évidentiels des deux langues se positionnent à différents endroits sur un continuum multidimensionnel lexique-grammaire. Cette étude ne remet pas en question que le système évidentiel tibétain est plus grammaticalisé que le système anglais, mais démontre que ce dernier présente tous les signes d’une grammaticalisation partielle. Nous concluons ainsi que l’évidentialité est une notion pertinente et nécessaire pour une description linguistique complète de l’anglais. / This study aims to give a detailed description of evidentiality in English in contrast with Tibetan. It is based on a specialised corpus collected in Tibet and in England (TSC and CSC/LAC, 2010-2012, 10 h.).Tibetan has a complex and grammaticalised evidential system, and its description can provide a preliminary analytical grid for a semantic assessment of English evidentiality. Athentic examples and quantitative data from the corpus illustrate and supplement the analyses of the Tibetan verb phrase from previous research (Tournadre & Sangda Dorje 1998), in order to lay the foundation of the semantics of evidentiality. The evidential markers that emerge in the Tibetan and English sections of the corpus are examined so as to determine the parameters that motivate their usage. Tibetan evidentials are mainly grammatical and paradigmatised: copulas, verb suffixes and enclitics. English evidentials are either lexical or semi-grammatical: perception verbs, cognition verbs, speech verbs, modals, adverbs, conjuncts, parentheticals and discourse markers (Nuyts 2001a, Cappelli 2007, Sanders & Sweetser 2009, Mortensen 2010, Whitt 2010, Gisborne 2010, Miller 2008, Boulonnais 2010, Gurajek 2010, Kaltenböck et al. 2011, Heine 2013).This survey of Tibetan and English evidentiality provides precise data for the analysis of the consequences of a grammatical or a lexical rendering of this notion (Talmy 2000, Bybee et al. 1994, Nuyts 2001a, Boye & Harder 2009). Qualitative and quantitative evidence illustrates the differences in complexity, optionality, frequency, semantic restriction, speaker commitment, informative status and discourse strategy in the two systems. Finally, this study reassesses the assumed dichotomy between grammatical and lexical evidentiality (Aikhenvald 2004), arguing that evidentials in both Tibetan and English inhabit a lexicon-grammar multidimensional continuum, merely in different positions. This study does not question that the Tibetan evidential system is more grammaticalised than the English one, but it shows that the latter presents all the signs of partial grammaticalisation. This reassessment leads to the conclusion that evidentiality is a relevant and necessary notion for a thorough linguistic description of English.

This paper investigates the structural properties of morphosyntactically marked focus constructions, focussing on the often neglected non-focal sentence part in African tone languages. <br>Based on new empirical evidence from five Gur and Kwa languages, we claim that these focus expressions have to be analysed as biclausal constructions even though they do not represent clefts containing restrictive relative clauses. <br>First, we relativize the partly overgeneralized assumptions about structural correspondences between the out-of-focus part and relative clauses, and second, we show that our data do in fact support the hypothesis of a clause coordinating pattern as present in clause sequences in narration. <br>It is argued that we deal with a non-accidental, systematic feature and that grammaticalization may conceal such basic narrative structures.

