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The present article ties in with an earlier study by Chomsky (1970) on nominalizations in English, which was then refined primarily in the influential work of Jane Grimshaw (1990) and is dealt with in detail in Borer (2013) and in Kosta (2020). In contrast to the English gerundives, which do not lose verbal behavior due to the derivation in the syntax and maintain all grammatical categories and characteristics of verbs, which is why one can speak of a real conversion while preserving the verbal semantics, the situation is somewhat different in Czech. In the deverbal, deadjective and other derivations, the Czech apparently made the transition to the noun with its critical properties, which is shown by certain restrictions in the aspectuality marking of deverbal noun phrases on -ni-, -ti-, which, e.g., do not pass the progression durativity test (Vendler 1967). In passive constructions, as is well known, a valence point in the position of the external argument is reduced compared to the corresponding active sentences, while the external argument position in anti-causatives is also not available in the deep structure. In addition to the syntactic restrictions that are evident in nominalizations in the context of simple sentences of different sentence types (causative, anti-causative, passive) and demonstrate the nominal character of certain types of deverbal noun phrases in the first part of this article, the second part of the essay deals with more complex structures and extends its analytical and theoretical part to the phenomenon of nominalizing subordinate clauses. The aim of the central part of this contribution is therefore to test the nominal properties of embedded conjunctional sentences and of embedded headless relative sentences on the basis of empirical data and thus contribute to the knowledge of whether certain types of relative sentences can (or must) be nominalized.
This contribution is organized as follows: in section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English as compared to Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head movement. In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way. I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformulated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990:chapter 2). Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of syntactic representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic structure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.
This contribution is organized as follows: in section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English as compared to Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head movement. In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way. I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformulated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990:chapter 2). Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of syntactic representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic structure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.
How can I lie if I am telling the truth? The unbearable lightness of being of strong and weak modals, modal adverbs and modal particles in discourse between epistemic modality and evidentiality Peter Kosta The major part of my contribution will concentrate on the close relation between epistemic modality and evidentiality and the notions of truth value, indirect speech acts and conversational implicature (cf. Kosta 2005; Kosta 2011b). It is well attested in the literature that the epistemic modal adverb Russian o;evidno, Czech o;ividn;, German offensichtlich, Italian ovviamente can have different interpretation depending on the conversation situation, truth values and scope relations (cf. Kosta 2011a; von Fintel and Gillies 2010; Kratzer 2010). Even a bona fide "epistemicö modal can have two interpretations: a 'strong' interpretation, which - at least with necessity modals - commits the speaker to the truth of the proposition the modal scopes over (von Fintel and Gillies 2010), and a 'weak' interpretation, which is relativized to the content of some source of information that may or may not be faithful to reality. In order to be able to decide whether epistemic particles and modals are strong or weak we have to differentiate between different sources of conversational backgrounds. Following the findings in the research of notional category of modals in Kratzer (2010), the proposed analysis of modals allows for one modal parameter to be fixed by the context of use. It implies that that parameter is responsible for the variety of interpretations modals can receive. Keywords: epistemic modality, evidentiality, strong and weak modals, conversational background In: Thielemann, Nadine and Peter Kosta (eds.), Approaches to Slavic Interaction . 2013. xi, 318 pp. (pp. 167-184)
Eliminating empty categories : a radically minimalist view on their ontology and justification
(2013)
This collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framework - Radical Minimalism. The development of such a framework, with a strong basis on mathematics and physics, was born out of the conviction that, if language is really a natural object, there is no a priori reason to study it in isolation from other natural systems. On the other hand, this work represents a significant simplification of the theory of displacement and so-called «empty categories» within the latest development of Chomsky's Strong Minimalist Hypothesis, applying Occam's razor and fulfilling Lakatos' requirements for scientific evolution. Radical Minimalism thus accounts not only for the phenomena orthodox minimalism has explanations for, but also for empirical problems that have not yet been taken into consideration.
Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich zum Ziel, zu einem besseren Verständnis pragmatisch relevanter Kategorien beizutragen und dabei die traditionellen Begriffe der klassischen Sprechakttheorie und der sprachphilosophischen Forschung wie Konversationsimplikatur und indirekter Sprechakt erneut auf den Prüfstein der gegenwärtigen konversationsanalytischen Forschung zu stellen (vgl. auch Kostan 1998, 2005, 2009, und Kosta, Thielemann 2009). Im Zusammenhang damit wird auch der Bereich der epistemischen und evidentiellen Modalität diskutiert und am Beispiel des Russischen erläutert.
a- vs. B-languages or 2nd position vs. verb-adjacent clitics in west andsouth slavic languages?
(2008)
This chapter provides a description of generative syntax as a discipline within Slavic linguistic research from a theoretical, methodological and scientific-historical viewpoint, including those descriptive models and theoretical approaches which are also preferred in Slavic generative linguistics working within the Principles and Parameters framework (Chomsky 1995 pasim). A general comprehensive description of generative syntax, syntactic levels ad methods of description is followed by a short overview of the current state of the art and the goals and targets of syntactic theory and the description of some syntactically relevant categories (such as negation, word order and clitics). In chapter 2, I will introduce some basic notions of the Minimalist framework. I will concentrate on the question how syntactic levels have to be represented in the Minimalist program (2.1), how the structure of sentential negation can be motivated by the raising of the finite verb (2.2), how negation syntactically interacts with pronominal and verbal clitics (2.3) and related phenomena such as Prosodic Inversion (PrI) (2.4), and finally, what the driving force for V- raising and negation in Imperatives, Gerunds and Infinitives is (2.5).
Ausgehend von den semantischen Kategorien der Bewertung und Konnotation wird am Beispiel von Kunderas "Unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins" und "Scherz" die Problematik der Übersetzbarkeit dargestellt. Dabei werden unterschiedliche Übersetzungsverfahren vorgestellt und an Hand der serbischen, deutschen und anderer Übersetzungen problematisiert. Der Artikel knüpft an frühere Untersuchungen zur entsprechenden Problematik an (vgl. Kosta 1986 passim).
Nozsiczka, A., Die Grammatik der Negation, am Beispiel des Deutschen und Russischen; Wien, 1988
(1994)
Empty categories, null-subjects and null-objects and how to treat them in the minimalist program
(1995)
While th LGB literature (Chomsky 1981) contains extensive discussions of empty categories in languages typologically like English on the one hand, and Italian on the other, relatively little has been said about languages like Russian, Polish or Czech in which empty categories are represented in a rather specific way, which fit neither of these types of languages. The main purpose of this paper is to correct this typological imbalance by attempting to demonstrate whether current approaches need to be substantially revised in the light of data from Slavic and certain other languages. The paper proceeds as follows: after making explicit the basic assumptions underlying the several versions of the theory of empty categories, I will argue on the basis of Russian, Polish and Czech null-subjects and null-objects and their distribution that a number of revisions in the theory's rules and basic principles is indeed necessary.
Zur Forschungsgeschichte und Forschungssituation bezüglich der Temporalität in slavischen Sprachen
(1995)
Slavistik in Potsdam
(1995)
Syntaktische Prinzipien und Informationsstruktur in sogenannten "nichtkonfigurationellen" Sprachen
(1997)
Der Beitrag analysiert die Wortstellungsregularitäten der sogenannten schwach konfigurationellen Sprachen (Russisch) im Vergleich mit den strikt konfigurationellen Sprachen (Englisch) mit dem Ziel zu zeigen, dass diese Unterscheidung für die Sprachen mit freier (Basis-)Wortstellung anderen Prinzipien, nämlich der Informationsstrukturierung, folgt. Unterschieden werden verschiedene Typen von Fokus und Topik. Der Beitrag richtet sich an Linguisten (insbesondere Generativisten).
Der kulturhistorische und sprachpolitische Beitrag analysiert die widersprüchlichen Zustände zwischen den gesetzlichen und Durchführungsbestimmungen des im Jahre 1920 erlassenen Sprachengesetzes (jazykový zákon) der Ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik (1918-1938) unter T.G. Masaryk und hebt sowohl die positiven als auch negativen Leistungen dieses Gesetzes u.a. hinsichtlich der deutschen Minderheiten im Sudetenland hervor. Er richtet sich an Juristen, Historiker und Linguisten.
