L’expression de la modalité par des adjectifs: une comparaison entre l’adjectif grec ancien en -ιμος et l’adjectif latin en -bilis
In this contribution a comparison is proposed between the Ancient Greek denominal adjective in -ιμος and the Latin deverbal adjective in -bilis from the point of view of their modal semantics. Despite the different nature of the derivational base – the adjectives in -ιμος are usually derived from action nouns while the adjectives in -bilis are derived from verbal bases –, both formations can convey a modal value of dynamic possibility or deontic necessity alongside other possible modal values. After presenting the most recent theoretical framework of reference for the interpretation of the semantic category of modality, the issue of the emergence of the modal value in diachrony as well as some related questions (such as whether and in what terms this value is inherent in the two suffixes) are addressed. Then, a systematization is attempted of the possible modal (or non-modal) values in relation to the nature of the derivational base, of the syntactic context and of the referent of the adjective. It is also proposed to distinguish between a morphological use (with the scope within the formation) and a lexical use (with the scope outside the formation) of the adjectives in -ιμος and in -bilis that has repercussions also at the level of the modal senses: only the lexical use seems to allow the deontic-evaluative and epistemic readings. This study has opened some new perspectives and, if comparison between the two formations is possible, the adjectives in -bilis present a much richer semantics than that of the adjectives in -ιμος. This difference, which remains to be examined in depth, can be explained, perhaps, by the closer link between the formations in -bilis and the formal class of the verb, while the formations in -ιμος derive mainly from the narrower class of action nouns.
The French construction ‘j’arrive à + INF’ at the borders of modality. An exploratory survey of a journalistic corpus
The French construction j’arrive à + INF seems to allow readings very close to possibility modality. After a brief diachronic and typological description, I carry out an investigation of a journalistic corpus in order to better understand its contemporary uses. Subsequently, after having shown that it has implicative semantics, I claim that the construction is irreducible to modality, as it lacks the property of introducing non-factual states of affairs.
Pygmalion in the classroom: a tool to draw lexicographic diachronic maps and their application to didactics
This contribution presents Pygmalion, a tool that facilitates the creation of interactive diachronic maps, and focuses on some of its possible applications to the didactics of languages and linguistics. Pygmalion was conceived in the framework of the project A world of possibilities. Modal pathways over an extra-long period of time: the diachrony of modality in the Latin language (WoPoss). Although its initial conceptualisation was heavily influenced by the research questions of this project and, therefore, the visualisation of modality was a decisive feature, the tool was later redesigned for a broader use. In fact, to increase usability, we offer three different versions to better suit users’ requirements. The primary goal of Pygmalion is to provide scholars, teachers, and learners with an instrument to visually represent the heterogenous diachronic linguistic information contained in lexicographic works. The conceptualisation of this type of resource raises a twofold objective: while we need to address the difficulties of designing a visualisation that illustrates complex concepts, such as semantic shifts and meaning relations, it is crucial to ensure the readability of the data through a user-friendly and intuitive tool.
A new corpus annotation framework for Latin diachronic lexical semantics
We present a new corpus-based resource and methodology for the annotation of Latin lexical semantics, consisting of 2,399 annotated passages of 40 lemmas from the Latin diachronic corpus LatinISE. We also describe how the annotation was designed, analyse annotators’ styles, and present the preliminary results of a study on the lexical semantics and diachronic change of the 40 lemmas. We complement this analysis with a case study on semantic vagueness. As the availability of digital corpora of ancient languages increases, and as computational research develops new methods for large-scale analysis of diachronic lexical semantics, building lexical semantic annotation resources can shed new light on large-scale patterns in the semantic development of lexical items over time. We share recommendations for designing the annotation task that will hopefully help similar research on other less-resourced or historical languages.
