Folia Linguistica 

About: Folia Linguistica is an academic journal published by De Gruyter. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Linguistics & Theoretical linguistics. It has an ISSN identifier of 0165-4004. Over the lifetime, 1053 publications have been published receiving 9791 citations. The journal is also known as: Folia linguistica (Print) & FoL (Internet).

The indeterminacy of word segmentation and the nature of morphology and syntax

Abstract: The general distinction between morphology and syntax is widely taken for granted, but it crucially depends on a cross-linguistically valid concept of �(morphosyntactic) word�. I show that there are no good criteria for defining such a concept. I examine ten criteria in some detail (potential pauses, free occurrence, mobility, uninterruptibility, non-selectivity, non-coordinatability, anaphoric islandhood, nonextractability, morphophonological idiosyncrasies, and deviations from bi-uniqueness), and I show that none of them is necessary and sufficient on its own, and no combination of them gives a definition of �word� that accords with linguists' orthographic practice. �Word� can be defined as a language-specific concept, but this is not relevant to the general question pursued here. �Word� can be defined as a fuzzy concept, but this is theoretically meaningful only if the continuum between affixes and words, or words and phrases, shows some clustering, for which there is no systematic evidence at present. Thus, I conclude that we do not currently have a good basis for dividing the domain of morphosyntax into morphology and syntax, and that linguists should be very careful with general claims that make crucial reference to a cross-linguistic �word� notion.

Discourse, ideology and context

Abstract: L'A. developpe une approche socio-cognitive de l'ideologie qui incorpore les modeles mentaux de contexte, de croyance, d'opinion et d'attitude et les relie a leurs realisations linguistiques. Il illustre cette approche par une analyse du debat parlementaire qui s'est tenu au Royaume-Uni sur le theme de l'immigration. En outre, il critique la conception du contexte par l'approche systemique fonctionnelle et en propose une classification differente pour une analyse concrete et detaillee

Explorations in automated language classification

Abstract: An earlier paper, to which some authors of the present paper have contributed (Brown et al. 2008), describes a method for automating language classification based on the 100-item referent list of Swadesh (1955). Here we discuss a refinement of the method, involving calculation of relative stabilities of list items and reduction of the list to a shorter one by eliminating least stable items. The result is a 40-item referent list. The method for determining stabilities is explained, as well as a method for comparing the classificatory performance of different-sized reduced lists with that of the full 100-item list. A statistical investigation of the relationship of lexical similarity of languages to their geographical proximity is presented. Finally, we test the possibility that information involving typological features of languages can be combined with lexical data to enhance classificatory accuracy.

Levels of description and constraining factors in meaning construction: an introduction to the Lexical Constructional Model

Abstract: This paper presents an outline of the Lexical Constructional Model, a meaning construction model that integrates insights from functional models of language (especially, Role and Reference Grammar) and Cognitive Linguistics (especially, Goldberg's Construction Grammar and Lakoff's Cognitive Semantics). The initial claim is that a theory of semantic interpretation should be constructed on the basis of two representational mechanisms, lexical and constructional templates, and two basic cognitive operations, subsumption and conceptual cueing, that specify in what ways meaning representations from different levels may interact. It is further shown that both lexical-constructional subsumption and purely constructional subsumption –at any stage of the meaning construction process– is regulated by an inventory of both internal and external constraints. Internal constraints involve the semantic units encoded in a lexical or a constructional template, while external constraints result from the possibility or impossibility of performing high-level metaphoric and/or metonymic operations on the items involved in the subsumption or cueing processes.

Serial Verb Constructions: a cross-linguistic typology

Abstract: This volume of new work explores the forms and functions of serial verbs. The introduction sets out the cross-linguistic parameters of variation, and the final chapter draws out a set of conclusions. These frame fourteen explorations of serial verb constructions and similar structures in languages from Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, and the Pacific. Chapters on well-known languages such as Cantonese and Thai are set alongside the languages of small hunter-gatherer and slash-and-burn agriculturalist groups. A serial verb construction (sometimes just called serial verb) is a sequence of verbs which acts together as one. Each describes what can be conceptualized as a single event. They are monoclausal; their intonational properties are those of a monoverbal clause; they generally have just one tense, aspect, mood, and polarity value; and they are an important tool in cognitive packaging of events. Serial verb constructions are a pervasive feature of isolating languages of Asia and West Africa, and are also found in the languages of the Pacific, South, Central and North America, most of them endangered. Serial verbs have been a subject of interest among linguists for some time. This outstanding book is the first to study the phenomenon across languages of different typological and genetic profiles. The authors, all experienced linguistic fieldworkers, follow a unified typological approach and avoid formalisms. The book will interest students, at graduate level and above, of syntax, typology, language universals, information structure, and language contact. in departments of linguistics and anthropology.