R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Davis, Philip W."

Browsing by Author "Davis, Philip W."

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A cognitive semantic analysis of manipulative motion verbs in Korean with reference to English
(1999) Lee, Jeong-Hwa; Davis, Philip W.
In this thesis I adopt the framework of Cognitive Grammar developed by Langacker (1987a and 1991a) in order to provide a unified account of a cluster of senses of certain force-dynamic motion verbs, namely the Korean verbs kkulta and tangkita 'pull' and milta 'push', and their corresponding English verbs pull and push. The different senses of each of these polysemous verbs are related to one another in terms of family resemblance relationships. These motion verbs, thus, are complex semantic categories, encompassing their distinguishable, yet related senses within the same lexical forms. Although the Korean verbs kkulta and tangkita are conceptually related to each other within the semantic field of force-dynamic motion, and are translated as 'to pull' in English, they have different conceptual imports with regard to distinct prototypical semantic structures. The semantic differences of the prototypical events kkulta-1 and tangkita-1 are described in terms of their cognitive-functional attributes. Kkulta-1 generally involves a heavy, slow, and labored motion of the large landmark over a long path through space and time. The trajector as well as the landmark moves along an extended path. By contrast, tangkita-1 generally associates with a light and sudden movement of a relatively small landmark along a short path. The trajector of this event does not have an extended path, and only the landmark movement is manipulated to move toward the source of force. The landmark is directed toward the trajector, and the trajector is, thus, conceived as the goal of the landmark's movement as well as the source of force. This event seems to require more manipulative control of the trajector over the landmark than the trajector of kkulta-1. The prototypical events kkulta-1, tangkita-1 and milta-1 motivate their respective semantic extensions in a coherent way. Their semantic extensions are established via the different, yet related conceptualizations of the cognitive-functional attributes of kkulta-1, tangkita-1 and milta-1. The multiple senses of these verbs and their semantic structures are not limited to a physical domain, but are also characterized relative to different abstract domains. They are described with reference to kkulta-1, tangkita-1, and milta-1, and are related to one another in terms of similarity. The English verbs pull and push contrast with their corresponding Korean verbs kkulta, tangkita, and milta in terms of formal and semantics aspects. Pull and push are conventionalized differently from kkulta, tangkita, and milta because of the speaker's different construals of semantic structures and concepts, different metonymy/metaphor, image schemas, and cognitive models associated with pull and push, different etymological information, and different psychological, cultural, social, and experiential factors.
A grammar of River Warihio
(2006) Felix Armendariz, Rolando Gpe; Davis, Philip W.
The Warihio language is a member of the Uto-Aztecan family. The language consists of two dialects: the Upland Warihio in the mountains of Chihuahua and the River Warihio along the Mayo River in Sonora, Mexico. With the various Tarahumara dialects, and Yaqui and Mayo languages, it makes up the Taracahitic sub-group of the Sonoran branch of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages. All of the field and supporting data for this work comes from the River dialect. This work deals with all of the major linguistic aspects of the River Warihio language, including a brief description of its phonology, major and minor word classes, noun phrase, relative clauses, simple sentence structure, negation, voice, and complex sentences structure. Likewise, a short comparative section within Uto-Aztecan languages of some relevant aspects of the Warihio grammar. Also included is a basic Warihio-English-Spanish dictionary and several analyzed texts. These appendixes provide natural language data for study of areas not covered in detail here. Chapter one provides information regarding ethnographical aspects of the Warihio people; it also establishes the phonemic inventory of the language and the notational system used through the dissertation. In chapter one I also propose a stress pattern based in the information about possible combination of roots and affixes allowed in the language. The main theorethical-typological contributions that the study of Warihio might provide are contained in the following chapters: Chapter 5: Simple sentence. Flexibility in order constituent displayed by Warihio texts and its relation with the focus phenomena are described in this chapter. Coding and control properties as well as participants behaviour are also described here. Chapter 7: Voice. I have integrated different voice phenomena such as passive, causative, reflexive, applicative, external possession, and ethical dative in a general semantic frame of voice. I describe typologically interesting findings in the passive and causative constructions. River Warihio has some interesting contrasting aspects within Uto-Aztecan family and morpho-syntactic features that are relevant theoretico-typologically. Its flexible pragmatically motivated constituent order altogether with the lack of coding properties for grammatical relations make Warihio an unusual language within Uto-Aztecan family and cross-linguistically as well.
