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<section id="seminars-of-the-linguistic-convergence-laboratory" class="level2">
<h2 class="anchored" data-anchor-id="seminars-of-the-linguistic-convergence-laboratory">Seminars of the <a href="https://ilcl.hse.ru/en/">Linguistic Convergence Laboratory</a></h2>
<p>If you are interested in participating in the laboratory seminars, please register <a href="https://ilcl.hse.ru/en/polls/420288221.html">here</a>.</p>
<section id="seminar-schedule-2025" class="level3">
<h3 class="anchored" data-anchor-id="seminar-schedule-2025">Seminar schedule 2025</h3>
<div class="columns">
<div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>21 January</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Elena Shvedova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Lability drift in Neo-Aramaic languages</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
<p>In this talk, I examine labile verbs in Neo-Aramaic languages (< Semitic), focusing on diachrony and semantics. Labile verbs, which can be used both transitively and intransitively without morphological change, are widespread in Modern Aramaic languages, in contrast to earlier Aramaic varieties where anticausative or causative marking was more prevalent. The verbal system of Christian Urmi (< North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic) can illustrate this expansion of lability: I analyzed 1811 verbs from the dictionary (Khan 2016) and at least 172 of them are labile.</p>
<p>Neo-Aramaic languages can be divided into two main genealogical groups: Eastern and Western Aramaic, which separated during the first millennium BC. In my study I use data from both branches. I categorize Neo-Aramaic labile verbs into three groups based on their historical development: (1) verbs such as ‘freeze’, ‘fill’, and ‘begin’, which retain lability from earlier stages of Aramaic; (2) verbs such as ‘open’, ‘break’, and ‘close’, which transitioned from anticausative marking in Middle Aramaic to lability in Modern Aramaic, reflecting parallel development in Eastern and Western varieties; and (3) verbs unique to Modern Western Aramaic (MWA), including ‘boil’, ‘dry’, and ‘wake up’. In other Middle and Modern Aramaic languages the meanings from the third group are expressed by causatively marked pairs, so the lability of these verbs in MWA represents a morphological innovation.</p>
I will also propose some explanations for the lability drift in Neo-Aramaic languages of different branches, such as the phonetic loss of the anticausative marker, the expansion of verbs with four root consonants that cannot be causativized, and possible areal factors. The study is still a work in progress, so I would like to discuss some future plans, including the research of corpus data from historical texts and modern corpora to trace the development of labile verbs in more detail.
</details>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="seminar-schedule-2024" class="level3">
<h3 class="anchored" data-anchor-id="seminar-schedule-2024">Seminar schedule 2024</h3>
<div class="columns">
<div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>17 December</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Rita Popova (Saarland University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Where have all the humans gone? Gender assignment of human nouns in Bantu</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
The Bantu languages (Atlantic-Congo), a group of 400–500 varieties, are spoken on the southern part of the African continent, from Nigeria and Cameroon in the west, to the Kenyan coast in the east, and South Africa in the south. These languages are known for their grammatical gender (or noun class) systems, where nouns are categorized into as many as 19 classes that govern agreement in verbs, nominal modifiers, and other targets (Maho 1999). Unlike the gender systems in Indo-European languages, Bantu noun classes are not based on the sex distinction. Instead, the primary semantic contrast in Bantu gender systems lies between humans and non-humans. In a typical Bantu gender system, most nouns referring to humans are assigned to a single ‘human’ gender value (traditionally labelled as Gender 1/2 in Bantuist notation). In contrast, non-human nouns are distributed across several other gender values, often according to principles that are highly opaque (Corbett 1991, Katamba 2003). Occasionally, nouns denoting humans with unusual characteristics are found in gender values other than 1/2 (Van de Velde 2019). However, the gender assignment of human nouns has not been systematically investigated, and most of the widely accepted generalizations are derived from observations on a few well-studied Bantu languages. In this talk, I will demonstrate that gender assignment of human nouns is a parameter of intra-Bantu variation. My study is based on the investigation of more than 30 Bantu lexicons available at the RefLex database (Segerer & Flavier, 2011-2023). I will show that while some Bantu languages assign most human nouns to Gender 1/2, others have a significant number of human nouns in gender values other than 1/2. In fact, some languages seem to assign most human nouns outside 1/2, ‘scattering’ them across other gender values. Languages of my sample that exhibit this latter pattern come from the North-Western Bantu region, a zone traditionally recognized as the most diverse within the otherwise relatively homogenous Bantu-speaking world (Nurse & Philippson 2003, p. 165). I will argue that systems where human nouns are dispersed over different gender values challenge the traditional typological account of nominal classification. According to this view, human nouns — being the semantic core of any nominal classification system — are expected to consistently follow transparent semantic rules of gender assignment (Corbett 1991).
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>10 December</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Martin Haspelmath (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)</em></p>
<p><strong>Language parameters and construction parameters in the CrossGram database collection</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Replicability of research results minimally relies on data accessibility, but the data should ideally be FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. For technical interoperability, the CLDF standard (Forkel et al. 2018) could be used by typologists, though uptake seems to have been slow so far. In this presentation, I discuss the design of the CrossGram database collection, which is specifically designed for typological datasets (it has been public since the summer of 2024: https://crossgram.clld.org/), Here I describe how CrossGram enhances findability and reusability, and I highlight the two different data types that it supports (language parameters and construction parameters). CrossGram makes typological data more findable in that it “brings to light” what is often “hidden away” in supplementary spreadsheet files (or even tables in PDF files, though this is becoming rare). Research papers typically limit themselves to summary tables or graphs and a few small maps, but ideally we want to access all typological datasets with the amenities known from CLLD applications such as WALS Online (Dryer & Haspelmath 2013, wals.info) or Grambank (Skirgård et al. 2023, grambank.clld.org). These provide not only easy exporting in CLDF format, but also easy searching and sorting in data tables, as well as map visualization, and links to references and Glottolog language information. In addition, CrossGram provides glossed example sentences in tabular form, similar to the thousands of examples in the APiCS database (Michaelis et al. 2013). These are a particularly striking case of increased transparency, because it is not uncommon for example sentences to be hidden in PDF supplements (for example, Bugaeva 2022 has a supplement of 80 pages of annotated examples). Interlinear glossed text has a range of applications even independently of the typological claims that the examples illustrate, so this is another obvious improvement in reusability. CrossGram supports two types of typological data: Language parameters that classify entire languages (i.e. parameters of the type known from the maps of WALS and Grambank), and construction parameters that classify constructions. There are many grammatical meanings or functions that can be rendered by multiple constructions in a given language, and if we only consider language parameters, the language must be classified as “mixed” (or a minor construction must be ignored). For example, Kashmiri has both correlative relative clauses and postnominal relative clauses, so both of these strategies could be included in the database and their properties recorded. Stereotypically, typology consists in classifying languages into types, but in reality, languages often have multiple types coexisting with each other, so the addition of constructions and construction types as a data type makes typological databases more fine-grained. Finally, CrossGram parameters (both language parameters and construction parameters) are not only explained succinctly and clearly, but there is also a sophisticated keyword annotation that allows users to easily find grammatical information on a wide range of topics, and for the future, integration with the envisaged “Grammaticon” reference catalogue is planned (see Haspelmath 2022). This will enhance findability and accessibility even further, and it will facilitate replication and (more generally) cumulative science.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>3 December</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Daria Ryzhova (HSE University), Polina Padalka (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>YES and NO answers and their synonyms in Shughni</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Shughni response particles ůn ‘yes’ and nāy ‘no’ may be used in various contexts, including, besides answers to polarity questions, reactions to requests, suggestions, opinions and other types of speech acts. In addition to their usage in a dialogue setting, these particles can function as discourse markers in narratives. In this talk, we will outline the range of their functions and present their synonyms: other response particles (e.g. en ‘yes’, an ‘yes’, nāyo ‘no’, na-a ‘no’) and multiword expressions (discourse formulae). We will show that synonymous items tend to distribute across different discourse functions. For some items, we will trace their presumable pragmaticalization paths.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>26 November</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Leah Finkelberg (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Cormac Anderson et al. (2023) Variation in phoneme inventories: quantifying the problem and improving comparability</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
For over a century, the phoneme has played a central role in linguistic research. In recent years, collections of phoneme inventories, originally designed for cross-linguistic purposes, have increasingly been used in comparative studies involving neighbouring disciplines. Despite the extended application of this type of data, there has been no research into its comparability or tests of its reliability. In this study, we carry out a systematic comparison of nine popular phoneme inventory collections. We render them comparable by linking them to standardised formats for the handling of cross-linguistic datasets, develop new measures to test both size and similarity, and release the organised data in supplementary material. We find considerable differences in inventories supposedly representing the same language variety, both in terms of size and transcriptional choices. While some of these differences appear to be predictable, reflecting design decisions in the different collections, much of the observed variation is unsystematic. These results should sound a note of caution for comparative studies based on phoneme inventories, which we suggest need to take the question of comparability more seriously. We make a number of proposals for improving the comparability of phoneme inventories.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>19 November</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Nina Dobrushina (Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, CNRS, Lyon), Chiara Naccarato (HSE University) and Samira Verhees (independent researcher)</em></p>
<p><strong>Discourse in contact: an areal study of wish formulas in Daghestan</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Research in the domain of language contact and areal studies so far has focussed on the diffusion of lexical, phonological and grammatical elements, and to a smaller extent — lexical semantics (Koptjevskaja-Tamm et al. 2022). Much less is known about the spread of discourse forms, although the mechanisms through which discourse units spread are presumably different from that characterizing the lexicon, phonology and grammar. In this talk, we will look at the diffusion of three discourse formulas across the East Caucasus (46 languages from four families), using elicitation, grammars and dictionaries as source: commemorative formulas, farewell wishes and morning greetings. We look at instances of pattern and matter copying across the languages of the East Caucasus, and analyze their areal distribution. The case studies show that the formulas are diverse (there is great variation across the area), and that both matter and pattern copying are abundant. Some formulas cover very large areas and cross genetic boundaries. In all cases the same spread zones influenced by large lingua francas — Avar (in Central Daghestan) and Azerbaijani (in South Daghestan) — were attested. The distribution of discourse formulas thus shows a very strong areal signal; we cannot come up with any phonological or grammatical phenomena which are spread in the East Caucasus to the same extent. However, there is also evidence of inheritance, especially for those languages that are spoken outside their genealogical area.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>12 November</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Alina Russkikh (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Adnominal Possessive Constructions in Christian Urmi (Neo-Aramaic) from a Typological Perspective</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
The Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) varieties are a group of dialects or closely related languages of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. This study aims to distinguish the inventory of adnominal possessive constructions and to describe the formal and syntactic properties of each construction in a particular variety of NENA, the Christian Urmi, from a typological perspective. Data were collected in the village of Urmiya, Krasnodar Region (Russia) and in Verin Dvin, Ararat Province (Armenia) during field trips in 2021, 2022 and 2024. The presentation will also focus on the locus of marking in adnominal possessive constructions and its evolution. Based on the applied syntactic tests, I will propose the new interpretation of the basic construction with the particle ət attached to the head, analyzing its type of marking as detached rather than head marking.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>5 November</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Konstantin Filatov (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Alexandre François (2014) Trees waves and linkages: Models of language diversification</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Contrary to widespread belief, there is no reason to think that language diversification typically follows a tree-like pattern, consisting of a nested series of neat splits. Except for the odd case of language isolation or swift migration and dispersal, the normal situation is for language change to involve multiple events of diffusion across mutually intelligible idiolects in a network, typically distributed into conflicting isoglosses. Insofar as these events of language-internal diffusion are later reflected in descendant languages, the sort of language family they define - a “linkage” (Ross 1988) - is one in which genealogical relations cannot be represented by a tree, but only by a diagram in which subgroups intersect. Non-cladistic models are needed to represent language genealogy, in ways that take into account the common case of linkages and intersecting subgroups. This paper will focus on an approach that combines the precision of the Comparative Method with the realism of the Wave Model. This method, labeled Historical Glottometry, identifies genealogical subgroups in a linkage situation, and assesses their relative strengths based on the distribution of innovations among modern languages. Provided it is applied with the rigour inherent to the Comparative Method, Historical Glottometry should help unravel the genealogical structures of the world’s language families, by acknowledging the role played by linguistic convergence and diffusion in the historical processes of language diversification.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>29 October</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Polina Nasledskova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Typology of ways of expressing ordinal meaning: work in progress</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Languages of the world vary with respect to the way they form ordinal numerals: some languages form them using a specialized ordinal marker, some languages form ordinals with a marker that is not specialized, and some languages lack ordinal numerals altogether. In this talk, I am going to present a classification of ordinal markers and other ways of expressing ordinal meaning based on a sample of 100 languages. As this is a work in progress, I am also going to discuss some challenges I am facing while working on this topic.
