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Previous research has observed that the Colloquial Singapore English particle lah conveys many different, and sometimes contradictory, pragmatic effects. In this paper, I focus specifically on how lah, pronounced in a low falling tone, behaves differently with assertions and directives—although it emphasizes the truth of assertions, it weakens the authoritative force of directives. In addition, it can be used in a non-emphatic way with confirmation-seeking statements. I propose that the particle conveys the not-at-issue or side comment that the lah-marked proposition directly follows from the evidence it is based on, which is interpreted by the addressee as an attempt by the speaker to justify her utterance. The different pragmatic effects of the particle then result from how this not-at-issue comment is interpreted in relation to the speech act of the utterances they mark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a new account of the operations of Thai feminine polite particles khá and khâ. These particles are compatible with sentences of different characteristics and thus cannot be used interchangeably. By investigating the occurrences of these two feminine polite particles in everyday Thai, this paper claims that, first, khá and khâ behave in the same fashion as discourse markers. Their appearance in sentences depends on the speaker's assumptions regarding the state of the information in the common ground. Following Kaufmann (2010), the paper proposes that the compatibility of the two polite particles in a sentence is designated via strong and weak speaker presuppositions. With the culmination of the utterance time and the time of the update, khá(φ) in this account reflects a strong speaker presupposition that reflects the belief that φ is commonly believed at the time of the utterance. In contrast, khâ(φ) suggests a weak speaker presupposition, representing the speaker's belief that φ will be commonly known at the time of the update. Incorporating Brown and Levinson's (1987) face threatening into the analyses, both khá and khâ activate the D and P factors while the R factor is activated only in the case of khá. • Non-interchangeability of the two Thai feminine polite particles. • Use of two different feminine polite particles influenced by speaker presupposition and face threatening. • Information status at the time of utterance selects polite particles. • Imposition influences the selection for the polite particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note examines all extrametrical occurrences of the phatic interjections ναί and εἶἑν in Greek tragedy. It first establishes that it is likely that extrametrical interjections were followed by a pause in delivery, that it is unusual for phatic interjections to be separated from the discourse in this way, and that the tragedians probably had some particular effect in mind when placing these words extra metrum. The ten passages are then examined in turn, and interpretations of the significance of the pauses are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the meaning of the two exclusive particles in Malayalam -e and ma:tRam. Though they are treated as exclusives with the English Focus particle 'only', the paper claims their semantic is not identical. The paper focuses on a significant aspect of the meaning of exclusives: the source and content of the prejacent and the universal (the exhaustive) meaning component. It is demonstrated here with conventional semantic tests for assertion, presupposition and implicature that both the former and latter meaning components are asserted in sentences with ma:tRam. However, -e differs in that the prejacent is presupposed while the universal is asserted. Identifying whether an inference is part of the sentence's assertion/presupposition/ implication is substantial, as this impacts these particle's distribution and discourse functions. This study would contribute to a unified theory of exclusives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large conversational activities (e.g., storytelling) necessitate a suspension of ordinary turn-taking rules. In the resulting constellation of main speaker and recipient, minimal displays of cooperative recipiency become relevant at particular junctures. We investigate this mechanism by focusing on the Egyptian Arabic particle ʔāh 'yeah' when thus used. We observe that tokens of ʔāh are mobilized by main speakers via the opening of prosodic slots at local pragmatic completion points. The prosodic design of the particle at these points is sensitive to prior talk and displays recipients' alignment at the structural, action-sequential, and relational levels. This is done through variation of three prosodic features, namely, rhythm-based timing, pitch configuration, and prominence. The measure of alignment proposed by ʔāh is implicative for the continuation of the turn. While smooth progression suggests that ʔāh is understood to be sufficiently fitted and aligned, expansions are traceable to a departure from the terms set by prior talk, which can be heard to indicate lesser alignment. We propose to view ʔāh response tokens as a subset of positionally sensitive responses to part-of-activity actions that are crucial for the co-accomplishment of a large activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently Japanese interactional particles have largely been investigated in various social contexts without paying much attention to intonation. Building on Shimotani (2006) that examined discourse functions and the intonation yo in informal talk among friends, the current study intends to contribute to