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Two points.<br>
<br>
First, Martin's suggestion of "term check" does not really apply to
the second part of what Frans said: discussion of typologically
unusual categories in particular languages is presumably discussion
of the category itself, independent of what term we apply to it.<br>
<br>
Second, Frans' wording implies that categories can be polysemous or
homonymous. But it is not categories that can be polysemous; it is
terms for categories. This may seem like a quibble but I think that
failure to distinguish categories from labels that we linguists
might apply to such categories is often a source of confusion and
misunderstanding.<br>
<br>
Matthew<br>
<br>
On 12/17/12 8:24 AM, Martin Haspelmath wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:50CF1D02.9040206@eva.mpg.de" type="cite">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">This is an excellent proposal, if by
"category check" one means "term check". The grammatical terms
that we use are often confusing, because they have different
meanings in different authors or in different traditions.
Terminological reflection can help remedy this situation.<br>
<br>
But I think one should be careful to avoid the impression that
the grammatical terms we use are anything other than convenient
tools used by linguists. Categories of languages are
language-specific entities, and they cannot be "polysemous" or
"homonymous".<br>
<br>
Here are some further comments on the "Diversity Linguistics
Comment" blog: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://dlc.hypotheses.org/332">http://dlc.hypotheses.org/332</a><br>
<br>
Greetings,<br>
Martin<br>
<br>
On 16/12/2012 18:48, Plank wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:18F7A064-82BB-4A49-B2ED-DD6D857AB159@uni-konstanz.de"
type="cite">
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CALL FOR PAPERS
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We invite submissions for a new regular feature of LT,
CATEGORY CHECK. The remit is a dual one: (i) to acquaint the
typological and wider public with the more unfamiliar
categories from the languages of the world, be they phonetic,
phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, or
pragmatic; and/or (ii) to explain categories, familiar or
unfamiliar, that are polysemous or homonymous or
just unclear in current descriptive and theoretical practice.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Contributions must be theoretically informed
and crosslinguistically firmly grounded. Also, we expect
an awareness that comparability across languages and
theory-dependence are real issues. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Although contributions should be concise, and
authoritative rather than argumentative in style, they will
be more detailed than the typical entry in a
linguistic dictionary or encyclopedia. Without
rendering conventional scholarly research redundant,
crowdsourcing (e.g., through lingtyp) can be useful to
ascertain crosslinguistic distributions.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Submissions are welcome at any time, and they will be
peer-reviewed like all submissions to LT.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Many previous contributions to LT have effectively
served some such purpose: remember mirativity,
interrogative verbs, delocutive verbs, senary base
(numeral systems with base 6), the labial flap? There's
lots more that one could think of, and that some languages
have thought of. Categories some of us have been thinking
of as candidates for CATEGORY CHECK include these -- and
feel free to expand the list:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>allotive [sic; with epenthetic /t/: "opérateur
d'altérité")</div>
<div>aorist</div>
<div>associative</div>
<div>avertive, frustrative, apprehensional</div>
<div>case assimilation</div>
<div>collective</div>
<div>conative</div>
<div>conjunct/disjunct</div>
<div>deponent</div>
<div>diphthong</div>
<div>endoclitic</div>
<div>equative</div>
<div>floating tone</div>
<div>generic</div>
<div>gerund</div>
<div>imprecative/optative</div>
<div>inchoative, inceptive, ingressive; terminative,
cessative, completive; continuative</div>
<div>initial mutation</div>
<div>interrogative inflection</div>
<div>inverse</div>
<div>inverse number marking</div>
<div>laryngeal</div>
<div>lenis/fortis</div>
<div>logophor</div>
<div>metathesis as a grammatical device</div>
<div>oblique</div>
<div>obviative</div>
<div>polarity</div>
<div>prospective, proximative; retrospective</div>
<div>remote/immediate (past, future, imperative; hesternal,
hodiernal etc.) </div>
<div>supine</div>
<div>template, templatic morphology</div>
<div>tonal case marking</div>
<div>trills</div>
<div><br>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>Over categories that want checking don't forget the other
periodical features of LT, other than regular articles and
book reviews: Debate, Target Articles with Peer Commentary,
the Universals Register, Language Profiles, Family
Portraits, Area Surveys. Only the opportunities for
Obituaries come uncalled for.</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>for the Editorial Board of LT</div>
<div>Frans Plank</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
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<div style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span
class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Frans
Plank</span><br style="font-size: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:
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<br style="font-size: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:
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<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</span></div>
</span></span> </div>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath (<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:haspelmath@eva.mpg.de">haspelmath@eva.mpg.de</a>)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616
</pre>
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