DOCSLIB.ORG

UNIVERSITY of BERGAMO School of Doctoral Studies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UNIVERSITY of BERGAMO School of Doctoral Studies UNIVERSITY OF BERGAMO School of Doctoral Studies Doctoral Degree in Linguistics XXIX Cycle SSD: L-LIN/01 TITLE The morphosyntax of number systems: a cross-linguistic study Advisor Draft Chiar.ma Prof.ssa Sonia Cristofaro Doctoral Thesis Jessica Katiuscia IVANI Student ID 1031796 Academic year 2015/16 Draft ii Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Introduction ............................. 1 1.2. Outline ................................ 2 2. Background 5 2.1. Introduction ............................. 5 2.2. Nominal number marking and typology ............. 6 2.3. The expression of number ..................... 8 2.4. The distribution of the number systems ............. 11 2.5. Development of number systems and sources of number ... 12 2.5.1. Nominal plural from verbal plurality: the case of North American languages .................... 13 2.5.2. Plural markers from associative markers: the case of - men in Mandarin Chinese ................ 15 2.5.3. PluralDraft markers from demonstratives forms ...... 16 2.5.4. Notes on source markers in pidgin and creoles .... 17 2.6. Summary ............................... 18 3. Data collecting and sampling 21 3.1. Introduction ............................. 21 3.2. Sampling methodology ....................... 21 3.3. Sampling procedure ........................ 23 3.4. Data collection ........................... 26 3.5. Summary ............................... 27 Contents 4. Parameters and methodological approach 29 4.1. Introduction ............................. 29 4.2. Parameter units and structural features ............. 30 4.2.1. The nominal types ..................... 30 4.2.2. Number values ....................... 33 4.2.3. Constructions ....................... 34 4.3. Methodological approach ..................... 40 4.3.1. Recent methodological developments in linguistic ty- pology ............................ 40 4.3.2. Analysis of individual structures: the multivariate ap- proach ............................ 42 4.4. Three level of analysis ....................... 44 4.4.1. First level of analysis: NP types and number markers 44 4.4.2. Second level of analysis: referential types and construc- tion forms .......................... 46 4.4.3. Third level of analysis: a typology of the number systems 48 4.5. Database realization ........................ 49 4.5.1. Introduction ........................ 49 4.5.2. The typological database: a descriptive model ..... 50 4.5.3. Example of database coding ............... 52 4.6. Summary ............................... 52 5. Nominal types andDraft number markers 53 5.1. Introduction ............................. 53 5.2. Singular expression ......................... 55 5.2.1. Singular marking in independent personal pronouns 55 5.2.2. Singular marking in full nouns ............. 58 5.2.3. Singular marking in demonstratives .......... 60 5.2.4. Summary .......................... 61 5.3. Dual expression ........................... 62 5.3.1. Dual expression in independent person pronouns .. 62 5.3.2. Dual expression in full nouns .............. 66 Contents 5.3.3. Dual expression in demonstratives ........... 67 5.3.4. Summary .......................... 68 5.4. Plural expression .......................... 68 5.4.1. Plural expression in independent personal pronouns 69 5.4.2. Plural expression in full nouns ............. 73 5.4.3. Plural expression in demonstratives .......... 74 5.4.4. Summary .......................... 75 5.5. Summary of the chapter ...................... 76 6. Plural marking distribution within languages 77 6.1. Introduction ............................. 77 6.2. Referential types and construction forms in full nouns .... 79 6.2.1. Languages with one plural marker on all full nouns . 81 6.2.2. Languages with restricted plural distinction ...... 87 6.3. Split plurality: different constructions on full nouns ..... 96 6.3.1. Human/Other ....................... 98 6.3.2. Animate/Inanimate .................... 103 6.3.3. Kin/Human/Animate/Inanimate ............. 107 6.3.4. Kin/Animate/Inanimate ................. 107 6.3.5. Kin/Other .......................... 108 6.4. Referential types and construction forms: pronominal domain 110 6.4.1. Languages with suppletive forms in pronominal plurals 111 6.4.2. LanguagesDraft with pronominal specific plural markers . 