interactional particle research by analyzing yo in six sets of one-to-one student-professor conversations. The findings demonstrate that the students and professors exhibited different pitch patterns of yo. Students tended to use yo with a falling pitch [+fall] when performing pre-story-telling, and frequently used the n-desu-yo construction. The professor, on the other hand, often used yo [−fall] when providing opinions or advice. These results will be discussed from Ochs' social constructive discourse approach perspective. The present study concludes that both discourse functions and pitch patterns in interactional particles are important linguistic resources used to construct speakers' social personae and stance-building. As such, pedagogical implications will be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particle ulašūma ('or else') in Old Babylonian Akkadian is analyzed from a functional and syntactic point of view. In addition to its known functions as a pro-polar protasis ('if not, otherwise, or else') and as a disjunctive particle ('or'), it is also concluded to function as a conditional exponent. As such it is shown to belong with other expressions of epistemic modality (modal and conditional particles). Its most plausible diachronic source is determined, based on comparative as well as Akkadian material, to have been a non-verbal circumstantial expression *u lā šū ('it (is) not') ultimately meaning 'it not being the case. . .'. In the second part of the paper, a cognate origin (*ū lā hī 'it not being the case') is proposed for the Biblical Hebrew epistemic particle ʔūlay ('maybe/if'). Two possible paths are discussed-one is internal development and the other a result of language contact. Each path is considered, paying meticulous attention to the respective sets of difficulties. The difference in the synchronic function and meaning between the Akkadian and Hebrew particles is bridged based on the syntactic and functional analysis of the Old Babylonian particle, which shows it to be an epistemic particle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper looks into the scalar interpretation of the additive focus particle in select Boro-Garo languages, namely, Boro, Dimasa, Garo, Kokborok, Rabha, and Tiwa. The additive has the following forms: =b? in Bodo, =bo in Dimasa, =ba in Garo, =bo in Kokborok, =ba in Rabha, and =bo in Tiwa. Based on their phonetic similarity, we reconstruct the Boro-Garo proto-form as *=bV. The additive provides a scalar 'even' reading in three different constructions, namely, classifier-numeral, quantifier, and temporal adverbial constructions. In classifier-numeral constructions, a scalar reading is found when the numeral is 'one' and the clause is negative. However, with numerals greater than 'one', the particles may have either a scalar or non-scalar additive interpretation depending on the contexts. In the other two constructions, the particles contribute scalar meaning only in negative environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a uniform compositional analysis of the various readings of the scalar particle still and its German counterpart noch. Noch/still is a presuppositional scalar particle that gives rise to implicatures. Interpretive possibilities arise through different choices for the scale that the particle associates with, different attachment sites in the syntax, and interaction with focus. These interpretive parameters allow for a wide range of possible sentence interpretations, which overlap, but do not coincide for still and noch. The contrastive perspective allows us to examine the role of scales in the grammar. The implicatures triggered by the scalar item open an interesting perspective for the generation of implicatures in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the first multifactorial corpus‐based analysis of verb–particle constructions in a data sample comprising spoken and written productions by intermediate‐level learners of English as a second language from 17 language backgrounds. We annotated 4,911 attestations retrieved from native speaker and language learner corpora for 14 predictors, including syntactic complexity, rhythmic and segment alternation, and the verb framing of the speaker's native language. A multifactorial prediction and deviation analysis using regression (Gries & Deshors, 2014), which stacks multiple regression analyses to compare native speaker and learner productions in identical contexts, revealed a complex picture in which processing demands, input effects, and native language typology jointly shape the degree to which learners' choices of constructions are nativelike or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) textbooks and internet resources exhibit various formats and implementations of exercises on phrasal verbs. The experimental study reported here examines whether some of these might be more effective than others. EFL learners at a university in Japan were randomly assigned to 4 treatment groups. Two groups were presented first with phrasal verbs and their meaning before they were prompted to retrieve the particles from memory. The difference between these 2 retrieval groups was that 1 group studied and then retrieved items 1 at a time, while the other group studied and retrieved them in sets. The 2 other groups received the exercises as trial‐and‐error events, where participants were prompted to guess the particles and were subsequently provided with the correct response. One group was given immediate feedback on each item, while the other group tackled sets of 14 items before receiving feedback. The effectiveness of these exercise implementations was compared through