Casper de Groot

University of Amsterdam, Linguistics, Faculty Member

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Huangan Wei

Zhejiang University

Elizabeth Coppock

University of Gothenburg

Barbara Egedi

Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Randy J. LaPolla 羅仁地

Nanyang Technological University

Magdalena Szczyrbak

Jagiellonian University

jonathan owens

University Of Bayreuth, Germany

Matthew Harley

Theological College of Northern Nigeria

John R Roberts

SIL International

Beata Megyesi

Uppsala University

Katherine Hodgson

University of Cambridge

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Papers by Casper de Groot

Identifiability and verbal cross-referencing markers in Hungarian

Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Society, 2009

Many languages employ articles as an expression device to mark identifiability. There are, howeve... more Many languages employ articles as an expression device to mark identifiability. There are, however, other means to mark identifiability in languages. In this paper I show that one of the two sets of cross-referencing markers on the transitive verb in Hungarian serves this purpose, i.e. it represents the instruction from the speaker that he considers the referent of the object argument to be identifiable to the hearer. Next, attention is paid to four sets of Hungarian data which are seemingly at odds with this claim. These sets relate to the use of particular person distinctions, indefinite noun phrases which contain either a possessive restrictor or the interrogative pronoun melyik 'which', and to relative clauses. Apart from a descriptive account of the relevant data, the paper also offers a theoretical account within the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar, where the speaker assessment of identifiability of referents is formally represented by operators which apply to the Referential Act, represented by the variable R at the Interpersonal Level. Distinctions made at the Interpersonal Level thus affect the choice of verbal forms in Hungarian.

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The king is on huntunge. On the relation between progressive and absentive in Old and Early Modern English

Cultural Critique, 2007

This paper addresses the diachronic development of two periphrastic constructions in Old and Midd... more This paper addresses the diachronic development of two periphrastic constructions in Old and Middle English, He waes huntende and He waes on huntunge, into the progressive in Modern English. The literature on the origin of the progressive offers several hypotheses for explaining the coalescence of the two constructions. This paper offers a new hypothesis based on the consideration that the first construction, consisting of be + present participle, developed into the progressive, and that the second construction, consisting of be + on + verbal noun, was originally a construction denoting absence. The evidence for the coalescence comes from a partial overlap in the semantics of the progressive and the absentive, and the fact that progressives often originate from spatial constructions.

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