111 6.5. Plural markers shared between nouns and pronouns: types and internal distribution ........................ 126 6.5.1. Languages with plural marking shared between nouns and pronouns ....................... 127 6.5.2. Different constructions: internal groupings ...... 129 6.5.3. First person pronoun and interaction with nouns .. 129 6.5.4. Second person pronoun and its interaction with nouns 132 6.5.5. Third person and nouns interaction ........... 133 6.5.6. Third person pronoun as a plural marker ....... 136 Contents 6.5.7. Third person and all other nouns ............ 137 6.6. Languages with plural forms restricted to nouns ........ 139 6.7. Languages with no plural forms in nouns ............ 141 6.8. Notes on demonstratives forms .................. 141 7. A typology of number systems 151 7.1. Introduction ............................. 151 7.2. Gender interaction in nominal number marking ........ 152 7.2.1. Gender/number markers and number values ..... 154 7.2.2. Summary .......................... 158 7.3. Number systems interaction .................... 160 7.3.1. Introduction ........................ 160 7.4. Number systems in North American languages: types and dis- tribution ............................... 160 7.4.1. Type A: Singular/Plural .................. 162 7.4.2. Type B: Singular (overt)/Plural ............. 165 7.4.3. Type C: Singular/Dual/Plural .............. 166 7.4.4. Type D: Singular (overt)/Dual/Plural .......... 167 7.5. Number systems in South American languages: types and dis- tribution ............................... 169 7.5.1. Type A: Singular/Plural .................. 171 7.5.2. Type B: Singular (overt)/Plural ............. 173 7.5.3. Type C:Draft Singular/Dual/Plural .............. 174 7.5.4. Type E: Singular/Paucal/Plural ............. 175 7.6. Number systems in Eurasiatic languages: types and distribution 176 7.6.1. Type A: Singular/Plural .................. 178 7.6.2. Type B: Singular (overt)/Plural ............. 180 7.6.3. Type C: Singular/Dual/Plural .............. 180 7.6.4. Type D: Singular (overt)/Dual/Plural .......... 183 7.7. Number systems in African languages: types and distribution 186 7.7.1. Type A: Singular/Plural .................. 186 7.7.2. Type B: Singular (overt)/Plural ............. 188 Contents 7.7.3. Type C: Singular/Dual/Plural .............. 189 7.7.4. Type D: Singular (overt)/Dual/Plural .......... 190 7.8. Pacific languages and nominal number systems: types and dis- tribution ............................... 191 7.8.1. Type A: Singular/Plural .................. 193 7.8.2. Type C: Singular/Dual/Plural .............. 194 7.8.3. Type D: Singular (overt)/Dual/Plural .......... 197 7.8.4. Type F: Singular/Dual/Trial/Plural ........... 199 8. Concluding remarks 201 8.1. Introduction ............................. 201 8.2. Overview of the main results ................... 201 8.2.1. Construction types and number values ......... 203 8.2.2. Internal distribution of the plural markers within the nominal types ....................... 204 8.2.3. Typology of number systems .............. 206 8.3. Prospects for future research ................... 207 A. List of languages 209 A.1. The main language sample ..................... 209 A.2. The database sample ........................ 217 References Draft 223 Contents Draft List of Figures 4.1. Database representation for Huallaga Huánuco Quechua .... 51 6.1. Plural marking on full nouns: types and distribution ....... 80 6.2. Split plurality on full nouns: groupings and distribution ..... 97 6.3. Plural in pronouns: full suppletive systems ............ 112 6.4. Pronominal specific plural markers: shared markers ....... 114 6.5. Plural marking in demonstratives .................. 143 6.6. Languages with DEM=3Pro ..................... 147 7.1. Number systems in North American languages .......... 161 7.2. Number systems in South American languages .......... 170 7.3. Number systems in Eurasiatic languages .............. 177 7.4. Number systems in African languages ............... 185 7.5. Number systemsDraft in Pacific languages ................ 192 List of Figures Draft List of Tables 4.1. Trumai (Trumai, South America) .................. 36 4.2. Witoto (Huitotoan) .......................... 39 4.3. Gender/number markers in Tunica (Tunica) ............ 