This chapter is concerned with the nature of complex events and complex predicates in Irish. We characterise the framing of complex events within a situation. A situation is considered to be a structured entity with certain attributes that serves as a unifying device to link semantics to events… read more
In this study we take an ‘above the clause’ perspective on the conceptualisation of complex events of Irish English and Modern Irish within a functional Role and Reference Grammar perspective, using corpus based data. Functional models of language generally assume some layered structure of the… read more
This paper explores the encoding of the concepts of transfer, let/allow and permission with give, put, take, get, let and permit verbs of Modern Irish and issues with syntactic construction patterns, argument realisation, event chaining and complex multi-verb clauses. These concepts are explored as… read more
This paper advances a model of conversational agents in a computational framework that builds on the notion of speech act performatives from discourse within a functional model of grammar. We describe the language specific elements of the intelligent conversational agents paradigm and how it can be… read more
This paper proposes a view of the linguistic construction in Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) in which constructions are posited to be structured grammatical objects with a unique constructional signature that uniquely identifies them. We argue that the construction has an input and an output, and… read more
This paper characterises complex predicates and light verb constructions in Modern Irish. Light verbs are attested in many of the world’s languages (Alsina, Bresnan & Sells, 2001; Butt, 1995, 2003). Cross linguistically, there appears to be a common class of verbs involved in these constructions… read more
It is now accepted that constructions exist at all levels in grammar from clausal syntax to word level morphology and even within the lexicon itself where lexical items themselves may be viewed as constructions. Constructions may also encompass lexical, semantic and pragmatic information. The… read more
This paper reports on the nature of argument realisation in GET constructions in Irish with the verb faigh ‘get’ and the challenges it poses for theories concerned with argument realisation, event structure and the syntax to semantics linking system. This construction licences both… read more
In this paper we are concerned with providing elements of a characterisation of modality in RRG using data from Irish, a VSO language found on the west of Europe. We outline the characteristics of modality drawing on previous work on modality and modal logic, and relate this to patterns in sentence… read more
This paper is about the passive construction, of which modern Irish (a vso language) has two primary forms, the personal passive and its variants, and the impersonal. An empirical question is posed as to whether a third passive form exists within the language, that of a functionally defined get… read more