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1500 questions
7
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1 answer
Are there languages with PCC effects and a more developed person system?
The Person-Case Constraint (PCC) is a constraint on which arguments can co-occur in a construction such as a causative/applicative/ditransitive. It might cause a combination of persons to be ungrammatical or to be unavailable for processes like…
user325
7
votes
1 answer
Current prospective efforts in the decipherment of ancient scripts
Reading a bit about the decipherment of ancient scripts gave me the impression that those scripts which remain mostly undeciphered as of today have such a small and restricted corpus (I'm thinking of Linear A and the Indus script) that decipherment…
Dominik
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7
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1 answer
"oeuvre": foreign phonemes in a loanword
I recently came across oeuvre, which in the two out of two times I've heard the word spoken (in an English context), sounded like it does in Merriam-Webster's online audio pronunciation, that is, with a vowel that does not occur in any other English…
JohnJamesSmith
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7
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How do allophones become distinct phonemes?
The title pretty much sums up my question, but to elaborate, how do allophones of phonemes become their own distinct phonemes?
For example: in Old English, /θ/ became /ð/ between vowels, but in Modern English, /ð/ is a separate phoneme.
Of course,…
Josh Sellers
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7
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6 answers
Languages without plural markings
Are there languages where nouns are invariable? As I have read such languages simply use a numeral in front of the unchanged noun.
They don't say "five cats", but "five cat" or "five tail cat".
I would like to have more information. Which…
rogermue
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7
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2 answers
Do these past-participle phrases function as a predicative adjunct or noun post-modifier?
In the sentences below, the phrases in italic have the direct object "him" as a predicand, and would, I think, be analyzed as predicative (depictive?) adjunct, according to the terminology used in Huddleston&Pullum's Cambridge Grammar:
1a) She…
TotoKalvera
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7
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1 answer
Consonant length-differences by prominence
In a language I am studying I have just noticed a significant but subtle difference in the length of [f] segments in tonic versus atonic syllables (an ~50ms difference which is statistically significant). When mentioning the effect to a colleague, I…
user483
7
votes
2 answers
Are there any "universal" aspects to "adjective sequence"
Whilst it's by no means a "fixed rule", it seems to me the normal sequence for multiple adjectives applied to a single noun/verb in English does indeed tend to correspond to the top answer given in the ELU question What is the rule for adjective…
FumbleFingers
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7
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2 answers
What is the terminology for a source language for new word production?
For example, Latin is used as a source language for scientific terms in many European languages, and English is used as a source for technology-related terms in other languages
Louis Rhys
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5 answers
Is honorific "uncle" common across the languages of the world?
In Russian and English (and as far as I know Chinese) it's customary for kids to use honorific "uncle" when addressing elders by name (as a kid, you'd rather call an adult "uncle John" than "John", even if he's not your uncle).
In Russian, kids…
Quassnoi
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7
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Why do many French and Spanish noun cognates have opposing grammatical gender?
While most French/Spanish noun cognates share the same gender (both descending from the same vulgar latin root), there are many exceptions having opposing genders (e.g. la couleur / el color; la douleur / el dolor). What explains this divergence? …
user5306
7
votes
4 answers
Voiced "th" in "thank you"?
I have a friend, a native English speaker from Boston, MA, USA (I believe he is mostly Irish American), who is absolutely adamant that the first sound in "thank you" is voiced, rather than voiceless. Moreover, one of his college English professors…
linguisticturn
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What phonological process changes е to ё in Russian?
I've been studying Russian for years now, but the one thing that I can't seem to wrap my mind around is why would the sound е je come to be pronounced like ё jo in certain circumstances?
Obviously, these phonological processes are still active,…
Ryan David Ward
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7
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3 answers
Why the infinitive in Portuguese "Cartago tem que ser destruída"?
Cartago tem que ser destruída.
"Carthage must be destroyed." I'm wondering about the infinitive (ser): where does it come from? In what situations is the infinitive used after que: only with ter + que, or also with other verbs?
It looks strange to…
Cerberus
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7
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Why the grammatical difference between "eu gosto" in Portuguese and "me gusta" in Spanish. What's the historical evolution of this expression?
Apparently, "eu" is the subject in "eu gosto (de isso)" while "me" is the object in "me gusta (algo)". Why such a difference between two languages? What's the historical evolution of this expression?
xji
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