Pub Date : 2024-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103851
Paula Rubio-Fernandez
Pragmatic phenomena are characterized by extreme variability, which makes it difficult to draw sound generalizations about the role of social cognition in pragmatic language by and large. I introduce cultural evolutionary pragmatics as a new framework for the study of the interdependence between language and social cognition, and point at the study of common-ground management across languages and ages as a way to test the reliance of pragmatic language on social cognition. I illustrate this new research line with three experiments on article use by second language speakers, whose mother tongue lacks articles. These L2 speakers are known to find article use challenging and it is often argued that their difficulties stem from articles being pragmatically redundant. Contrary to this view, the results of this exploratory study support the view that proficient article use requires automatizing basic socio-cognitive processes, offering a window into the interdependence between language and social cognition.
{"title":"First acquiring articles in a second language: A new approach to the study of language and social cognition","authors":"Paula Rubio-Fernandez","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103851","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103851","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pragmatic phenomena are characterized by extreme variability, which makes it difficult to draw sound generalizations about the role of social cognition in pragmatic language by and large. I introduce cultural evolutionary pragmatics as a new framework for the study of the interdependence between language and social cognition, and point at the study of common-ground management across languages and ages as a way to test the reliance of pragmatic language on social cognition. I illustrate this new research line with three experiments on article use by second language speakers, whose mother tongue lacks articles. These L2 speakers are known to find article use challenging and it is often argued that their difficulties stem from articles being <em>pragmatically redundant</em>. Contrary to this view, the results of this exploratory study support the view that proficient article use requires automatizing basic socio-cognitive processes, offering a window into the interdependence between language and social cognition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"313 ","pages":"Article 103851"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142759291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103850
Xiao Zhao , Jiahui Huang
This study examines the linguistic phenomenon of other-initiated self-repairs (OISRs) in the specific context of Chinese inquisitorial criminal courts. These OISRs are prompted by interpreters and implemented by non-native English-speaking African defendants, adversely affecting the defendants’ defence strategies. Transcriptions of five interpreter-mediated trials are analysed to understand the dynamics at play in court settings. Quantitative analysis of turn distribution data and subsequent qualitative conversation analysis reveal that linguistically vulnerable defendants are relegated to a constrained discursive space with limited support from their lawyers in Chinese bilingual courts. In these settings, frequent interpreter-initiated repairs hinder defendants disproportionately, undermining their ability to establish credibility, present new evidence, argue for exoneration or use sympathy cues for leniency. Placing these findings in the context of Chinese court power dynamics, we argue that the pervasive interpreter-initiated OISRs in Chinese courtrooms should be considered a shared responsibility rooted in the court’s language ideology and its legal beliefs and culture, which, at present, systemically marginalise defendants’ right to a fair trial.
{"title":"Interpreter mediation as other-initiated self-repair in court: Effects on the defence in Chinese bilingual criminal trials","authors":"Xiao Zhao , Jiahui Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103850","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103850","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the linguistic phenomenon of other-initiated self-repairs (OISRs) in the specific context of Chinese inquisitorial criminal courts. These OISRs are prompted by interpreters and implemented by non-native English-speaking African defendants, adversely affecting the defendants’ defence strategies. Transcriptions of five interpreter-mediated trials are analysed to understand the dynamics at play in court settings. Quantitative analysis of turn distribution data and subsequent qualitative conversation analysis reveal that linguistically vulnerable defendants are relegated to a constrained discursive space with limited support from their lawyers in Chinese bilingual courts. In these settings, frequent interpreter-initiated repairs hinder defendants disproportionately, undermining their ability to establish credibility, present new evidence, argue for exoneration or use sympathy cues for leniency. Placing these findings in the context of Chinese court power dynamics, we argue that the pervasive interpreter-initiated OISRs in Chinese courtrooms should be considered a shared responsibility rooted in the court’s language ideology and its legal beliefs and culture, which, at present, systemically marginalise defendants’ right to a fair trial.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"313 ","pages":"Article 103850"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142759292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103835
Nazik Dinçtopal Deniz
This paper reviews sentence processing research conducted on Turkish and offers insights into future projects that can examine some further questions that take advantage of the typological properties of Turkish. Sentence processing research has focused mainly on processing ambiguous constructions and linguistic dependencies, and sentence processing research in Turkish has followed a similar path. The findings of the reviewed work on Turkish support the primacy of syntax views in sentence processing, since non-syntactic factors were found to be either delayed or observed in sentence-final decisions. The results of the review have also indicated that, despite Turkish being a head-final language, most sentence processing research on Turkish (on both ambiguity and dependency resolutions) showed patterns like those in head-initial languages, except for two studies that showed language-specific behavior dependent on morphology. Although the majority of work on Turkish is supportive of a universal rather than an experience-based parsing mechanism, there appears to be some language-specific tuning that cannot be attributed to head-finality. Future research can further tap into this question and examine the factors that determine experience-based processing. The questions currently addressed in the field are evolving in a different direction. The review concludes with how the typological properties of Turkish –its head finality, flexible word order, and rich morphology- provide generous test grounds for these questions.