39 4.4. Wadjiginy (Wadjiginy) number system ............... 40 4.5. Huallaga Quechua ........................... 44 4.6. Onge (Andamanese) .......................... 48 4.7. Yupi’k .................................. 48 5.1. Singular marker types on pronouns ................. 55 5.2. Zero marking in singular independent personal pronouns ... 57 5.3. Overt singular marking in independent personal pronouns ... 58 5.4. Singular marker types on nouns ................... 59 5.5. Overt singular marking in nouns .................. 59 5.6. Overt singular marking — types of markers (Demonstratives) . 61 5.7. Overt singularDraft marking in demonstratives ............. 61 5.8. Dual marker types on pronouns ................... 63 5.9. Dual marking in independent pronouns, combined and regular marking strategies ........................... 64 5.10. Dual marking in independent personal pronouns, dual marker relates to singular marker ...................... 66
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Download Essay (PDF)
    Languages and Early Migration “Language Resources,” Cambridge University Press website Prologue This introduction to languages and early migration is reproduced from the online Language Resources that I created, linked to the website for my book, A History of Humanity. The main essay provides basic definitions on language, then summarizes language-group distribution, history, and debates, concluding with language spreadsheets and references. An example of phylum-level details is shown for Amerind, the original languages of North ands South America. Essay The purpose of this online resource collection is to interpret the place of language in human history. In a simplified presentation of a complex issue, this Introduction begins with concise definitions and descriptions. It traces the logical order of language divergence and displays the major phyla or families going back more than 15,000 years. After summarizing the history of language divergence and movement in six periods, we turn to the problems and debates in language history. These include the effects of “language overlays” as one replaces another, efforts to define “macro-phyla” for very early times, and early maritime migrations. The accompanying files for 14 individual phyla provide descriptions of each Homeland, language migrations over time, maps (which are also available as separate image files), concise spreadsheets showing major subgroups in each phylum, and citations of works on each phylum. In a separate Excel file, the 14 individual sheets each give a restatement of the concise spreadsheet at top and, below, a full spreadsheet showing many of the languages in each phylum. Definitions The elements of language, as understood by linguists, include lexicon (the meanings of words), morphology (the pieces of words and how they are fit together), phonology (the sounds made in any language), and syntax (the organization of lexicon, morphology, and phonology into meaningful sentences).
    [Show full text]
  • BOLANOS-QUINONEZ-THESIS.Pdf
    Copyright by Katherine Elizabeth Bolaños Quiñónez 2010 The Thesis Committee for Katherine Elizabeth Bolaños Quiñónez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Kakua Phonology: First Approach APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Patience Epps Anthony Woodbury Kakua Phonology: First Approach by Katherine Elizabeth Bolaños Quiñónez, B.A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin December 2010 Acknowledgements This work was only made possible with the support of so many people along this learning process. First, I wish to express my gratitude to the Kakua people in Wacará, for welcoming me into their village. I will like to extend especial thanks to Alicia, Alfredo and their children for offering and accepting me into their house, and for putting up with all the unfair disruptions that my being there meant. I also want to thank Kakua speakers for sharing with me and taking me along into their culture and their language. Special thanks to Marina López and her husband Édgar, to Víctor López, Emilio López, Don Vicente López, Don Aquileo, Laureano, Samuel, Néstor, Andrés, Marcela, Jerson, and Claudia, for helping me through the exploration process of the language, for correcting me and consent to speak and sing to the audio recorder. I also want to thank the Braga-Gómez family in Mitú for their friendship and support, and for their interest and excitement into this project. I wish to thank my advisor Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • On Nominal Relational Morphology in Tibeto-Burman
