Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Nominal causal constructions across slavic : Semantic contrasts in a parallel corpus perspective. / Say, Sergey.
In: Slavia, Vol. 90, No. 2, 2021, p. 182-201.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Nominal causal constructions across slavic
T2 - Semantic contrasts in a parallel corpus perspective
AU - Say, Sergey
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Slovansky Ustav AV CR. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Slavic languages employ a wide array of dependent markers (typically, preposition + case com-binations) in nominal causal constructions, i.e. causal constructions where the causing event is syntactically represented by a noun phrase, cf. заплакала от боли в руке ‘(she) burst into tears from the pain in her arm’ or Я погибаю из-за любви ‘I’m perishing on account of love’ in Russian. Drawing on the data from a parallel corpus (ParaSol) and using the multi-dimensional scaling technique, I explore the ways in which the choice of a specific nominal causal marker corresponds to semantic contrasts in eleven Slavic languages. The contrast between direct and indirect causes is found to be omnipresent in Slavic (with a possible exception of the Slovenian preposition zaradi, which spans both semantic subdomains). Indirect causal markers are often specialized, but they are relatively infrequent in speech, structurally secondary, weakly gram-maticalized and diachronically unstable. By contrast, direct causes are typically expressed by more grammaticalized and highly polysemous markers. These markers are very often cognitively based on the elative spatial schema. Even though some Slavic languages diverge in the use of direct causal markers (cf. the Instrumental case in Czech or the Polish preposition przez), the very semantic contrasts in the domain of nominal causal markers remain robust across Slavic.
AB - Slavic languages employ a wide array of dependent markers (typically, preposition + case com-binations) in nominal causal constructions, i.e. causal constructions where the causing event is syntactically represented by a noun phrase, cf. заплакала от боли в руке ‘(she) burst into tears from the pain in her arm’ or Я погибаю из-за любви ‘I’m perishing on account of love’ in Russian. Drawing on the data from a parallel corpus (ParaSol) and using the multi-dimensional scaling technique, I explore the ways in which the choice of a specific nominal causal marker corresponds to semantic contrasts in eleven Slavic languages. The contrast between direct and indirect causes is found to be omnipresent in Slavic (with a possible exception of the Slovenian preposition zaradi, which spans both semantic subdomains). Indirect causal markers are often specialized, but they are relatively infrequent in speech, structurally secondary, weakly gram-maticalized and diachronically unstable. By contrast, direct causes are typically expressed by more grammaticalized and highly polysemous markers. These markers are very often cognitively based on the elative spatial schema. Even though some Slavic languages diverge in the use of direct causal markers (cf. the Instrumental case in Czech or the Polish preposition przez), the very semantic contrasts in the domain of nominal causal markers remain robust across Slavic.
KW - Causal constructions
KW - Multi-di-mensional scaling
KW - Noun phrases
KW - Parallel corpus
KW - Prepositions
KW - Slavic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112199182&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112199182
VL - 90
SP - 182
EP - 201
JO - Slavia
JF - Slavia
SN - 0037-6736
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 88112583