Adjectives in Thai: Implications for a functionalist typology of word classes

Tai languages are often described as “lacking” a major lexical class “adjectives”; accordingly, they and other area languages are frequently cited as evidence against adjectival universality. This article brings the putative lack under examination, arguing that a more complete distributional analysis reveals a pattern: overlap is highest among semantically peripheral adjectives and verbs and in constructions prototypically associated to both classes crosslinguistically, and lowest among semantically core adjectives and verbs and in constructions prototypically associated to only one or the other class. Rather than “lacking” adjectives, data from Thai thus in fact support functional-typological characterizations of adjectival universality such as those of Givón (1984), Croft (2001), and Dixon (2004). Finally, while data from Thai would fail to falsify an adaptation of Enfield's (2004) Lao lexical class-taxonomy (in which adjectives are treated as a verbal subclass) on its own terms, this article argues that in absence of both universally-applicable criteria for the evaluation of categorial taxonomies crosslinguistically and evidence for the cognitive reality of categorial taxonomies so stipulated, even this more limited sense of a “lack” of adjectives in Thai is less radical a challenge to adjectival universality than has sometimes been supposed.

Ausführlicher Bericht über die mit dem Kriegsminister Latour vorgenommene Volksjustiz: Daß es also kommen mußte, konnte wohl jeder vernünftig Denkende im Voraus einsehen ...

Welsch (Projektbearbeiter): Rechtfertigung der Ermordung des österreichischen Kriegsministers Latour am 6. Oktober 1848 im Verlaufe der sogenannten Wiener Oktoberrevolution

A Word. Palaver and Its Transferal Residues

The word 'palaver' is colloquially associated with useless verbiage and the nuisance of a tediously long, aimless and superfluous debate. At the same time, it insinuates an uncivilized culture of discourse beyond reason. Thus it appears to be of vaguely exotic origin but still firmly set in the European lexicon. Yet behind this contemporary meaning there lies a long history of linguistic and cultural transfers which is encased in a context of different usages of language and their intersections. By tracing the usage and semantics of 'palaver' in various encyclopaedias, glossaries and dictionaries of English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, the following article explores the rich history of this word. Moreover, it also regards the travelling semantics of the term 'palaver' as a process of cultural transfer that can be likened to the microcellular workings of a (retro)virus. Viral reproduction and evolution work through processes of transfer that enable the alteration of the host to adjust it to the replication and reproduction of the virus. In some cases, these processes also allow for the mutation or modification of the virus, making it suitable for transfer from one host to another. The virus is thus offered here as a vital model for cultural transfer: It not only encompasses the necessary adoption and adaption of contents or objects of cultural transfer in different contexts. It contributes to a conceptual understanding of the transferal residue that the transferred content is endowed with by its diversifying contexts. This model thereby surpasses an understanding of cultural transfer as literal translation or transmission: it conceptualizes cultural transfer as an agent of evolutionary processes, allowing for mutational effects of transfer as endowment.

The American : a practical book for self-instruction to speak, read and write the English language ; each English word is translated in Hebrew

by B. Goldgar and I. Mirovitch

Contrafatur Was Gestalt etliche Siebēberger Raete sein gerichtet Wordē so Widder ihren hernn eine greuliche Morterey Forgenō Zuhaben Wie Die Ziffer Erkler : Anō 95

Aus: [Continuator temporis quinquennalis?]

Eigentlicher Abriß der Reichstags-Solennitet : so den 3., 13. Sept. diß 1640 Jahrs in Regenspurg bey eröfnuḡ d' proposition angestelt vnd gehalten wordē

Bibliograph. Nachweis: Paas P-2083

De Europische Insecten : Naauwkeurig onderzogt, na't leven geschildert, en in print gebragt door Maria Sibilla Merian; Met een korte Beschryving, waar in door haar gehandelt word van der Rupsen begin, Voedzel en wonderbare Verandering; En Ook Vertoont Word De Oorspronk, Spys en Gestalt-verwisseling, de Tyd, Plaats en Eigenschappen der Rupzen, Uiltjes, Vliegen en andere diergelyke bloedeloose Beesjes; Hier Is Nog Bygevoegt Een naauwkeurige Beschryving van de Planten, in dit Werk voorkomende; ... In't Frans beschreven door J. Marret, Medicinæ Doctor, En door een voornaam Liefhebber in't Nederduits vertaalt

Die Illustrationen sind Kupferstiche

On the cusp : Word sonnets

Fil: Spoturno, María Laura. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

A comparison of the two most popular word processors from the point of view of their conviviality

In this paper, we aim to prove, firstly, that the argument of the excess of complexity is not a whim. We will focous our attention on a particular and widespread case within the Tool Box, word processors, and on the most widely sold products inside this category respectively, the one a few years ago, the other at the present moment: WordStar y WordPerfect. The aspect of their complexity we are interested in is their user interface, because in the first place it is the aspect that most influences the human job.