Im Beitrag werden - aus der Sicht der Konversations- bzw. Diskursanalyse - die verschiedenen dialogstrukturierenden und syntaktischen Funktionen der tschechischen phatischen (d.h. Kontakt-) Partikel 'jako' (dt. "sozusagen") an Hand verschiedener gesprochener Alltagsdialoge tschechischer Transkripte (u.a.von Partygesprächen) zwischen tschechischen Studenten bzw. Jugendlichen untersucht.
Ein Beitrag zur Konversationsanalyse, in dem die Sprecherwechsel an Hand bestimmter dialogstrukturierender Merkmale russischer, tschechischer und deutscher argumentativer und persuasiver Dialoge analysiert werden. Die Analyse stützt sich auch auf die theoretischen Ergebnisse der Sprechhandlungstheorie im Rahmen einer auf Argumentationstheorie beruhenden Handlungsmusteranalyse.
Der Beitrag geht auf zwei zentrale Werke des tschechisch-jüdischen Authors der Moderne, Karel Polácek, ein, der in KZ Ausschwitz 1945 umgebracht wurde. Die Analyse stützt sich auf die strukturalistische Methode und zeigt die kulturspezifischen und sprachlichen Besonderheiten der beiden Arbeiten "Wir waren fünf" und "Männer in Abseits" an Hand der Übersetzungsschwierigkeiten aus dem Tschechischen ins Deutsche. Der Artikel geht auf einen Vortrag im Sommersemester 1997 zurück, der im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Geniale Epoche" des Studiengangs Jüdische Studien gehalten wurde. Die Veranstaltung wurde von den Slavisten Peter Kosta, Holt Meyer und Natascha Drubek-Meyer organisiert und durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der gehaltenen Vorträge liegen in der von Karl Erich Grözinger hrsgg. Reihe Jüdische Kultur als Band 5 vor.
Im Artikel wird an die Konzeptionen von Roman Jakobson und Jan Mukarovsky angeknüpft. Untersucht werden die Beziehungen zwischen Form (Signifiant), Inhalt (Signifié) und Denotat auf der semiotischen Ebene des Textes, wobei symbolische, ikonische und indexikalische Zeichenbeziehungen und Probleme der Translation erörtert werden. Der Beitrag richtet sich sowohl an Sprach-, Literatur- wie Übersetzungswissenschaftler.
Der Beitrag gibt eine philologische Analyse des Oeuvre eines der bedeutendesten sorbischen/wendischen Vertreters des Humanismus und der Renaissance in der Niederlausitz Johannes Bocatius (1569-1621). Neben einer Übersicht des Gesamtwerks werden die Quellen und Einflüsse von Francesco Petrarca und Giovanni Boccaccio auf Bocatius erörtert. Der Artikel eignet sich für Slavisten (Sorabisten), Romanisten und Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaftler.
Im Handbuchartikel wird eine kurze Übersicht über das Schicksal der Juden seit der Ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik (1918-1938) bis in die heutige Zeit gegeben. Behandelt werden folgende Fragestellungen: Der rechtliche Status der Juden nach der Verfassung und dem Sprachengesetz von 1920. Die soziale, berufliche und nationale Gliederung des tschechoslowakischen Judentums. Die Lage der Juden im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren. Das Ghetto Theresienstadt. Nach 1945.
The present paper deals with an analysis of Russian as so-called free word order language. The strategies of long scrambling constructions in Russian are compared to the so-called midrange scrambling in German. We consider long scrambling not as A-bar-movement (free adjunction to an XP-category) but as the attraction type of movement of arguments triggered by the Minimal link condition (Chomsky 1995). Free word order languages such as Russian (and to some extent German) have strong D-features on T but weak on V. We consider the approach as presented in Fanselow (1996) as adequate also for our model.
Art. Stopa
(2002)