Implemented to Be Shared: the WoPoss Annotation of Semantic Modality in a Latin Diachronic Corpus
The FNS project A world of possibilities (WoPoss) studies the evolution of modal meanings in the Latin language. Passages expressing modal notions such as ‘possibility and ‘necessity’ are annotated following a pipeline that combines both automatic and manual annotation. This paper discusses the creation, annotation and processing of the WoPoss corpus. Texts are first gathered from different online open access resources to create the initial dataset. Due to the heterogeneity of formats and encodings, these texts are regularized before the application of an automatic linguistic annotation. The annotated files are then uploaded to the annotation platform INCEpTION. Through this platform, annotators add the relevant linguistic and semantic information following the WoPoss guidelines. The results of the automatic annotation are also curated. The fine-grained semantic annotation is the core activity of the WoPoss workflow, thus this paper focuses on the preparation of files and how the semantic annotation task is tackled.
Olga Kagan, The Semantics of Case, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020
Digital Tools for Semantic Annotation: the WoPoss Use Case
This paper examines the use of annotation platforms to perform semantic annotation of textual contents. It focuses on a specific tool called INCEpTION. This review stems from a project that studies modality in Latin from a diachronic perspective; thus, the analysis emanates from the development of an annotation pipeline for this particular use case. I briefly overview the role of semantic annotation in the project so as to delve into the specific requirements of the annotation process and how a customized tool assists in this procedure. After justifying the selection of INCEpTION over other annotation environments, a description of the functionalities of the tool is presented. The paper continues with a discussion of the tool’s customization that was undertaken in order to meet the requirements of the project. This part draws attention to how the annotation challenges were tackled. To conclude, a general reflection on the use of annotation platforms is presented.
Verbs of motion and intermediate source domains of modality: the understudied case of It. occorrere ‘to be necessary, to be needed’
Though the emergence of modality from verbs of motion is a well-attested phenomenon, the assessment of cross-linguistically valid pathways still remains a desideratum. In this paper I offer an outline of the pathway followed by the understudied Italian modal verb occorrere ‘to happen; to be necessary/needed’ (from Latin occurrere, originally ‘to run towards, into something or someone’). Based on the analysis of two large corpora, this paper reconstructs the emergence of the impersonal constructions ‘occorre + INF’ and ‘occorre che + SBJV’ vis-à -vis the personal one (‘to be needed’). The data and their analysis confirm the complexity of the pathway: in fact, the emergence of modality is strongly interlaced with the co-presence of the ancient meaning ‘to happen’, but also with the emergence of a deontic construction in which occorrere assumes the function of the auxiliary essere (‘to be’) as well as with the later evolution of another construction with negative polarity and in which occorrere is a telic metaphoric verb of motion. Though the pathway followed by Italian occorrere could be idiosyncratic in a cross-linguistic perspective, its in-depth study sheds new light on the question of how modality emerges and in particular on its source domains and their relations.
From Static to Interactive Maps: Drawing Diachronic Maps of (Latin) Modality with Pygmalion
In this paper, we present the diachronic maps of a selection of 75 Latin modal markers designed through the tool Pygmalion. Both the maps and Pygmalion were conceived in the framework of the WoPoss project, which aims at analysing the diachronic pathways of modality in Latin. While the description of the tool and its functionalities is beyond the scope of this paper, we focus here on the description of our diachronic modal maps. Using visualisations to represent semantic shifts is a well-known practice in some linguistic fields such as typology and lexicography, and they have already been applied to modality. Though the situation is rapidly evolving, typological semantic maps as well as lexicographic maps are still for the most part static and usually not-interactive visualisations. Our modal maps stand out not only for their interactivity, but also for the richness of the information conveyed: chronology, etymology, semantics, syntax, first attestation and diachronic relationships between the meanings. After presenting our conceptual framework for modality, we illustrate the process of conceptualisation and development of our diachronic maps of modality. More specifically, we explain how we gathered and organised the data in order to transpose it into a visual representation. We then showcase the map of possum as an example of our results. Subsequently, we discuss the results with respect to previous literature concerning both visualisation of modal evolution from a general point of view and the investigation of modality in Latin. Finally, we outline possible applications within and beyond the WoPoss project.