</details>
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<p><strong>22 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Alexander Rostovtsev-Popiel (Mainz University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Suppletion and Selective Restrictions in the Kartvelian Verb</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
This talk is about suppletion and selectional restrictions in the Kartvelian verb. This phenomenon, albeit well-known and widely acknowledged, has never been subject to a dedicated study. Suppletion in Kartvelian has a number of facets that are distributed among a number of diverse domains of linguistic structure, viz. morphology, morphosyntax, semantics, and social deixis, as well as cross-sections thereof. This talk thus aims to provide a concise overview on the patterns found in Kartvelian and categorize them in scalar format.
</details>
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<p><strong>15 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Akhmed Dugrichilov, Taisia Trenikhina, Maksim Melenchenko (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>The typological database of vigesimal numeral systems</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
In our talk, we present the typological database of vigesimal (base-‘20’) numeral systems in languages of the world, which is currently in development. First, we discuss some theoretical problems of numeral systems, the solutions implemented in existing typological databases (WALS and Grambank) and their shortcomings. Then we describe the details of our approach and the preliminary results of the project. We have created a sample of 256 languages which are claimed to have vigesimal systems by Grambank or WALS and annotated 73 so far, focusing on two linguistic areas with high concentration of base ‘20’: Mesoamerica and Papunesia. We show that the distribution of types of numeral systems differs significantly from the one presented by the Grambank data. This is caused not only by annotation mistakes in Grambank but also by the application of a more strict methodology in our study.
</details>
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<p><strong>8 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Igor’ Marchenko (University of Groningen) and Roman Ron’ko (HSE University; Vinogradov Russian Language Institute, RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>Database of the Dialectological Atlas of the Russian language and the classification of Russian dialects</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
In this talk, we will provide an overview of the key functions of the Database of the <a href="https://da.ruslang.ru/">Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language</a>. Additionally, we will present two case studies that utilize this resource. The first case study assesses the stability of dialects using the database alongside dialect corpora, focusing on the dialect vocabulary spoken in a set of villages in the Zapadnodvinsky district of the Tver region. The second is devoted to the classification of Russian dialects using dialectometric methods, specifically multidimensional scaling (MDS). This study draws on data from the Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language in its entirety, offering four classifications based on individual linguistic levels—morphology, phonetics, syntax, and lexis—as well as a comprehensive classification that accounts for all linguistic features reflected in the atlas. The primary focus of the study will be on distinguishing the differences between eastern and western Russian dialects based on the database materials, as well as offering a historical interpretation of this dialect division.
</details>
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<p><strong>1 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Yury Lander (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Differential argument (un)marking: A new survey of alignment in West Circassian</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
West Circassian, also erroneously known as Adyghe, is usually characterized in literature as showing ergative alignment in morphology and possibly even in syntax (Gishev 1985; Kumakhov et al. 1996; Kumakhov & Vamling 2006; Kumakhov & Vamling 2009; Lander 2010; Letuchiy 2012; Ershova 2019 inter alia). In this talk I will show that if we consider differential argument marking (see, e.g., Arkadiev & Testelets 2019) and certain syntactic properties of nominals (such as those discussed in Arkadiev et al. 2009; Lander et al. 2021), the actual situation turns out to be much more complex. No novel data will be provided for scholars of Circassian languages, but I am going to discuss various kinds of pressure in the West Circassian alignment system and the related issues (including the distinction between the “canonical” differential object marking and incorporating processes and the alignment preferences displayed by different kinds of nominals).
</details>
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<p><strong>24 September</strong></p>
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<p><em>Irina Politova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Peter W. Smith et al. (2019) Case and number suppletion in pronouns</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Suppletion for case and number in pronominal paradigms shows robust patterns across a large, cross-linguistic survey. These patterns are largely, but not entirely, parallel to patterns described in Bobaljik (2012) for suppletion for adjectival degree. Like adjectival degree suppletion along the dimension positive < comparative < superlative, if some element undergoes suppletion for a category X, that element will also undergo suppletion for any category more marked than X on independently established markedness hierarchies for case and number. We argue that the structural account of adjectival suppletive patterns in Bobaljik (2012) extends to pronominal suppletion, on the assumption that case (Caha 2009) and number (Harbour 2011) hierarchies are structurally encoded. In the course of the investigation, we provide evidence against the common view that suppletion obeys a condition of structural (Bobaljik 2012) and/or linear (Embick 2010) adjacency (cf. Merchant 2015; Moskal and Smith 2016), and argue that the full range of facts requires instead a domain-based approach to locality (cf. Moskal 2015b). In the realm of number, suppletion of pronouns behaves as expected, but a handful of examples for suppletion in nouns show a pattern that is initially unexpected, but which is, however, consistent with the overall view if the Number head is also internally structurally complex. Moreover, variation in suppletive patterns for number converges with independent evidence for variation in the internal complexity and markedness of number across languages.
</details>
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<p><strong>17 September</strong></p>
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<p><em>George Moroz (HSE), Olga Gich (FEFU), Anna Grishanova (HSE), Natalia Koshelyuk (HSE), Chiara Naccarato (HSE), Anna Panova (HSE), Anastasia Yakovleva (HSE), Svetlana Zemicheva (HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>The DiaL2 project: pipeline, results, news and future work</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
<p>There are 24 dialectal and 8 bilingual corpora of Russian at the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory (see the <a href="https://lingconlab.ru/">resources page</a>), and more are coming. The DiaL2 project was launched two years ago with an aim to study the linguistic variation found in these corpora. We applied a UDpipe morphological and syntactic parser, manually annotated a set of linguistic features (sometimes relistening the recordings in order to check the transcriptions), and implemented statistical models for each feature that predict the probability of divergence from Standard Russian. During the talk we will discuss our results based on several features:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>non-standard marking in numeral constructions (dva dom [two.M house.SG] ‘two houses’);</p></li>
<li><p>preposition drop (rodilas’ [v] tridcat’ devjatom godu ‘(she) was born (in) nineteen thirty-nine’);</p></li>
<li><p>non-standard marking in negative existential constructions (ranše sadiki ne byli ‘there were no kindergartens before.’).</p></li>
</ul>
As possible predictors in the models, we used sociolinguistic features (gender, year of birth, years of education), measures of collocationality, and some relevant linguistic features. During the work we discovered multiple typos, inconsistent and wrong transcriptions, and corrected a lot of them. Therefore, we started a parallel project dedicated to automatic correction of the Lab’s corpora, which will also be discussed during the talk.
</details>
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<p><strong>25 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Peter Arkadiev (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies)</em></p>
<p><strong>Towards a typology of passive lability with special reference to Abaza</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Uncoded passive alternations, also known as passive lability, are only rarely mentioned and discussed in the typological and theoretical literature on passive and voice, despite their being prominent in some language families (e.g. Mande) and linguistic areas (e.g. Western Africa). In this talk I start by discussing the peculiar objective resultative construction in Abaza, a polysynthetic Northwest Caucasian language, and investigate the degree of its similarity to the cross-linguistic prototype of the passive. Given that the Abaza resultative is morphologically unmarked, I argue that it can be considered an instance of passive lability. Further, I propose a preliminary typology of uncoded passives on the basis of a small convenience sample of examples I could gather from the literature. I’ll try to show that this phenomenon is somewhat more widespread than is usually believed and that its cross-linguistic variation largely fits within the typology of “canonical” morphologically marked passives and complements it.
</details>
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<p><strong>18 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Ilia Afanasev (HSE University/MTS AI)</em></p>
<p><strong>A new method for genetic language distance measurement between closely related lects</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Measuring distance between different language varieties (lects) generally must rely on an extensive linguistic research that includes collecting wordlists and information on evolution of the phonetic system (Campbell, 2013). However, sometimes gathering this kind of data seems to be impossible, due to the lack of material, as the only one researchers stay with is a small sample of remaining texts. Most often this is the case of historical small territorial varieties. This eliminates any possibility of a reliable automatic classification, yet still preserves the possibility of a preliminary one. The talk proposes a new method for measuring language distance between small historical closely-related lects, that is based on the combination of frequency-based methods and string similarity measures, and introduces a corpus-based string similarity measure that intends to imitate more advanced phonetic-based scores. The materials for its evaluations are modern and historical Slavic lects, including Slovak, Slovenian and Croatian standards, Belogornoje, Megra and Zialionka dialects, as well as Novgorod, Smolensk and Polack legal texts of XII – XIV centuries. The key technique used is cross-evaluation with more traditional dialectometry methods, where it is possible. Python implementation of the methods given is available as a Python package.
</details>
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<p><strong>11 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Alena Muravyova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Syllable structure in Andic languages: data-driven approach</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
In this talk I will present results of the data-driven research of syllable structure of Andic languages. Despite the fact that the syllable structure is described in every grammatical description of the Andic languages, in my work I try to get the same result using a database of dictionaries (Moroz et al. 2023). To this data, I applied the LexStat method (List 2012) in order to automatically match cognacy and then used the Levenshtein distance search function for comparing syllabic structures of cognates. As a result of a pairwise comparison of cognates from different languages, the general tendency of the Andic languages to prioritize the CV-syllable. What is more, I came to particular conclusions about the beginning of the word (strict openness of the first syllable in Ahvakh, high tolerance of the closed syllable in Botlikh and Andi) and about the end of the word (mainly open syllable in Ahvakh, closed syllable in Botlikh, Chamalal and Bagvalal). In addition, I have separately examined the processes of reducing consonants r, l, m, n, j, w, b in Andic languages. The results I have obtained are of scientific interest, as they testify to the historical processes in the Andic languages.