    On Nominal Relational Morphology in Tibeto-Burman Randy J. LaPoUa Olf~ !IHIf~# ) J!l.t'J M~i:.1!lJ c~ •• ~ ~ : •• ~~ ~ ~a ••• ~.) #. ~ it li ff liJ. :$ ff t' j,f 7;: ,\., tU' ff i'J 1; '!i' I/li *'l <f !I< 'if 11, I'>t ~ ~ # 'if 11, ,o1i LANGUAGE AND LlNGUISTlCS M ONOGRAPH SERIES NUMBER WA Studies on Sillo-Tibetall Lallgllages Papers ill HOIwr 0/ Professor HW(lIIg-c:llemg Gong Oll His Seventieth Birllu[llY Edited by Ving-ch in Li n, Fang-min Hsu, Chun-chi h Lee, Jackson T.-S. Sun, Hsiu-fang Yang and Dah-an Ho In stitute of Lingui slics Academia Sin ica, Taipei, Taiwan 2004 Sludies on Smo·Tlbe/an Languages, 43·73 2004-8-004-001-000120-2 On Nominal Relational Morphology in Tibeto-Burman* " Randy J_ LaPolla La Trabe fUversity For this paper, 170 Tibeto-Burman were surveyed for nominal ease marking (adpositions), in an attempt to determine ifit would be possible to reeonstruet any ease markers to Proto· Tibeto-Burman, and in so doing leam more about the nature of the grammatieal organization of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. The data were also eross-cheeked for patterns of isomorphy/polysemy, to see ifwe can leam anything about the development ofthe forms we da find in the languages. The results ofthe survey indicate that although a11 Tibeto-Bunnan languages have developed some sort of relation marking, none of the markers ean be reconstrueted to the oldest stage of the family. Looking at the patterns of isomorphy or polysemy, we find there are regularities to the patterns we find, and on the basis of these regularities we can make assurne that the path of development most probably followed the markedness/prototypicality clines: the locative and ablative use would have arose first and then were extended to the more abstract cases.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Affiliation Statement for Buffalo National River
    CULTURAL AFFILIATION STATEMENT BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER, ARKANSAS Final Report Prepared by María Nieves Zedeño Nicholas Laluk Prepared for National Park Service Midwest Region Under Contract Agreement CA 1248-00-02 Task Agreement J6068050087 UAZ-176 Bureau of Applied Research In Anthropology The University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85711 June 1, 2008 Table of Contents and Figures Summary of Findings...........................................................................................................2 Chapter One: Study Overview.............................................................................................5 Chapter Two: Cultural History of Buffalo National River ................................................15 Chapter Three: Protohistoric Ethnic Groups......................................................................41 Chapter Four: The Aboriginal Group ................................................................................64 Chapter Five: Emigrant Tribes...........................................................................................93 References Cited ..............................................................................................................109 Selected Annotations .......................................................................................................137 Figure 1. Buffalo National River, Arkansas ........................................................................6 Figure 2. Sixteenth Century Polities and Ethnic Groups (after Sabo 2001) ......................47
    [Show full text]
  • Ginuxsko-Russkij Slovar' by M. Š. Xalilov and I