The aim of this dissertation is to give a detailed analysis of the Dutch verb komen ‘come’ and the Swedish verb komma ‘come’ based on a systematic comparison. Focus has been placed on grammatical polysemy and the study is written within the framework of cognitive linguistics. Both verbs can be defined as corresponding to a complex category consisting of a prototypical meaning and other meanings which can be central or peripheral in relation to the prototype. Two monolingual corpora consisting of newspaper texts were used as sources of data: INL 27 Miljoen Woorden Krantencorpus 1995 and Press 95, 96, 97 Concordances in Göteborg University’s Bank of Swedish. A sample of 1,490 tokens of komen and 1,518 tokens of komma was taken from the two corpora. When analyzing the two verbs and their context the following ten variables were taken into consideration: 1) physical movement, 2) animate or inanimate subject, 3) adverbial, 4) future reference 5) bounded or unbounded aktionsart, 6) ingressive meaning, 7) accidentality, 8) infinitive marker, 9) predictive and/or intentional meaning, and 10) causativity. The results indicate that komen and komma have the same prototypical meaning. However, the semantic extensions from the prototype differ between the two verbs. If we consider the two verbs in a network, the meanings of komen and komma occupy different positions relative to the prototype. On the one hand, when Dutch komen is a copulative verb and/or occurs in lexicalized verb phrases, the resultative meaning is more central, while the aspectual meaning is peripheral. On the other hand, the temporal meaning of Swedish komma, as a future auxiliary verb, holds a more central position than the resultative meaning which is more peripheral. Nevertheless, Dutch komen, which is not considered a future auxiliary verb, but is rather an aspectual auxiliary verb shows similarities in the present tense (komen te + V2) with the Swedish kommer att construction (a true future auxiliary verb). That is, Dutch komen can have clear future reference, but in a limited context. Whereas Dutch komen is categorized as a copulative verb, the Swedish komma is not considered a copulative verb. Nevertheless, it is clear from the corpus that Swedish komma has a copula-like function, but in a limited context. Finally, it has become clear that komen and komma have undergone somewhat different grammaticalization processes even though both verbs contain similar meanings.

<p>In this corpus-based study, the two verb pairs arise and rise and awake and wake are investigated. The paper focuses on seven research questions that are related to the meanings of the verbs in question, the semantic specialisations of those verbs, and the semantic relation</p><p>of the specific verb pair constituents. Furthermore, tendencies of language change are investigated, and an attempt is made to generalise over the influence of the prefix a- on those</p><p>tendencies.</p><p>The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis show that the verbs awake and wake are more synonymous than the verbs arise and rise. It seems as if due to this difference, the two verbs arise and awake are subject to different processes of language change that take</p><p>their development into different directions. The observations made about the characteristics of the prefix a- that is involved in the two verbs arise and awake are often ambiguous and inconclusive. Therefore, the influence of this prefix on the processes of language change needs to be analysed further by investigating more word pairs distinguished by the absence or presence of the prefix a-.</p>

In spite of the vast amount of research on mood in Romance languages, certain fundamental issues are clearly underrepresented, particularly in the field of diachronic linguistics. With this in mind, the primary goal of this dissertation is to provide a comprehensive explanation for developments in Romance mood distribution. Unlike the majority of existing research, this approach does not analyze mood in isolation, nor does it look outward for language-external explanations. Instead, changes in mood usage are related to major typological developments via several interconnected analyses which rely heavily on data from Latin and medieval Spanish and French. This investigation, which takes as its starting point the well-attested typological shift from OV to VO word order, addresses four major issues. The first of these is branching congruency, whereby post-posed subordinate clauses are more closely associated with explicit subordinating conjunctions. This hypothesis is tested via a quantitative analysis of Latin data, in order to establish a link between conjunctions and VO word order. The development of these subordinating elements is then analyzed within the grammaticalization framework, which provides insight into the nature of specific Latin and Romance forms, in addition to demonstrating the usefulness of certain theoretical notions. The outcome of this process is a highly generalized Romance subordinator, which is argued to have undergone partial synthesis with the subjunctive, evidenced by an increase in both obligatoriness and contiguity. Finally, these cumulative changes in the linguistic system are shown to have had substantial destabilizing effects on the existing subjunctive / indicative contrast. The significance of this claim is that, already in Latin, mood selection is characterized by a loss of motivation and an increase in automaticity. As a result, subsequent changes in mood distribution in Romance languages are not viewed merely as reductive phenomena, but rather as signs of the refunctionalization of a destabilized, yet viable, paradigm. / text