</details>
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<p><strong>4 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Dmitry Ganenkov (Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft)</em></p>
<p><strong>Causative in Dargwa infinitival constructions</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
<p>In this talk, I report on a work-in-progress concerning the behavior of the morphological causative inside infinitival (obligatory control) constructions in Dargwa, as shown in (1).</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><pre><code>nab [ ħe-zi ʡinc-bi d-iʡ-aq-es ] dig-ul-ra
I(dat) 2sg-loc apple-pl(abs) n.pl-steal:pf-caus-inf want-dur-1</code></pre>
‘I want you to steal apples.’</li>
</ol>
Based on the appearance of example (1), we might expect it to mean ‘I want to make you steal apples.’ However, the presence of the causative construction in the embedded clause is not reflected in the semantics, since the sentence in (1) cannot be understood as expressing a want to cause the stealing. Instead, as the translation of (1) shows, the embedded clause is non-controlled, with the locative “causee” understood as the agent of the embedded event. I present an overview of the phenomenon across Dargwa and concentrate on the details of the construction in Standard/Aqusha Dargwa.
</details>
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<p><strong>21 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maria Kyuseva (University of Surrey), Daria Ryzhova, Ekaterina Rakhilina, Tatiana Reznikova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Parts of the body: New insights into cross-linguistic variation</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
We discuss cross-linguistic variation in the usage of the body part terms within the frame-based approach to lexical typology (Rakhilina & Reznikova 2016). We contribute to the extensive body of research by providing a detailed analysis of one type of contexts in which body part terms appear, i.e., non-semiotic bodily movements, such as to cross the hands behind the back, to cover the face with the hands, etc. We find that different languages use different body part terms to describe the same bodily movement. The choice of the term depends on a range of conditions, including the inventory of the available terms, the сhoice of the linguistic construction, and the degree of conventionalisation. We take this as evidence for an additional aspect of the meaning of a body part term, which has been largely ignored in the previous typological literature. This aspect is the set of semantic restrictions on constructions in which the body part term can appear. We argue that it needs to be addressed in order to ensure the exhaustive cross-linguistic description of this semantic domain.
</details>
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<p><strong>14 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maria Ermolova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>On the genesis of the anti-resultative meaning of the pluperfect in the history of Russian</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
As is well known, Russian constructions with the participle было (пошел было, но вернулся) go back to the Old Russian pluperfect with the anti-resultative meaning. Denoting the anti-resultative meaning is one of the main secondary functions of the pluperfect in the languages of the world. V.A. Plungian and D.V. Sitchinava, based on typological data, connect the emergence of the anti-resultative with different pluperfect meanings from the semantic zone of the discontinuous past. However, data from the Russian chronicles, as well as live dialect data, show that the anti-resultative meaning in the history of Russian could develop not from the meaning of the discontinuous past, but from the resultative meaning.
</details>
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<p><strong>23 April</strong></p>
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<p><em>Anna Golovina and Ksenia Dunaeva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Using transducers to create morphological parsers and other NLP tools for Nakh-Daghestanian languages</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Our talk is dedicated to creating morphological parsers for low-resource Nakh-Daghestanian languages. Morphological parsers can be created based on either processing of a set of grammatical rules of the language or probabilistic models underlying neural networks. The latter are not suitable for languages with a small collection of annotated texts. A finite-state transducer is a rule-based parser that can be defined as a type of finite-state automata with two input tapes. Whereas ordinary finite-state automata can merely determine whether a concrete string belongs to the described regular language, a transducer maps between two sets of symbols: input symbols and output symbols. The transducer makes correspondence between a surface word form and a string with morphological analysis. Building a two-level rule-based parser requires combining a minimum of two different finite-state transducers: one for lexicon storing and morphotactics modeling and another for implementing morphophonological rules. In recent years, morphological parsers based on transducers were implemented for a wide range of East Caucasian languages, including Tsez (Wilson & Howell, 2022), Andi Proper (Buntiakova 2023) and Zilo Andi (Moroz 2022), Bagvalal (Ignatiev 2022), and some others. Our talk will be focused on building parsers for Avar and Bezhta Proper. We will discuss in detail the tools that can be used to create a morphological transducer, the difficulties that one may encounter while computationally modeling the morphology and morphophonology of Nakh-Daghestanian languages, the projects that are already being implemented at the Higher School of Economics, and the future prospects for using rule-based morphological parsers.
</details>
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<p><strong>16 April</strong></p>
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<p><em>Konstantin Filatov (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Rik van Gijn & Max Wahlström (2023) Linguistic areas</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Linguistic area research has received ample attention in the last century. Nevertheless, methodology remains somewhat underdeveloped, and there seem to be few, if any, generalizations about the relation between the processes underlying area formation and their outcomes. The main challenge is that, in most cases, the past is not directly accessible and therefore has to be reconstructed. Linguistic area research, therefore, stands to gain immensely from a firm embedding into a framework that includes both other strands of contact linguistics and extra-linguistic disciplines to complete the picture.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>9 April</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Rita Popova (HSE University) and Michael Daniel (Collegium de Lyon / Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage)</em></p>
<p><strong>Number-conditioned stem alternation in adjectives of size (East Caucasian supplement)</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
<p>In our previous talk at the Lab, we showed that, across the world, property words denoting size may use different stems depending on the number of the entities they are predicated of; and that, in a cross-linguistic perspective, they do so visibly more often than other property words (Popova and Daniel in prep.; see also Nurmio 2017). This pattern of stem alternation for ‘small’ has also been observed in East Caucasian languages (Yakovlev 1960 on Chechen, Kibrik & Kodzasov 1988 on Lak, Azaev 2000 on Botlikh, Kibrik 1999 on Tsakhur, and arguably Nichols 2011 on Ingush).</p>
<p>Notably, the phenomenon has been reported in areally separated (south, central, northwest) languages belonging to different branches (Lezgic, Lak, Andic and Nakh); but the lexical items involved do not always seem to be cognate. It thus seems another case of a cross-linguistically rare phenomenon that emerged as a result of parallel independent development (cf. Daniel & Maisak 2014 on verificative, Nasledskova & Netkachev, under review on ordinal numerals, Daniel 2017 on “person by other means”). Such phenomena are notoriously challenging for an evolutionary interpretation.</p>
<p>It is not obvious that we deal here with suppletion in number. In the languages under study, number agreement is not necessarily present in adjectives, so that the two forms may not belong to one inflectional paradigm. Instead, we will call this pattern number-driven dislexification (cf. François 2022) in the sense that two meanings, ‘small (of one)’ and ‘small (of many)’, commonly expressed by the same lexical item, are split into two different lexical items (cf. similar approach to verbal number in Durie 1986, Mithun 1988, François 2019). Strikingly, while the phenomenon is attested in individual languages dispersed across different branches, and thus could be suspected of being inherited, the cognacy of the alternating stem is not obvious. In some of these languages ‘small (of many)’ is recruited from ‘fine-grained (of e.g. sand)’ (a component structure adjective in terms of Maiden 2014, Nurmio 2017, who discuss the same path of emergence of number suppletion is discussed). We hypothesized that the development of number dislexification emerged through gradual lexical extension of ‘fine-grained’, from more to less mass-like nouns. To test this claim, we ran an online elicitation test, collecting data from each but two languages of the family, in most cases from several respondents. We investigated lexical preferences for expressing the meaning of ‘small (of many)’, expecting to find cases intermediate between languages that only apply ‘fine grained’ to masses and languages that apply it to all plural nouns. We used similar number contexts for ‘big’ as fillers.</p>
<p>Our expectation was partially borne out. In addition to this, we also had some less expected results. We noticed that the phenomenon of number dislexification has a wider spread than reported in the literature in terms of languages involved. We noticed that, in some languages, the dislexified adjective for ‘small (of many)’ and the adjective for ‘fine-grained’ may be unrelated, at least synchronically. We noticed that, notwithstanding plural reference of the noun, ‘small (of one)’ may be induced by the use of the singular form in NPs modified by a numeral - a switch more expected under a grammatical (suppletion) rather than lexical (dislexification) perspective on the phenomenon. Finally, we discovered the same phenomenon present, even if more rarely, in adjectives for ‘big’, our intended fillers.</p>
We expected that a more nuanced model distinguishing between – (a) absence of lexical extension of ‘fine-grained’ altogether, (b) presence of such an extension as a preference and (c) a strict dislexification – complemented by historical analysis of cognacy of the items could provide a more feasible explanation of the distribution of the phenomenon of number dislexification across the family in genealogical or contact terms. So far, our results are not conclusive in this respect.
</details>
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<p><strong>2 April</strong></p>
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<p><em>Matthew Sung and Jelena Prokić (Leiden University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Recent Developments in Quantitative Approaches to Linguistic Micro-Variation</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Dialectometry is the quantitative branch of dialectology which utilizes computational methods to calculate linguistic distances and generate visualizations which allow us to explore relationships between dialects. Although dialectometry is a growing field with an increasing number of new approaches, some corners in dialectal variation are still rather unexplored. Firstly, dialectometry is a popular method in Europe, but not so much in other parts of the world. It is unclear whether our findings of dialectal variation in Europe (e.g. the existence of a dialect continuum, the specific dynamics of dialect spread) are also found in other corners of the world. Secondly, most of the work on phonetic variation is based on segments, while most of the world’s languages are tonal (Yip 2002). It is unclear how dialects vary on the tonal level. Lastly, the outcome of a dialectometric analysis is usually a classification of dialects, but the features that contribute to this classification, i.e. dialect features which are exclusive to certain groups, are not explored in these classifications. In this talk, we would like to address the issues raised above based on our latest work done in Leiden.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>26 March</strong></p>
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<p><em>Irene Gorbunova (Russian State University for the Humanities)</em></p>
<p><strong>Nominal Causal Constructions in Khwarshi Proper</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
In this talk I will address the various ways of nominal cause marking in Khwarshi Proper (a dialect of Khwarshi < Tsezic < East Caucasian). The data was collected in Daghestan during several field trips in 2022-2023, the research was based on (but not limited to) the NoCaCoDa project questionnaire. The grammar descriptions of Khwarshi mention the causal case, which seems to be a unique feature of Khwarshi as compared to other (West) Tsezic languages. Even more peculiar is the fact that the causal case in Khwarshi, albeit attested, is not the default option for marking the nominal cause: rather, a designated postposition or spatial case forms are used. Furthermore, the designated postposition, as well as the spatial case most commonly used for cause marking, both show unexpected semantic shifts under certain predicates.