Bella Coola Deictic Usage
(Rice University, 1975-04) Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross; Electronic version made possible with funding from the Rice Historical Society and Thomas R. Williams, Ph.D., class of 2000.
Creating characters and reconstructing texts: Evaluation in children's oral narrative re-tellings
(2001) Sexton, Amy Leuchtmann; Davis, Philip W.
This research analyzes the use of evaluative features in English language oral narrative re-tellings among a multi-lingual population of ninety-eight 2nd and 4th grade students. The results of the analyses strengthen our understanding of the use of evaluation by child narrators, suggesting that younger narrators reconstruct stories through re-creating the characters, while older children focus more on (precisely) reconstructing the text itself. Parallels with particular approaches to cognitive/psychological development are outlined, as are preliminary ramifications for educational methodology. In the initial rounds of both qualitative and quantitative analyses, it was revealed that the employment of seven evaluative forms cited in earlier research (e.g., Peterson and McCabe 1983, Bamberg 1991, Reilly 1992) as among the most commonly used by the present age group (i.e., causals, compulsion words, emphatic pronunciation, gratuitous terms, hedges, lengthening, and negatives) was unable to account for differences in perceived narrative skill within the sample. The manipulation of these seven features was extremely homogenous across skill, age, and language groups. As a result, a second round of analyses was undertaken. Both qualitative and quantitative findings concurred that the use of two particular evaluative features (i.e., references to mental activity, and character speech ), in addition to the utilization of certain textual devices (i.e., the presentation of mental activity within causal constructions, deference to a third person "other" as the source of the narrative information, careful monitoring and marking of errors), were capable of distinguishing both skill and age groupings within the sample. The manner in which the data from this research reflects the Vygotskian perspective on cognitive/psychological development is discussed. The educational implications of these findings---from assessment paradigms, to the planning of curriculum and instruction---are addressed. One of the major discoveries was that, counter to expectations, the multilingual subjects in this sample did not demonstrate divergent narrative forms based on their differing linguistic/cultural schemas. In fact, the perceived skill scores among the Limited English Proficient subjects appeased to be related to issues of fluency rather than differences in narrative form. These findings indicate that given a rich context in which information is repeatedly co-constructed, most language minority students are highly capable of both interpreting and reproducing information in a culturally/contextually prescribed manner.
Determinacy and participant formation: De Marmore Angeli
(1994) Baker, John Wade; Davis, Philip W.
The semantics of determiners in field data from two Philippine languages, Ilokano and Yogad, is characterized and compared. In Ilokano, this content appears as gradations along a cline of "individuation." In Yogad, the semantics represents successive degrees of "actualization." In both languages, the function of this semantics is to form and delineate participants by segregating these from the ground of quality and event and also to orient within an existing matrix of knowledge the participants thus formed. The name "determinacy" is given to this participant-forming semantics as a means of comparing it across languages. Determinacy, as exemplified in Ilokano (individuation) and Yogad (actualization), is motivated by the cognitive principle FOCUSSED--DIFFUSE. This principle is inherent in the process by which variance in focal attention organizes the continuum of the cognitive experience of an organism. Variable focal attention is the cognitive-psychological basis for determinacy and, therefore, for participant formation in language. The operation of the FOCUSSED--DIFFUSE principle in connection with focal attention outside of language is illustrated in human vision and visual perception and in sonar echolocation in bats. Because the FOCUSSED--DIFFUSE principle is a cognitive universal and is a parameter of meaning characteristic of intelligence itself, we conclude that determinacy is also a linguistic universal, i.e., that it is a constant presence in language, even in languages which lack determining forms. In proposing a cognitive motivation for determinacy, this study challenges the privileging of discourse pragmatics in recent attempts to understand the function of determiners. The analysis of the Ilokano and Yogad data shows that in these languages determiners are not involved in the management of information flow in connected discourse. The study rejects the notion of the modularity of language or of linguistic intelligence; it argues that determinacy in language cannot be adequately described apart from understanding the way in which the FOCUSSED--DIFFUSE principle operates in other cognitive domains.