an immediate and a 1‐week delayed posttest. The best test scores were obtained when the exercises had served the purpose of retrieval, although this advantage shrank in the delayed posttest (where scores were poor regardless of treatment condition). On average 70% of the posttest errors produced by the learners who had tackled the exercises by trial‐and‐error were duplicates of incorrect responses they had supplied at the exercise stage, which indicates that corrective feedback was often ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Languages have several grammatical means of expressing the relation between speaker and addressee, including speech-style particles, politeness pronouns, allocutive marking, and honorifics. Despite the similarity in the meaning they convey, these politeness markers fall into two distributional classes: some ('content-oriented markers of politeness') can occur in complement clauses, while others ('utterance-oriented markers of politeness') are restricted to matrix contexts. Focusing on speech-style markers in Korean and second-person pronouns in Romance languages (especially Italian), we develop a dynamic pragmatics model of the distinct kind of meaning that they encode and provide an analysis that accounts for their distributional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a non-cartographic approach to the syntax of the left-peripheral particle to in Polish and Czech. It is claimed here that to is neither a topic nor a focus head. Instead, it has a status of a neutral Relator, a head of Relator Phrase, operative in the formation of the non-directional Structure of Predication. This structure serves the needs of Information Structure in providing a syntactic blueprint for segregating topics from foci, but these notions themselves are solely the interpretations of constituents and not independent syntactic categories. The analysis capitalizes on a clitic status of to in Czech, the lack of special clitics in Polish, and makes use of the ideas of the parametric directionality of Agreement and Labelling Algorithm allowing for merging heads to project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, I investigate the DP‐internal occurrence of the German modal particle ja. I first demonstrate what kind of attributive configurations seem to prefer the presence of the particle ja inside the DP domain. In this context, I focus on the occurrence of particles within simple‐adjective configurations and examine the roles of restrictive and so‐called extreme content. I demonstrate that the DP‐internal occurrence of modal particles cannot be analyzed analogous to the occurrence of modal particles in other attributive constructions such as certain types of relative clauses. Given this demonstration, I sketch a fine‐grained syntactic representation of DP‐internal particles, and I point out parallels to the functional makeup of CPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 35 hours of spontaneous conversations collected in China, this study aims to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about how epistemic positions are asserted and contested in social interaction. Specifically, this article focuses on Mandarin aiyou -prefacing, and examines a hitherto unexplored interactional use of aiyou : when aiyou prefaces responsive actions in the context of disagreement or contestation. I show that in the context of disagreement, by prefacing a responding turn with aiyou , the speaker alerts the recipient to a heightened newsworthiness associated with the information that will follow, while simultaneously introducing speaker-side evidence that was previously inaccessible to the recipient. In the context in which aiyou prefaces a contesting counterinforming, the speaker, while not explicitly disagreeing with the recipient’s prior claim, counteracts the claim by providing a more nuanced understanding of the matter at issue; in this context, aiyou -prefacing often figures in competitive co-informing when the party who goes second has equal or even greater knowledge about the matter under discussion. I argue that together with the constellation of features that accompany its use, the aiyou -preface in both contexts indexes a claim of epistemic authority and/or primacy over the matter at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores epistemic incongruence in Spanish by focusing on the particle uy in Iberian Spanish. It is claimed that this interjection has a basic change-of-state meaning and that it is commonly used to stress disagreement. Despite its general association to disagreement, the particle can be used in agreeing responses, where it also treats the previous turn as problematic. In this sequential environment, however, it is not the content of the previous turn but rather the underlying assumptions (the basic epistemic configuration of an assertion-answer adjacency pair) that are challenged by the second speaker. The evidence for this analysis comes from the sequential context. Typically, in agreeing uy -responses, speakers upgrade the statement offered in first position and provide evidence of previous epistemic access. It is argued that, in these contexts, uy is used to index epistemic incongruence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's insights on the development in the views about particle, a common word in the works of author Homer that attracts the attention of the audience. Topics discussed include the contribution of the particle to the dimension of epic performance related to reenactment, the use of the word in various works of several poets and authors, and the different potential strands regarding the function of the particle.