</details>
</div><div class="column" style="width:15%;">
<p><strong>19 March</strong></p>
</div><div class="column" style="width:85%;">
<p><em>Насиб Амирхан-оглы Искандаров (м.н.с., ФГБНУ “МГНЦ”)</em></p>
<p><strong>Истоки генофонда народов Восточного Кавказа: вклад автохтонного населения бронзового века и миграций из Передней Азии по данным Y-хромосомы</strong></p>
<details>
<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
Генофонд Восточного Кавказа, включающий народы Азербайджана и Дагестана, систематически охарактеризован по единой панели 83 SNP-маркеров Y-хромосомы в контексте населения окружающих регионов. Анализ генетических расстояний между 18 популяциями (N=2216) нахско-дагестанской, алтайской и индоевропейской языковых семей выявляют три компонента генофонда - «степной», «иранский» и «дагестанский» - с разным весом вклада в генофонд и в разные периоды его формирования. «Степной» компонент выражен только у караногайцев и отражает хронологически самую позднюю волну миграций – тюркоязычных кочевников Евразийской степи в средние века. «Иранский» компонент выражен в генофонде азербайджанцев Азербайджана и Дагестана, табасаран Дагестана и всех ираноязычных народов Кавказа. «Дагестанский» компонент преобладает во всех популяциях, говорящих на дагестанских языках (кроме табасаран), и у тюркоязычных кумыков. Каждая компонента связана с определенным комплексом Y-гаплогрупп: «степной» комплекс - C-M217, N-LLY22g, R1b-M73 и R1a-M198; «иранский» комплекс - J2-M172(×M67,M12) и R1b-M269, «дагестанский» комплекс - J1-Y3495. Выдвинута гипотеза, что гаплогруппа J1-Y3495 возникла 6,5±0,6 kya в автохтонной прапопуляции центральной части Дагестана. Около 6 kya она подразделилась на две основные линии: J1-ZS3114 (с максимумом у народов даргинской, лакской, лезгинской языковых ветвей) и J1-CTS1460 (с максимумом у народов для аваро-андо-цезской языковой ветви) с ее дальнейшим ветвлением около 4-5 kya. Результаты анализа филогеографии J1-Y3495 в контексте данных археологии и палеоДНК указывают на рост численности населения на территории Дагестана, начиная с бронзового века, расселение и дальнейшую микроэволюцию подразделенной популяции.
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<p><strong>12 March</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maksim Melenchenko (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Martin Haspelmath (2023) Inflection and derivation as traditional comparative concepts</strong></p>
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This article revisits the distinction between inflectional and derivational patterns in general grammar and discusses the possibility that this well-known distinction is not rooted in the reality of languages, but in the Western tradition of describing languages, through dictionaries (for words, including derived lexemes) and through grammar books (where we often find tables of exemplary paradigms). This tradition has led to rather different terminological treatments of the two kinds of patterns, but from the perspective of a constructional view of morphology, there is no need to incorporate such differences into formal grammatical descriptions. For practical purposes, we need clear and simple definitions of entrenched terms of general linguistics, so the article proposes semantically based (retro-) definitions of <em>inflection</em>, <em>derivation</em> and <em>lexeme</em> that cover the bulk of the existing usage. Finally, I briefly explain why we need sharp definitions of comparative concepts, and why prototype-based and fuzzy definitions of traditional terms are not helpful.
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<p><strong>5 March</strong></p>
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<p><em>John Mansfield (University of Zurich)</em></p>
<p><strong>When social contact promotes diversification</strong></p>
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In much linguistic literature, small, socially isolated speech communities are the main locus of diversification and grammatical complexity (e.g. Trudgill 2011). Similarly, linguistic differentiation is traditionally viewed as resulting from social separation of groups (Paul 1888), while intensive social contact between groups can lead to structural convergence of their languages (e.g. Gumperz & Wilson 1971; Ross 1996). However, sociolinguistic literature shows that social groups in regular contact use language as a way of developing and maintaining distinct group identities (Eckert 2008), and in regions with many small ethnic groups this can drive diversification (François 2011; Evans 2019; Epps 2020), a kind of ‘sympatric speciation’ in linguistic evolution. In this presentation I consider evidence for contact-driven diversification, paying particular attention to which dimensions of language may be used to index group identity. I present a cross-linguistic database on dialect differentiation, which analyses grammatical variation and dialect differences in 42 languages, drawing on data from reference grammars. The main finding is that grammatical ordering very rarely differentiates dialects in close contact, but the form of grammatical markers (affixes, clitics and function words) frequently <em>does</em> differentiate dialects in close contact.
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<p><strong>27 February</strong></p>
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<p><em>Silvia Luraghi (University of Pavia) and Chiara Zanchi (University of Pavia)</em></p>
<p><strong>Introducing PaVeDa – The Pavia Verb Database</strong></p>
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<p>PaVeDa – The Pavia Verb Database is the focus of the project “Verbs’ constructional patterns across languages: a multi-dimensional investigation”, a joint enterprise of two teams of researchers from the Universities of Pavia and Naples “Federico II.” PaVeDa is an open-source relational database for investigating verb argument structure across languages (Zanchi et al. 2022), intending to expand and enhance the Valency Patterns Leipzig (ValPaL) database (Hartmann et al. 2013), developed within the Leipzig Valency Classes Project, which carried out a large-scale cross-linguistic comparison of valency classes. The project relied on a group of contributors, who collaborated by providing a consistent set of cross-linguistic data. The online database ValPaL contains data from 36 languages, based on a database questionnaire for a selected sample of 80 verb meanings. Apart from valency frames, contributors provided information about possible alternations, both uncoded and coded.</p>
In spite of the research carried out within the ValPaL project, no systematic comparative study on diachronic developments across languages is available. The PaVeDa project intends to expand and enhance the ValPaL database with more languages and further features and is configured to contrastively display valency patterns simultaneously in different languages. Within this project, the Pavia team cooperates with a number of international partners who provide sets of data for the new languages uploaded in the database. For the time being, the datasets from several ancient languages (Old Latin, Ancient Greek, Gothic, Old English, Classical Armenian, Old High German) and modern languages (Modern Greek) have been uploaded in the database, along with the modern languages stored in the ValPaL database. As for the additional features, an intermediate level of annotation to the original ValPal have been added, the alternation class, which categorizes language-specific alternations into four cross-linguistic types (valency re-arranging, valency augmenting, valency decreasing, argument identifying), and serves as the initial comparative tool. While the ValPaL database does not allow for contrastive visualization of constructions across the languages it contains, developers of the PaVeDa database designed a special layer of annotation that allows generalizing over language-specific patterns, and makes them visually comparable. Work on ancient languages also brought to methodology redesign, as ancient languages can only be studied based on corpus data rather than relying on the native speakers’ knowledge. This practice brings about a usage-based methodology that we have started implementing for modern languages too, linking the data on constructional patterns to existing digitalized corpora. In the near future, we aim to further develop both typological and diachronic comparison by adding more languages, both ancient and modern, from language families already represented in the ValPal database (Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic), as well as from families that are not represented (Uralic and Turkic).
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<p><strong>20 February</strong></p>
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<p><em>Nina Zdorova (HSE University), Olga Parshina (HSE University), Bela Ogly (HSE University), Irina Bagirokova (HSE, IL RAS), Ekaterina Krasikova (HSE University), Shamset Unarokova (Adyghe State University), Aida Bguasheva (Adyghe State University), Maria Rodina (HSE University), Susanna Makerova (Adyghe State University), Olga Dragoy (HSE, IL RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>Language processing while reading in Adyghe: evidence from eye-tracking studies</strong></p>
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A bulk of psycholinguistic research is dedicated to eye movements while reading that reflect online language processing. Yet, little is known about language processing in polysynthetic languages. The talk will cover the latest eye-tracking studies of language processing while reading sentences in Adyghe conducted by the researchers from the Center for Language and Brain HSE University, Moscow, together with colleagues from the Laboratory of Experimental Linguistics of the Adyghe State University, Maykop. Experimental studies in focus answer fundamental questions about language processing like 1. What features of language processing are observed while reading in a polysynthetic language (Adyghe) compared to reading in other languages? 2. How does language processing change depending on morphosyntactic features when reading in Adyghe? Apart from that, some ongoing research projects of text reading in Adyghe will be presented.
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<p><strong>13 February</strong></p>
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<p><em>Svetlana Zemicheva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Philipp Stöcklec (2023) “Dialect areas and contact dialectology” in Language contact: Bridging the gap between individual interactions and areal patterns</strong></p>
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Spatial variation of language has been researched qualitatively and quantitatively for at least 150 years by different sub-disciplines of linguistics, each defining differently what dialects and dialect areas are. Linguists agree, however, that the concept of dialect is vague and the extent of a dialect is fuzzy. With contact being a crucial driver of linguistic change at sublanguage levels, we attempt to sketch the perspective that contact dialectology and related sub-disciplines can offer on this fuzziness with regard to the spatial variation of dialects and dialect areas. Thus we address contact processes and patterns characterizing individuals, groups, communities, areas and beyond, at temporal scales spanning from mundane contact through generations to deeper time enough for dialects to diverge and disappear.
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<p><strong>6 February</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maria Khachaturyan (University of Helsinki), Maria Konoshenko (University of Helsinki), George Moroz (HSE University) and Valentin Vydrin (INALCO)</em></p>
<p><strong>Valency patterns in Mande: contact vs inheritance</strong></p>
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In our talk, we address valency patterns in seven Mande languages of different genealogical subgroupings. Our study is based on the BivalTyp questionnaire focusing on 130 two-place predicates (Say 2018). We explore areal and genealogical factors in valency expression. While belonging to two distinct genealogical groupings, two languages of the set, i.e. Mano (Southern Mande) and Kpelle (Southwestern Mande), are in intense contact with one another (Khachaturyan & Konoshenko 2021). We investigate to what extent the synchronic patterning of valency expression in the data can be accounted for by contact and / or inheritance. We found that on the basis of the lexical equivalents for a given predicate, the languages are distributed strictly following the genealogical principle, and Mano clusters together with other Southern Mande languages. Yet the type of construction chosen for a particular predicate, as well as, for intransitive constructions, the postposition introducing the second argument, are subject to areal influence, with Mano clustering together with its Southwestern neighbors, Kpelle and Kono, and not with its closest genealogical Southern Mande relatives, Guro and Dan-Gweetaa. In addition, the structure of complex verbs in Mano resembles more that of Kpelle and Kono than that of Guro and Dan-Gweetaa. Thus, although Mano verbal forms are virtually unaffected by contact, the patterns of valency expression, as well as verbal lexical patterns are strongly influenced by neighboring languages. While this is by far not the only study showing predominance of pattern-borrowing in multilingual settings (Epps 2008; François 2011, inter alia), it showcases argument coding as a useful parameter for a comparative study of both pattern and matter.
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<p><strong>30 January</strong></p>
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<p><em>Polina Padalka (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Blum, F., Barrientos, C., Ingunza, A. et al. Grammars Across Time Analyzed (GATA): a dataset of 52 languages. Sci Data 10, 835 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02659-1</strong></p>
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Grammars Across Time Analyzed (GATA) is a resource capturing two snapshots of the grammatical structure of a diverse range of languages separated in time, aimed at furthering research on historical linguistics, language evolution, and cultural change. GATA comprises grammatical information on 52 diverse languages across all continents, featuring morphological, syntactic, and phonological information based on published grammars of the same language at two different time points. Here we introduce the coding scheme and design features of GATA, and we describe some salient patterns related to language change and the coverage of grammatical descriptions over time.