Discourse functions of negation in modern German
(1985) Nilakanta, Rema; Copeland, James E.; Clark, Susan; Davis, Philip W.
For a long time now, the study of negation has belonged to the discipline of logic. Linguists attempting to study negation have not ventured out of the confines of grammar. This work studies negation from a socio-cognitive point of view, treating negation as a cognitive process as well as a product of human interaction. The thesis invokes in large part, the stratificational approach to discourse proposed by Copeland and Davis which in turn is influenced by the Prague School and by text linguistics. Of primary concern in this work is the propositional blocking that typically characterizes negation together with the identification of some of the relational contexts in which blocking takes place. Four dominating contexts/functions of negation are proposed. They are: (1) denying presuppositions, (2) representing old information, (3) asserting new information without denying old information, and (4) giving expression to the speaker's attitudes, expectations, etc. The thesis also emphasizes that the above functions are not necessarily exhaustive. It does however, indicate a departure from older approaches to the study of negation.
Knowledge, Consciousness, and Language: Some Possible Sources of Discourse Phenomena
(Rice University, 1980-04) Davis, Philip W.; Copeland, James E.; Electronic version made possible with funding from the Rice Historical Society and Thomas R. Williams, Ph.D., class of 2000.
Lost causes: Morphological causative constructions in two Philippine languages
(1997) Spitz, Walter Louis; Davis, Philip W.
This study of morphological Causative constructions in Hiligaynon (Visayan) and Yogad (Northern Cordilleran) relevates Voice and Role in the linguistic construction of Events. A 'VSO' configuration characterizes the Propositional Nucleus of each language. Verbal affixes distinguish numerous Voices (not Active/Passive); each selects a specific Event Phase (e.g. Incept, Middle, Crux, Limit) for Focus. Nominal Determiners and/or Pronouns indicate which of the two Nuclear Roles is Focussed and which is Unfocussed. In prototypical Causative scenarios, the morpheme -pa-, in conjunction with any of the Voices, effects a Displacement of the Event process from the ('Agentive') 'S'-Role (or 'Causer') to a Non-Nuclear 'Executive' (or 'Causee'), which acts upon the Nuclear ('Patientive') 'O'-Role (or 'Affectee'), any of which can be Focussed via Voice. The result is a weak Causative (cf. German lassen). In certain other Events, the Causer acts more directly upon a hybrid Causee/Affectee. Elsewhere, -pa- suggests a (non-Causative) 'change', 'gradedness', 'tendency', or 'direction' devoid of any Role contrast. Hiligaynon Voice is more Role-prominent than Yogad Voice. The Nuclear Roles of Hiligaynon are either Motile or Inert, while Yogad shows a minimalistic Eruptive/Post-Eruptive contrast. (If Hiligaynon drives, Yogad drifts.) Hiligaynon morphosyntax highlights Discontinuity: its word order and tripartite Pronoun inventory distinguish pre-Verbal (Discontinuous, 'asserted') and post-Verbal (Continuous, 'mentioned') Participants; and Prepositions marginalize Non-Nuclear Participants as Obliques. Hiligaynon -pa- also 'intensifies', especially with 'reduplication'. Yogad lacks pre-Verbal ('assertive') Pronouns as well as Prepositions which might mark Non-Nuclear Participants as Obliques; Discontinuous elements are marked with the particle ay. Yogad -pa- neither 'intensifies' nor 'reduplicates'; however, the Middle Voice -pag- marks a 'direct' Causative (absent from Hiligaynon) which consistently focusses the Causee. All Causatives thus emerge as complex epiphenomena of Voice, Role, and Event. In prioritizing Verbal Event semantics over Nominal Participant semantics, these languages expose the often disabling reocentrism of theoretical linguistics, which is informed by Noun-centered Indo-European grammar, by writing, and by its own scientism.
