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Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure Marianne Bakró-Nagy [email protected] Anne Tamm anne.tamm@unifi.it

Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

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Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure. Marianne Bakró-Nagy [email protected] Anne Tamm [email protected]. Roadmap to this talk. Our goals Conditionals Terminology and definitions of conditionals - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from

designing a database structure Marianne Bakró-Nagy

[email protected] Tamm

[email protected]

Page 2: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Roadmap to this talk

• Our goals• Conditionals

– Terminology and definitions of conditionals– The specific features of the Uralic conditionals– Parameters– Values

• The (im)possibilities of the database– Our wish list– What can be fitted into a WALS like structure– How to structure the discrepancies? The procedure

• Conclusions

Page 3: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

The multiple goals of structuring the UTDb data

• functionality• entering the data• storage of the data• retrieving the data via queries

• structural compatibility• robust as the WALS (“macroparameters”)• fine-grained to accommodate Uralic data

(“microparameters” and “nanoparameters”)

Page 4: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Conditionals definition

• A conditionality is a particular relation between two events.

• It expresses a proposition whose fulfillment is relevant to the degree of reality assigned to another proposition expressed in a sentence.

(Trask 1993. 55)

Page 5: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

• an apodosis (subordinate clause, if-clause) expresses a proposition whose fulfillment is relevant to the degree of reality assigned to

• another proposition: protasis (main clause, then-clause)

If X, then Yif Marianne gets a grandchild now, then Anne is

standing now in front of you

Page 6: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Terminologya prototypical conditional sentence includes

an apodosis(subordinate clause, ifclause) expressesa proposition whosefulfillment is relevant to thedegree of reality assigned toanother proposition:

the protasis (main clause, then-clause)

if Marianne gets a grandchild now,

then Anne is standing now in front of you

Page 7: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

The Uralic conditionals

• dominant sentence structure: complex sentence• dominant order of clauses: subordinate clause + main clause• if the order is the reverse, then the subordinate clause is marked, or

the subordinate clause and the main clause are both marked; i.e. in main clause + subordinate clause order, a marked main clause and unmarked subordinate clause is exceptional: *Then I buy a hamster, I get salary.

• dominant marking: marked subordinate clause by separate words/enclitics/suffixes – but no preverbs or prefixes

• combination of present and past tense + suffixes as adverbial subordinators depend on how hypothetical they are

• multiple/overmarked conditionality• one and the same conditional marker can function as a suffix and

as a separate word for adverbial subordination in the same language or dialect

(Source Bakró-Nagy 2008)

Page 8: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Formal typological parameters of conditional constructions in Uralic• sentence structure

– simple sentences• nonfinite verbal forms [e.g. Estonian, S-E-Khanty, E-W-

N-Mansi, N-Samoyedic] – gerund [e.g. Nganasan]

– participle [e.g. E-S-Khanty]

– complex sentences [all FU languages]• order of clauses

– protasis+apodosis [e.g. Udmurt]

– apodosis+protasis [e.g. Udmurt]

– embedded: apodosis-protasis-apodosis [e.g. Hungarian]

Page 9: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

• markedness– markedness of verbs

• markedness of verbs for mood– markedness of nonfinite verbs

» unmarked nonfinite verbs [e.g. Nenets]» marked nonfinite forms

types of nonfinite verb markerslocal case suffixes [e.g.

Estonian] possessive suffixes [e.g. E-Khanty]

derivational suffix [e.g. S-Khanty]

order of markers [e.g. N-Mansi]

– markedness of finite verbs» unmarked finite verbs [e.g. Komi, Erzya, Moksha, Hungarian etc.]» marked finite verbs

types of finite verb markers conditional particle [e.g.

Mansi, Khanty] conditional Vx [e.g. Mansi,

Hungarian etc.] position/order of finite verb markers …

• markedness of verbs for tense– present– future– past

• [and their combinations in protasis + apodosis depending on the degree of hypotheticality and epistemic stance]

Page 10: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

– markedness of clauses• markedness of protasis

– unmarked protasis [all FU languages]– marked protasis

» types of protasis markers word order [Estonian] lexical markers

» types of lexical markers conjunctions [e.g. Erzya Mordin] clitics [e.g. Udmurt, Komi, Khanty, Mansi

etc.]» position of lexical markers

fixed position [e.g. Komi] non-fixed position [e.g. N-E-WMansi]

• markedness of apodosis– unmarked apodosis [all FU languages]– marked apodosis

» types of apodosis markers lexical markers

» types of lexical markers correlative [e.g. Hungarian]

» position of lexical markers fixed position [e.g. Hungaian]

Page 11: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

macroparameters 1

sentence structure

• simple sentence

• complex sentence– order of clauses

Page 12: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

macroparameters 2

marking

• simple sentence– markers of non-finite verbs

• complex sentence– word order– adverbial subordinators and their position– tense

Page 13: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Our wish list

• Create compatibility with – WALS– Uralic data

• Create the right functionality– add the data, that is, create an interface for

editors– query the data, that is, create interface for the

users

Page 14: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Sample queries

• what is the type of conditional construction used in Hungarian (a WALS-like query)

• but also what are the conditional constructions that were used in Livonian or Kamas,

• and what are the examples of conditional constructions in Meadow Mari

• or which language has the largest number of conditional constructions (these queries are not like the queries of WALS).

