Linguistics Beyond and Within, 2022, Vol. 8

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    Phenomena in Romance verb paradigms: Syncretism, order of inflectional morphemes and thematic vowel
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Baldi, Benedetta; Savoia, Leonardo M.
    This article aims to propose a treatment of the internal morphological organization of words, based on the idea that morphology is part of syntactic computation. We disagree with Distributed Morphology model, whereby morphology is identified with a post-syntactic component conveying an information ‘separated from the original locus of that information in the phrase marker’ (Embick and Noyer 2001: 557) by rules manipulating syntactic nodes. We also consider inadequate the costly and complex syntactic structures that cartographic approach maps into inflectional strings. We pursue a different conceptualization assuming that morphology is governed by the same rules and principles of syntax. Sub-word elements, including inflections, thematic exponents and clitics, are fully interpretable and enter (pair-)merge operations (in the sense of Chomsky 2020a,b, 2021) according to their content, giving rise to complex words.
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    Accent boundaries and linguistic continua in the laryngeal subsystems of English
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Balogné Bérces, Katalin
    A parallel is drawn between the northernmost regions of England represented by Durham and Yorkshire and the transition zone Ouddeken (2016) identifies between voicing and aspiration languages in the Dutch-German dialect continuum. It is argued that, owing to historical changes and dialect contact, the Northern Englishes discussed exhibit hybrid laryngeal systems as a result of being geographically intermediate between Scots in Scotland, which is a voice language similar to Dutch, and mainstream varieties of English spoken more to the south in England (and in most of the rest of the English-speaking world), which are aspiration systems of the German type. We model the emergence of laryngeal systems as the setting of three parameters: (i) whether the laryngeally marked/specified obstruent series contains [voice] (L-system) or [asp] (H-system); (ii) whether the laryngeal prime is able to spread (right-to-left); and (iii) whether the system has pre-obstruent delaryngealisation (POD) (due to which in C1C2, C1 becomes unmarked/underspecified). While spreading L with POD derives voice languages and non-spreading H with no POD derives aspiration languages, two mixed combinations derive the intermediate categories of Durham and Yorkshire (spreading L & no POD and spreading H & no POD, respectively). We also show that all remaining combinations are attested cross-linguistically or else theoretically uninterpretable.
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    Crossing language boundaries. The use of English in advertisements in Polish lifestyle magazines
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Dąbrowska, Marta
    Advertising is an area open to various types of innovation and a creative use of language. Advertisers use a variety of strategies to attract as many customers as possible, employing enticing visuals, clever puns, detailed descriptions, direct appeals, etc. Yet, if the product is to sell, it appears self-evident that the language of the advertisement should not constitute a barrier. Contrary to this assumption, however, there has been an ever growing trend visible in Polish magazines for the last two decades to formulate parts of or even complete advertisements, not infrequently of Polish brands, in English, despite the fact that English remains a foreign language in Poland, although, admittedly, a very popular one. The present study is conducted within the framework of sociolinguistically informed linguistic landscape analysis. It investigates the visibility of English in the advertising landscape of lifestyle magazines published in Poland, represented by a selection of high quality and mid-range general interest and specialised women’s and men’s magazines. Its objective is to identify tendencies in the manifestations of this newly developing multilingualism in respect of the frequency of using English, the category of advertised products which particularly often appear in such multilingual advertisements as well as the type of magazines which admit such advertisements rather readily. Regarding the linguistic strategies used in the analysed texts, attempts are made to establish whether English tends to be used in complete texts and sentences or only parts of those, and if the latter, which elements of the genre of advertising are especially marked by such language choices and why.
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    Spelling out of scope taking arguments in (de-)verbal constructions in Hungarian
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Farkas, Judit; Alberti, Gábor
    The paper systematically investigates operators in post-head positions within the three constructions referring to states of affairs in Hungarian, that is, within verbal, deverbal nominal and infinitival phrases. Hungarian is well-known to be a language in which all types of operator can be, and are usually, spelt out in the pre-head zone. However, it has not been discussed in a systematic and comprehensive way earlier whether operators can appear in post-head positions. The paper points out that this is partially possible via a systematic overview of six basic operator types. It also illustrates that while spelling out operators in the pre-head zone results in unambiguous constructions, placing them in post-head positions yields different types of ambiguity. As for the acceptability of scope taking arguments, finite verbal constructions show a black-and-white picture while infinitival and deverbal nominal constructions can be characterized by gray zones in respect of the readiness of arguments to take scope from post-head position. In these “gray zones”, a somewhat speaker-dependent variation can be observed, presumably with underlying microvariation. To represent and interpret our findings, we use Grohmann’s (2000, 2003) phase-theoretic approach with its pragmasemantics-based three Spell-Out domains per cycle.
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    Postcolonial analysis of educational language policies of Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Grala, Zuzanna
    The aim of this paper is to compare the educational language policing in Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia. While distant geographically, the three countries experience similar linguistic processes when it comes to anglicisation, and propose different solutions to the issue of balancing linguistic rights, and promotion of English as the language of globalisation. This comparison aimed to find out what influences language policing in postcolonial countries, and in what ways language shift can be prevented. The aspects of language policing strategies are presented as a way of protecting linguistic human rights, but also as a way of dealing with the aftermaths of the policies implemented by the British Empire. Similarities and distinctions in the language policies of Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia prove that the weak position of native languages originates not in the “natural” decline of a language, but rather in the policy of promoting English by the colonial forces. Ethnic and linguistic discrimination favouring English speakers in Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia, originates in similar, imperial linguistic ideologies, which are still reflected in the current language policies of countries of colonial past. While the countries approach their bilingual educational policing in different ways, ultimately the outcomes seem similar when it comes to linguistic attitudes and prestige.