A Corpus-Based Study on Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Medical English

Medical English,as a specialized form of English,has attracted considerable attention due to its unique linguistic features.Grammaticalization and lexicalization represent critical mechanisms in the evolution of language and are essential for understanding and mastering medical English.This study,drawing on the MEDLINE corpus,investigates the characteristics of grammaticalization and lexicalization in medical English from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,aiming to unveil its underlying cognitive foundations.The findings suggest that the processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization in medical English reflect cognitive mechanisms such as categorization,inferential processing,and pragmatic strategies.These insights provide novel approaches and methodologies for the teaching of medical English.

The Path of Grammaticalization for Coordinate Conjunctions and its Universality

From the study of polysemy of coordinate conjunctions, it can be found that there are grammaticalization processes from coordination to transition and from coordination to succession. It is a general evolutionary process in connective structures to go from non-specific semantic relationship to specific semantic relationship. This was caused by the cognitive tendency of approximately substituting typical functions for atypical functions.

Research on the Grammaticalization of Chinese NaoDao

Grammaticalization is not just progressive diachronic changes in the internal language,but there may be grammaticalization stages with different characteristics in the same synchronic state.Start with the two aspects of the diachronic and synchronic,"nandao" as the object;grammaticalization,the theoretical basis.To observe and analyze the different usages of the synchronic level,inquiry the evolution process of the diachronic level.And summarize the grammaticalization path and motivations and mechanisms of "nandao".The development and evolution of "nandao" is from verbal polarization phrase to speculation tone of adverb to rhetorical tone of adverb.

On Time Word“Zan gan-er”(趱赶儿)in Qingdao Dialect

In Qingdao dialect,“zan gan-er”(趱赶儿),meaning“small amount of time”,always collocates with“duo(多),yi(一),bu(不),mei(没)”etc.,to form many types of quantifiers which hold the similar meaning“brief period”different in degree and which act as attributes,adverbial modifiers or objects.Due to the existence of a syntactic limitation of the“one core-verb”,in the serial-verb construction,the word“zan gan”(趱赶)gradually became an adverb,meaning“in a hurry”,and then under the analogy or derivation of the reasoning mechanism,the hidden meaning of its“temporary time”gradually became clear in daily life,and finally the word“zan gan-er”(趱赶儿)was evolved into a time word which meaning was“small amount of time”.

Going in Homer:The Role of Verb-Inherent Actionality Within Self-Propelled Motion-Event Encoding

The paper aims at investigating the encoding of self-propelled motion events in Homeric Greek in the light of the typology of motion events,taking into account the case of to go.The verbal class of the self-propelled motion refers to those verbs expressing the idea of a simple translational motion,such as to go,to move,without any information about the manner of motion(see,by contrast,the class of the manner-of-motion verbs,such as to run,to swim)or about the path of motion(see,by contrast,the class of the path verbs,such as to enter,to exit).According to Talmy(2000),world languages can be distinguished depending on whether they prototypically express the semantic component of Path in or outside the motion verb.Languages belonging to the S(atellite)-Framed type tend to convey Path outside the motion verb,in a satellite element,such as a particle,an adposition(adpositional phrase),a preverb,an adverb(ial),a nominal case marker.The prototypical encoding pattern of the S-Framed languages,such as Homeric Greek,involves a motion verb conveying Manner and a satellite conveying Path,i.e.,[manner-of-motion verb+Path-satellite].Nonetheless,another pattern is used by this type of languages,albeit less prototypical,which involves a motion verb conveying only Motion and a satellite conveying Path,i.e.,[self-propelled motion verb+Path-satellite].Verb-inherent actionality,namely telicity,turns out to be a strong feature within the ancient Indo-European languages,such as Homeric Greek,playing a role not only in the development of aspectual/tense morphology,but also in the encoding of motion events,at least with reference to manner-of-motion verbs.The present paper aims at verifying the role of inherent telicity within self-propelled motion verbs,through the analysis of Homeric verbs for go.The study takes into account the Homeric suppletive paradigm for go,focusing on ερχομαι“go;come”and ηλθον(aorist)“go;come”(also with reference to the unclear actional opposition between ερχομαι and ειμι“go;come”).From the textual analysis of all the occurrences of both ερχομαι and ηλθον,as well as their co-occurring Path-encoding elements in the Iliad and the Odyssey,data show to what extent verbal inherent telicity plays an important role in motion event encoding also within the class of self-propelled motion verbs.

The Usages of“Ji(几)”in Yulin Dialect

In Yulin dialect,there are three usages of“ji(几)”:interrogative pronouns,numerals,and degree adverbs.When used as an interrogative pronoun,it is generally used to inquire about the number and degree where the inquiry number is generally small,but the number can be large when it is used in asking about age.When used as a number,it can represent not only integers between one and ten,but also decimal part.When used as a degree adverb,there are rich syntactic formats such as“ji(几)+verb”,“ji(几)+adjective”,different formats indicating different meanings.Compared with Mandarin,the usage of Yulin dialect“ji(几)”is more diverse.We also analyze the use of“ji(几)”from a diachronic perspective and finally we propose that due to the reanalysis of the syntactic format and the change of semantics,the“ji(几)”is further grammaticalized from interrogative pronoun to degree adverb.

A Corpus-based Investigation of NEED in Written American English

As one of the most frequent words in the English language,the study of NEED has attracted the attention of linguists in the late decades.Nonetheless,none of the previous research had ever examined the diachronic variation of NEED in American English from 1810s to 2000s as this study did,thus not in a position to make a comprehensive observation of NEED variation.The present study is based on a well-balanced corpora-Corpus of Historical American English(COHAE)1 to investigate the diachronic change of NEED in written American English.Moreover,intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors were analyzed to provide reasonable explanations for the differences in frequency.The aim was to improve the understanding of the development and variation of NEED usage in American English.The study suggests that before the 1900s,NEED as a model and verb in American English shows a distinct and complex picture different from that in the British English,but it shows similar development since then.It also finds that need to is undergoing grammaticalization.Another finding worth noting is that NEED undertakes degrammaticalization on the one hand and experiences regrammaticalization on the other hand.

The Grammaticalization and Lexicalization of Space Deixis:A cross-linguistic analysis

Space deixis is concerned with the specification of location in space relative to that of the participants at coding time in a speech event. Cross-linguistically, it is commonly expressed by the use of (i) demonstratives including both demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives, (ii) deictic adverbs of space, (iii) deictically marked third-person pronouns, and (iv) deictic directionals including both motion affixes, morphemes and particles, and motion verbs. In this article, I shall provide a descriptive analysis of the grammaticalization and lexicalization of space deixis. Data is drawn from a wide variety of genetically unrelated and structurally distinct languages to show the diversity and richness of spatial deictic systems in the world’s languages.