Some structural similarities between English and the Polynesian language Tokelau are investigated, especially regarding the multifunctionality of linguistic forms. Observations are made with respect to the relative distribution of overt processes and conversion, and it is argued that conversion should be regarded as a negatively defined cover notion for all cross-categorial lexical processes that do not involve formal modification of the input. The similarities with respect to the inventory and patterning of word-formational processes are motivated by certain similarities in the morphological type of the two languages.

This paper provides evidence for the idea that relaxed verb-second (V2) languages exist and exhibt specific properties which distinguish them from both strict V2 and non-V2 languages. The identification of the relaxed subtype of V2 languages implies that V2 should not be understood as a linear restriction, but as an abstract rule involving the movement of the finite verb to a head of the left periphery in all main clauses.

This paper discusses Finnish depictive and resultative secondary predicates. The analysis is based on a condition of licensing which can be seen as a version of the principle of Full Interpretation: “A well-formed syntactic structure is licensed only if it can be linked to a well-formed conceptual structure.” The suggested non-trivial theory of the interface between syntax and semantics allows us to avoid unnecessary complexity in syntax, such as small clause and PRO, in secondary predicate adjuncts.

This paper describes a system for automatic sentence synthesis (or “generation”) from semantic representations. The system is implemented in Interlisp as an extension of D-PATR, Lauri Karttunen's environment for the development of unification-based grammars (see Karttunen 1986, Carlson & Linden 1987).

Representative sets of software systems for computational morphology are evaluated as candiates for a general morphological program module in the context of computer-aided word class tagging. They are considered as both programming tools and representations of linguistic Knowledge. The systems, which are found to be relatively neutral with respect to linguistic theory, can be grouped into a general-purpose and a special-purpose type. Pattern matching in them is described as a high-level feature applied to the computational treatment of phenomena characteristic of morphological analysis: lexical lookup, morphotactics, and morphophonemic alternation. The systems are found to perform similarly in simple applications, but significantly differently in more complicated ones where integrated and well-structured solutions are sought.

The prescriptive infinitive can be found in the North Germanic languages, is very old, and yet is largely unnoticed and undescribed. It is used in a very limited pragmatic context of a pleasant atmosphere by adults towards very young children, or towards pets or (more rarely) adults. It has a set of syntactic properties that distinguishes it from the imperative: Negation is pre-verbal, subjects are pre-verbal, subjects are third person and are only expressed by lexical DPs, not personal pronouns. It can be found in modern child language corpora, but probably originated before ad 500. The paper is largely descriptive, but some theoretical solutions to the puzzles of this construction are proposed.

Previous studies on the nature of paragrammatism in Finnish have established a continuum of syntactic complexity with normal speech at one end and Broca's aphasics at the other, while Wernicke's aphasics fall between these two groups. In the present analysis, two paragrammatic aphasics are described whose utterances are longer than normal and of a more complex syntactic structure than the utterances in the comparison data. The paragrammatic subjects also make plenty of morphological and syntactic errors. The comparison of the present results with earlier studies on paragrammatism in Finnish shows that paragrammatism is subject to considerable variation

This paper provides a comprehensive Optimality Theoretic formalization of a Finnish language game. In opposition to earlier rule-based studies, the present analysis motivates the sometimes arbitrary-looking patterns of the game and brings together various phenomena under a unified set of universal constraints. The paper also demonstrates the close relationship between language games and natural languages by showing how the patterns of the game are analysable with the help of constraints of ordinary languages, or constraints that deviate only minimally from the original ones. The analysis of the game offers valuable external evidence for the phonology of Finnish with respect to the internal structure of long segments, vowel harmony, syllable markedness and the integrity of diphthongs.

It is well-known that wh-pronouns may pied-pipe their containing host phrases as they move to their final scope positions. In Finnish, such pied-piping requires further that a wh-element is situated at the left edge of host phrases, a position in which it ends up either through base generation or through wh-movement. This article investigates which independent properties define such pied-piping domains. An empirical generalization will be defended according to which a phrase constitutes such pied-piping domain if and only if it is adjoinable. The hypothesis that pied-piping domains are islands is put into question. Secondary wh-movement, pied-piping and adjunction are thus intrinsically linked with each other.

In the present article, it is claimed that German, being basically an SOV-language, has a clearly delimitable extrapositional field behind the final verb field of the sentence, whereas Norwegian, which belongs to a VO-type, is in this respect more indeterminate. Two general facts corroborate this assumption. First, extraposition is in German systematically correlated with certain other syntactic phenomena that are either non-existent or play a far more peripheral part in Norwegian. Second, certain constructions of German that are uniformly extrapositional have a number of different translational equivalents in Norwegian which are only in part extrapositional in character. It is also claimed that these Norwegian constructions are formally more diverse, insofar as rules with a different structural impact are required to account for their syntactic behaviour.