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The present research focuses on the Lithuanian modal verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’. The purpose of the research is to analyse the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ within the framework of grammaticalization and to identify what aspects of grammaticalization are relevant (if at all) to the verbs under study. The study also aims at exploring the factors that trigger the rise of modal meanings and at comparing the semantic properties of the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in contemporary Lithuanian and in Old Lithuanian writings (the 16th and 17th centuries). The data of the contemporary Lithuanian language has been compiled from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, namely its Central newspapers and Fiction parts. The examples of Old Lithuanian have been extracted from three Old Lithuanian Writings: “Postilė” by J. Bretkūnas (1591), “Postilė” by M. Daukša (1599), and “Punktai Sakymų” by K. Sirvydas (1629; 1644). The corpus-based study has shown that the verbs under analysis satisfy the parameters of frequency and polifunctionality. However, they do not exhibit any morphological or morphosyntactic properties that set them apart from the other lexical verbs. In Old Lithuanian Writings the verb reik(ė)ti ‘need’ is used as a modal verb while the verbs gauti ‘get’ and tekti ‘be gotten’ are rarely used in their modal meanings. In contemporary Lithuanian, reik(ė)ti ‘need’ and tekti ‘be gotten’... [to full text] / Disertacijos tyrimo objektu pasirinkti trys lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiai, – gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti, – iki šiol sulaukę mažai lingvistų dėmesio. Tikslas – ištirti lietuvių kalbos modalinius veiksmažodžius gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti iš gramatinimo reiškinio perspektyvos, išsiaiškinti, kurie gramatinimo parametrai relevantiški (jei išvis relevantiški) nagrinėjamiems lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiams, išnagrinėti šių veiksmažodžių modalinės semantikos ypatumus, modalinės reikšmės susidarymą lemiančius veiksnius, pateikti nagrinėjamų veiksmažodžių semantinį aprašą ir palyginti jų vartosenos ypatumus senojo periodo (XVI-XVII a.) ir dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje. Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos medžiaga surinkta iš „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstyno“ grožinės literatūros ir publicistikos patekstynio. Senosios lietuvių kalbos pavyzdžiai surinkti iš trijų senųjų lietuvių kalbos raštų: J. Bretkūno „Postilės“ (1591), M. Daukšos „Postilės“ (1599), ir K. Sirvydo „Punktai sakymų“ (1629; 1644). Tyrimas parodė, kad analizuoti veiksmažodžiai tenkina dažnumo ir polifunkciškumo parametrus. Vis dėlto gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti neišsiskiria griežtu sisteminiu struktūrinių požymių rinkiniu, kuris apibrėžtų modalinį jų statusą. Senuosiuose lietuvių kalbos raštuose veiksmažodis reik(ė)ti funkcionuoja kaip modalinis veiksmažodis, o veiksmažodžiai gauti ir tekti retai vartojami modalinėmis reikšmėmis. Dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje reik(ė)ti ir tekti įsitvirtinę kaip modaliniai veiksmažodžiai, o gauti tėra... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

The aim of this study is to investigate how the modal auxiliaries will and shall and the semi-modal BE going to are used to express futurity by individuals whose first language is Swedish. The study is corpus based, and the corpora used in this study consist of Swedish newspapers in English (SWENC) and material from blogs which are written in English by Swedes (BESC). These are compared with the press sub-corpora in F-LOB (the Freiburg-LOB Corpus of British English) and Frown (the Freiburg-Brown corpus of American English), which represent British and American varieties of English. The method is quantitative and the results are mainly presented in frequencies. The results show that all of the modals are used in SWENC and BESC. The core modal will is the most frequently used modal in all of the corpora and sub-corpora. The semi-modal BE going to is most frequently used in BESC and the second core modal shall is most frequent in SWENC. However, qualitative examination of shall revealed that the writers in SWENC use the modal differently from how it is used in F-LOB Press. This study shows evidence of variation in use of the modals which express futurity. The fact that the semi-modal BE going to exists in the Swedish material indicates that the process of grammaticalization continues in the Swedish form of English.

