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In this article, I study a group of complex prepositions linked semantically by the notion of absence of an entity or event, seen as a circumstance for another situation: en l’absence de, faute de, à défaut de, par manque de. I first discuss the semantics of the constituent nouns of these prepositions as a prerequisite to studying their role in the constitution of the prepositions focussed on. I then argue for abandoning the very common treatment of prepositions as relators, showing that the prepositions I consider cannot be treated as mere relators. I then examine tests that show that the members of this group belong to complex prepositions, while demonstrating the proximity of some of them to other constructions, such as participial clauses. Next, I study the regime of these prepositions, showing that they present important differences that I try to explain by their structure. Finally, I analyze the syntactic and semantic differences between the various prepositions.

Maa linguistic varieties (Maasai, Parakuyo, Chamus, Samburu, among others), of the Eastern Nilotic family (Nilo-Saharan phylum), have words which can modify a predicate or predication and have the function of what cross-linguistically are called adverbs. While these words can be considered a single class due to this shared function and distribution, there are nevertheless morphosyntactic and usage distinctions. This is partly due to disparate historical origins, but also to semantics and different typical collocations. Among other distinctions, some adverbs can function as nominal tense/aspect markers within a determined nominal phrase (DP). Though the origins of all adverbs cannot be traced, the paper documents sources in oblique prepositional phrases, relational nouns, adjectives, relative clauses, and perhaps infinitive verbs, involving a wide range of lexical roots, such as ‘little’, ‘paint, mark’, ‘be abundant (with grass), be generous’, and others. Some synchronic adverbs do not have evident sources in other word classes, including the ­most frequently used word for ‘previously, before’, and the modal adverb ‘probably not, unlikely’ which is also an attenuative adverb. Maa adjectives and nouns largely overlap in their morphosyntax, but the ability to be modified by certain adverbs distinguishes them.

Maa linguistic varieties (Maasai, Parakuyo, Chamus, Samburu, among others), of the Eastern Nilotic family (Nilo-Saharan phylum), have words which can modify a predicate or predication and have the function of what cross-linguistically are called adverbs. While these words can be considered a single class due to this shared function and distribution, there are nevertheless morphosyntactic and usage distinctions. This is partly due to disparate historical origins, but also to semantics and different typical collocations. Among other distinctions, some adverbs can function as nominal tense/aspect markers within a determined nominal phrase (DP). Though the origins of all adverbs cannot be traced, the paper documents sources in oblique prepositional phrases, relational nouns, adjectives, relative clauses, and perhaps infinitive verbs, involving a wide range of lexical roots, such as ‘little’, ‘paint, mark’, ‘be abundant (with grass), be generous’, and others. Some synchronic adverbs do not have evident sources in other word classes, including the ­most frequently used word for ‘previously, before’, and the modal adverb ‘probably not, unlikely’ which is also an attenuative adverb. Maa adjectives and nouns largely overlap in their morphosyntax, but the ability to be modified by certain adverbs distinguishes them.

This paper examines the names of crops in the Bantu languages Bena, Hehe, and Sangu. This was sparked by the realisation that certain crops are native to Africa while others were introduced to inland Bantu languages through interactions with coastal communities. Coastal communities acquired these crop names from Asian and European languages before presenting them to the interior regions. The theory of lexicalisation guided this study to account for the nativisation and coinage of crop names. Data were collected through fieldwork in Iringa, Njombe and Mbeya regions. Five elderly speakers of each language were acquired through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The study found three layers of crop names among Bena, Hehe, and Sangu: one crop with a single name among the three languages, one crop with different names in the three languages, and one crop with multiple names within a single language. Additionally, the study found that the three languages lexicalise crop names by coining expressions and borrowing from Kiswahili. Coinage of expressions was achieved through semantic extension and adjustments of previously existing words or crop names. The study extends the theory of lexicalisation by examining how borrowing, semantic extension, and cultural integration influence crop naming in Bantu languages.

This short work sets out to argue that the set of simple expressions comprising the lexicon of a given individual and the lexis of a given community are not just contingently but necessarily finite at any given moment in time. Where the lexicon is concerned, this is done by adapting a very simple argument presented by Fred Dretske (1965) concerning whether an individual can count to infinity. This is extended to the more challenging case of the lexis of a community by introducing lexicalization as a condition, which facilitates the same sort of argument as presented for the lexicon. Though the lexicon and lexis are often implicitly assumed to be finite, with little need for further argumentation, there does appear to be grounds for the stronger and more interesting claim that they are necessarily finite at any given moment in time.