    Anthropological Linguistics Trustees of Indiana University Review Reviewed Work(s): Ginuxsko-russkij slovar' by M. Š. Xalilov and I. A. Isakov Review by: Maria Polinsky and Kirill Shklovsky Source: Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 49, No. 3/4 (Fall - Winter, 2007), pp. 445-449 Published by: The Trustees of Indiana University on behalf of Anthropological Linguistics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27667619 Accessed: 19-01-2017 20:10 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Anthropological Linguistics, Trustees of Indiana University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropological Linguistics This content downloaded from 129.2.19.102 on Thu, 19 Jan 2017 20:10:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 2007 Book Reviews 445 References Aikhenvald, Alexandra 2000 Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Baruah, Nagendra Nath 1992 A Trilingual Dimasha-English-Assamese Dictionary. Guwahati: Publica tion Board Assam. Bhattacharya, Pramod Chandra 1977 A Descriptive Analysis of the Boro Language. Gauhati: Department of Publication, Gauhati University. Bradley, David 2001 Counting the Family: Family Group Classifiers in Yi Branch Languages. Anthropological Linguistics 43:1-17. Burling, Robbins 1961 A Garo Grammar.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status of the Least Documented Language Families in the World
    Vol. 4 (2010), pp. 177-212 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4478 The status of the least documented language families in the world Harald Hammarström Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig This paper aims to list all known language families that are not yet extinct and all of whose member languages are very poorly documented, i.e., less than a sketch grammar’s worth of data has been collected. It explains what constitutes a valid family, what amount and kinds of documentary data are sufficient, when a language is considered extinct, and more. It is hoped that the survey will be useful in setting priorities for documenta- tion fieldwork, in particular for those documentation efforts whose underlying goal is to understand linguistic diversity. 1. InTroducTIon. There are several legitimate reasons for pursuing language documen- tation (cf. Krauss 2007 for a fuller discussion).1 Perhaps the most important reason is for the benefit of the speaker community itself (see Voort 2007 for some clear examples). Another reason is that it contributes to linguistic theory: if we understand the limits and distribution of diversity of the world’s languages, we can formulate and provide evidence for statements about the nature of language (Brenzinger 2007; Hyman 2003; Evans 2009; Harrison 2007). From the latter perspective, it is especially interesting to document lan- guages that are the most divergent from ones that are well-documented—in other words, those that belong to unrelated families. I have conducted a survey of the documentation of the language families of the world, and in this paper, I will list the least-documented ones.
    [Show full text]
  • Philological Sciences. Linguistics” / Journal of Language Relationship Issue 3 (2010)
    Российский государственный гуманитарный университет Russian State University for the Humanities RGGU BULLETIN № 5/10 Scientific Journal Series “Philological Sciences. Linguistics” / Journal of Language Relationship Issue 3 (2010) Moscow 2010 ВЕСТНИК РГГУ № 5/10 Научный журнал Серия «Филологические науки. Языкознание» / «Вопросы языкового родства» Выпуск 3 (2010) Москва 2010 УДК 81(05) ББК 81я5 Главный редактор Е.И. Пивовар Заместитель главного редактора Д.П. Бак Ответственный секретарь Б.Г. Власов Главный художник В.В. Сурков Редакционный совет серии «Филологические науки. Языкознание» / «Вопросы языкового родства» Председатель Вяч. Вс. Иванов (Москва – Лос-Анджелес) М. Е. Алексеев (Москва) В. Блажек (Брно) У. Бэкстер (Анн Арбор) В. Ф. Выдрин (Санкт-Петербург) М. Гелл-Манн (Санта Фе) А. Б. Долгопольский (Хайфа) Ф. Кортландт (Лейден) А. Лубоцкий (Лейден) Редакционная коллегия серии: В. А. Дыбо (главный редактор) Г. С. Старостин (заместитель главного редактора) Т. А. Михайлова (ответственный секретарь) К. В. Бабаев С. Г. Болотов А. В. Дыбо О. А. Мудрак В. Е. Чернов ISSN 1998-6769 © Российский государственный гуманитарный университет, 2010 УДК 81(05) ББК 81я5 Вопросы языкового родства: Международный научный журнал / Рос. гос. гуманитар. ун-т; Рос. Акад. наук. Ин-т языкознания; под ред. В. А. Дыбо. ― М., 2010. ― № 3. ― X + 176 с. ― (Вестник РГГУ: Научный журнал; Серия «Филологические науки. Языко- знание»; № 05/10). Journal of Language Relationship: International Scientific Periodical / Russian State Uni- versity for the Humanities; Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Linguistics; Ed. by V. A. Dybo. ― Moscow, 2010. ― Nº 3. ― X + 176 p. ― (RSUH Bulletin: Scientific Periodical; Linguistics Series; Nº 05/10). ISSN 1998-6769 http ://journal.nostratic.ru [email protected] Дополнительные знаки: С.