{"title":"Sentence processing in Turkish: A review and future directions","authors":"Nazik Dinçtopal Deniz","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103835","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103835","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper reviews sentence processing research conducted on Turkish and offers insights into future projects that can examine some further questions that take advantage of the typological properties of Turkish. Sentence processing research has focused mainly on processing ambiguous constructions and linguistic dependencies, and sentence processing research in Turkish has followed a similar path. The findings of the reviewed work on Turkish support the primacy of syntax views in sentence processing, since non-syntactic factors were found to be either delayed or observed in sentence-final decisions. The results of the review have also indicated that, despite Turkish being a head-final language, most sentence processing research on Turkish (on both ambiguity and dependency resolutions) showed patterns like those in head-initial languages, except for two studies that showed language-specific behavior dependent on morphology. Although the majority of work on Turkish is supportive of a universal rather than an experience-based parsing mechanism, there appears to be some language-specific tuning that cannot be attributed to head-finality. Future research can further tap into this question and examine the factors that determine experience-based processing. The questions currently addressed in the field are evolving in a different direction. The review concludes with how the typological properties of Turkish –its head finality, flexible word order, and rich morphology- provide generous test grounds for these questions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"313 ","pages":"Article 103835"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142759290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-28DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103849
Zhenyi Liao, Lei Liang
Traditionally, there are five lexical tones in Taiyuan dialect including one rising tone and four falling tones, but previous studies have shown that some speakers merged the four falling tones Ping Sheng (T1)/ Shang Sheng (T2)/ Yin Ru (T4)/ Yang Ru (T5) in production. The current study investigates how 25 participants (14 females) with different age groups perceive four falling tones by means of discrimination and identification tasks. Both accuracy rate and reaction time are measured. Results show that: (i) the stabilization sequence in perception is as follows: T2 > T1 > T4 > T5, indicating that T2 is the most stable tone while T5 is the most susceptible to merge with other tones. (ii) T4 and T5 exhibit the highest degree of merger, with a tendency to perceive T5 as T4. (iii) there are two stages of tone merger in Taiyuan dialect at the perceptual level. The pronounced confusion between T4 and T5 is at the first stage, with a primary trend of T5 merging into T4. And the confusion among T1 and the entering tones (Yin and Yang Ru) is at the second stage, indicating a possibility that the entering tones are more likely to merge with the non-entering tone, T1, after the loss of the glottal coda.
