Oslo Studies in Language 

About: Oslo Studies in Language is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Norwegian & Verb. It has an ISSN identifier of 1890-9639. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 158 publications have been published receiving 734 citations.

The Ethiopic Script: Linguistic Features and Socio-cultural Connotations

Abstract: During the last two millennia, a large corpus of texts were produced in the Ethiopic script. This ancient African writing system is peculiar to the Ethio-Eritrean region at the Horn of Africa, particularly to the Ethiosemitic language Gǝʿǝz. The present paper is concerned with the origin, linguistic modification and spread of the Ethiopic script, as well as its socio-cultural connotation vis-a-vis other scripts in the region. For this purpose, previous studies related to these topics have been assessed and summarised in a comprehensive description.

Complement Tense in Contrast: The SOT parameter in Russian and English

Abstract: In an SOT-language like English, ‘past under past’ may have a simultaneous interpretation, i.e., we have temporal agreement. In a non-SOT language like Russian, we only have the shifted interpretation. In English, the temporal morphology of the embedded verb is determined by the matrix tense via a binding chain through verbal quantifiers such as ‘say’ or ‘think’. In Russian, these attitude verbs break the binding chain. The morphology of the embedded verb is determined locally by an embedded relative PRESENT, FUTURE or PAST. We propose that the difference between English and Russian is derived from: The SOT-parameter: A language L is an SOT-language if and only if the verbal quantifiers of L transmit temporal features. Verbal quantifiers quantify over times (e.g. fut. will) or world-times (e.g. verba dicendi). The paper will take up a recent challenge by Daniel Altschuler and Olga Khomitsevich against existing accounts: verbs of perception and, occasionally, factive verbs in Russian may express simultaneity by ‘past under past’. We will show that the problem is in fact non-existent when the complement is imperfective. Concerning factives, however, we argue that the complement tense is an independent de re past. Finally, perception verbs are normally not verbal quantifiers and hence not subject to the SOT-parameter.

LangDoc: Bibliographic Infrastructure for Linguistic Typology

Abstract: The present paper describes the ongoing project (LangDoc) to make bibliography website for linguistic typology, with a near-complete database of references to documents that contain descriptive data on the languages of the world. This is intended to provide typologists with a more precise and comprehensive way to search for information on languages, and for the specific kind information that they are interested in. The annotation scheme devised is a trade-off between annotation effort and search desiderata. The end goal is a website with browse, search, update, new items subscription and download facilities, which can hopefully be enriched by spontaneous collaborative efforts.

Place Names and Identities

Abstract: This paper discusses various approaches to the topic "place names and identities", addressing the meaning of place names, their role as links to the past as well as their identity-building capacity. The author argues that there is an intimate relationship between place and place name, and he discusses how place names may reflect or give rise to feelings of individual and collective identity attached to the places in question. Three particular personal experiences of the identity role of place names are given, two at the beginning of the paper and one in the conclusion.

Linguateca's infrastructure for Portuguese and how it allows the detailed study of language varieties

Abstract: In this paper I present briefly Linguateca, an infrastructure project for Portuguese which is over ten years old, showing how it provides several possibilities to study grammatical and semantical differences between varieties of the language. After a short history of Portuguese corpus linguistics, presenting the main projects in the area, I discuss in some detail the AC/DC project and what is called the AC/DC cluster (encompassing other related corpus projects sharing the same core). Emphasizing its potential for language variation studies, the paper also (i) describes CONDIVport's integration as an impetus for new capabilities, and (ii) provides a sketch of newly added functionalities to AC/DC.