The emergence of grammar and meaning in intertextual and interlinguistic practice [articol]

Abstract

The paper examines expression of (non-)specificity in a Serbo-Croatian translation from Albanian, by analyzing motivation behind translator’s choices to diverge from the source expression of nominal morphosemantic categories such as number and degree. We argue that grammatical and semantic features of the target language, that are otherwise morphologically less transparent, in that way emerge through intertextual and interlinguistic practice, such as translation. As a language contact scenario, this allows for a possible explanation of the emergence of shared morphosyntactic features in the languages of the Balkans, the so-called "Balkanisms".