{"title":"The merger of falling tones: A perception study in Taiyuan Jin Chinese","authors":"Zhenyi Liao, Lei Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103849","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103849","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Traditionally, there are five lexical tones in Taiyuan dialect including one rising tone and four falling tones, but previous studies have shown that some speakers merged the four falling tones Ping Sheng (T1)/ Shang Sheng (T2)/ Yin Ru (T4)/ Yang Ru (T5) in production. The current study investigates how 25 participants (14 females) with different age groups perceive four falling tones by means of discrimination and identification tasks. Both accuracy rate and reaction time are measured. Results show that: (i) the stabilization sequence in perception is as follows: T2 > T1 > T4 > T5, indicating that T2 is the most stable tone while T5 is the most susceptible to merge with other tones. (ii) T4 and T5 exhibit the highest degree of merger, with a tendency to perceive T5 as T4. (iii) there are two stages of tone merger in Taiyuan dialect at the perceptual level. The pronounced confusion between T4 and T5 is at the first stage, with a primary trend of T5 merging into T4. And the confusion among T1 and the entering tones (Yin and Yang Ru) is at the second stage, indicating a possibility that the entering tones are more likely to merge with the non-entering tone, T1, after the loss of the glottal coda.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"313 ","pages":"Article 103849"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142743366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Understanding how language users navigate through syntactic ambiguities is crucial for unravelling the intricacies of sentence processing. This study explored ambiguity resolution within verb-final double prepositional phrase structures in Dutch. While previous research has largely focused on SVO structures such as those found in English, there is a scarcity of evidence regarding initial syntactic decisions in verb-final structures. The study pursued two aims: firstly, to investigate whether visual cues can direct the parser towards an intended interpretation; and secondly, to examine the potential of visual cues in priming verb subcategorization information within ambiguous sentences in the absence of linguistic input. A reading task was administered to address these objectives by assessing per-word reading times. Furthermore, ambiguity within the structures was resolved by presenting an animation clip that displayed the intended interpretation of each sentence before reading it. The results indicated that the animations provided before the reading task modulated the processing of NP- and VP-attachment interpretations of the ambiguous structures under study. However, these contextual cues did not prime subcategorized information of verbs earlier than their appearance within the sentence, as evidenced by unchanged reading profiles for the regions preceding the verb. This study demonstrates that visual contexts modulate the word-by-word processing of Dutch verb-final structures, and that verb argument structure appears to influence this process. The results are examined through various sentence processing theories, lending support to constraint-based models.
了解语言使用者如何处理句法歧义对于揭示句子处理的复杂性至关重要。本研究探讨了荷兰语中动词前置双介词短语结构中的歧义解决方法。以往的研究主要集中在 SVO 结构（如英语中的 SVO 结构）上，而有关动宾式结构中初始句法决定的证据却很少。本研究有两个目的：首先，研究视觉线索是否能引导分析器做出预期的解释；其次，研究视觉线索在没有语言输入的情况下，在模棱两可的句子中引导动词子分类信息的潜力。为了实现这些目标，我们进行了一项阅读任务，评估每个单词的阅读时间。此外，通过在阅读前播放动画短片来显示每个句子的预期解释，从而解决了结构中的歧义问题。结果表明，阅读任务前提供的动画调节了对所研究的模糊结构的 NP 和 VP 附加解释的处理。然而，这些上下文线索并没有在动词出现在句子中之前为动词的子分类信息提供素材，这一点可以从动词前面区域的阅读概况保持不变得到证明。本研究表明，视觉语境会调节对荷兰语动词词尾结构的逐字加工，而动词的参数结构似乎会影响这一过程。研究结果通过各种句子加工理论进行了检验，为基于约束的模型提供了支持。
{"title":"Visual priming and parsing preferences: A self-paced reading study of PP-attachment ambiguity in Dutch verb-final structures","authors":"Sara Shoghi , Seçkin Arslan , Roelien Bastiaanse , Srdan Popov","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103840","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103840","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding how language users navigate through syntactic ambiguities is crucial for unravelling the intricacies of sentence processing. This study explored ambiguity resolution within verb-final double prepositional phrase structures in Dutch. While previous research has largely focused on SVO structures such as those found in English, there is a scarcity of evidence regarding initial syntactic decisions in verb-final structures. The study pursued two aims: firstly, to investigate whether visual cues can direct the parser towards an intended interpretation; and secondly, to examine the potential of visual cues in priming verb subcategorization information within ambiguous sentences in the absence of linguistic input. A reading task was administered to address these objectives by assessing per-word reading times. Furthermore, ambiguity within the structures was resolved by presenting an animation clip that displayed the intended interpretation of each sentence before reading it. The results indicated that the animations provided before the reading task modulated the processing of NP- and VP-attachment interpretations of the ambiguous structures under study. However, these contextual cues did not prime subcategorized information of verbs earlier than their appearance within the sentence, as evidenced by unchanged reading profiles for the regions preceding the verb. This study demonstrates that visual contexts modulate the word-by-word processing of Dutch verb-final structures, and that verb argument structure appears to influence this process. The results are examined through various sentence processing theories, lending support to constraint-based models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"313 ","pages":"Article 103840"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142704321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-20DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103836