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<p><strong>23 January</strong></p>
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<p><em>Natalia Stoynova (University of Hamburg)</em></p>
<p><strong>Morphosyntactic variation in Evenki dialects: A corpus-based study of argument encoding</strong></p>
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The paper deals with variation in argument encoding attested in Evenki dialects. Evenki (Tungusic) is spoken in a very large area throughout Siberia and manifests a great dialectal diversity. I consider 10 verbs with variable valency patterns across 15 Evenki dialects. The main data were obtained from two corpora of Evenki, supplementary data come from available descriptions. The cluster analysis of variation in argument encoding shows the following results. Clusters of dialects based on valency patterns do not match with the existing classification of Evenki dialects. At the same time, they correlate much better with their areal distribution and with presence/absence of contact with other languages. This supports the claim that valency patterns are diachronically unstable and tend to be easily borrowed.
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<p><strong>16 January</strong></p>
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<p><em>Konstantin Filatov, George Moroz, Chiara Naccarato, Elena Shvedova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>TALD Update 2024</strong></p>
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The seminar will be devoted to an informal discussion of the current version of the TALD (Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan) website, which you can find here: https://lingconlab.github.io/TALD/ We invite you to take a look at the website before the seminar, so we can discuss together the most urgent questions to be solved before the second official release, which is (hopefully) going to take place soon.
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<h3 class="anchored" data-anchor-id="seminar-schedule-2023">Seminar schedule 2023</h3>
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<p><strong>19 December</strong></p>
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<p><em>Benedikt Szmrecsanyi (KU Leuven)</em></p>
<p><strong>Variation-Based Distance and Similarity Modeling: Varieties of English and beyond</strong></p>
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Inspired by work in comparative sociolinguistics and quantitative dialectometry, I will sketch a corpus-based method (Variation-Based Distance & Similarity Modeling — VADIS for short) to rigorously quantify the similarity between varieties and dialects as a function of the correspondence of the ways in which language users choose between different ways of saying the same thing. To showcase the potential of the method, I present a case study that investigates three syntactic alternations in some nine international varieties of English.
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<p><strong>12 December</strong></p>
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<p><em>Natalia Logvinova (HSE, ILI RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>Concord in Russian close appositional constructions: a quantitative study</strong></p>
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In this talk I will discuss case concord in Russian close appositional constructions, which manifests itself in optional case concord of the proper name (v rek-e Don-e/ v rek-e Don ‘in the river Don’). The study provides an in-depth corpus analysis of more than 15,000 examples, using a logistic regression statistical model to predict the choice between presence and absence of concord. The results indicate concord is most likely to occur in constructions with structurally simple and frequent proper names that exhibit adjectival properties and match the common noun in grammatical gender. Proper names with the Goal semantic role show concord with a higher probability than proper names with other roles. It is proposed that all relevant factors refer to frequency or convenience. A diachronic investigation shows that concord has become a much less preferred option over time. It is argued that concord is of low functional significance and suggest that this may explain the gradual loss of concord over time.
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<p><em>Polina Nasledskova (HSE, IL RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>Topological relations in Kina Rutul</strong></p>
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Kina variety of Rutul (< Lezgic < East Caucasian) has several different means for describing spatial relations. In this study, I analyze the way topological relations are described in Kina Rutul by means of spatial cases, spatial adverbs and postpositions, and spatial verbal prefixes. The data for this study was collected in field in 2019 and is based on a questionnaire “Topological relations picture series” by Bowerman&Pederson (1992). This talk depicts my first attempt at analyzing the collected data and this work is still in progress. My main objective is to determine in which contexts the spatial meanings of case, adverb/postposition and verbal prefix are different and what aspects of topological relations each of these elements relate to.
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<p><strong>5 December</strong></p>
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<p><em>Sofia Oskolskaya (ILS RAS, HSE), Anna Smetina (IL RAS), Natalya Stoynova (University of Hamburg)</em></p>
<p><strong>Analysis of the Gorin Nanai texts from A. P. Putintseva’s text collection (1935-1936)</strong></p>
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Gorin is the most northern Nanai dialect which is spread along the Gorin river, to the North from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The ancestors of the Gorin speakers used to speak a Northern Tungusic language and shifted to Nanai about 150 years ago. Gorin Nanai is highly endangered and very poor-documented. A. P. Putintseva collected 18 notebooks of texts in Nanai during her work in 1935-1936. More than a half of the texts were recorded from Gorin Nanai speakers. Her manuscripts contain a lot of her own corrections. In our talk, we will focus on analysis of these corrections. We believe that some of them may reveal underdescribed dialectal features of Gorin Nanai.
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<p><em>Andrey Chirkin (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Kilu von Prince (2019) Counterfactuality and past</strong></p>
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Many languages have past-and-counterfactuality markers such as English simple past. There have been various attempts to find a common definition for both uses, but I will argue in this paper that they all have problems with (a) ruling out unacceptable interpretations, or (b) accounting for the contrary-to-fact implicature of counterfactual conditionals, or (c) predicting the observed cross-linguistic variation, or a combination thereof. By combining insights from two basic lines of reasoning, I will propose a simple and transparent approach that solves all the observed problems and offers a new understanding of the concept of counterfactuality.
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<p><strong>28 November</strong></p>
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<p><em>Vladimir Plungian (MSU, IL RAS, RLI, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>Quechua “restrictive” marker <em>=lla</em>: semantic and morphosyntactic properties</strong></p>
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<p>“Restrictive” markers (like Latin solum, English only etc.) represent an important type of units involved in the organization of discourse: being almost pervasive in the world’s languages, they often have unobvious patterns of polysemy, as well as non-trivial morphosyntactic properties.</p>
<p>Quechua is no exception to this phenomenon. The restrictive marker =lla is attested in all Quechuan idioms (surfacing in slightly different phonetic shape). My talk addresses the variety of its uses mostly in Ecuadorian Quechua (or Kichwa) and elaborates on two main features of interest. Firstly, =lla exhibits a surprisingly wide polysemy in non-nominal domain, ranging from diminutive to focus-contrastive uses. Secondly, it displays a unique morphosyntactic behavior that suggests an intermediate status between a mesoclitic and an affix. I will present the main facts and discuss possible ways of accounting for these intriguing properties.</p>
<p>Arkadiev, Peter M. 2010. Notes on the Lithuanian restrictive. Baltic Linguistics 1, 9–49.</p>
<p>Grzech, Karolina. 2016. Discourse Enclitics in Tena Kichwa: A Corpus-Based Account of Information Structure and Epistemic Meaning. London: SOAS.</p>
<p>Myler, Neil. 2009. Linearization and post-syntactic operations in the Quechua DP. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 5, 46–66.</p>
<p>Ricca, Davide. 2017. Meaning both ‘also’ and ‘only’? The intriguing polysemy of Old Italian pur(e). In: Anna-Maria De Cesare & Cecilia Andorno (eds.), Focus on Additivity: Adverbial modifiers in Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages, 45–76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.</p>
<p>Stoynova, Natalia. 2021. A nonstandard type of affix reordering: The restrictive kə̄n in Ulcha. Studies in Language 46 (1), 1–39.</p>
<p>Tellings, Jos. 2014. Only and focus in Imbabura Quichua. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 40, 523–544.</p>
<p>Пекелис, Ольга. 2021. Один в значении ‘только’: синтаксис и семантика в синхронии и диахронии. Jezikoslovni Zapiski 27 (2), 143–155.</p>
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<p><em>Ivan Osorgin (HSE University), Konstantin Filatov (HSE, ILS RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>Parabible: a researcher’s tool for small-scale parallel Bible studies</strong></p>
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This talk summarizes the recent progress in the Parabible project. The machine-readable Massively Parallel Bible Corpus of Mayers & Cysouw (2014) is specifically designed for large scale quantitative analysis of Scripture, especially for purposes of grammatical typology. However, using this database as is, seems to be quite inconvenient for small-scale qualitative research. Our main aim for creating the Parabible tool was to facilitate the use of the database for unsophisticated researchers. We will present the current state of affairs, as well as discuss future paths of development.
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<p><strong>21 November</strong></p>
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<p><em>Asya Alekseeva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Inclusive/exclusive distinction in personal pronouns in East Caucasian languages</strong></p>
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In this talk I will present the results upon my project in TALD on inclusive/exclusive distinction in personal pronouns. I will show the idioms where there is such a distinction and where there is none. Also the morphological relation between the pronouns will be taken into account: are the forms for 1PL related to ones for 1SG or, probably, for 2SG or 2PL? In addition, I will say a couple of words about the diachrony of personal pronouns systems in East Caucasian languages.
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<p><em>Anastasiya Ivanova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Question marking strategies in East Caucasian languages</strong></p>
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In East Caucasian languages, various strategies are used for coding questions. During the talk, we will discuss the data on question marking, which was collected for TALD. Both polar and content questions, as well as interrogative and indirect questions will be taken into accoun. Additionally, we will briefly address meditative questions (a distinct semantic type of (non-canonical) questions often posed in the absence of an addressee and within the speaker’s inner speech) and the issues encountered during the data collection process.
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<p><em>Natalia Koshelyuk (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>LingvoDoc as a system for documenting and analyzing languages</strong></p>
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In this talk I will present the LingvoDoc platform, a multifunctional linguistic system designed for compiling, analyzing and storing dictionaries and corpora of various languages and dialects. It was developed under the guidance of Yu. V. Normanskaya and programmers of ISP RAS in 2012 as one of the electronic libraries of endangered languages. But with time, it became possible to conduct phonological, morphological, lexical and other types of analysis of linguistic data using special tools installed on the LingvoDoc. During the talk, I will give an idea of what features this platform has, what options and tools are installed in the system and how else it can be useful to researchers.
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<p><strong>14 November</strong></p>
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<p><em>Nina Sumbatova (HSE, IL RAS), Svetlana Toldova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Accessibility and morphological complexity: locative forms in Dargwa</strong></p>
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<p>In many works, there is a discussion on the connection between certain sociolinguistic and even geographical characteristics of languages and the complexity of their phonological and/or morphological systems. This talk presents a case study where we check a possible connection of this type.</p>
<p>The data representing morphological complexity are systems of locative forms of nouns in 33 lects of the Dargwa language group (Nakh-Dagestanian). As a simple correlate of the complexity parameter, we used the number of locative series, the number of nominal forms in each series and the total number of locative forms.</p>
<p>The geographical characteristics to be checked is the accessibility of the villages where these lects are spoken. We used several estimates of inaccessibility like height above sea level, distance from the administrative center, and a complex parameter that takes into account several characteristics.</p>
The results are moderately positive: the correlation in question exists, but its interpretation is not obvious and requires a serious discussion.
