All Questions

In terms of aspect, verbs can only be categorized into stative verb and eventive verb, right? Then how about propositional attitude verb like "think" "say"? Are they also eventive ...

Hey guys I am a uni student doing psycholinguistics and currently studying doubly centre embedded clauses for a study on comprehension. For example a phrase such as: "The man the boy the cat ...

I believe, "expression" is a good term for a word or a meaningful part of a sentence, which is shorter than the sentence, but "expression" does not sound a good term to refer to a ...

This sentence: How many apples do you have to eat? (at least in my dialect of English) means "How many apples do you possess and can eat?" if the final consonant in "have" is ...

I have a long-running argument with friends that the word "opinion" has more to do with how something is expressed, not whether it is true or not. That is, "I think it is raining ...

Starostin alleges that IE root h₁n̥gʷnís has cognates in Finno-Urgic. But I distrust this database and also I would like to know what was the proto-form of the root, particularly, the origin of Mari ...

From what I read, a speech repertoire is defined as a set of varieties controlled and used by an individual, including varieties associated with their region and social class but also with the ...

In most languages the world over, place of articulation is divided in a fairly obvious way, with labials, coronals, dorsals, and laryngeals (each obviously potentially having various sublocations), ...

The word for fire in some modern Australian languages: Tiwi yikwani Djinang junggi Maung yungku Walmajarri yakun This is strikingly similar to that in PIE: PIE h₁...

The question is: why are noun and verb phrases the basic building blocks of all grammar? Candidate answer: cognitively, we perceive the world as objects and relationships between objects. Thus, nouns ...

Are there any spoken languages which are known for their inherent articulation. In other words, where in the world would a person with hearing disabilities like to have been born (if we only consider ...

I know that the diacritic ̈ is for centralization and ̞ for lowered. So when [e] is centralized, it becomes [ɘ] and when lowered it becomes [ə]. See the diagram: If someone gives me the ...

English distinguishes interrogative pronouns "who" referring to humans and "what" referring to non-humans, and the same distinction is made in Lushootseed, any Bantu languages that ...

Here, I am talking about the assimilated /t/ sound that is one of the most common features of Standard Southern British English (such as /t/ at the beginning of a syllable, time, task, Twitter, twice, ...

I don't know of any besides the horn on Ơ and Ư and the middle tilde on ᵯ and some other consonants I'm interested in particular in a diacritic precomposed with both "I" and "U"

Can anyone here suggest any texts that deals especially with the interaction between Semantics, Pragmatics and Syntax? I would like to understand how these various levels, especially syntax-semantics,...

I am new to the field of linguistics and I was looking for some books in order to learn syntax. I put my eyes on two main textbooks: Basic English Syntax with Exercises, by Mark Newson (I was ...

Has anyone attempted to reconstruct the pronunciation / phonological form of the Torah as it would have been heard at the time of the fixing of the consonantal text (ca. 6th c. BCE)? So, just as a ...

(Apologies in advance for the expected misuse of terminology; I am not a linguist. Please correct as appropriate.) I am considering a Deep Learning language evolution experiment and would like to ...

For example, Indo-European family is divided into groups, such as Slavic, Romance, Germanic, etc. Some of these groups can also be divided, but let`s just assume, that there is no further division. ...

This thought is directed at those who have an interest in the deeper meaning of language and how it connects to our perspective of reality. Perhaps a bit philosophical. If this is not the proper place,...

Here is an example, "Molly had left at 10 pm". The temporal references will be event time < reference time < speech time, right? But why? Also, for "The sun has set", why ...

I know aspect can be categorized into perfective and imperfective, but I'm just curious whether the example "John hasn't gone to Paris" is still perfective or converted into imperfectve?

I am a French mum who has a 2 year old baby. My husband is Swedish and at home we speak English. Our son is already speaking French and Swedish and some English. We speak a bit of English with him ...

At the time the Quran was revealed, the Arabic letters that we know of today was different. As I understand it, they did not have the concept of letter in the meaning we understand today. For example,...