Metaphor in the construction of a small group culture
(1990) Welch, Germaine Burchard; Davis, Philip W.
A small group experience is analyzed from a hermeneutic stance for members' use of metaphor in construction of the emergent group culture. Metaphor is described as a process rather than a product of language. As process, metaphor is primarily an invitation to others to co-create, within a particular context, the objectifications and typifications that will come to represent the shared experience. As an extension of this concept, metaphor is thought to assume and invite intimacy by eliciting exposure of cognitive constructions used in the formulations of a constructed reality. Second, metaphor is described as an integrative device capable of incorporating and illuminating, within a single utterance, multiple aspects of the situation, and of facilitating the group's progress through developmental stages. The discourse used in this study was produced by nine members and a consultant of a self-study experiential group as they struggled to understand the nature of their task, the multiple roles they took in production of the event, and their interdependent relationships as they constructed the social reality of the experience. Metaphor both described and became the group's dynamics as it integrated contextual elements and identified member's fears and fantasies, thereby contributing to the development of the collective. In the first metaphoric instance the tension created by cameras and film crew, anonymity and job security, were addressed through an analogy about film ratings. Further analogies of guns, firing squads, sitting ducks, shipwrecks and desert islands, a Greek chorus, and even God, were developed as violence, aggression, power and competition, safety and rescue, alternated as dominant themes in the discourse. In each case, metaphor filled an important role in the group's dynamics. A brothel became the metaphoric vehicle for expression of underlying sexual aggression, directly alluding to the difficulty experienced by both men and women in their attempts to validate and legitimize individual roles in the group. The mechanisms by which this analogy developed and the consequences for the group are discussed.
Old Japanese in the "Man'yousyuu", books one and two: Grammar, translations, and analytical concordance
(2000) Wiedrick, Jack Terry; Davis, Philip W.
I created a comprehensive analytic concordance of the first two books of the Man'yousyuu, an Old Japanese anthology of poetry. In addition, I transcribed all 234 poems in the corpus using a transcription system which faithfully and consistently indicates consonant and vowel distinctions reflected in the orthography, and likewise shows where these are not so reflected. The poems were also translated into English. Using the concordance as a database of linguistic forms, I wrote a short grammatical sketch of Old Japanese, including discussions of historical phonology, inflection, and syntax, and furthermore, I briefly explored a few selected topics of relevance to Old Japanese textual study, including discussions of clause types, genitive constructions, emphatic particles, and tense and aspect suffixes. A primary goal of the project was the creation of a good introductory primer to some of the earliest Old Japanese poetry encountered in the Man'yousyuu.
Perspectives on nominalization
(1990) Spruiell, William Craig; Davis, Philip W.
Discussion of nominalization (NZN) is possible only within a general theory of grammatical categories and processes. For a cross-linguistic analysis, it is preferable to adopt a function-based definition of categories, in which nominals are considered arguments of predications and verbals as predications. In such a view, nouns are lexical items specialized for nominal usage. NZNs may be divided into four types: Act(ion), Participant, Adverbial, and Expression. Participant NZNs are a superset of Argument NZNs, while Expression NZNs are hypostases. Nominalization processes may be considered in terms of formation strategies and differentiation strategies. Formation of NZNs may be accomplished by a number of methods. An overt marker may be used (direct encoding strategy), or the mechanisms used for forming complex modifiers may be used with generic heads to form 'names for things' (modification strategy). Transfer nominalization may be considered an additional strategy, although transfer in the framework used represents occurrence of a dual-class form and is not strictly nominalization. Differentiation of NZNs may also be accomplished via direct encoding. However, a number of other differentiation strategies exist, including the use of voice and aspect markers and noun classifiers. Typically, Participant NZNs in a given language will represent conflations of participant roles kept separate in main clause morphosyntax; these conflations follow identifiable trends. In a study of 58 languages, it was found that Instrumental NZNs significantly correlate with Agentives, and Factives with Act (ion) NZNs. The Agentive/Instrumental and Act(ion)/Factive groupings remain separate from each other. Comparison of languages in the sample also shows that certain marking categories, such as voice, appear to be related to nominalization in general. That is, transitivity downshifters are associated with nominalization while upshifters are not. The factors underlying this association are related to those involved in the formation of object concepts in child language. The nominal concept develops from the object concept, and inherits a number of prototype characteristics from it without being, in adult language, directly isomorphic to it. This relationship accounts for a number of the observed characteristics of nominalizations.