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<p><strong>7 November</strong></p>
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<p><em>Timur Maisak (IL RAS, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>‘What’s your name?’ in Daghestan and beyond</strong></p>
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Inspired by the paper “‘What’s your name?’ in Tungusic and beyond” by Andreas Hölzl (2022, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7053365), I look at the translations of three sentences related to personal names: ‘What is your name?’, ‘My name is [X]’ and ‘The boy (or: girl) was given the name [X]’. My focus will be on the morphosyntactic structure of these sentences in the languages of Daghestan, in particular on the parameters of variation. The approach is close to that of TALD (http://lingconlab.ru/dagatlas/), although at the same time different: my sample is smaller, and the stimuli sentences were elicited from native speakers rather than extracted from secondary sources.
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<p><em>Yury Koryakov (IL RAS, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Paul Heggarty et al.(2023) Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages</strong></p>
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Abstract
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The origins of the Indo-European language family are hotly disputed. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of core vocabulary have produced conflicting results, with some supporting a farming expansion out of Anatolia ~9000 years before present (yr B.P.), while others support a spread with horse-based pastoralism out of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe ~6000 yr B.P. Here we present an extensive database of Indo-European core vocabulary that eliminates past inconsistencies in cognate coding. Ancestry-enabled phylogenetic analysis of this dataset indicates that few ancient languages are direct ancestors of modern clades and produces a root age of ~8120 yr B.P. for the family. Although this date is not consistent with the Steppe hypothesis, it does not rule out an initial homeland south of the Caucasus, with a subsequent branch northward onto the steppe and then across Europe. We reconcile this hybrid hypothesis with recently published ancient DNA evidence from the steppe and the northern Fertile Crescent.
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<p><strong>31 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Zaira Khalilova (IL RAS, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>The desiderative in Bezhta</strong></p>
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In this talk, I will analyze the desiderative in Bezhta. The Nakh-Daghestanian languages express desideration using several strategies, like verbs and nouns. Special desiderative morphology, which is a rare phenomenon in the area, is present in two Nakh-Daghestanian languages, Hunzib and Bezhta. Additionally, Bezhta exhibits an unusual causative reading in the desiderative construction with different subjects. This study is the first report on the Bezhta desiderative. It reveals morphosyntactic and semantic properties of desiderative construction formed with the dedicated suffix.
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<p><em>Elena Shvedova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>The rise and fall of the Aramaic anticausative marker</strong></p>
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Abstract
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<p>Valence orientation is generally believed to be a diachronically stable parameter (Nichols et al. 2004; Comrie 2006), but the history of Aramaic languages challenges this view. While the causative marking has been stable and productive in these idioms for several millennia, the anticausative coding has undergone dramatic changes. It was very common in Old and Middle Aramaic, but has been completely lost in most Modern Aramaic varieties due to phonetic assimilation or for other as-yet unidentified reasons. In my study, after defining the class of the verbal concepts that were typically coded with anticausative marker in Old and Middle Aramaic, I explore how these meanings are expressed in Neo-Aramaic. The data shows that the large class of Neo-Aramaic labile verbs can be separated into two groups: those that have been labile since the first millennium BCE and those whose lability is a novel Neo-Aramaic trait that has replaced anticausative marking.</p>
<p>Comrie, Bernard. 2006. Transitivity pairs, markedness, and diachronic stability. Linguistics 44(2). 303–318.</p>
Nichols, Johanna, David A. Peterson & Jonathan Barnes. 2004. Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8(2). 149–211.
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<p><strong>24 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Asya Alekseeva (HSE University), Nikita Beklemishev (Universität Tübingen / Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)), Michael Daniel (Collegium de Lyon / Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage), Nina Dobrushina (CNRS), Anastasiya Ivanova (HSE University), Konstantin Filatov (HSE / ILS RAS), Timur Maisak (HSE / IL RAS), Maksim Melenchenko (HSE University), Ivan Netkachev (HSE University), George Moroz (HSE University), Ilya Sadakov (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Atlas of Rutul dialects</strong></p>
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Abstract
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The purpose of this talk is to show the Atlas of Rutul dialects, a database with visualized grammatical features for 12 Rutul idioms. Traditionally, five dialects of Rutul (Lezgic < Nakh-Dagestanian) are distinguished: Mukhad, Shinaz, Myukhrek, Ikhrek and Borch-Khnov, and so called “mixed” dialect for a number of villages (Ibragimov 2004). During our trip to South Dagestan in July 2022, we visited 12 Rutul villages. Everyone from our team gathered their questionnaire from at least two speakers in each village. The questionnaires were designed for different domains of Rutul phonology, morphology (nominal, verbal, pronominal, etc.), vocabulary and two discourse formulas. In this talk we will present some preliminary results of our work, and also we will talk about some difficulties and problems which arose during data processing.
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<p><em>Polina Bychkova (University of Ljubljana), Daria Ryzhova, Polina Padalka, Aleksandra Martynenkova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Multilingual Pragmaticon: towards the typology of pragmaticalization</strong></p>
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Abstract
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In this talk, we will present a database of discourse formulae —` idiomatic multiword constructions serving as positive or negative answers to the previous utterance (cf. Be my guest or By no means). By the moment, the database contains more than 2000 items from 10 languages. We describe their pragmatic functions and reconstruct constructions they emerge from, classifying their source semantics. This way we attempt to reveal recurrent paths of pragmaticalization within the domain of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers.
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<p><strong>17 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Anastasia Yakovleva, Natalia Koshelyuk, George Moroz (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Preposition drop in bilingual and standard speakers of Russian: A corpus-based study</strong></p>
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In this talk, we present our corpus-based study of preposition drop in the speech of Mari-Russian and Besermyan Russian bilinguals compared with the speech of monolinguals. On the basis of the data from the ConLab’s collection of spoken corpora (cf. http://lingconlab.ru/resources.html), we demonstrate that the preposition ‘v’ is omitted in the speech of bilinguals more often than in monolingual speech and propose some possible explanations for the variation across different bilingual speakers. We will also highlight some methodological problems of p-drop studies and discuss ways of solving such problems.
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<p><em>Aleksandra Martynenkova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Judith Aissen (2023). Documenting topic and focus</strong></p>
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Abstract
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<p>In the paper, four information structure relations are discussed: two types of topic (non-contrastive and contrastive) and two types of focus (information focus and contrastive focus). All four depend crucially on discourse context. Although topic and focus are sometimes viewed as complementary relations, they belong to distinct dimensions of information structure, with one (focus) having to do with the locus of new information in an utterance, and the other (topic) with the entity that the utterance is about. The following questions are specified in the article:</p>
<p>What is the nature of the relation?</p>
<p>How is it marked cross-linguistically?</p>
<p>How can it be elicited and documented?</p>
The utility of various techniques for documenting these relations is observed, including the study of naturally occurring speech, the use of constructed contexts, and the role of elicitation.
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<p><strong>10 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maria Starodubtseva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Distinction between transitive and intransitive imperatives in Daghestanian languages</strong></p>
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Abstract
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Formation of imperative and its connection to transitivity is relatively well studied for the Nakh-Daghestanian family at the level of individual languages, but no areal view is presented so far. The aim of this research is to describe the formal distinction between transitive and intransitive imperatives on the basis of Nakh-Daghestanian languages. A significant number of languages of the family show this distinction in morphology. Transitivity may also bear on the marking of the number of addresses. The chapter contains two interactive maps based on the data collected from the grammars. The current research has been carried out within the framework of the TALD project.
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<p><em>Vasiliy Zerzele (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Plural marking of imperatives and prohibitives in the languages of Daghestan</strong></p>
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Abstract
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My study within the TALD (Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan) project is concerned with plural marking on imperatives and prohibitives among the languages of Daghestan. I will discuss the types of plural marking (found among ~55% of Daghestanian languages) and the problems with classifying these markers. Then I will discuss the same classification issues with prohibitives, as well as look at examples of languages with a transitive split. Finally, I will summarize it by discussing the geographical distribution of these features within Daghestan.
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<p><em>Chiara Naccarato (HSE University), George Moroz (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Non-standard numeral constructions in L2 Russian: A corpus-based study</strong></p>
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Abstract
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In this talk we present our corpus-based study of numeral constructions in the Russian speech of bilinguals from different regions of Russia. Data from the ConLab’s collection of spoken corpora of L2 Russian (cf. http://lingconlab.ru/resources.html) show that non-standard encoding of numeral constructions is not infrequent, e.g., četyre brat’ja instead of Standard Russian četyre brata. Variation is attested in all corpora, but to different extents (it is higher in Daghestan as compared to corpora from other regions), and generally much lower as compared to results obtained for other varieties of bilinguals’ Russian (cf. Stoynova 2021 on Nanai and Ulcha Russian). The attested variation can only partly be explained as the result of pattern borrowing from the speakers’ L1s, and correlations with the type of numeral involved (higher variation with paucals and collectives) would point to incomplete or non-standard L2 learning as a more viable hypothesis. For most of the corpora, variation seems to characterize the speech of few speakers-outliers, so we cannot extrapolate our conclusions to the whole population.
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<p><strong>3 October</strong></p>
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<p><em>Sergey V. Knyazev (RLI), George Moroz (HSE University), Svetlana Dyachenko (RLI)</em></p>
<p><strong>Корпус ПРуД</strong></p>
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Abstract
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<p>В докладе речь пойдет о создаваемом нами корпусе “Просодия русских диалектов”. Мы расскажем о его устройстве, а также о тех вопросах, решению которых, на наш взгляд, могут способствовать представленные в нем данные:</p>
<p>Какова вариативность русских диалектных просодических систем?</p>
<p>Чем они могут отличаться от литературной?</p>
Возможно ли решение проблем интонационной фонологии литературного языка на основании диалектных данных?
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<p><em>Svetlana Zemicheva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Коломацкий, Д. И. Дистрибуция русских пассивных форм: корпусное исследование : дисс. канд. филол. наук : специальность 10.02.21 “Прикладная и математическая лингвистика”. М., 2009.</strong></p>
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Abstract
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Цель исследования – установить, от чего зависит выбор средства обозначения страдательного залога в русском языке. В работе используется обширный корпусный материал: 3154 предложения с возвратными глаголами, 2807 предложений с пассивными причастиями. На основе применения критерия хи-квадрат определяется вероятность (не)случайного распределения. Исследуются такие возможные параметры дистрибуции, как семантический класс глагола, вид и акциональность глагольной словоформы, а также свойства актантов пассивной конструкции. Особенностью работы является анализ данных русского языка в свете глобальных теоретических подходов, в частности, используется типологическое определение пассива, предложенное М. Хаспельматом, и теория семантической переходности П. Хоппера и С. Томпсон.
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<p><strong>26 September</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maksim Melenchenko (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Evidential Perfects in Shughni (and other Pamir languages)</strong></p>
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Abstract
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Perfect, one of three main tense-aspect verb forms in Shughni (< East Iranian), is mainly used as an evidential. While Preterite denotes witnessed events, Perfect is used for non-witnessed events (for example, reported by other people or inferred). It is also used in experiential (such as ‘I have never…’) and counterfactual contexts. For a closed set of verbs that denote states, the Perfect form serves as a progressive present tense (e.g. ‘I am sitting’). In narratives, Perfect is generally for introductory or backgrounding events. The Perfect form of the Shughni verb ‘to be’ вуδҷ can refer to present-tense situations that are witnessed by the speaker. Similar forms in other languages have been dubbed “mirative”; I will attempt to argue against such a label for Shughni. In the talk, I will discuss theoretical implications of these topics and draw areal and typological parallels.