Background. Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a powerful risk factor for atherosclerosis (AT). The crucial method of minimizing the development of atherosclerosis and its clinical manifestations is lifestyle modifications, including following a healthy diet. The aim of the study was to check if the Central European Diet (CED) could be an alternative to the Mediterranean Diet (MED) in the prevention of AT in patients with a risk of MS. Methods. The randomized, single-blind nutritional trial involved 144 obese women with a risk of MS. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups and followed MED (n = 72) or CED (n = 72) for 16 weeks. The Dutch discourse particle ook 'too' is traditionally described as an additive particle: a proposition is added to the discourse that also applies to at least one alternative. However, this does not straightforwardly account for all uses of ook. Following Sæbø (2004) we propose that an important function of ook 'too' is to avoid the establishment of a relation of contrast between the proposition that contains ook and some other, often implicit, proposition in the discourse. Data from a corpus study as well as a sentence completion task supports this analysis. Although two figures shared similarities, participants interpreted the relation between them as contrastive. If ook 'too' was added, the contrastive reading disappeared. This shows that, rather than just adding something to the discourse, ook 'too' avoids an otherwise contrastive interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos 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.)

This article offers a new proposalfor the derivation of the interrogative ה. There have been numerous proposals for the derivation of the interrogative ה, but none have gained wide acceptance. Through internal reconstruction, I will demonstrate that the interrogative ה in Hebrew can be traced back to two forms, *ha- and *haC-. I propose *ha- is a common Central Semitic form that was inherited by Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, but that *haC- is derivedfrom the particle *han-. *Han- is connected to a set of presentative particles (*ha, *han, *hal) that each independently developed into interrogatives in other Central Semitic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing Conversation Analysis, this study examines self-repetition with slight variation, primarily made through final particles, in the playtime interaction of Korean-English bilingual children with each other and their caregiver(s). Final particles in the Korean language provide speakers with grammatical resources with which they can effectively modify their actions as well as stances while they repeat their own prior utterances only with a change in (a) final particle(s). The analysis shows how resayings are prompted by interactional contingencies, such as some perceived issue with the first saying or the ways in which participants deal with the first saying, e.g., lack of response. The article illustrates how speakers achieve footing shifts across turns, greater precision in the actions they seek to perform via the practice of slightly variant repetition. Implications of the complex phenomenon of repetition as a site of language learning and use in children's talk are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mandarin Chinese conversation, the final particle ba contributes to the formation of a variety of social actions. Using the methods of conversation analysis, this article examines the use of the ba particle in answers to questions, informings, and assessments. It is argued that the particle serves as a turn-constructional resource for the adjustment of the epistemic gradient invoked in the sequence, downgrading the speaker's epistemic position. In assessment sequences, the epistemic adjustment made by the particle also serves to solicit a response from the recipient who invariably has knowledge of the matter in question. An analysis of the ba particle in terms of epistemic gradients and their adjustment unifies two accounts of the particle's function put forward in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the multiword verb that are comprised of a verb and a particle called the phrasal verbs (PVs). It cites on the importance of English as the second language (ESL) instruction but not easy to master. The article also discusses the difficulty of learning the PV in textbooks and dictionaries.

