Unanswered Questions
43 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
8
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1
answer
585
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Which languages have zero markers of comparative degree that coexist with non-zero comparative markers?
The zero comparative marker and the non-zero one should be more or less interchangeable. (The etymology of the non-zero marker doesn't matter.)
(A message asking to list such languages was originally ...
6
votes
0
answers
288
views
What languages use grammaticalized spoonerisms?
Here I define a "spoonerism" as the exchange of onset sounds between initially accented words in a phrase:
"sh(oving l)eopard" instead of "loving shepherd"
"f(ighting a l)iar" instead of "lighting a ...
- 718
6
votes
0
answers
595
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Comparative markers coming from low degree markers ("attenuatives")? (List such languages.)
Which languages have a marker of the comparative degree of adjectives that coincides with a marker of a low degree? ...or which has evolved from such a low degree marker?
(A message asking for the ...
5
votes
0
answers
216
views
Genitive forms (German)
Do you know any rule how I can decide (formally), wheter a German sentence contains a Genitivus subjectivus or a Genitivus objectivus?
Example: "der Besuch des Botschafters". Here, the ambassador ...
- 51
4
votes
0
answers
534
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Measuring lexical similarity between two arbitrary languages
Pardon me if this question is naive, but I am wondering if there is a way to quantify lexical similarity between two corpora of text, each written in different languages whose alphabets differ greatly....
4
votes
0
answers
76
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Cross-linguistic cases of German 'trennbare' Verbs
How many languages have verbs where you can detach a prefix and put it at the end? That's like the German 'trennbare' Verbs.
For example, in German, for depart/leave ('abfahren') you say:
Der Zug is ...
4
votes
0
answers
182
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'Literally' non-literally
There has been a recent popularization over the questionable use of the word 'literally' as an intensifier rather than as a marker of non-figurative, especially since it seems to be used non-literally ...
- 4,495
4
votes
0
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247
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The expressive power of languages : Information content in a sentence : How do we measure it
What is your name
Isme shoma chi e
Two sentences - same content.
My question is about the way to measure information content in a language. How do we do this? Because quite evidently count of the ...
- 1,265
4
votes
0
answers
136
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Is there count/mass distinction in European Portuguese as it is in English?
It is said that European Portuguese has count/mass distinction as many Indo-European languages. However I noticed out that all products/items at stores in Portugal are labeled in singular form. In ...
3
votes
0
answers
46
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Exception to word order in quotative situations
I'm very uneducated in syntax, so I apologize if this question is something really basic that everyone already knows.
English is a subject-verb-object language, and it is known to follow that pattern ...
- 724
3
votes
0
answers
80
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Which are the social differences which lead to the variance in the way to address a person?
My question is: Which are the social differences which lead to the variance in the way to address a person?
An example of the difference is T-V distinction some languages abolished it while others ...
- 6,337
3
votes
0
answers
122
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Are there any languages that have words for open and closing quotation marks in speech?
It seems to me that most languages have some way of bounding quotations in written form. European languages have their apostrophe quotes and angle-brackets, while eastern Asian languages have those ...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
311
views
Languages where smells are heard
In Russian, one can use the verb слышать ([ˈslɨʂətʲ], "hear") with both sounds and smells, though it's more common to use чувствовать ([ˈt͡ɕustvəvətʲ], "feel") for smells. Example from Wiktionary:
...
- 340
2
votes
0
answers
46
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Which (of the Germanic) languages support resultative constructions?
my question regards resultative constructions. Which of the Germanic languages supports resultative constructions?
It would be awesome if you could suggest any literature regarding any language. ...
- 658
2
votes
0
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198
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Which factors influence the linguistic conservatism of a language, and to what extent?
Presumably the number of speakers is a factor, as a language cannot change if nobody speaks it (is this even true in absolute?)1, but it does not necessarily follow that more speakers results in ...
- 121