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In this paper I will analyze the set of markers that have been associated with exclamative sentence-type and exclamations in Romance, like Catalan ma, mira, que , and si , Italian guarda and che , or Spanish mira, que, si , and vaya. The hypothesis I will defend is that the meaning encoded by each of these markers contribute to create an exclamation speech act. I will show that we must first distinguish mirative markers like ma, mira or guarda , which encode the surprise attitude of the speaker towards a proposition. A second class of elements are degree operators, like si , which create the necessary domain extension on which the attitude of the speaker is built. Finally, I will show that que / che is a marker of exclamative sentence-type. In the second part of the article I will show that these pragmatic differences have a transparent reflex in syntax: mirative markers occupy the Judge Phrase position in Krifka's Speech Act Layer, above ForceP and vocatives, so they may combine with different sentence-types, besides exclamatives. In ForceP we find degree operators (and exclamative wh -phrases) in its specifier, and the sentence-type marker que / che in its head. All in all, the paper aims at showing that a compositional approach to exclamativity can deal with the rich set of pragmatic and syntactic properties of exclamative markers in Romance. • Exclamativity and mirativity are two distinct pragmatic categories, with specialized markers. • Mirative markers are typically found with exclamative sentences, but they may appear with other sentence-types as well. • The set of pragmatic and syntactic properties of exclamative particles in Romance can be explained compositionally. • Data from exclamative markers support a rich syntax-pragmatics interface along the lines of the Cartographic Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian/Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dutch Linguistics / Nederlandse Taalkunde is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxia is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper revisits Neuckermans's (2008) proposal concerning the geographic distribution and diachronic genesis of different functions of the particle en, a remnant of Jespersen's Cycle in the Southern Dutch dialects, and addresses van der Auwera's (2009) claim that en may in some dialects of Dutch have developed into a non-negative marker of clausal subordination at the end of the cycle. Based on a 400,000-word corpus of spontaneous dialect speech data from 65 locations in the southern Dutch dialect area (with an emphasis on West and East Flemish ones) as well as on historical data from the literature, it is concluded that Neuckermans's implicational hierarchy (a) needs to be revised and (b) cannot not be a reflex of a diachronic retraction scenario, and that (c) an analysis of non-negative en as a marker of subordination as proposed by van der Auwera cannot be confirmed for the Southern Dutch dialects more generally. Instead, it is argued that the observable distribution points to the synchronic coexistence of several layers of change that have affected en since Middle Dutch, and have led to it having become co-opted as a mirative strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a qualitative and quantitative examination of 2018–2019 online comments in a sizable student group on a popular social network, this paper peruses the various functions of two Russian polyfunctional particles derived from semantically similar sources, tipa and vrode. While the prepositional tipa 'like' and vrode 'like' are used synonymously as grammaticalized markers of (approximative) similarity and exemplification, the subjectification and pragmaticalization of the two items as discourse particles has followed divergent paths. Both particles pertain to the domains of evidentiality and epistemic modality and are related to certain 'seemingliness' and appearance which is contrasted with reality. However, they have acquired niche functions within these broad domains, activating and building upon different facets of the universal category of similitude. Vrode has been established as a marker of uncertainty (quasi-assertive) which implies a particular type of evidence – sensory perception, recall, or information received from other people. Another distinctive function of vrode is marking that an expectation dictated by the situation designated by the particle's host has not been met. Tipa , on the other hand, is used as an approximator, a quotative/reportative, a doubt or falsity marker, a marker of discourse-based inference, or an explanatory marker, as well as a depictive, or a focus device. This paper also reports that the particle tipa , which, unlike vrode , is stigmatized by normative grammars, is underrepresented in comments by women. This especially concerns tipa 's most advanced uses – as a voice or stance shifter and a clarificatory-explanatory operator – which are conceptually further away from the original similative meaning. • The study maps the pragmatic repertoire of the Russian particles tipa and vrode as interrelated networks of functions. • These networks of functions are derivable from the conceptual space of similitude. • Functional differentiation has allowed the two items to avoid direct competition for the speaker's selection. • Gender differences in the use of the two markers are quantitatively explored. • The data are drawn from comments in a sizable student group (over 60 000 members) on a social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the evolution of grammaticalized evidentiality in the Moldavian dialect of Hungarian. It documents how the suffix -a/e, originally the marker of narrative past, became a rare, elevated marker of past tense highlighting significant past events; how it assumed a mirative overtone; and how the features ʻwitnessedʼ and ʻimmediate pastʼ, often present in mirative utterances, became inherent parts of its meaning. This grammaticalization path has resulted in an evidential system with typologically unique features. It is a two-term system based on the opposition of direct evidentiality and no evidentiality – violating the alleged universal that if a language has grammaticalized direct evidentiality, it has also grammaticalized indirect evidentiality. Mirative meaning is expressed by the same -a/e suffix that also encodes direct evidentiality – whereas it is claimed to be the extension of inferred evidentiality elsewhere. The unique properties of Moldavian Hungarian evidentiality are derived from the historical evolution of the -a/e suffix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the emergence and development of a mirative constructional network involving the shell nouns wonder, marvel and chance, called 'wonder' nouns here. In combination with negative quantifiers (e.g. no wonder), they can be used either lexically or as part of grammatical, mirative markers, qualifying a proposition as unsurprising in view of another situation. The network emerges in Old English around wonder, with three meso-constructions which differ in surface structure but all inherit the anti-concessive discourse schema from the macro-construction, consisting of a proposition, mirative qualifier and justification. Two additional meso-constructions emerge in Middle English, which is also the time when the Romance loan marvel joins the network, making it gain in schematicity, abstractness and productivity. In Present-day English, another Romance loan, chance, expands the mirative network even more. Throughout time, we observe node loss, node creation, constructional substitution and changes in frequencies of constructions. Theoretically, we propose a semiotic approach to diachronic construction grammar, arguing that multi-sign constructions invariably involve syntagmatic relations, which are themselves form-meaning pairings. This approach allows us to capture generalizations which would otherwise be missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates emphatic interpretations of object marking in various Bantu languages. We focus on Lubukusu (spoken in Kenya) and Cinyungwe (spoken in Mozambique) in particular, but we also report initial evidence from other Bantu languages (mainly Tiriki, Wanga, and Ikalanga). In these languages, OM-doubling—the co-occurrence of an object marker with a lexical DP object—is infelicitous in neutral pragmatic contexts. However, we show that certain contexts make OM-doubling possible. In these contexts, OM-doubling constructions receive particular emphatic interpretations that are very different from interpretations of non-doubling object marking constructions. We identify at least four types of these interpretations: verum, mirativity, exhaustivity, and intensity. We show that emphatic interpretations of OM-doubling are widespread among Bantu languages, and we provide strategies for identifying and analyzing them. While this paper is primarily descriptive, we discuss a possible analysis of these interpretations as conventional implicatures, influenced by recent work on a similar range of emphatic interpretations arising from focus fronting in Indo-European languages.