Yaoyao Chen , Svenja Adolphs , Dawn Knight
Our study aims to develop a new corpus pragmatic approach for exploring the gesture patterns (i.e. functions and forms) co-occurring with the discourse marker ‘I mean’, including a comparison with previous research on another discourse marker (i.e. ‘you know’). We selected and analysed 246 instances of ‘I mean’ and 88 gestures that co-occur with these instances from the supervisory sub-corpus of the Nottingham Multimodal Corpus (654 mins, 118,508 words). A functional framework for the analysis of speech functions was developed based on the emerging speech patterns surrounding ‘I mean’. This included three functions: ‘editing’, ‘introducing modifications’ and ‘ending modifications’. The co-occurring gestures were categorised into four functional types: pragmatic, referential, beat and deictic gestures. The main results of the speech analysis of ‘I mean’ suggest that ‘I mean’ tends to be used predominantly as a marker of ‘editing’ (163 instances, 66.26%) and ‘introducing modifications’ (80 instances, 32.52%), both of which emphasise the speaker’s intention to present additional information. These findings largely resemble those of ‘you know’; however, the functions of ‘you know’ are more varied. The analysis of the gesture patterns co-occurring with ‘I mean’ shows that both the ‘editing’ and ‘introducing modifications’ functions tend to co-occur with pragmatic gestures that serve a similar function of presenting and offering information (e.g., open hand palm up and open hand palm oblique gestures), mirroring the results of ‘you know’. These results suggest a functional coordination between discourse markers and gestures.
{"title":"Towards a speech-gesture profile of discourse markers: The case of ‘I mean’","authors":"Yaoyao Chen , Svenja Adolphs , Dawn Knight","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103836","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103836","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Our study aims to develop a new corpus pragmatic approach for exploring the gesture patterns (i.e. functions and forms) co-occurring with the discourse marker ‘I mean’, including a comparison with previous research on another discourse marker (i.e. ‘you know’). We selected and analysed 246 instances of ‘I mean’ and 88 gestures that co-occur with these instances from the supervisory sub-corpus of the Nottingham Multimodal Corpus (654 mins, 118,508 words). A functional framework for the analysis of speech functions was developed based on the emerging speech patterns surrounding ‘I mean’. This included three functions: ‘editing’, ‘introducing modifications’ and ‘ending modifications’. The co-occurring gestures were categorised into four functional types: pragmatic, referential, beat and deictic gestures. The main results of the speech analysis of ‘I mean’ suggest that ‘I mean’ tends to be used predominantly as a marker of ‘editing’ (163 instances, 66.26%) and ‘introducing modifications’ (80 instances, 32.52%), both of which emphasise the speaker’s intention to present additional information. These findings largely resemble those of ‘you know’; however, the functions of ‘you know’ are more varied. The analysis of the gesture patterns co-occurring with ‘I mean’ shows that both the ‘editing’ and ‘introducing modifications’ functions tend to co-occur with pragmatic gestures that serve a similar function of presenting and offering information (e.g., open hand palm up and open hand palm oblique gestures), mirroring the results of ‘you know’. These results suggest a functional coordination between discourse markers and gestures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 103836"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103833
Joren Somers , Gard B. Jenset , Jóhanna Barðdal
This paper investigates a set of 15 Icelandic verbs licensing both a nominative and a dative argument, recently analysed in the literature, comparing them with a corresponding set of 15 German verbs. The Icelandic dataset consists of verbs selecting for three different argument structures: (a) ordinary Nom-Dat verbs, (b) non-alternating Dat-Nom verbs and (c) alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs. The German dataset contains either (near-)synonyms or cognates to the Icelandic verbs. One of our most important findings is that apparent Dat-Nom verbs in German, like gefallen ‘please, like’, are in fact alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs in that language. That is, these verbs can either instantiate the Dat-Nom or the Nom-Dat argument structure. This conclusion is supported by word order counts, which show a major difference between alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs and ordinary Nom-Dat verbs across both German and Icelandic. We also examine the set of alternating verbs across both languages statistically using a conditional inference tree. The differences between Icelandic and German especially play out in configurations involving pronouns, whereas, for double NPs, we identify the same additional factors as have already been identified for the monolingual (Icelandic) dataset, namely animacy, length and (in)definiteness.
