This volume brings together novel analyses of verbal plurality and distributivity. The contributions draw on a wide range of new empirical data from languages as diverse as Arabic, Cusco Quechua, European Portuguese, Hausa, Karitiana, Modern Hebrew and Russian. The introductory chapter gives an overview of the central issues that underlie much recent research on the semantics of event plurality. The papers on verbal plurality explore the interaction between verbal plurality and plural arguments in Arabic and European Portuguese, the semantics of additive particles in Modern Hebrew, the semantics of a range of pluractional markers in Cusco Quechua and the morphological variability of pluractional markers cross-linguistically. The papers on distributivity examine the syntax and semantics of reduplicated numerals in Karitiana and adnominal distributive markers. This volume will be of interest to researchers and students in syntax, formal semantics, and language typology.

Languages in which non-finite verbs (infinitives, gerunds etc.) are classified using the same linguistic means as nouns are rare. This typologically unusual phenomenon is found in some Atlantic (Niger-Congo) languages, including Jóola languages like Eegimaa, Fogny and Kwatay, where several different noun class/gender prefixes (NCPs) are used to classify both nouns and verbs. In this book, it is argued following Sagna (2008), that these parallel morphosyntactic classifications in the nominal domain and verbal domains also reflect parallel semantic categorisation of entities and events. The main topics investigated in this book are word class flexibility between nouns and verbs, non-finiteness, noun class/gender (where morphological classes are analysed separately from agreement classes) and the semantic principles underlying the categorisation of entities and events. One of the central findings proposed in this book is that instances of NCP alternations on non-finite verbs reflect strategies of event delimitation. This book will be of interest to scholars investigation parts-of-speech systems, finiteness, systems of nominal and verbal classification, and linguistic categorization.

The volume assembles about 50 contributions presented at the Intenational Colloquium on Ancient Greek Linguistics, held in Rome, March 2015. This Colloquium opened a new series of international conferences that has replaced previous national meetings on this subject. They embrace essential topics of Ancient Greek Linguistics with different theoretical and methodological approaches: particles and their functional uses; phonology; tense, aspect, modality; syntax and thematic roles; lexicon and onomastics; Greek and other languages; speech acts and pragmatics.

This volume offers detailed accounts of current research in grammatical number in language. Following a detailed introduction, the chapters in the first three parts of the book explore the multiple research questions in the field and the complex problems surrounding the analysis of grammatical number: Part I presents the background and foundational notions, Part II the morphological, semantic, and syntactic aspects, and Part III the different means of expressing plurality in the event domain. The final part offers fifteen case studies that include in-depth discussion of grammatical number phenomena in a range of typologically diverse languages, written by - or in collaboration with - native speakers linguists or based on extensive fieldwork. The volume draws on work from a range of subdisciplines - including morphology, syntax, semantics, and psycholinguistics - and will be a valuable resource for students and scholars in all areas of theoretical, descriptive, and experimental linguistics.

This collection presents typological work on tense, aspect, and epistemic modality in a variety of languages and against the background of different schools of thinking, among which the St. Petersburg Typological School developed and so masterfully implemented by the Petersburg linguist, Vladimir Petrovich Nedjalkov. The volume honors this reputed scholar for his life work. It is in mainly this spirit (and the EUROTYPE spirit) that the following scholars have contributed to the volume: T.Tsunoda on Warrungu (Australian indigeneous language), L. Kulikov on Vedic, K. Kiryu on Japanese, Korean and Newari, N. Sumbatova on Svan (from the Kartvelian group), T.Bulygina & A. Shmelev on Russian, W. Boeder on Georgian, R. Thieroff on aorist and imperfect in European languages, Y. Poupynin on Russian, L. Johanson on Kipchak Turkic, I. Dolinina on Russian, N. Kozintseva on Old and Modern Eastern Armenian, Ch. Lee on Korean, W. Abraham on split ergative languages and German, G. Silnitsky on Russian, V. Plungian on Russian, E. Rakhilina on Russian, and K. Ebert on Kalmyk.

The strong development in research on grammatical number in recent years has created a need for a unified perspective. The different frameworks, the ramifications of the theoretical questions, and the diversity of phenomena across typological systems, make this a significant challenge. This book addresses the challenge with a series of in-depth analyses of number across a typologically diverse sample, unified by a common set of descriptive and analytic questions from a semantic, morphological, syntactic, and discourse perspective. Each case study is devoted to a single language, or in a few cases to a language group. They are written by specialists who can rely on first-hand data or on material of difficult access, and can place the phenomena in the context of the respective system. The studies are preceded and concluded by critical overviews which frame the discussion and identify the main results and open questions. With specialist chapters breaking new ground, this book will help number specialists relate their results to other theoretical and empirical domains, and it will provide a reliable guide to all linguists and other researchers interested in number.

How meaning works—from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music—and how meaning is connected to truth. We communicate through language, connecting what we mean to the words we say. But humans convey meaning in other ways as well, with facial expressions, hand gestures, and other methods. Animals, too, can get their meanings across without words. In What It All Means, linguist Philippe Schlenker explains how meaning works, from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music. He shows that these extraordinarily diverse types of meaning can be studied and compared within a unified approach—one in which the notion of truth plays a central role. “It’s just semantics” is often said dismissively. But Schlenker shows that semantics—the study of meaning—is an unsung success of modern linguistics, a way to investigate some of the deepest questions about human nature using tools from the empirical and formal sciences. Drawing on fifty years of research in formal semantics, Schlenker traces how meaning comes to life. After investigating meaning in primate communication, he explores how human meanings are built, using in some cases sign languages as a guide to the workings of our inner “logic machine.” Schlenker explores how these meanings can be enriched by iconicity in sign language and by gestures in spoken language, and then turns to more abstract forms of iconicity to understand the meaning of music. He concludes by examining paradoxes, which—being neither true nor false—test the very limits of meaning.