In this article, we investigate questions like What is your name again?, which presuppose that the answer was already made common-ground knowledge in the past (Sauerland 2006). We call this a remind-me presupposition. While repetitive particles can trigger a remind-me presupposition in German and English, Japanese uses a specialized particle kke to bring about such a presupposition. We argue for an account of remind-me presuppositions based on syntactic decomposition of the question speech-act into an imperative part and a make-it-known part. On this account, the repetitive particles take scope between the two parts of the decomposed question speech-act. The proposal correctly predicts how both particles interact syntactically with the periphery of the clause in slightly different ways. The interaction with polar questions corroborates our proposal that the decomposed question speech-act parts are syntactically projected parts of the question structure. Our data therefore corroborate a syntactic representation of aspects of speech-acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore the interactions between word orders and particles in Japanese transitive sentences in terms of information structure. To this end, a series of corpus analyses within the framework of the Givónian approach were conducted. Based on the present corpus analyses, I propose that scrambling is chosen when the scrambled object is anaphorically prominent but cataphorically non-prominent, and that topicalization is selected when the direct object is anaphorically and cataphorically prominent. Additionally, I arrive at the conclusion that word order permutations in Japanese are applied to intermediately accessible referents. In other words, word order changes are neither used with highly accessible referents, nor completely new information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of the culturally conditioned use of Russian interrogative communicatives правда, не правда ли, так, так ведь, не так ли, хорошо, ладно (colloq), что, что ли, разве, неужели is solved in the article on the background of the equivalent English disjunctive question (in which the verbal-subjective inversion and different polarity are used, for example, didnt she, haven't they, doesn't it ) and the Japanese particle ne. In English such communicatives include the second part of the disjunctive question (didn't she?, isn't she?), synonymous with the Japanese particle ne? and Russian particles не правда ли, не так ли In the Russian language there are two groups of communicatives that can be translated into English by a disjunctive question: 1) particles that call for agreement (не правда ли, не так ли, так ведь) and synonymous with them; 2) particles that are not synonymous with communicatives, calling for agreement (что, что ли, разве, неужели). Sentences with Russian particles не правда ли, не так ли and synonymous with them, as well as particles что, что ли, разве, неужели are translated into English by a disjunctive question with a greater or lesser degree of frequency. Sentences with such particles as не правда ли, не так ли, так ведь are translated mainly by a disjunctive question. For sentences with particles что, что ли, разве, неужели the translation by a general or special question is more typical, although such sentences can as well have the disjunctive question as an English equivalent, that indicates the importance for Anglo-American thinking to emphasize the right of every person to express his opinion openly (agreement or disagreement with the point of view of the addressee). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Taiwan Journal of Linguistics is the property of Graduate Institute of Linguistics 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.)

This article surveys possible factors affecting particle alternation in British English between 1650 and 1990. When particle verbs are transitive, the speaker is presented with two possible choices: verb-particle-object (VPO) or verb-object-particle (VOP). Research has shown that there are a number of phonological, morphological, semantic and discourse-functional variables which may affect the speaker’s choice. The present article focuses on the influence of six morpho-syntactic variables, namely the noun phrase (NP) type of the direct object (DO), the length of the object, the complexity of the DO, the presence of a directional prepositional phrase (PPdir), the type of determiner of the object NP and the type of particle. The data show that, although the VPO order tends to be the predominant one, some of these variables can determine the type of arrangement selected by the speaker. The results are also compared with previous research on Middle English, Early Modern English and Present-day English, showing that the tendencies observed have changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinque (Linguist Inq 36(3):315-332, 2005; Universals of language today. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 165-184, 2009; Functional structure from top to toe. Vol. 9 of The cartography of syntactic structures. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 232-265, 2014a) observes that there is an asymmetry in the possible ordering of dependents of a lexical head before versus after the head. A reflection on some of the concepts needed to develop Cinque's ideas into a theory of neutral word order reveals that dependents need to be treated separately by class. The resulting system is applied to the problem of word order in the Germanic verb cluster. It is shown that there is an extremely close match between theoretically derived expectations for clusters made up of auxiliaries, modals, causative 'let', a main verb, and verbal particles. The facts point to the action of Cinque's fundamental left-right asymmetry in language in the realm of the verb cluster. At the same time, not all verb clusters fall under Cinque's generalization, which, therefore, argues against treating all cases of restructuring uniformly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many derivations of the definite direct object marker in northwest semitic have been suggested, but the enigma of its origins still persists. Classic and contemporary studies have concluded that the source of the particle may be nominal, verbal, prepositional, pronominal, or an amalgam of deictic elements. Each of these explanations, however, fails to account adequately for both the full spectrum of the attested realizations and the origin of the grammatical function. This study suggests a new solution: the direct object markers in northwest semitic derive from the Proto-semitic oblique pronouns, *su'āti and *si'āti. After the loss of the case system, the Proto-northwest semitic reflexes of these pronouns were grammaticalized as object markers. Following the loss of the original pronouns and cliticization, phonological changes in each daughter language resulted in the various northwest semitic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four views have been offered for the identity of צמח (Ṣemaḥ) in the Ṣemaḥ-oracles of Zechariah. Recently, however, the view that Ṣemaḥ is, and always was, thought to be a future figure not present on the scene has been argued more forcefully by Wolter Rose and Marko Jauhiainen on the basis of syntactical arguments. I will take up parts of both of these works, and through a syntactical analysis of parts of Zech 6,12–13 – specifically, an analysis of the syntactical function of the Hebrew particle הנה and the discourse function of והיה – I will show that a determination of the identity of Ṣemaḥ is far from a closed case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal character of talk is one fundamental feature of language in situ. As interaction unfolds, participants need to not only monitor the temporal progression of talk toward a completion, but also attend to how the current turn ties back to the preceding turns. Whereas such dual-directional consideration is often a latent aspect of turn construction, at times efforts to clear up possible ambiguity are in order. This article introduces a Mandarin practice, aiyoupreface, which seems to be used just to this end, and demonstrates an intimate relationship between the prosodic design of aiyou-preface and the displayed orientation to the intended directionality of the talk. The analysis draws upon a corpus of 35 hours of conversations collected in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

В статье рассматриваются инфинитивные конструкции с частицей ЖЕ. Анализ показывает, что существует три различных частицы ЖЕ: дискурсивная частица ЖЕ, которая напоминает собеседнику об уже известной информации, ЖЕ2, которая указывает на кореферентность двух субъектов, и противительная частица ЖЕ3, которая указывает на противопоставление двух субъектов. В инфинитивных конструкциях с частицей ЖЕ строго закреплен порядок слов. Все конструкции рассматриваются отдельно и в сопоставлении с аналогичной конструкцией без ЖЕ. В результате выделяются конструкции, в которых семан- тика сводится к сумме базовой конструкции плюс значение ЖЕ, и конструкции, в которых семантика конструкции несводима к ее составляющим. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sketch a project that marries probabilistic grammar research to scholarship on World Englishes, thus synthesizing two previously rather disjoint lines of research into one unifying project with a coherent focus. This synthesis is hoped to advance usage-based theoretical linguistics by adopting a large-scale comparative and sociolinguistically responsible perspective on grammatical variation. To highlight the descriptive and theoretical benefits of the approach, we present case studies of three syntactic alternations (the particle placement, genitive, and dative alternations) in four varieties of English (British, Canadian, Indian, and Singapore), as represented in the International Corpus of English. We report that the varieties studied share a core probabilistic grammar which is, however, subject to indigenization at various degrees of subtlety, depending on the abstractness of the syntactic patterns studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Colloquial Singapore English ('Singlish') is well known, among other features, for its class of discourse particles derived from substrate languages. These particles have been ascribed to various languages, chief among them Southern Min, Malay, and Cantonese. Previous research has also shown this class to be open to newcomers, with Lim (2007) concentrating on particles of Cantonese origin appearing in the 1980s. In this paper, I present evidence of a previously undocumented particle, bah, whose origins are suspected in Mandarin, a variety that has hitherto contributed only little to the grammatical structure of Singlish. Using corpus data complemented by data from online discussion forums, as well as responses to an online survey, the paper describes bah's pragmatic meanings and the socio-historical and sociolinguistic reasons for its emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Greek tragedy and comedy, a character arriving on stage may be announced by using the particle combination ἀλλὰ γάρ or καὶ μήυ. Entry- marking ἀλλὰ γάρ is said by Denniston (1954) to be either "complex" (whereby ἀλλά goes with the main clause and γάρ with a dependent clause) or "simple" (both particles going with the main clause). Taking this as a starting point, all the instances of entry-marking ἀλλὰ γάρ are surveyed in the light of the PUSH and POP theory as expounded by Slings (1997). Similarities and diff erences between ἀλλὰ γάρ and entry-marking καὶ μήυ are also pointed out, and brief conclusions are drawn thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Orientalia (0039-3282) is the property of Finnish Oriental Society 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.)