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<p><em>Polina Padalka (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Bohnemeyer J. Elicitation and Documentation of Tense and Aspect</strong></p>
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Abstract
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All languages seem to have provisions for the representation of time in their lexicons and discourse structures. But evidence has been mounting in recent years that the ways in which the representation of time is inscribed into the grammars of different languages varies substantially. This article reviews this evidence and introduces some empirical and analytical tools that facilitate the study of tense-mood-aspect systems in the field. The article begins by laying out some basics of temporal semantics (following Klein 1994 and Bohnemeyer 2014) and surveying tools and methods for the study of temporal semantics in the field. It then zeroes in on the topic of tenselessness. After reviewing the empirical case for tenselessness in one language, Yucatec Maya (Bohnemeyer 2002, 2009), four recent field-based studies of future-time reference (FTR) in (superficially or profoundly) tenseless languages are compared: Yucatec, Kalaallisut (Bittner 2005), St’át’imcets (Matthewson 2006), and Paraguayan Guaraní (Tonhauser 2011). Tenseless languages often grammaticalize a distinction between reference to factual and non-factual situations, treating FTR as non-factual. Past counterfactuals can serve as a diagnostic context, as they permit non-future tenses, but not irrealis markers.
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<p><strong>19 September</strong></p>
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<p><em>Svetlana Zemicheva, George Moroz (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Modeling the use of non-standard participles in dialect varieties of Russian</strong></p>
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Abstract
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In this talk we explore dialect ši-participles. Our sample includes 2,027 utterances with standard and non-standard verbal forms extracted from 12 dialect corpora of the linguistic convergence laboratory. We identified functions of non-standard participles and compare them to standard forms (for example, -ši forms in subject resultative construction vs verbs in past tense; -ši forms in adverbial function vs standard converbs). Then we apply logistic regression model trying to answer the following research questions: What is the probability to have a person with dialect participles in each corpus? Is there any effect of education on speaker standardness by this feature? Is there any priming effect in the use of non-standard forms?
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<p><strong>27 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Nina Dobrushina</em></p>
<p><strong>Variation and change in Rutul optatives: results of Rutul dialectological survey</strong></p>
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Abstract
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In the beginning of this talk, I will introduce the project of the dialectological survey of Rutul (Lezgic), its scope and its aims. I will then present the results of the project in one functional domain, the optative suffixes. A great diversity of suffixes found across twelve villages of the Rutulski district will be analyzed in terms of inter-village, inter-speaker and intra-speaker variation. The patterns of geographic and social distribution of optative suffixes will be discussed in order to raise the question of the diachronic dynamics that underlie the observed variation. I will compare the results of the project with the existing literature on Rutul dialects and other Lezgic languages, and propose a diachronic scenario for the development and divergence of Rutul optative suffixes.
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<p><em>Vera Tsukanova (University of Marburg)</em></p>
<p><strong>Areal factors in nominal plural formation in Semitic languages</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
The Semitic languages have different strategies of forming nominal plurals. In some languages, only suffixes are used, while in others, suffixation or transfixation (“broken plural”) depending on the lexical item. The first group also includes languages where several nouns can undergo apophonic alternations in the plural; and the second group includes some languages where suffixes and transfixes can apply to the same lexical item at the same time. For a long time, the presence of the “broken plural” was considered to be an important isogloss which separates South Semitic from the rest of the Semitic languages. Recently this classification has, however, been revised, and the “broken plural” has been reinterpreted as an areal phenomenon. Departing from this, I am going to address the role of areal factors in the shaping of the traditional phylogenetic configurations of the Semitic languages.
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<p><strong>20 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Alina Russkikh (HSE University), Aigul Zakirova (independent researcher)</em></p>
<p><strong>Peripheral functions of additive and intensifying clitics: a typological perspective</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
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Additive focus particles, such as English also or German auch, have been extensively discussed in the literature (König 1991, Krifka 1998, Forker 2016). Their semantic contribution to the meaning of the sentence is the presupposition that there is at least one true alternative to the focussed constituent. Another, less common type of focus particles are intensifying particles, such as Avar =<em>go</em> (Forker 2015). The core function of such particles is contrast or emphasis marking. In some languages, besides their core functions, additive and intensifying particles also occur in other, peripheral functions. Interestingly, in some of these functions both types of particles are used. The purpose of this talk is to establish a list of “shared” functions where both types of particles can be used, and compare the distribution of additive and intensifying particles across the shared functions. Our sample thus includes languages that feature both additive and intensifying particles. Besides, we limit ourselves to clitics. These conditions hold for languages spoken in the Eastern and Southern Caucasus and languages of the Volga-Kama area.
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<p><strong>13 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Maria Ermolova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>On the grammaticalization of the past passive participles in Middle Russian</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
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I will analyze the functioning of the past passive participles (PPP) in the preterit meaning used without auxiliary in the Russian language of the XVIIth c. on the data of private letters and the first Russian handwritten newspaper Kuranty. The grammatical interpretation of this use is proposed in the talk. By the evolution of the old temporal system the PPP tends to grammaticalize and transform into a special form which has the preterit meaning and doesn’t need indication on the action’s subject. Different types of the constructions with PPP in this function (the PPP coordinates with the subject / has the neutral form by the subject in Nom. or Acc.) reflect different stages of the grammaticalization process, which wasn’t fully realized in the history of Russian, but reached the final phase in Polish.
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<p><em>Elena Shvedova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Jacques, Guillaume 2023. Folia Linguistica, https://doi.org/10.1515/ flin-2023-2013</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
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This paper is the first survey of verbal affixes encoding the day period (‘at night’,‘in the morning’ etc) or the yearly seasons (‘in win- ter’ etc) when the main action takes place. It introduces the term ‘periodic tense’ to refer to this comparative concept, explores the attested paradigms, their interactions with other verbal categories (including the more usual deictic tense) and investigates their diachronic origins. It shows that periodic tense markers are not restricted to incorporated nouns of time period, but constitute a highly grammaticalized verbal category in some languages, which redundantly co-occurs with adverbs or nouns of time.
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<p><strong>6 June</strong></p>
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<p><em>Gromov V. A., Borodin N. S., Dang Q. N., Ivanov A. A., Ivanov D. K., Kogan A. S., Xu J.</em></p>
<p><strong>Spot the Bot: Large-Scale Structure of Natural Languages</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
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In the presentation, we attempt to examine a natural language (as a whole) as a natural phenomenon. We ascertain that it constitutes a self-organised critical complex system. The presentation explores the language coarse-graining structure: sets of word, bi- and trigram embeddings. We ascertain that these sets are fractal, estimate their internal dimensions, and contour ‘holes’ in the language (using topological data analysis).We analyse semantic trajectories of literature masterpieces as those of chaotic dynamical systems. The results obtained are employed to distinguish texts written by humans and those generated by bots.
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<p><em>Timofei Dedov (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Nataliia Hübler, Simon J. Greenhill (2023) Modelling admixture across language levels to evaluate deep history claims</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
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The so-called ‘Altaic’ languages have been subject of debate for over 200 years. An array of different data sets have been used to investigate the genealogical relationships between them, but the controversy persists. The new data with a high potential for such cases in historical linguistics are structural features, which are sometimes declared to be prone to borrowing and discarded from the very beginning and at other times considered to have an especially precise historical signal reaching further back in time than other types of linguistic data. We investigate the performance of typological features across different domains of language by using an admixture model from genetics. As implemented in the software STRUCTURE, this model allows us to account for both a genealogical and an areal signal in the data. Our analysis shows that morphological features have the strongest genea- logical signal and syntactic features diffuse most easily. When using only morphological structural data, the model is able to correctly identify three language families: Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic, whereas Japonic and Koreanic languages are assigned the same ancestry.
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<p><strong>30 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>Zaira Khalilova (IL RAS, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>Adaptation of verbal borrowings in Nakh-Daghestanian languages</strong></p>
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<summary>
Abstract
</summary>
<p>The Nakh-Daghestanian languages have many borrowings from different languages. The majority of borrowings are nouns and adjectives, whereas verbs are borrowed the least. When verbs are borrowed, they are adapted by using different integration strategies, which are light verb strategy, indirect insertion, and direct insertion [Wohlgemuth, 2009].</p>
In this talk, I will present verbal adaptation strategies found in the languages of Daghestan. For instance, languages in contact with Avar integrate verbal borrowings using light verb strategy and indirect insertion. Languages in contact with Turkic languages use light verb strategy and direct insertion. It is generally the case that a recipient language has one strategy for integrating verbs from various donor languages, e.g., Bezhta uses light verb strategy to integrate Avar, Georgian, and Russian verbs. Other languages apply one integration strategy per donor language, e.g., Khwarshi uses light verb strategy for Russian verbs and indirect insertion for Avar verbs. Few languages combine two strategies for one donor language, e.g., Lezgian uses light verb strategy and direct insertion for adapting Russian verbs.
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<p><em>Asya Alekseeva (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Reading group: Petrini, S., Casas-i-Muñoz, A., Cluet-i-Martinell, J., Wang, M., Bentz, C., & Ferrer-i-Cancho, R. (2023). Direct and indirect evidence of compression of word lengths. Zipf’s law of abbreviation revisited. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.10128.</strong></p>
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Abstract
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Zipf’s law of abbreviation, the tendency of more frequent words to be shorter, is one of the most solid candidates for a linguistic universal, in the sense that it has the potential for being exceptionless or with a number of exceptions that is vanishingly small compared to the number of languages on Earth. Since Zipf’s pioneering research, this law has been viewed as a manifestation of a universal principle of communication, i.e. the minimization of word lengths, to reduce the effort of communication. Here we revisit the concordance of written language with the law of abbreviation. Crucially, we provide wider evidence that the law holds also in speech (when word length is measured in time), in particular in 46 languages from 14 linguistic families. Agreement with the law of abbreviation provides indirect evidence of compression of languages via the theoretical argument that the law of abbreviation is a prediction of optimal coding. Motivated by the need of direct evidence of compression, we derive a simple formula for a random baseline indicating that word lengths are systematically below chance, across linguistic families and writing systems, and independently of the unit of measurement (length in characters or duration in time). Our work paves the way to measure and compare the degree of optimality of word lengths in languages.