Page 15: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Not just a matter of parameter size

• Relevance of values– many values not relevant in Uralic– other values relevant to distinguish between the Uralic

languages and dialects

• Additional categories and relations: – diachronic data– examples and their source

• Additional allowed structure– several alternative constructions are available, ergo– combining two or more types – one parameter has

multiple values

Page 16: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure
Page 17: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Our roadmap.1. The format and description

• The format– We start off with a simple xml/table format to establish the

structure of the tables in terms of embedded structures. – Tables and xml are interchangeable, but the xml format is

friendlier to draw in case the database is designed by a linguist.

– This presentation discusses the relational database structure.

• Data description of conditionals– As the first step, we make a system of attributes and values

for the conditional constructions in the Uralic languages, – followed by a system of relations between the attributes and

values.

Page 18: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

2. Analyzing the WALS structures

• taking the simple structure of the WALS and breaking it down visually to xml format in a way that we can start adding our own parameters

• retaining the structure as in the WALS we identify our own needs compared to these structures

• the WALS contains a matrix table of all value assignments for features. In that table, rows give the value assignments for a particular language identified by its WALS code given in the first column, columns give the value assignments for a particular feature identified by its numeric identifier given in the first row. wals_code 1hun 4

• (This table tells us that the consonant inventory of Hungarian is moderately large. The WALS code for Hungarian is hun, and the numeric identifier 1 pertains to the feature of consonant inventory. The number 4 encodes the value assignment for this feature in Hungarian – moderately large. )

Page 19: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

The goals of the Uralic database wrt structure and content

The goals of the Uralic database are different, requiring more embedding and feature-co-occurrence structures:

<construction> kui < language > est< /language >< type><type-attribute > if-type</type-attribute >< example><text> kui õpid, saad targaks </text><source> the Mixed corpus of Estonian </source><translation> if you study, you will be wise </translation>< /example>< /construction >

Page 20: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

3. A robust feature value system

• enrich the simple structure with the most robust parameter system that we can

• this may serve as a hypothesis about how the parameters of the conditional constructions could be represented in general.

• we add here feature 143, but not yet võro language.wals_code 143

Page 21: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Structures targeted at stage 3• Also, new descriptions of the values can be added to a values table,

using the numeric feature id and the numeric value id as given in the datapoints table matrix.

• From the data structure above, only the following structures and information is targeted at this stage:

< language > est< /language >< type><type-attribute > conditional</type-attribute ><type-value> if-type</type-value>< /type >

Page 22: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

4. Fine-tuning with the data storage needs

• fine-tune the parameter-value system by adding extra structures and relations (i.e. extra tables and indices)

• the WALS-like data structure is combined with the structures that serve the goal of storing the Uralic data

• information such as the võro language code or information about major dialects, e.g., vor,

wals_code 143vor

Page 23: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

4. Adding structure that is different from WALS

• WALS records probably the most frequent value for Uralic languages, but we wish to have a more fine-grained structure. This is provided at this stage of database development.

• Additional data for languages are added at this stage, as if adding them to the WALS table on languages. Additional data for features can be added by extra numeric feature id s in the WALS-like table features.

• However, each of these additions, if we wish to keep them separate but still compatible with the data in WALS to perform larger queries, should be linked to an extra index encoding the source attribute with the Uralic Database value.

Page 24: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

• information such as an extra index that allows us to introduce multiple values for one feature

• 1 value 1 for parameter 1

• 2 value 2 for parameter 1

• 3 value 1 for parameter 2

• 4 value 2 for parameter 2

• …

Page 25: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

Summary

This talk presented the specific features of the Uralic conditionals in the possible Uralic Typology Database structure.

We identified parameters and values that are generally relevant, and those that pertain to the Uralic.

We presented our wish list, what can be fitted into a WALS like structure, and how to structure the discrepancies (the procedure).

Page 26: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

(Konsta Zamyatin, Budinos)

Page 27: Conditional constructions in the Uralic languages: a view from designing a database structure

BibliographyBakró-Nagy, Marianne 2008 http://www.univie.ac.at/urtypol/bakro.pdfBakró-Nagy, Marianne 2009 Conditional constructions in Uralic and in Old Hungarian.

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Conditionals. Cambridge-London etc., Cambridge University Press. 77-99.Haspelmath, Martin [forthcoming] Framework-free grammatical theory. To appear in

Heine, Bernd – Narrog, Heiko eds. The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Xrakovskij, Victor S (ed), 2005 Typology of Conditional Constructions. Muenchen, LINCOM EUROPA.

Podlesskaya, Vera I 2001 Conditional constructions. In: M. Haspelmath et al. (eds) Language Typology and Language Universals. Volume 2. Berlin-New York. Walter de Gruyter. 998-1010.

Riese, Timothy 1984 The Conditional Sentence in the Ugrian, Permian and Volgaic Languages. Studia Uralica 3. Vienna.

Tamm, Anne 2009 Uralic typological data and the structure of WALS. MS.WALS = The World Atlas of Language Structures Online http://wals.info/index Everaert, Martin; Musgrave, Simon; Dimitriadis, Alexis. 2009 The Use of Databases in

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