Underlying structure of a class of adverbials

Abstract

We examine the internal structure of a subclass of adverbials including several temporal adverbs, focussing on Hungarian, Hindi, and Nepali, with comparison to German and English. Connections between adverbials like again and still in Hindi, Nepali, and Hungarian suggest an underlying generalised relational adverbial, for which we present a templatic formalisation. This follows in the tradition of research which seeks to unite the different meanings of English still (e.g. Michaelis 1993, Beck 2016); we extend this to include again and then, and also examines the interaction of additive particles in the creation of ‘concessive still’.

Benjamin Slade

Associate Professor of Linguistics

My research interests include formal semantics and syntax, historical linguistics, South Asian and Caribbean languages, and the use of computational concepts in formal linguistics.