This study is a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with special reference to one of Trump’s speeches called ‘Perry, GA, United States on September 25, 2021’. The study investigates Trump’s ideology, attitude and perspectives using Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach (2006). It aims to show how Trump justifies his ideas. The paper claims that there is an important deliberation of political discourse in replicating and influencing the community. Analysing the speeches linguistically shows how Trump conveys or expresses his ideologies. The paper adopted van Dijk’s’ model to examine the linguistic devices employed by Trump. Hence, the study found that discursive devices are present in Trump’s speech. Based on data analysis, the study finds that Trump uses 15 discursive devices: polarisation (Us-them categorisation) (356), Norm expressions (68), Disclaimer (52), Repetition (38), Lexicalisation (29), Metaphor (19), Simile (13), Negative labelling (12), Exaggeration (7), Self-glorification (4), Comparison (3), Number game (3), Implication (2), Victimisation (1) and Actor description (1).

One of the main research questions concerning multi-word expressions (MWEs) is which of them are transparent word combinations created and which are multi-word lexical units (MWUs). In this paper, we use selected corpus-linguistic and machine-learning methods to determine which lexicalization criteria guide Polish and English lexicographers in deciding which MWEs (bigrams such as adjective+noun and noun+noun combinations) should be treated as lexical units recorded in dictionaries as MWUs. We analyzed two samples: MWEs extracted from Polish and English monolingual dictionaries, and those created by the annotators, and tested two custom-designed criteria, i.e., intuition and paraphrase, also by using statistical methods (measures of collocational strength: PMI and Jaccard). We revealed that Polish lexicographers have a tendency not to include compositional MWEs as lexical entries in their dictionaries and that the criteria of paraphrase and intuition are important for them: if MWEs are not clearly and unambiguously paraphrasable and compositional, then they are recorded in dictionaries. We found that in contrast to Polish lexicographers English lexicographers tend to record also compositional and partly compositional MWEs.

In a masked form priming lexical decision task, orthographically related word primes cause null or inhibitory priming relative to unrelated controls because of lexical competition between primes and targets, whereas orthographically related nonword primes lead to facilitation because nonwords are not lexically represented and hence do not evoke lexical competition. This prime lexicality effect (PLE) has been used as an index of new word lexicalization in the developing lexicon by using to-be-learned words and their orthographic neighbors as primes and targets, respectively. Experiment 1 confirmed an inhibitory effect of −46 ms among native English speakers and faciliatory effects of 52 ms by Japanese English learners without critical word training. In Experiment 2 , Japanese English learners studied novel English words while performing a meaning-based, form-based, or no task during learning. Recall measures indicated a dissociation between these two types of processing, with a form-based task leading to greater recall of L2 words and a meaning-based task leading to greater recall of L1 words. Results indicated that all three learning conditions produced neither facilitation nor inhibition (null priming effect). Taken together, the results of the two experiments demonstrate that the PLE can occur in a second language (L2) and that the training procedure can yield at least partial lexicalization of new L2 words.

Bilinguals engage in qualitatively different code-switching patterns (alternation, insertion, and congruent lexicalization) to different degrees, according to their engagement in different types of interactional contexts (single-language context, dual-language context, and dense code-switching context). Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis, we examined whether bilinguals’ code-switching patterns would differentially shape multiple aspects of cognitive control (interference control, salient cue detection, and opportunistic planning). We found that a dense code-switching context, which predominantly involves insertion and congruent lexicalization, was positively associated with verbal opportunistic planning but negatively associated with interference control and salient cue detection. In contrast, a dual-language context, which predominantly involves alternation, was not associated with interference control or salient cue detection, but with significantly reduced response times for opportunistic planning. Our findings partially corroborate the theoretical predictions of the adaptive control hypothesis. Altogether, our study illustrates the importance of bilinguals’ disparate code-switching practices in shaping cognitive control outcomes.

Word learning is a crucial aspect of human development that depends on the formation and consolidation of novel memory traces. In this paper, we critically review the behavioural research on sleep-related lexicalization of novel words in healthy young adult speakers. We first describe human memory systems, the processes underlying memory consolidation, then we describe the complementary learning systems account of memory consolidation. We then review behavioural studies focusing on novel word learning and sleep-related lexicalization in monolingual samples, while highlighting their relevance to three main theoretical questions. Finally, we review the few studies that have investigated sleep-related lexicalization in L2 speakers. Overall, while several studies suggest that sleep promotes the gradual transformation of initially labile traces into more stable representations, a growing body of work suggests a rich variety of time courses for novel word lexicalization. Moreover, there is a need for more work on sleep-related lexicalization patterns in varied populations, such as L2 speakers and bilingual speakers, and more work on individual differences, to fully understand the boundary conditions of this phenomenon.