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Linguistic expressions are very often indeterminate and have several possible readings. Syntactic indeterminacy may result from different underlying structures, from polysemous elements, or from so-called oscillation. Unlike the former two, oscillation cannot be reduced to one or more discrete interpretations in a given context, it is fundamentally non-resolvable. While oscillating structures do not hamper successful communication, they present a problem for linguistic analyses and categorizations. The relevant literature does not address oscillation systematically; if anything, it is treated in connection with problems of categorization. In this paper, oscillation is perceived as a phenomenon sui generis. We first give a definition of oscillation against the backdrop of other indeterminate structures and outline their relevance for a proper understanding of older and less formal varieties. Then we propose a tentative typology of oscillating structures and their potential triggers in selected Slavic languages.

Telling apart family-internal developments from contact-induced changes and socio-geographically conditioned areal trends is still one of the main challenges in tracing the development - and stability - of languages. Notably prima facie contact phenomena might turn out to have resulted from the interaction of a variety of sources upon closer inspection; assessing their interaction is a crucial requirement for comprehending the dynamics of change. Based on the example of simplification patterns in the system of short personal pronouns observed in the Balkan Slavic dialects located in the territory of North Macedonian and Greece, the present paper illustrates the necessity of identifying the multiplicity of triggers and their interaction, thereby making a case for the relevance of small-scale, transient patterns in understanding diachronic processes. In particular, it places the simplifications within the pronominal system into the larger context of differential object indexing by preverbal pronominal elements in the Balkan languages. With the loss of agreement distinctions on pronouns being characteristic for the last phase in the emergence of object indexing, both processes appear to be closely related. Obviously, in this case, the convergence of various different processes has created a favorable environment for the mutual reinforcement and stabilization of two otherwise highly volatile phenomena.

AbstractThe present paper is concerned with the construction ‘direct speech + verb of emotion’ in Russian, focusing on the question where the ‘utterance’-interpretation for verbs of emotion in this specific context derives from. Moreover, a tentative typology of direct speech constructions will be provided, illustrating that the type of relation between direct speech and matrix verb, and hence the motivation for the ‘utterance’-interpretation, depends on the semantic characterisation and the event structure of the ‘matrix’ verb.

When speakers of different languages interact, they are likely to influence each other: contact leaves traces in the linguistic record, which in turn can reveal geographical areas of past human interaction and migration. However, other factors may contribute to similarities between languages. Inheritance from a shared ancestral language and universal preference for a linguistic property may both overshadow contact signals. How can we find geographical contact areas in language data, while accounting for the confounding effects of inheritance and universal preference? We present sBayes, an algorithm for Bayesian clustering in the presence of confounding effects. The algorithm learns which similarities are better explained by confounders, and which are due to contact effects. Contact areas are free to take any shape or size, but an explicit geographical prior ensures their spatial coherence. We test sBayeson simulated data and apply it in two case studies to reveal language contact in South America and the Balkans. Our results are supported by findings from previous studies. While we focus on detecting language contact, the method can also be used to uncover other traces of shared history in cultural evolution, and more generally, to reveal latent spatial clusters in the presence of confounders.