{"title":"Subjecthood and argument structure of synonymous Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs across German and Icelandic","authors":"Joren Somers , Gard B. Jenset , Jóhanna Barðdal","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103833","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103833","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates a set of 15 Icelandic verbs licensing both a nominative and a dative argument, recently analysed in the literature, comparing them with a corresponding set of 15 German verbs. The Icelandic dataset consists of verbs selecting for three different argument structures: (a) ordinary Nom-Dat verbs, (b) non-alternating Dat-Nom verbs and (c) alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs. The German dataset contains either (near-)synonyms or cognates to the Icelandic verbs. One of our most important findings is that apparent Dat-Nom verbs in German, like <em>gefallen</em> ‘please, like’, are in fact alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs in that language. That is, these verbs can either instantiate the Dat-Nom or the Nom-Dat argument structure. This conclusion is supported by word order counts, which show a major difference between alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs and ordinary Nom-Dat verbs across both German and Icelandic. We also examine the set of alternating verbs across both languages statistically using a conditional inference tree. The differences between Icelandic and German especially play out in configurations involving pronouns, whereas, for double NPs, we identify the same additional factors as have already been identified for the monolingual (Icelandic) dataset, namely animacy, length and (in)definiteness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 103833"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103829
Todd Oakley , Vera Tobin , Adrian Vietorisz , Noah Slobodin , Katherine Gordon
How do economists think and talk about contingency? They express shock, but not in the typical sense of being surprised. In fact, mainstream economists build models in which shocking events are expected variables. An investigation of nominal forms in the [x-shock] construction (e.g., “technology shock,” “supply shock,” or “monetary shock”) among economists reveals a steep increase in the late twentieth century. We report on a large-scale empirical investigation of influential economic textbooks, top economic journals, and US Federal Reserve documents. Each corpus shows a steep rise in the frequency of nominal [x-shock] beginning in the 1980s. This quantitative analysis lays the groundwork for a qualitative analysis of the various uses of [x-shock] among economists from different schools. First, the rise of nominal shock typifies a process of de-subjectification in which shock moves from its more direct experiential uses toward a role of abstract causation. Second, the steep rise in usage coincides with the rise of general equilibrium models in some economic schools of thought. These models assume a particular type of force dynamic logic. In response, other schools invoke a contrasting force dynamic logic. These developments in the [x-shock] construction show not only semantic change but also the disciplinary logics consolidating that change.
{"title":"Shocking projections: The rise of the [x-shock] construction complex in macroeconomics","authors":"Todd Oakley , Vera Tobin , Adrian Vietorisz , Noah Slobodin , Katherine Gordon","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How do economists think and talk about contingency? They express <em>shock</em>, but not in the typical sense of being surprised. In fact, mainstream economists build models in which <em>shocking</em> events are expected variables. An investigation of nominal forms in the [x-shock] construction (e.g., “technology shock,” “supply shock,” or “monetary shock”) among economists reveals a steep increase in the late twentieth century. We report on a large-scale empirical investigation of influential economic textbooks, top economic journals, and US Federal Reserve documents. Each corpus shows a steep rise in the frequency of nominal [x-shock] beginning in the 1980s. This quantitative analysis lays the groundwork for a qualitative analysis of the various uses of [x-shock] among economists from different schools. First, the rise of nominal <em>shock</em> typifies a process of de<em>-</em>subjectification in which <em>shock</em> moves from its more direct experiential uses toward a role of abstract causation. Second, the steep rise in usage coincides with the rise of general equilibrium models in some economic schools of thought. These models assume a particular type of force dynamic logic. In response, other schools invoke a contrasting force dynamic logic. These developments in the [x-shock] construction show not only semantic change but also the disciplinary logics consolidating that change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 103829"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-14DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103830
Peppina Po-lun Lee
This study examines the evidentiality and epistemic modality of the Cantonese adverb mai6, the sentence-final particle (SFP) lo1, and the mai6…lo1 construction. I argue that mai6 functions as an inferential evidential, while lo1 expresses the speaker’s epistemic attitude. Their co-occurrence in the mai6…lo1 construction highlights the overlap between epistemic modality and evidentiality, with epistemic modality being stronger and evidentiality weak. This pairing represents two type-matching modals with varying strengths. The unacceptability of mai6 occurring independently suggests that the distinction between confirmation and non-confirmation is crucial in determining the distribution of evidential adverbs and epistemic modals. To avoid double realisation of a single modality, confirmative modal SFPs act as strength manipulators, enhancing modal strength of their non-confirmative counterparts. The force of the non-confirmative type is then converted from weak to strong confirmation. Finally, confirmative SFPs vary in their levels of confirmation: strong confirmative SFPs can occur with non-confirmative morphemes or independently, while weak ones can only occur independently.