The present paper makes a case for retention of the (Revised) Alternation Condition in Lexical Phonology, a theory in which any single rule which presebts beytralizing, lexical effects restricted to derived forms along with allophonic, derivationally unterstricted dffects is cominally impossible. However, Korean obstruent palatalization does display both of these properties, whereby /t, th/ neutralize with /ĉ, ĉh/ before [i], but only if the [i] occurs in another morpheme (cf. /path + i/→ [paĉhi] ‘field-SUBJ’ vs. monomorphemic [pathi] ‘endure’), whereas / s / acquires the palatal allophone [∫[ before [i] both within ([∫i] ‘poem’) and between (/os + i/→ [o∫i] ‘cloth-SUBJ’) morphemes. The Revised Alternation Condition alone imposes just this restriction on a single palatalization rule functioning both lexically and post-lexically in Korean, which suggests that its removal from the theory is premature.

In this article, the traditional analysis of grammatical case in Finnish - in which the form of the object depends on the presence of an overt subject — is reworked within a formal syntactic framework. Within the Case competition model adopted here, the role of argument structure in case assignment, captured by Burzio's Generalization, plays a vital role in the underlying mechanisms of the case system: only when a verb governs two arguments, one of them Caseless, may it also license accusative case. This dependency is subsumed under universal syntactic relations, including government, binding and the ECP. It is also argued that Finnish incorporates active case subsystems within a main nominative-accusative system. These facts receive a natural account within the adopted framework.

This article examines the interplay between certain depictions of sound and certain mimetic schemas (intersubjectively shared, body-based image schemas that concern basic processes and activities). The research contributes to the study of ideophones and also demonstrates that it is beneficial to study these types of words in written everyday interaction, as well as in spoken everyday interaction. Two Finnish sound words (ideophones, imitatives), naps ‘snap, pop’ and humps (the sound of relatively soft falling) are examined and their different meanings are analysed. Some research questions of this analysis are: What causes the sound described by either naps or humps? What kind of movement is described and to what mimetic schema is the sound linked? And also: What concrete, spatial processes might motivate the words’ more abstract uses? The examination indicates that naps and humps are used as concrete depictions of sounds and movements, but also more abstractly, as depictions of cognitive and emotional processes without any spatial movement or audible sound. The motivations for these more abstract uses are studied: It is argued that the basic uses of naps and humps are tied to certain bodily processes as their sounds or impressions, and that the more abstract uses of naps and humps reflect metaphorical mappings that map the mimetic schemas of these basic, bodily experiences to more abstract experiences. Grounds for this kind of use is the unique construal of imitatives: they present an imagistic, iconic depiction of a sensation and thus evoke imagery that is shared on a direct bodily level. Thus they aid in identifying with others and their experiences on a level that is directly accessible.

Recent grammars rule out uninverted tag questions (unnegated tag questions when the main clause is also unnegated and vice versa) as ungrammatical. It is argued that the inversion is merely a conversational phenomenon which is not always required. Linguists requiring inversion have been misled by their “intuitions”, which cast general doubts on their role in recent linguistic theorizing.

This study examines the use of and attitudes towards finlandisms and fennicisms in Finland Swedish. Finlandisms are words or structures typical of the Swedish variety spoken in Finland, while fennicisms are a category of finlandisms for which the source language is Finnish. Fennicisms are often discussed in context of Finnish influence and consequent Finland Swedish language loss, suggesting that the use of these features in Swedish is stigmatised. The study analyses survey responses from 126 Finland Swedish individuals in order to investigate the use of and perceptions regarding fennicisms. The responses indicate that although finlandisms and, in particular, fennicisms are often seen as erroneous, they can also be used to indicate a uniquely Finland Swedish linguistic identity. Additionally, responses regarding fennicisms provide examples of previously overlooked Finnish loanwords, while also indicating that loanwords with origins in other languages are often misidentified as stemming from Finnish. The implications of these findings are discussed.

With respect to child English, Radford has claimed that there are no functional categories in early child syntax. This means that in English, children's grammer lacks both the C-projection and the I-projection. For Swedish, Platzack also hypothesizes that “there are no functional categories [like C or I] in early child syntax” (p. 107).

This article concentrates on the continual sequence of sound acquisition process in individual subjects. The basic material is taken from three longitudinal studies regarding three Latvian-learning (monolingual) children; additional observations were made of five other children. In spite of the fact that Latvian is rich in consonantal clusters, all children had difficulties in mastering them correctly: they tried to avoid them by omission of one or two consonants or by replacing them with other sounds. Even hypercorrect substitutions appeared. Medial clusters occurred much earlier than clusters in other positions, and final clusters several months before initial clusters. Similar observations in Czech children learning their mother-tongue point to some universal character of this phenomenon since consonantal clusters are absent in many world languages or are used in special positions, and they are among the first features which disappear in aphasia.