Submitted by Aelson Maciera (aelsoncm@terra.com.br) on 2017-08-09T15:37:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissDWFC.pdf: 2344854 bytes, checksum: 2cad1673706f9d12bdc52607eab6dd15 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-09T17:23:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissDWFC.pdf: 2344854 bytes, checksum: 2cad1673706f9d12bdc52607eab6dd15 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-09T17:24:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissDWFC.pdf: 2344854 bytes, checksum: 2cad1673706f9d12bdc52607eab6dd15 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-09T17:29:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissDWFC.pdf: 2344854 bytes, checksum: 2cad1673706f9d12bdc52607eab6dd15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-22 / Não recebi financiamento / This work is about the existence of a use of só que não, variant of só que, which, in essence, expresses speaker’s irony with respect to a preceding proposition. Our object of study originated from the internet, as numerous other expressions, what shows the innovative and refreshing role of the World Wide Web on language uses. By breaking paradigms, the Internet slang has been responsible for promoting several discussions about the degree of its influence on the writing of those still in school age. However, meeting place even in strong groups of newspaper or magazine, with national circulation, the expression só que não consists of more a case of grammaticalization. Concerning different ways of só que não occurrence, once it can appear only with its initials, for example (#)SQN, we based on Longhin-Thomazi’s study (2003a, 2003b) to analyze its behavior on syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and textual aspects, given our hypothesis was prove it as a expression with conjunction role. Therefore, we adopt a methodology that considers effective use of the language, as is usual in functionalist studies, aiming to describe real events synchronously. We thus count on the WebCorp, which can, by offering a series of filters and contextualizing redeemed occurrences, be considered a versatile tool in the search for occurrences (CAMARGO, 2012). In this sense, our analysis criteria, which are (i) position of the expression, (ii) its denial and setback, (iii) its irony, and (iv) its association with several textual genres, allowed us to achieve the following results: the expression prefers locate itself always after some textual portion, what means that só que não acts over a piece of information located immediately before of it; all of our occurrences emphasize that both expectations drop and irony are product of its presence; and its recurrence on texts from column, opinion article and editorial genres mainly. It is concluded then that the expression has suffered action of grammaticalization as a conjunction, according to Hopper’s study (1991), by confirming our initial hypothesis. / Este trabalho diz respeito à existência de um uso de só que não, variante de só que, que, em sua essência, expressa a ironia do falante com relação a uma proposição imediatamente anterior. Vale dizer que nosso objeto de estudo, ao que tudo indica, originou-se da internet, como inúmeras outras expressões, o que evidencia, então, o papel inovador e renovador da rede mundial de computadores sobre os usos linguísticos. Prova cabal disso é o fato de, ao quebrar paradigmas, o internetês ser responsável pela promoção de diversas discussões a respeito de seu grau de influência na escrita daqueles ainda em idade escolar. Além do universo cibernético, a locução tem encontrado lugar até mesmo em grandes jornais, de circulação nacional, o que demonstra sua versatilidade para transitar entre diferentes contextos e adequar-se a diferentes modalidades da língua. Tendo em vista o caráter de só que não, cuja representação, em alguns casos, se faz presente pela mera indicação de suas iniciais, a saber, (#)SQN, procedemos, com base na caracterização funcional da perífrase conjuncional só que, de Longhin-Thomazi (2003a, 2003b), a uma investigação que descreve nosso objeto de estudo nos aspectos sintático, semântico, pragmático e discursivo-textual e que, por conseguinte, o classifica de locução conjuncional de contraexpectativa com valor negativo, a hipótese inicial. Para tanto, adotamos uma metodologia que considera o uso efetivo da língua, como é de praxe nos estudos funcionalistas, com dados obtidos sincronicamente, visando a descrever ocorrências reais. Contamos, desse modo, com o WebCorp, que, por oferecer uma série de filtros e contextualizar as ocorrências resgatadas, apresentando-as de maneira adaptada a qualquer que seja a análise de mesma natureza, mostra-se uma ferramenta sobremodo versátil na busca de casos (CAMARGO, 2012), e valemo-nos dos seguintes critérios avaliativos: (i) posição da construção, (ii) quebra de expectativas, (iii) veiculação de ironia e (iv) associação a diferentes gêneros textuais. Nesse tocante, nossos achados evidenciam a preferência da expressão pela posposição, já que sua atuação incide sempre sobre a porção textual anterior; a presença inerente tanto da contraexpectativa quanto da ironia; e sua recorrência também em gêneros como coluna, artigo de opinião e editorial principalmente. Assim, confirma-se a nossa hipótese inicial, por se tratar mesmo de uma locução conjuncional em estágios iniciais de gramaticalização, de acordo com Hopper (1991).