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In spite of decades of theorizing, the origins of Zipf’s law remain elusive. I propose that a Zipfian distribution straightforwardly follows from the interaction of syntax (word classes differing in class size) and semantics (words having to be sufficiently specific to be distinctive and sufficiently general to be reusable). These factors are independently motivated and well-established ingredients of a natural-language system. Using a computational model, it is shown that neither of these ingredients suffices to produce a Zipfian distribution on its own and that the results deviate from the Zipfian ideal only in the same way as natural language itself does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a uniform motivation for subject case alternations that align with distinctions in tense and aspect and those that align with a distinction between stage- and individual-level predication. We argue that both follow from an economical use of case marking that is made possible by grounding. If the argument function of an event participant can be determined on the basis of information available in the here and now, the use of case marking can be judged redundant and suspended because of economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological case is a cross-linguistically widespread strategy to mark the role of participants of an event. Using a computer simulation, this paper will show how case can emerge in languages that have no rules of grammar as a result of cultural evolution. For this, only very general cognitive and communicative principles are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Joost Zwarts on the hierarchy of configuration distinctions, one by Dmitry Ganenkov on the basic configuration distinctions in Nakh-Daghestanian languages and one by Marina Pantcheva on the common phenomenon of syncretism between Place and Goal directionality.

In this article, I discuss Finnish case alternation adpositions from a theoretical and corpus perspective. First, I argue that postpositional PP constructions with genitive case denote the standard spatial meaning of which an extension is marked with partitive case. Also, I show how word order interacts with case assignment. Both findings are formalized in a bidirectional Optimality Theoretic framework. Second, I show that case alternating behavior does not occur unrestrictedly in newspaper corpora. Adpositions in principle tend to assign the same case to the same object over and over again, and only a small subgroup of highly frequent nouns is assigned both genitive and partitive case by the same adposition(s). This suggests that (adpositional case) alternations are only allowed for highly frequent constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the unified account of the cross-linguistic variation in the encoding of adjectives in prediative and attributive constructions using a unified optimality theoretic account. Accordingly, languages might be dissimilar in the encoding strategy of adjectives in the predicative domain, and there are instances that the strategy could be changed in the attributive domain. The interaction on faithfulness to the semantic class of a lexical root, and the faithfulness to discourse functions is also discussed in details.

How does animacy affect argument structure and the encoding of arguments? After briefly discussing the role of animacy in language, this introduction provides summaries of the contributions to this special issue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article gives a unified semantic analysis of the various uses of the Dutch discourse marker eigenlijk. Eigenlijk is analyzed as involving implicit assumptions of the speaker about the hearer''s expectations: by using eigenlijk, the speaker marks the plausibility of what s/he assumes the hearer to infer on the basis of their shared beliefs. Hence, the speaker not only recognizes the discrepancy between the speaker''s and the hearer''s perspective, but in addition, the speaker puts him/herself in the hearer''s shoes. The claims are empirically supported by the results of a web experiment as well as by data from natural language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]