Beyond the Comparative Method?
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The History and Classification of American Indian Languages: What Are the Implications for the Peopling of the Americas?
The History and Classification of American Indian Languages: What are the Implications for the Peopling of the Americas? IVES GODDARD Dept. of Anthropology Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560 LYLE CAMPBELL ;T Dept. of Anthropology q Louisiana State University Baton i, ! JLr , Though the synthesis of linguistic and nonlinguistic data in hypothesized reconstructions of the peopling of the _ ; Americas is a complex task, it is one that can be useful to undertake, provided that the proper techniques are .! (! employed. The most important methodological prerequisite is the use of the well-established techniques of i;! historical linguistics to establish and evaluate the linguistic data. Extreme caution should be exercised in using I linguistic classifications, and conclusions derived from them, that are based on the comparison of superficially I similar words and grammatical elements, such as the method of multilateral comparison employed by J.H. I Greenberg and M. Ruhlen. The linguistic picture as presently known is compatible with a wide range of ! [ possible scenarios for the earliest peopling of the Americas. In exploring the best fit between linguistic and ! [ nonlinguistic hypotheses of New World prehistory, only explicitly historical hypotheses will prove to be of i , value. DO100811 .'i 189 ' 190 Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of tire Americas I Goddard and L. Cam;_bell INTRODUCTION viduals cannot acquire new genes or teeth. Languages can become extinct in populations which survive geneti- The history of the world's languages is obviously part of cally. As a consequence, attempts to correlate language the history of the human race, in the Americas as else- groupings with human phylogeny or movements at deep where. -
Convergence and Divergence in Language Contact Situations
Sonderforschungsbereich Mehrsprachigkeit International Colloquium on Convergence and Divergence in Language Contact Situations 18–20 October 2007 University of Hamburg Research Centre on Multilingualism Welcome On behalf of our Research Centre on Multilingualism (Sonderforschungsbereich Mehrsprachigkeit), generously supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the University of Hamburg, we would like to welcome you all here in Hamburg. This colloquium deals with issues related to convergence and divergence in language contact situations, issues which had been rather neglected in the past but have received much more attention in recent years. Five speakers from different countries have kindly accepted our invitation to share their expertise with us by presenting their research related to the theme of this colloquium. (One colleague from the US fell seriously ill and deeply regrets not being able to join us. Unfortunately, another invited speak- er cancelled his talk only two weeks ago.) All the other presentations are re- ports from ongoing work in the (now altogether 18) research projects in our centre. We hope that the three conference days will be informative and stimulating for all of us, and that the colloquium will be remembered for both its friendly atmosphere and its lively, controversial discussions. The organising commit- tee has done its best to ensure that this meeting with renowned colleagues from abroad will be a good place to make new friends or reinforce long-stand- ing professional contacts. There will be many opportunities for doing that – during the coffee breaks and especially during the conference dinner at an ex- cellent French restaurant on Thursday evening. -
Essentials of Language Typology
Lívia Körtvélyessy Essentials of Language Typology KOŠICE 2017 © Lívia Körtvélyessy, Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky, Filozofická fakulta UPJŠ v Košiciach Recenzenti: Doc. PhDr. Edita Kominarecová, PhD. Doc. Slávka Tomaščíková, PhD. Elektronický vysokoškolský učebný text pre Filozofickú fakultu UPJŠ v Košiciach. Všetky práva vyhradené. Toto dielo ani jeho žiadnu časť nemožno reprodukovať,ukladať do informačných systémov alebo inak rozširovať bez súhlasu majiteľov práv. Za odbornú a jazykovú stánku tejto publikácie zodpovedá autor. Rukopis prešiel redakčnou a jazykovou úpravou. Jazyková úprava: Steve Pepper Vydavateľ: Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach Umiestnenie: http://unibook.upjs.sk Dostupné od: február 2017 ISBN: 978-80-8152-480-6 Table of Contents Table of Contents i List of Figures iv List of Tables v List of Abbreviations vi Preface vii CHAPTER 1 What is language typology? 1 Tasks 10 Summary 13 CHAPTER 2 The forerunners of language typology 14 Rasmus Rask (1787 - 1832) 14 Franz Bopp (1791 – 1867) 15 Jacob Grimm (1785 - 1863) 15 A.W. Schlegel (1767 - 1845) and F. W. Schlegel (1772 - 1829) 17 Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767 – 1835) 17 August Schleicher 18 Neogrammarians (Junggrammatiker) 19 The name for a new linguistic field 20 Tasks 21 Summary 22 CHAPTER 3 Genealogical classification of languages 23 Tasks 28 Summary 32 CHAPTER 4 Phonological typology 33 Consonants and vowels 34 Syllables 36 Prosodic features 36 Tasks 38 Summary 40 CHAPTER 5 Morphological typology 41 Morphological classification of languages (holistic -