    [Show full text]
  • Forms and Functions of Negation in Huaraz Quechua (Ancash, Peru): Analyzing the Interplay of Common Knowledge and Sociocultural Settings
    Forms and Functions of Negation in Huaraz Quechua (Ancash, Peru): Analyzing the Interplay of Common Knowledge and Sociocultural Settings Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie am Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin vorgelegt von Cristina Villari aus Verona (Italien) Berlin 2017 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Michael Dürr 2. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Ingrid Kummels Tag der Disputation: 18.07.2017 To Ani and Leonel III Acknowledgements I wish to thank my teachers, colleagues and friends who have provided guidance, comments and encouragement through this process. I gratefully acknowledge the support received for this project from the Stiftung Lateinamerikanische Literatur. Many thanks go to my first supervisor Prof. Michael Dürr for his constructive comments and suggestions at every stage of this work. Many of his questions led to findings presented here. I am indebted to him for his precious counsel and detailed review of my drafts. Many thanks also go to my second supervisor Prof. Ingrid Kummels. She introduced me to the world of cultural anthropology during the doctoral colloquium at the Latin American Institute at the Free University of Berlin. The feedback she and my colleagues provided was instrumental in composing the sociolinguistic part of this work. I owe enormous gratitude to Leonel Menacho López and Anita Julca de Menacho. In fact, this project would not have been possible without their invaluable advice. During these years of research they have been more than consultants; Quechua teachers, comrades, guides and friends. With Leonel I have discussed most of the examples presented in this dissertation. It is only thanks to his contributions that I was able to explain nuances of meanings and the cultural background of the different expressions presented.
    [Show full text]
  • Languages of the Middle Andes in Areal-Typological Perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran
    Languages of the Middle Andes in areal-typological perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran Willem F.H. Adelaar 1. Introduction1 Among the indigenous languages of the Andean region of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and northern Argentina, Quechuan and Aymaran have traditionally occupied a dominant position. Both Quechuan and Aymaran are language families of several million speakers each. Quechuan consists of a conglomerate of geo- graphically defined varieties, traditionally referred to as Quechua “dialects”, not- withstanding the fact that mutual intelligibility is often lacking. Present-day Ayma- ran consists of two distinct languages that are not normally referred to as “dialects”. The absence of a demonstrable genetic relationship between the Quechuan and Aymaran language families, accompanied by a lack of recognizable external gen- etic connections, suggests a long period of independent development, which may hark back to a period of incipient subsistence agriculture roughly dated between 8000 and 5000 BP (Torero 2002: 123–124), long before the Andean civilization at- tained its highest stages of complexity. Quechuan and Aymaran feature a great amount of detailed structural, phono- logical and lexical similarities and thus exemplify one of the most intriguing and intense cases of language contact to be found in the entire world. Often treated as a product of long-term convergence, the similarities between the Quechuan and Ay- maran families can best be understood as the result of an intense period of social and cultural intertwinement, which must have pre-dated the stage of the proto-lan- guages and was in turn followed by a protracted process of incidental and locally confined diffusion.
    [Show full text]
  • Native American Languages, Indigenous Languages of the Native Peoples of North, Middle, and South America
    Native American Languages, indigenous languages of the native peoples of North, Middle, and South America. The precise number of languages originally spoken cannot be known, since many disappeared before they were documented. In North America, around 300 distinct, mutually unintelligible languages were spoken when Europeans arrived. Of those, 187 survive today, but few will continue far into the 21st century, since children are no longer learning the vast majority of these. In Middle America (Mexico and Central America) about 300 languages have been identified, of which about 140 are still spoken. South American languages have been the least studied. Around 1500 languages are known to have been spoken, but only about 350 are still in use. These, too are disappearing rapidly. Classification A major task facing scholars of Native American languages is their classification into language families. (A language family consists of all languages that have evolved from a single ancestral language, as English, German, French, Russian, Greek, Armenian, Hindi, and others have all evolved from Proto-Indo-European.) Because of the vast number of languages spoken in the Americas, and the gaps in our information about many of them, the task of classifying these languages is a challenging one. In 1891, Major John Wesley Powell proposed that the languages of North America constituted 58 independent families, mainly on the basis of superficial vocabulary resemblances. At the same time Daniel Brinton posited 80 families for South America. These two schemes form the basis of subsequent classifications. In 1929 Edward Sapir tentatively proposed grouping these families into superstocks, 6 in North America and 15 in Middle America.
