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Mind Your Manner Adverbials!
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Mind Your Manner Adverbials!

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (17 November 2024) | Viewed by 2396

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Norbert Corver

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Language Sciences (ILS), Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: morphosyntax; syntax-semantics interface; syntax-pragmatics interface; language variation; Dutch linguistics; adverbial syntax
Lex Cloin-Tavenier

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: generative linguistics; morphosyntax; interfaces (syntax/semantics/pragmatics); French language
Marta Massaia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: syntax (generative framework); interfaces (syntax/semantics/pragmatics); morphosyntax

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Manner is ubiquitous in human life. When we do things, we often do them in a particular way. This way of doing things is reflected in our language. You can drive slowly, think aloud, handle things with care, and act as if you are a fool. As cross-linguistic studies have shown, these manner-adverbial (MA) expressions are attested in a broad range of genetically unrelated languages. This wide-spread occurrence suggests that MAs constitute important building blocks of human language. This brings us to the following question: How is ‘manner’ encoded in the structural build of human language? Or more succinctly, what is the grammar of MAs? The research project Mind you manner adverbials! (MiMa), carried out at Utrecht University, addresses this major research question and tries to develop a deeper understanding of the grammatical nature of MA’s in collaboration with experts at partner universities. Questions that are addressed include the following: What is the structural composition of MAs? To what extent do superficially different MA expressions (e.g., ‘with care’, ‘carefully’) have a uniform syntax? What kind of grammatical behavior (e.g., word order) do MA expressions display in interaction with their structural environment? How are they integrated into larger syntactic structures? What is the inner structure, distribution and semantic–pragmatic behavior of pro-forms such as ‘so’, ‘thus’, and ‘how’? To what extent are languages or varieties of a single language (dialects) similar/different as regards the inner and outer syntax of MA expressions? To what extent are manner-adverbial expressions similar to/different from other types of adverbial expressions (e.g., locative, temporal, degree)? The aim of this Special Issue is to provide (sometimes partial) answers to these questions, this way contributing to our understanding of this core property of human language.

This special issue aims to present some of the research results that have emerged directly from the MiMa-project, as well as research results that have emerged from research on manner adverbials by MiMa’s external research partners

Prof. Dr. Norbert Corver
Lex Cloin-Tavenier
Marta Massaia
Guest Editors

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Publisher’s Notice

As stated above, the central purpose of this Special Issue is to present research results from the project ‘Mind your Manner Adverbials!’ (MIMA), as well as research results on manner adverbials that emerged from research by MiMa’s external research partners. Given this purpose, the Guest Editors’ contribution to this Special Issue may be greater than standard Special Issues published by MDPI. Further details on MDPI's Special Issue guidelines can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/special_issues_guidelines. The Editorial Office and Editor-in-Chief of Languages have approved this and MDPI’s standard manuscript editorial processing procedure (https://www.mdpi.com/editorial_process) will be applied to all submissions. As per our standard procedure, Guest Editors are excluded from participating in the editorial process for their submission and/or for submissions from persons with whom a potential conflict of interest may exist. More details on MDPI’s Conflict of Interest policy for reviewers and editors can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/ethics#_bookmark22.

 

Keywords

  • manner adverbials
  • morphosyntax
  • uniformity and diversity
  • semantics-pragmatics