This paper discusses and categorises the various medieval and modern Welsh prepositions and particles yn and the initial mutations that follow them. It investigates possible manuscript variants such as Old Welsh int and it and Middle Welsh y, and examines variations in mutation. Historical explanations are suggested, including a new explanation of the absence of mutation in the productive yn + verbal noun construction, which is argued to have spread from the construction in which possessive pronouns between yn and the verbal nouns of intransitive stative verbs prevented yn from mutating the verbal nouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines use/non-use of negative particle ne by students and teachers in the high schools of four Ontario Francophone communities. The students were recorded in semi-directed interviews and in the classroom. The teachers recorded themselves in the classroom. In the interviews, ne use is marginal and its non-use ubiquitous and not influenced by social class, gender or topic formality. Overall, students do not use ne significantly more in the classroom than in the interviews. These findings do not support the hypothesis in some studies that ne use is a hyper-stylistic variant, which hinged on the prescription of ne use in writing. In the classroom, however, teachers display markedly different levels of ne use/non-use according to subject taught, speaker age, and addressee/discourse functions performed. Thus, there is some evidence that ne use/non-use is not entirely devoid of stylistic markedness, at least for teachers in the formal setting of the classroom. Finally, an examination of ne use/non-use co-occurring with two phonological variants of post-verbal negator plus reveals findings that are germane to the debate concerning the possibility of analysing stylistic variation in spoken French as a form of diglossic code-switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jezikoslovlje is the property of University of Osijek, Faculty of Philosophy 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.)

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Copyright of Alfa: Revista de Lingüística is the property of Alfa: Revista de Linguistica 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 article presents a study which aims to analyse the principles of cognitive linguistics on a set of polysemous English phrasal verbs. It also investigates the interaction of semantic network of the verb and particle in construction of phrasal verb. Information regarding the analysis of prepositions, the compositionality, and the use of Principled Polysemy Model in analysing the semantics of particles, are discussed.

The trend in recent scholarship on the Hebrew negative interrogative particle hl₾ has been to suggest two distinct, underlying etymologies. In addition to the traditional etymology of interrogative {h} + negative particle lō₾, some scholars propose an asseverative particle *hallū, now lost in the Masoretic leveling of all forms to hªlō₾. The following study reassesses this proposal, suggesting that the evidence for the new etymology is untenable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the uses of the ventive particle dd in Figuig Berber fairy tales (eastern Morocco) are studied. It is shown that the interpretation of this particle depends on the semantics of the verb it is associated with. While with most verbs the main meaning is 'towards the speaker' or a metaphorical extension of this, with some verbs, such as verbs of taking and holding, the meaning takes the subject of the verb into account rather than the speaker. In the second part of the article, I illustrate the way the ventive is used in the narrative portions of the tales as a stylistic device that provides something like a camera perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language & History is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd 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.)

Several Occitan dialects spoken in Western Piedmont exhibit no 1sg subject clitic form (a situation widely attested in Northern Italian dialects), although interrogative clauses with a 1sg subject feature an enclitic particle ke, identical to the complementiser. Many attempts have been made to interpret this ke as a reflex of Lat. E(G)O 'I' or originating from the reanalysis of the analogical -k displayed by verbs such as dik 'I say'. Rather, I claim that ke is what it seems, namely the complementiser, and entertain the hypothesis that in these varieties the complementiser ended up satisfying EPP-like features. To support this analysis, I examine data from a wider area including Provençal, Gascon and Ibero-Romance dialects in which the complementiser is used as a proclitic particle in assertive clauses (Etxepare 2010 a.o.). On the theoretical side, I submit the hypothesis that the peculiar behaviour of the complementiser ke in that area has to do with the checking of a 'speaker' feature in the left periphery of the clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author proposes that data from Old Frisian serve as a bridge in the discussion of the older West Germanic data, represented by Old English and the more modern German and Dutch data.

This paper investigates the concept of causality as a linguistic phenomenon, usually defined in terms of the relation of two events, states or situations where one of them causes and /or represents a result, an effect or concession of the other. Causality can be expressed by using particles and prepositions. These particles and prepositions -- separable and inseparable -- have different or secondary meanings besides the major one. These meanings can be interpreted according to the context in which they occur. This paper attempts to scrutinize the primary meaning and the secondary meaning of causal meaning of some particles and prepositions. Specifically, the coexistence of many possible meanings for some particles and prepositions is examined in certain selected Qur'anic verses highlighting some semantic aspects that have an impact on identifying causal meaning. The paper concludes that Arabic particles and prepositions have a very important function and are useful in sustaining those aspects elements related to semantic aspects in the translation of the Quran through a discussion of the alternative and semantic variations of particles and prepositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]