Semantics of Taiwanese u (Chinese)
(1991) Lu, Lijung Wendy; Davis, Philip W.
Taiwanese has been analyzed either as a suppletive form of le or an equivalent of a higher abstract verb 'YOU', that asserts the existence of an event or a state. The latter seems plausible. However, when we carefully examine the various semantic functions of u, we find that they lack the constancy which would allow them to be united as a higher existential 'U'. This does not mean that there are various separate u's. We propose there is only one morpheme u. The 'major' various semantics for u, i.e. 'expectation', 'emphasis', 'perfectivity' and 'existence-possession', are, metaphorically connected. The links between them are reflected in a series of ambiguous sentences with u, in which an identical form of utterance may represent different meanings according to different contexts of use.
The basic morpho-syntax of Yaitepec Chatino
(2002) Rasch, Jeffrey Walter; Davis, Philip W.
Yaitepec Chatino is an Otomanguean language of the Zapotecan family, spoken in the highlands of southeastern Oaxaca, Mexico. It has been described in a small number of articles and in one full-length work, K. Pride's 1965 Chatino Syntax. Among the interesting features of the language are its large inventory of tones, which distinguish between lexical items and also have morphological functions. Morphologically, Chatino features aspectual verbal prefixes and a few derivational patterns. Incorporation of nouns and prepositions and various compounding patterns play important roles in word-formation. The basic word order is VSO, but the alternative orders SVO and OVS are also frequent, and are found to have specific semantic and pragmatic motivations. Human objects are optionally marked by the preposition 7in 'to.' The presence or absence of 7in 'to' marking the possessor codes the contrast between alienable and inalienable possession. Recipients in events of transfer are also optionally marked by 7in , depending on the type of object transferred. There are a number of constructions that result in complex sentences, including relative clauses, complement clauses, adverbial clauses, and conjunction. Description and analysis of these and other aspects of the Chatino language is based on data gathered through elicitation and recordings of oral texts.* *This dissertation includes a CD that is compound (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following applications: Windows 98/2000; Windows Media Player; Microsoft Paint; Microsoft Office.
The Korean I-suffix: A functional approach
(1997) Baek, Mihyun; Davis, Philip W.
This dissertation treats a problem presented by Korean syntax. The suffix $\{-i\},$ realized variously as -i, -hi, -li, -ki, may be used to express (among others) prototypical passives, middle voice, and causatives. I attempt to provide an answer to the question "How are these uses related?' The semantic/conceptual configuration of an event is projected as an asymmetrical relation between the sentence initial and sentence middle positions. Sentence initial position is assigned a special semantic property, which I call EMPOWEREDNESS. The requirements of EMPOWEREDNESS can be met by a less than optimal participant (i.e., creating a mismatch between the semantics of the position and its filler) as long as the I-suffix is present on the verb. The I-suffix reduces the EMPOWEREDNESS of the sentence-initial position. This reduction alters the relation between sentence initial position and the participant filler and may achieve either 'passive' or 'causative' effects. The so-called 'passive' emerges as a cluster of related constructions, which signify the reduced EMPOWEREDNESS of the sentence initial position. In 'causative' constructions, I-suffix projects decreased EMPOWEREDNESS to sentence initial position by removing some semantic portion from the sentence initial position, transferring it to the second position. Thus, the semantic character of the event--the role properties it projects upon the sentence initial participant--provides the matrix for the I-suffix. The effect of the I-suffix varies widely in different events, even while the suffix accomplishes a common function across all these environments.