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

39 pages, 541 KiB  
Article
Understanding Manner Modification from a Cross-Dependency Perspective
by Norbert Corver
Languages 2025, 10(5), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10050088 - 23 Apr 2025
Viewed by 313
Abstract
This article aims to increase our understanding of the syntax of manner modification by examining it from the perspective of the syntax of anaphoric dependencies. It is proposed that the two grammatical dependencies share certain abstract formal properties and are governed by the [...] Read more.
This article aims to increase our understanding of the syntax of manner modification by examining it from the perspective of the syntax of anaphoric dependencies. It is proposed that the two grammatical dependencies share certain abstract formal properties and are governed by the same type of principle governing the computational system of human language. Building on the so-called IDI constraint (Inability to Distinguish Indistinguishables), it is proposed that the Computational system of Human Language (CHL) is unable to distinguish two predicates—for example, a verbal predicate and an adjectival one—if they are in a local domain. Specifically, an adjectival predicate (e.g., quick) cannot merge directly with a verbal predicate (e.g., walk). The CHL can only deal with two predicates if their linguistic environment allows them to be distinguished as different occurrences. This formal distinctness can be achieved by means of various licensing strategies, including so-called protection, which is a formal strategy that turns the modifier (e.g., quick) into a more complex syntactic object (e.g., quick+-ly). It is shown that the various morpho-syntactic implementations of the protection strategy are quite similar for Rreflexivization and for Manner Modification: (grammaticalized) body nouns, doubling pronouns, and adpositional material can be used for making the dependent element (i.e., the anaphor; the manner modifier) more complex. It is further proposed that superficially bare manner modifiers (e.g., fast) are actually complex syntactic objects, where the complexity comes from the (hidden) presence of a silent element. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mind Your Manner Adverbials!)
26 pages, 449 KiB  
Article
Analysing Dutch Present Participle Manner Adverbials
by Lex Cloin-Tavenier
Languages 2025, 10(4), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040070 - 28 Mar 2025
Viewed by 267
Abstract
As recent research has shown, MAs cross-linguistically show signs of a complex internal structure which can consist of a diverse set of syntactic categories. Notably absent from previously studied MA patterns are those that, at first impression, appear to contain verbal substructure. This [...] Read more.
As recent research has shown, MAs cross-linguistically show signs of a complex internal structure which can consist of a diverse set of syntactic categories. Notably absent from previously studied MA patterns are those that, at first impression, appear to contain verbal substructure. This raises the question whether or not the category V is among the diverse syntactic categories that feature in the grammar of MAs. In this study, I take a closer look at Dutch MAs that appear to contain a present participle -end form of the verb, like lopend ‘by walking’ or spelenderwijs ‘playfully’. Using tests for verbal substructure, I expand on findings from previous literature that show Dutch -erwijs adverbials do not contain verbal substructure by showing that Dutch present participle MAs without -erwijs also lack verbal substructure. Instead, the adjectival -end form is argued to enter into a small clause structure as a predicate over a manner noun to account for the manner reading of Dutch present participle MAs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mind Your Manner Adverbials!)
36 pages, 507 KiB  
Article
On the Syntax of Instrumental Clauses: The Case of Indem-Clauses in German
by Łukasz Jędrzejowski
Languages 2025, 10(4), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040057 - 24 Mar 2025
Viewed by 370
Abstract
In this article, I examine the external and internal syntax of instrumental indem-clauses in German. As a subordidating conjunction, indem takes a finite TP as its complement and triggers verb final position. I provide evidence showing that instrumental indem-clauses can only [...] Read more.
In this article, I examine the external and internal syntax of instrumental indem-clauses in German. As a subordidating conjunction, indem takes a finite TP as its complement and triggers verb final position. I provide evidence showing that instrumental indem-clauses can only operate on the content level and that they cannot be interpreted epistemically, nor can they modify a speech act. Furthermore, I argue that although indem-clauses are restricted to a particular interpretation, they can attach at two distinct heights in the matrix clause. If they are analyzed as central adverbial clauses, they attach as T[ense]P[hrase] adjuncts. If, on the other hand, instrumental indem-clauses are treated as peripheral adverbial clauses, they are taken to be J[udge]P[hrase] adjuncts. Main evidence for the analysis comes from: i) variable binding and Principle C effects, ii) movement to the left periphery of the matrix clause, and iii) licensing conditions of weak and strong root phenomena. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mind Your Manner Adverbials!)
28 pages, 2814 KiB  
Article
Mapping the Left Periphery of Similative Constructions: Dutch Dialects as a Case Study
by Marta Massaia
Languages 2025, 10(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10030047 - 28 Feb 2025
Viewed by 471
Abstract
The left periphery of non-standard Dutch similative clauses hosts a variety of different elements (such as gelijk “like”, zo “so”, als “as”, and hoe “how”) that can sometimes co-occur following a strict hierarchy that seems to hold in other (non-standard) Germanic varieties as [...] Read more.
The left periphery of non-standard Dutch similative clauses hosts a variety of different elements (such as gelijk “like”, zo “so”, als “as”, and hoe “how”) that can sometimes co-occur following a strict hierarchy that seems to hold in other (non-standard) Germanic varieties as well. The present contribution aims to show that the fixed ordering of these elements as well as their function in the structure can be accounted for if similative clauses are taken to be prepositional relative clauses with a complex complementizer domain involving at least three CP-projections. Specifically, I show that these elements lexicalize different parts of the relative construction, including the head complex raising to the edge of the similative in line with a head-raising analysis. To support this idea, I will mostly provide data from Dutch and Dutch dialects, although the analysis can (and should) be extended to other Germanic varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mind Your Manner Adverbials!)
24 pages, 344 KiB  
Article
Manner Affixes and Event Decomposition
by Victor Bogren Svensson
Languages 2025, 10(3), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10030035 - 21 Feb 2025
Viewed by 453
Abstract
This paper investigates how verbal affixes that encode manner information (manner affixes) interact with verbs of different lexical aspect classes and transitivity values in West Greenlandic (Inuit–Yupik–Unangan: Greenland). Manner affixes remain an understudied and poorly understood grammatical category. The data presented and discussed [...] Read more.
This paper investigates how verbal affixes that encode manner information (manner affixes) interact with verbs of different lexical aspect classes and transitivity values in West Greenlandic (Inuit–Yupik–Unangan: Greenland). Manner affixes remain an understudied and poorly understood grammatical category. The data presented and discussed here is primarily based on original fieldwork conducted in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Nuuk (Greenland). The findings show that manner affixes are interspersed among syntactic projections encoding event and argument structure, with a high degree of flexibility in terms of linear and hierarchical ordering, which correlate with differences in scope interpretation. However, this flexibility is limited by the productivity of the affixes involved, and manner affixes cannot intervene between the syntactic projections that encode the event core (the big VP in traditional generative terminology). Furthermore, manner affixes interact with verbs of different lexical aspect classes in ways similar to manner adverbs, highlighting the similarities between the two categories and the similarities between morphological structures (manner affixes) and syntactic structures (manner adverbs). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mind Your Manner Adverbials!)
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