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Abstract
Recent methods have been proposed to produce automatic rhyme annotators for large rhymed corpora. These methods, such as Baley (2022b) greatly reduce the cost of annotating rhymed material, allowing historical linguists to focus on the analysis of the rhyme patterns. However, evidence for the quality of those annotations has been anecdotal, consisting of a handful of individual poem case studies. This paper proposes to address the issue: first, we discuss previously proposed metrics that evaluate the quality of an annotator’s output against a ground-truth annotation (List, Hill, and Foster; 2019) and we propose an alternative metric that is better suited to the task. Then, sampling from Baley’s published annotated corpus and re-annotating it by hand, we use the sample to demonstrate the lacunae in the original approach and show how to fix them. Finally, the hand-annotated sample and source code are published as additional data, so that other researchers can compare the performance of their own annotators.
Abstract
This study explores the immediate anteriority (“IMANTE”) construction in Cantonese, in which two events form an “as soon as” relationship. By collecting examples from corpora, three types of IMANTE construction are categorized, based on the subordinate events: (i) achievement, (ii) completion point of a durational event, and (iii) inchoative point of a durational event. This study argues that (iii) is the default usage of a subordinate event when it is durational because it is unmarked and historically emerged earlier than (ii). Second, (iii) is seemingly a defining property of IMANTE besides “zero-time interval between two events”.
Abstract
This paper investigates various negation strategies in Hlai. The analysis is carried out within the framework of language typology. The most common negation in Hlai is expressed with vei 11, immediately preceding the element it negates. The nominal and imperative predications are negated by the nonstandard negators guai 121 and zou 55. Each type of modal has its own specific suppletive form for negative expression. As previous studies contain little information on this topic, this paper contributes to the field by introducing, clarifying, and analyzing these divergent negative markers.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the Arthaśāstra’s portion II.6.1-II.7.3. The official with the title samāhartṛ is responsible not only for bookkeeping, but also for inflow organization, coin in- and outflow management, supervision, and controlling. Many of the bookkeeping terms remain elusive, but some progress can be made with respect to umbrella terms, such as āyamukha, samudaya, and siddha. Among other assertions, this paper claims that karaṇīya in II.6.14 refers to the samāhartṛ’s duties, while it is best translated as “target” in II.7.3.
Abstract
The historically important Kushan trilingual inscriptions of Dasht-e Nāwūr are revisited. The readings and interpretations of the bilingual DN I (Bactrian)—DN IV (Gāndhārī) are presented. Through careful analysis of the photos, paper rubbings and latex moulds of DN I published by Gérard Fussman in 1974, a reading of lines 7–13 is proposed which shows further significant parallels with known Kushan-period Bactrian inscriptions, supplementing the decipherment of lines 1–6 by Nicholas Sims-Williams. Furthermore, a comprehensive reading of the Gāndhārī version DN IV in Kharoṣṭhī script is proposed, which presents a true bilingual with DN I and corroborates our reading of DN I. Based on our reading of the bilingual DN I–DN IV, the inscriptions commemorate the arrival of Vema Taktu to Dasht-e Nāwūr, located in the Ghaznī province of Afghanistan, in Vema’s fifteenth regnal year.