    [Show full text]
  • Languages of the World--Native America
    REPOR TRESUMES ED 010 352 46 LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD-NATIVE AMERICA FASCICLE ONE. BY- VOEGELIN, C. F. VOEGELIN, FLORENCE N. INDIANA UNIV., BLOOMINGTON REPORT NUMBER NDEA-VI-63-5 PUB DATE JUN64 CONTRACT MC-SAE-9486 EDRS PRICENF-$0.27 HC-C6.20 155P. ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS, 6(6)/1-149, JUNE 1964 DESCRIPTORS- *AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES, *LANGUAGES, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA, ARCHIVES OF LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD THE NATIVE LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS OF THE NEW WORLD"ARE DISCUSSED.PROVIDED ARE COMPREHENSIVE LISTINGS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LANGUAGES OF AMERICAN INDIANSNORTH OF MEXICO ANDOF THOSE ABORIGINAL TO LATIN AMERICA..(THIS REPOR4 IS PART OF A SEkIES, ED 010 350 TO ED 010 367.)(JK) $. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,EDUCATION nib Office ofEduc.442n MD WELNicitt weenment Lasbeenreproduced a l l e a l O exactly r o n o odianeting es receivromed f the Sabi donot rfrocestarity it. Pondsof viewor position raimentofficial opinions or pritcy. Offkce ofEducation rithrppologicalLinguistics Volume 6 Number 6 ,Tune 1964 LANGUAGES OF TEM'WORLD: NATIVE AMER/CAFASCICLEN. A Publication of this ARC IVES OF LANGUAGESor 111-E w oRLD Anthropology Doparignont Indiana, University ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS is designed primarily, butnot exclusively, for the immediate publication of data-oriented papers for which attestation is available in the form oftape recordings on deposit in the Archives of Languages of the World. This does not imply that contributors will bere- stricted to scholars working in the Archives at Indiana University; in fact,one motivation for the publication
    [Show full text]
  • The Languages of Melanesia: Quantifying the Level of Coverage
    Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 5 (December 2012) Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century, ed. by Nicholas Evans and Marian Klamer, pp. 13–33 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/sp05/ 2 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4559 The languages of Melanesia: Quantifying the level of coverage Harald Hammarström Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthopology Sebastian Nordhoff Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthopology The present paper assesses the state of grammatical description of the languages of the Melanesian region based on database of semi- automatically annotated aggregated bibliographical references. 150 years of language description in Melanesia has produced at least some grammatical information for almost half of the languages of Melanesia, almost evenly spread among coastal/non-coastal, Austronesian/non- Austronesian and isolates/large families. Nevertheless, only 15.4% of these languages have a grammar and another 18.7% have a grammar sketch. Compared to Eurasia, Africa and the Americas, the Papua- Austronesian region is the region with the largest number of poorly documented languages and the largest proportion of poorly documented languages. We conclude with some dicussion and remarks on the documentational challenge and its future prospects. 1. INTRODUCTION. We will take Melanesia to be the sub-region of Oceania extending from the Arafura Sea and Western Pacific in the west to Fiji in the east – see the map in figure 1.1 This region is home to no fewer than 1347 (1315 living + 32 recently extinct) attested indigenous languages as per the language/dialect divisions of Lewis (2009), with small adjustments and adding attested extinct languages given in table 1.
    [Show full text]