The semantics and pragmatics of voice systems: A functional analysis
(1990) Cameron, Carrie Anne; Davis, Philip W.
This study investigates grammatical voice from a functional-semantic viewpoint. While previous studies have focussed mainly on the active-passive relationship or at times the active-middle relationship, this study takes a more comprehensive approach, assuming voice in a given language to be a system of values for expressing participant-to-event and subject-to-verb relations. The primary research compares the voice systems of four languages (two Indo-European and two non-Indo-European) in depth in order to discover the overarching motivation for their several organizations. Both inflectional and sentence-derivational voice types are included, with an attempt to integrate their functions. The interrelationships of voice with other grammatical systems such as aspect and modality are examined as well. The study found that expressions of voice have two significant patterns of organization, motivated either pragmatically by considerations of empathy and topicalization (as in English and Hungarian) or semantically by modification of the properties of the subject and/or its relationship to the event (Russian and the affective passives of Japanese and English). These two motivating principles may and often do intersect and overlap, producing the complexity which has proved so formidable in the study of voice. The notion of a 'basic' argument structure of the verb, which has serious implications for any analysis of voice, was explicated and shown to be inapplicable to some languages (e.g. Hungarian); the notion of a given language being 'biased' towards a transitive or an intransitive conceptualization of events was also found to be material to voice organization. Finally, the investigation of the interaction of voice with aspect and modality reveals that these three systems (and perhaps others) cooperate to produce a holistic perspective on an event in terms of actor-orientedness or patient-orientedness.
The semantics of Creek morphosyntax
(1988) Hardy, Donald Edward; Davis, Philip W.
In Creek, a Muskogean language, nominalization is formally signalled by a loss of inflectional morphology and the occurrence of derivational morphology. A nominalization may be taken to be a concrete interpretation of the event itself or one of its participants. The verbal derivational morpheme $\{$ip$\}$ signals medio-passive voice, in which the executor of the event is not the agent of the event. The verbal derivational morpheme $\{$ec$\}$ signals increased transitivity, by which transitive verbs are derived from intransitive, transitive verbs are made more transitive through an increase of some parameter of transitivity, and causatives are created with the help of the medio-passive morpheme. The middle-voice $\{$k$\}$ morpheme signals that the executor of the event is affected by the action of the event, as in statives, intransitives, and reflexives. Participant agreement type is lexically marked for verbs, but paradigmatic contrast shows the markers to be semantically motivated. Types I and II marking vary with respect to control of the event, and Types II and III marking vary with respect to envelopment by the event. When the dependent verb of a modificational clause is non-tensed, the $\{$ii$\}$ and $\{$aa$\}$ suffixes differentiate non-identifiable from identifiable participants, respectively. When the dependent verb is tensed, the $\{$ii$\}$ and $\{$aa$\}$ suffixes differentiate mentioned events from asserted events, respectively. The semantic connection between the two uses of $\{$ii$\}$ and $\{$aa$\}$ are backgrounding and foregrounding, respectively. Non-identifiable participants and mentioned events are united in backgrounding and are suffixed with $\{$ii$\}$. Identifiable participants and asserted events are united in foregrounding and are suffixed with $\{$aa$\}$. $\{$t$\}$ and $\{$n$\}$ signal foregrounding and backgrounding, respectively, within the proposition; that is, they determine how a participant or event is foregrounded or backgrounded with respect to other participants or events within the same proposition. The $\{$ooM$\}$ suffix backgrounds participants and events with respect to other propositions, as in answering questions, or with respect to the ontology of the participant or event itself.

Browsing by Author "Davis, Philip W."

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