{"title":"Dependencies between adverbs and sentence-final particles: A case of confirmative and non-confirmative modals in Cantonese","authors":"Peppina Po-lun Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103830","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103830","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the evidentiality and epistemic modality of the Cantonese adverb <em>mai6</em>, the sentence-final particle (SFP) <em>lo1</em>, and the <em>mai6</em>…<em>lo1</em> construction. I argue that <em>mai6</em> functions as an inferential evidential, while <em>lo1</em> expresses the speaker’s epistemic attitude. Their co-occurrence in the <em>mai6…lo1</em> construction highlights the overlap between epistemic modality and evidentiality, with epistemic modality being stronger and evidentiality weak. This pairing represents two type-matching modals with varying strengths. The unacceptability of <em>mai6</em> occurring independently suggests that the distinction between confirmation and non-confirmation is crucial in determining the distribution of evidential adverbs and epistemic modals. To avoid double realisation of a single modality, confirmative modal SFPs act as strength manipulators, enhancing modal strength of their non-confirmative counterparts. The force of the non-confirmative type is then converted from weak to strong confirmation. Finally, confirmative SFPs vary in their levels of confirmation: strong confirmative SFPs can occur with non-confirmative morphemes or independently, while weak ones can only occur independently.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 103830"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142664000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-09DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103828
Chen Li , Seung-Man Kang
This study posits the existence of a covert gap in Chinese gapless relative clauses, seeking to elucidate how this gap, created by the omission of certain sentential elements, can be recovered via coercion from the relative head noun. This mechanism is elucidated by analyzing the relativization process in prepositional phrases and serial verb constructions. Within prepositional phrases, two subtypes are discerned. The first subtype involves the omission of the preposition, a process termed Preposition Ghosting, which occurs to avoid a violation of the Edge Constraint. Conversely, in the second subtype, the preposition remains in situ without undergoing direct relativization, attributable to its less straightforwardly inferable thematic relationship with the head noun. In serial verb constructions, the process of relativization may lead to the omission of either the first or second verb, with the omitted verb subsequently recoverable through coercion from the relative head noun. The findings suggest that ‘gapless’ relative clauses in Chinese are, in fact, ‘gapped’, which highlight syntactic universals that transcend surface-level forms and meanings.
{"title":"Gaplessness in Chinese relative clauses","authors":"Chen Li , Seung-Man Kang","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103828","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103828","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study posits the existence of a covert gap in Chinese gapless relative clauses, seeking to elucidate how this gap, created by the omission of certain sentential elements, can be recovered via coercion from the relative head noun. This mechanism is elucidated by analyzing the relativization process in prepositional phrases and serial verb constructions. Within prepositional phrases, two subtypes are discerned. The first subtype involves the omission of the preposition, a process termed Preposition Ghosting, which occurs to avoid a violation of the Edge Constraint. Conversely, in the second subtype, the preposition remains in situ without undergoing direct relativization, attributable to its less straightforwardly inferable thematic relationship with the head noun. In serial verb constructions, the process of relativization may lead to the omission of either the first or second verb, with the omitted verb subsequently recoverable through coercion from the relative head noun. The findings suggest that ‘gapless’ relative clauses in Chinese are, in fact, ‘gapped’, which highlight syntactic universals that transcend surface-level forms and meanings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 103828"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142664064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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