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<p><strong>23 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>Vladimir Plungian (MSU, IL RAS, RLI, HSE)</em></p>
<p><strong>“Temporal mobility” outside Armenian: the case of Dardic and Iranian</strong></p>
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<p>In a number of my previous publications (Plungian 2018 being the most recent), I suggested a label of “temporal mobility” for a specific type of verbal systems where the opposition of (present and past) tense may not extend to the whole set of aspectual forms. That means some aspectual series behave as “temporally mobile” (= they allow both past and present reference), and some other series remain “temporally stable” (= they can have only one type of temporal reference). My main evidence came from Modern Eastern Armenian, where, additionally, a nice morphosyntactic correlation is observed: temporally mobile forms of indicative (as perfect, prospective, and durative) tend to be periphrastic, while temporally stable forms (as aorist) tend to be synthetic. The problem of how pervasive this type of verbal systems may be was not addressed, however.</p>
<p>In fact, there are increasingly fascinating samples of temporal mobility, which happen to be found in several Dardic languages (as Gawri, Khowar, and some others), as well as in neighboring Iranian, where temporal (and even aspectual) marking can be meaningfully absent in part of the finite forms – thus creating a complicated three-level opposition between “temporally mobile”, “aspectually mobile” and “rigid” forms. Presumably, systems of this kind demonstrate that a “mobility-based” typology could have a wider application.</p>
<p>Baart, Joan L. G. 1999. A sketch of Kalam Kohistani grammar (Studies in Languages of Northern Pakistan 5). Islamabad: SIL.</p>
<p>Liljegren, Henrik. 2016. A grammar of Palula (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 8). Berlin: Language Science Press.</p>
<p>Plungian, Vladimir. 2018. Notes on Eastern Armenian verbal paradigms: “temporal mobility” and perfective stems. In: Daniël Van Olmen, Tanja Mortelmans & Frank Brisard (eds.), Aspects of linguistic variation: Studies in honor of Johan van der Auwera, 233–245. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.</p>
<p>Rönnqvist, Hanna. 2013. Tense and aspect systems in Dardic languages: A comparative study. Stockholms universitet.</p>
<p>Schmidt, Ruth Laila & Razwal Kohistani. 2008. A grammar of the Shina language of Indus Kohistan. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.</p>
<p>Грюнберг, А. Л. 1987. Очерк грамматики афганского языка (пашто). Л.: Наука.</p>
Эдельман, Д. И. 1983. Дардские и нуристанские языки. М.: Наука.
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<p><strong>16 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>Rita Popova (HSE University), Michael Daniel (Collegium de Lyon / Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage)</em></p>
<p><strong>‘Small’ is big. Number suppletion in size property words</strong></p>
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<p>Adjectival number suppletion — a phenomenon considered as unexpected on theoretical grounds (Hippisley et al., 2004) — is attested in size-denoting adjectives of three different IE branches, namely in Mainland Scandinavian, Brittonic and Megleno Romanian languages. Swedish suppletive adjective ‘small’ is by far the most widely cited example:</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p> en liten flicka a small girl ‘a small girl’</p></li>
<li><p>två små flickor two small.pl girl.pl ‘two small girls’ (Nurmio, 2017)</p></li>
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<p>This, and the other two cases of suppletion attested in Indo-European, were object of detailed etymological investigations in the course of the last decade (see Börjars & Vincent, 2011 for Mainland Scandinavian, Jørgensen, 2012 and Nurmio, 2017 for Brittonic, Maiden, 2014 for Megleno-Romanian). Theory-wise, Maiden (2014) attempts to explain why it is specifically size adjectives that deviate from regular expression of number, by examining the historical stages that led to the eventual development of suppletive paradigms for ‘small’ and ‘big’ in Scandinavian and Megleno Romanian. It is argued that all known instances of number suppletion in adjectives came to life under similar circumstances and should be attributed to a single linguistic force that disrupts the usual pattern of inflection precisely in size properties. Nurmio (2017) takes a step forward by bringing into light evidence from 3 non-IE languages and suggests “a strong tendency for adjectives denoting size, ‘small’ and ‘big’, to develop this type of suppletion” (Nurmio 2017: 26). In this study, we hope to continue the typological line of research and to make a contribution to the topic by presenting a more diverse collection of number conditioned irregularities in the expression of size properties across the world. </p>
<p>First, we put the “strong tendency” suggested by Nurmio (2017) to a more rigorous testing. By researching several lexical databases and typological surveys, we obtained data on number encoding for a fixed subset of eight prototypical property meanings (Dixon 1982), namely ‘small’, ‘big’, ‘long’, ‘short’, ‘young’, ‘old’, ‘good’, ‘black’ in a convenience sample of some 100 languages where at least one of these items shows number-related irregularity. Our sources include typological studies of suppletion in general (Hippisley et al., 2004, Veselinova, 2006, Vafaeian, 2013) and three lexical databases: Global Lexicostatistical Database (Starostin, 2011), Intercontinental Dictionary Series (Key & Comrie, 2023), and Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (Greenhill et al., 2008). Even though absolute numbers remain low, we see that this broader cross-linguistic evidence supports the idea of size-properties being more prone to number-conditioned stem alternations than other properties.</p>
<p>Next, we discuss various theoretical interpretations and implications of this generalization. We revisit the analysis of sources and paths of grammaticalization of ‘small’-suppletion in (Maiden 2014) in the light of these new data. There are a few cases when we are able to trace down the histories behind the suppletive pairs similar to the studies of Indo-European suppletion; however, in most cases we do not know much about the etymologies of the lexical items involved. In a synchronic functional perspective, we try to relate ‘small’-suppletion to research on a different but related type of number suppletion, namely the studies on verbal number (see especially Durie, 1986, Mithun, 1988, François, 2019), a link hinted at by Nurmio (2017). </p>
<p>References:</p>
<p>Börjars, K., & Vincent, N. (2011). The pre-conditions for suppletion. In A. Galani, G. Hicks, & G. Tsoulas (Eds.), Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (Vol. 178, pp. 239–266). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.178.13bor</p>
<p>Dixon, R. M. (1982). Where have All the Adjectives Gone?: And Other Essays in Semantics and Syntax. DE GRUYTER MOUTON. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110822939</p>
<p>Durie, M. (1986). The Grammaticization of Number as a Verbal Category. In M. V. Vassiliki Nikiforidou, M. Niepokuj, & D. Feder (Eds.), Proceedings of the twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 15-17 February 1986 (pp. 355–370). Berkeley Linguistics Society Publications.</p>
<p>François, A. (2019). Verbal number in Lo-Toga and Hiw: The emergence of a lexical paradigm. Transactions of the Philological Society, 117(3), 338–371.</p>
<p>Greenhill, S. J., Blust, R., & Gray, R. D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4, EBO.S893. https://doi.org/10.4137/EBO.S893</p>
<p>Hippisley, A., Chumakina, M., Corbett, G., & Brown, D. (2004). Suppletion: Frequency, categories and distribution of stems. Studies in Language - STUD LANG, 28. https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.28.2.05hip</p>
<p>Jørgensen, A. R. (2012). The Plural of Middle and Early Modern Breton bihan. https://www.academia.edu/5789327/The_Plural_of_Middle_and_Early_Modern_Breton_bihan</p>
<p>Key, M. R., & Comrie, B. (Eds.). (2023). IDS. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://ids.clld.org/</p>
<p>Maiden, M. (2014). Two suppletive adjectives in Megleno-Romanian. Revue Romane. Langue et Litterature. International Journal of Romance Languages and Literatures, 49, 32–52. https://doi.org/10.1075/RRO.49.1.02MAI</p>
<p>Mithun, M. (1988). Lexical categories and the evolution of number marking. Theoretical Morphology: Approaches in Modern Linguistics, 211–234.</p>
<p>Nurmio, S. (2017). The development and typology of number suppletion in adjectives. Diachronica, 34, 127–174. https://doi.org/10.1075/DIA.34.2.01NUR</p>
<p>Starostin, G. (2011, 2019). The Global Lexicostatistical Database.Moscow: Higher School of Economics, & Santa Fe: Santa Fe Institute. Available online at http://starling.rinet.ru/new100/, accessed on [25.04.2023].</p>
<p>Vafaeian, G. (2013). Typology of nominal and adjectival suppletion. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 66(2). https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.2013.0007</p>
Veselinova, L. N. (2006). Suppletion in Verb Paradigms. In Tsl.67. John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://benjamins.com/catalog/tsl.67
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<p><strong>2 May</strong></p>
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<p><em>George Moroz, Asya Alekseeva, Timofei Dedov, Artem Orekhov, Kirill Sidorov, Angelina Stepanova (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>What do we know about linguistic journals? Applying NLP methods to a dataset of abstracts from linguistic journals (work in progress)</strong></p>
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There is a new project within the Lab dedicated to the analysis of abstracts from linguistic journals. Within this project we extracted and annotated a list of linguistic journals, gathered the abstracts and metadata for all scientific papers from those journals, and stored them within the database. The main goal of this project is to create some kind of map of “who is who in linguistics”. During the talk we will share our preliminary results and discuss conceptual problems of this task, possible applications of the gathered data and our future plans.
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<p><strong>25 April</strong></p>
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<p><em>Sergey Say (University of Potsdam), Natalia Logvinova (National Research University Higher School of Economics & RAS Institute for Linguistic studies), Elizaveta Zabelina (RAS Institute for Linguistic studies)</em></p>
<p><strong>Introducing NoCaCoDa, а Typological Database of Nominal Causal Constructions</strong></p>
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In this talk, we will present NoCaCoDa, a typological database of nominal causal constructions. By nominal causal constructions we refer to causal constructions in which the causing event is syntactically represented by a noun phrase, as in <em>He is shivering from [the cold]</em> or <em>She was late for work because of [her husband]</em>. NoCaCoDa is based on a questionnaire containing 54 stimulus sentences that are annotated for five semantic parameters: direct vs. indirect causes, objective vs. subjective causes, internal vs. external causes, etc. Currently, NoCaCoDa displays first-hand data from 35 languages. In the talk, we will outline the structure of the database and summarize our preliminary findings. More precisely, we take the patterns of syncretism displayed by nominal causal markers as a proxy for the cognitive construal of the causal meaning.
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<p><em>Daria Ryzhova (HSE University), Yury Makarov (HSE, Institute of Linguistics, RAS), Ekaterina Rakhilina (HSE, Vinogradov Russian Language Institute, RAS)</em></p>
<p><strong>An annotation tool for a typological research of verbal colexifications</strong></p>
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In this talk, we will report our progress in the research of verbal colexifications in Botlikh and Shughni. We will present the annotation system that we developed and the database that we designed specifically for the annotation purposes. Our markup allows to refrain from using such general labels as metaphor and metonymy and to extract more specific polysemy patterns, going deeper into the nature of verbal polysemy.
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<p><strong>18 April</strong></p>
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<p><em>Timur Maisak (HSE University)</em></p>
<p><strong>Imperative interjections ‘here, take it!’ in Daghestan and beyond</strong></p>
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<p>Many languages of the world possess a dedicated imperative interjection used by the speaker to ask the addressee to take something (from the speaker’s hands), e.g. ma in the example from Agul below. The Russian na, as in na, beri ‘here, take it!’ in another instance of the same imperative interjection type. In the talk, I will present the results of my study of ‘take!’-interjections in the languages of the Caucasus: the study is part of the Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan (http://lingconlab.ru/dagatlas/), but the sample was slightly expanded. I will discuss the phonological form of ‘take!’-interjections, their morphosyntactic behavior and also their “extended” functions.</p>
<p>Agul (< Lezgic < Nakh-Daghestanian)</p>
<p>ma čʷa-s xibu guni p.u-na</p>
<p>take.it you.pl-dat three bread say.pfv-cvb</p>
{I have three loafs of bread.} ‘Take these three loafs, – he said.’
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