In my idiolect, the word "defense", with the emphasis on the first syllable means "the role of defending". With the emphasis on the second syllable, it means "the act of ...

According to the classic Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon, Hurrian used a handful of special signs made by combining the WA (aka PI) sign with others: wa+ap, wa+i, wa+pí, wa+ú, wa+e, wa+u, wa+pu, wa+ip, wa+...

I'd like to know whether it's okay to reveal the identity of a person in advance when having others judge his or her sentences for grammaticality. Will that affect the reliability of the judgments? If ...

I am not sure if I am asking a question in the right site. I don't know know if I am even asking a biological, linguistic or physics question. But I recently started learning about language and its ...

I'm working on a few exercises to prepare for my upcoming exam and I'm kinda stuck right now on a specific topic. The exercise wants us to explain why certain sentences are ungrammatical and to ...

I am working on a thesis and I chose a topic about comparing linguistic landscapes of two locations. One is urban with international community and relatively economically privileged class of the ...

I need to find out in what century the word "profession" appeared. My final goal: to understand whether this word could be used in the Middle Ages in everyday communication, in the meaning ...

I understand that some people who speak Inuktitut self-designate as "Inuit" which allegedly means "people", or "human beings" or something similar. I've heard the same ...

the pencil inside the box may go to the classroom could earn the credit the house is big the gown was very expensive

Could anyone give a reference to the best book or website for learning the algorithms used for identifying the syllables in a Sanskrit word, in a completely unambiguous way, just from a piece of text? ...

I'm currently analysing some of my old literacy work from primary school (5/6 years old), focussing on cohesion. When looking at ellipsis I find that I cannot place a category on what kind (if at all) ...

In his talk available on YouTube as “Language, Creativity, and the Limits of Understanding” by Professor Noam Chomsky (4-21-16) at 56:36s Noam Chomsky starts talking about the phenomenon of ...

When a lexicographer is forming a definition how do they make sure they are not overly influenced by the examples they refer to when forming their definitions. how do they properly escape the ...

Does Asega-bôk exist in English translation?

I came across a question on English Language & Usage asking about why the vowels in the second syllable of 'harmonic' and 'harmonious' are pronounced differently. Harmonic → /hɑːˈmɒn.ɪk/ ...

According to the definition, morphological aspect presents the reported event or state of affairs as if viewed either from inside the event (‘in progress’) or outside the event (‘as a whole’). For ...

The Western Georgian family name Ashkinadze consists of at least two morphemes, the last of which (-ძე = -dze in romanization) is the Georgian for ‘son’. A Georgian trained in linguistics told me in ...

I would appreciate knowing the various pronunciations of the noun كرباج‎ ‘lash, whip’ in Egyptian Arabic as spoken in Cairo and northward all the way to the Mediterranean Sea (= more or less Lower ...

Could you please give me all the recorded meanings of the Turkish noun yağmurluk (except 'raincoat, mackintosh, etc.', which I already know)? My understanding is that the word also designates some ...

I am currently writing a paper which draws on the characteristics of Turkish (or Turkic) phonology, and would like to know more about stem consonant alternation in this language. Specifically, will ...

First, I don't speak/understand any so-called agglutinative languages, like Turkish. I also don't know German. I understand there's no good definition for the concept of "word", which could ...

Suppose [[gray]] = λf ∈ D<e,t> . [λx ∈ De . f(x) = 1 and x is gray]. Since this function is of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, it would seem that sentences like Julius is gray are ...

I came across this humorous Latin phrase on social media, rendered as: Sumus semper in excretum, sed alta variat ...but when I searched it, I realised there was a more common rendering of it: ...

i checked the wiki subarticle "Consonants" and there is an example of /kar/ vs /ca:r/ (youglish link, as evidence for ":") which might not be a good minimal pair. do you know one? /...

I need help reconstructing the Old Novgorodian words for "earth", "hand", "bee" and "bird nest". I'm not good at linguistics at all and don't really understand ...