Copyright of Dutch Linguistics / Nederlandse Taalkunde is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxia is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper revisits Neuckermans's (2008) proposal concerning the geographic distribution and diachronic genesis of different functions of the particle en, a remnant of Jespersen's Cycle in the Southern Dutch dialects, and addresses van der Auwera's (2009) claim that en may in some dialects of Dutch have developed into a non-negative marker of clausal subordination at the end of the cycle. Based on a 400,000-word corpus of spontaneous dialect speech data from 65 locations in the southern Dutch dialect area (with an emphasis on West and East Flemish ones) as well as on historical data from the literature, it is concluded that Neuckermans's implicational hierarchy (a) needs to be revised and (b) cannot not be a reflex of a diachronic retraction scenario, and that (c) an analysis of non-negative en as a marker of subordination as proposed by van der Auwera cannot be confirmed for the Southern Dutch dialects more generally. Instead, it is argued that the observable distribution points to the synchronic coexistence of several layers of change that have affected en since Middle Dutch, and have led to it having become co-opted as a mirative strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will describe the meanings of surprise associated to different uses of the discourse marker mirá in Argentinian Spanish. Our aim is to contrast the subjective stances of surprise emerging in response to the different dialogic frames prompting mirative enunciations with mirá. From the Dialogic Approach to Argumentation and Polyphony, we intend to show how these stances of surprise can be explained as dialogically "caused" by the argumentative representation of: (a) a sudden discovery that brings out something new, (b) a sudden discovery related to something that contradicts a previous belief or assumption and (c) a sudden discovery of something that exceeds its ordinary magnitude or degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the properties of GO and TAKE used as functional verbs to express the beginning of an action or a state (inchoativity) or a sense of surprise, wonder, astonishment, or regret (mirativity) as found in a group of multiple verb constructions, in a macro-comparative perspective. Multiple Agreement Constructions (V1+mi/mu/da/če+V2[+finite]) and Pseudo-Coordination (V1+‘and’+V2[+finite]) are considered in Italo-Romance (Italian and Sicilian) and Balkan Slavic (Bulgarian), together with the Italo-Romance Infinitival Construction (V1+a+V2[-finite]), drawing from novel fieldwork data and online corpus data. GO and TAKE generally proved to be highly productive as both inchoative and mirative markers in all the languages considered. In particular, an analysis of cases in which these two functional verbs convey (to different degrees) both functions at once is provided, relying on the cognitive basis underlying the process of their grammaticalisation.

This paper studies the discourse-embedding of specificational clauses, in contrast with predicative ones. Specificational clauses – which express a variable – value relation – are assumed to have a 'fixed' information structure. This follows from the widespread definition of information structure in terms of a presupposition – focus contrast, which is often conflated with the variable – value contrast, on the one hand, and with a given – new contrast, on the other. Against these conflations, this study demonstrates that the specification is a separate layer of meaning, which not only shows variation in terms of focus-marking (Van Praet and O'Grady 2018), but also in terms of its embedding in specific contexts of use. These findings urge us to revisit not only the basis for distinguishing specificational clauses from predicative ones, but also to separate out the different layers of coded and pragmatic meaning that have been conflated under the header of 'information structure'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rukiga (Bantu, JE14) generally does not have a dedicated morphological system to express mirativity, that is, speaker’s surprise at an unexpected occurrence. Nevertheless, using elicited data, I show that there are various non-dedicated linguistic tools that the language employs to express the speaker’s surprise. This paper discusses object marker doubling, predicate doubling, and the particles -o and ku, which convey mirativity as a secondary function because they have other various roles they play in the language. Hence, mirative interpretation is context-dependent. The findings indicate that the four strategies discussed can be combined for a reinforced mirative interpretation.

Copyright of Journal of Estonian & Finno-Ugric Linguistics / Eesti ja Soome-ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri is the property of University of Tartu Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Estonian & Finno-Ugric Linguistics / Eesti ja Soome-ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri is the property of University of Tartu Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos de Filología Italiana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Catalan Journal of Linguistics is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)