Dative Overmarking in Basque: Evidence of Spanish-Basque Convergence
Dative Overmarking in Basque: Evidence of Spanish-Basque Convergence Jennifer Austin University of New Jersey, Rutgers. [email protected] Abstract This paper investigates a recent change in the grammar of spoken Basque which results in the substitution of dative case and agreement for absolutive case and agreement in marking animate, specific direct objects. I argue that this pattern of use is due to convergence between the feature matrix of the functional category AGR in Spanish and Basque. In contrast to previous studies which point to interface areas as the locus of syntactic convergence, I argue that this is a change affecting the core grammar of Basque. Furthermore, I suggest that the appearance of this case marking pattern in spoken Basque is probably attributable to recent changes in the demographics of Basque speakers and that its use is related to the degree of proficiency in each language of adult bilingual speakers. Laburpena Lan honetan euskara mintzatuaren gramatikan gertatu berri den aldaketa bat ikertzen da, hain zuzen ere, kasu datiboa eta aditz komunztaduraren ordezkapena kasu absolutiboa eta aditz komunztaduraren ordez objektu zuzenak --animatuak eta zehatzak—markatzen direnean. Nire iritziz, erabilera hori gazteleraz eta euskaraz dagoen AGR delako kategori funtzionalaren ezaugarri taulen bateratzeari zor zaio. Aurreko ikerketa batzuetan hizkuntza arteko ukipen eremuak bateratze sintaktikoaren gunetzat jotzen badira ere, nire iritziz aldaketa horrek euskararen gramatika oinarrizkoari eragiten dio. Areago, esango nuke kasu marka erabilera hori, ziurrenik, euskal hiztunen artean gertatu berri diren aldaketa demografikoen ondorioz agertzen dela euskara mintzatuan eta hiztun elebidun helduek hizkuntza bakoitzean daukaten gaitasun mailari lotuta dagoela. Keywods: Bilingualism, syntactic convergence, language contact. -
An Amerind Etymological Dictionary
An Amerind Etymological Dictionary c 2007 by Merritt Ruhlen ! Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Greenberg, Joseph H. Ruhlen, Merritt An Amerind Etymological Dictionary Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Amerind Languages—Etymology—Classification. I. Title. P000.G0 2007 000!.012 00-00000 ISBN 0-0000-0000-0 (alk. paper) This book is dedicated to the Amerind people, the first Americans Preface The present volume is a revison, extension, and refinement of the ev- idence for the Amerind linguistic family that was initially offered in Greenberg (1987). This revision entails (1) the correction of a num- ber of forms, and the elimination of others, on the basis of criticism by specialists in various Amerind languages; (2) the consolidation of certain Amerind subgroup etymologies (given in Greenberg 1987) into Amerind etymologies; (3) the addition of many reconstructions from different levels of Amerind, based on a comprehensive database of all known reconstructions for Amerind subfamilies; and, finally, (4) the addition of a number of new Amerind etymologies presented here for the first time. I believe the present work represents an advance over the original, but it is at the same time simply one step forward on a project that will never be finished. M. R. September 2007 Contents Introduction 1 Dictionary 11 Maps 272 Classification of Amerind Languages 274 References 283 Semantic Index 296 Introduction This volume presents the lexical and grammatical evidence that defines the Amerind linguistic family. The evidence is presented in terms of 913 etymolo- gies, arranged alphabetically according to the English gloss. -
Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal Languages South of the Kimberley Region
PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series C - 124 HANDBOOK OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES SOUTH OF THE KIMBERLEY REGION Nicholas Thieberger Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Thieberger, N. Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages south of the Kimberley Region. C-124, viii + 416 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1993. DOI:10.15144/PL-C124.cover ©1993 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. Pacific Linguistics is issued through the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A: Occasional Papers SERIES c: Books SERIES B: Monographs SERIES D: Special Publications FOUNDING EDITOR: S.A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: T.E. Dutton, A.K. Pawley, M.D. Ross, D.T. Tryon EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W.Bender KA. McElhanon University of Hawaii Summer Institute of Linguistics DavidBradley H.P. McKaughan La Trobe University University of Hawaii Michael G. Clyne P. Miihlhausler Monash University University of Adelaide S.H. Elbert G.N. O'Grady University of Hawaii University of Victoria, B.C. KJ. Franklin KL. Pike Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics W.W.Glover E.C. Polome Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Texas G.W.Grace Gillian Sankoff University of Hawaii University of Pennsylvania M.A.K Halliday W.A.L. Stokhof University of Sydney University of Leiden E. Haugen B.K T' sou Harvard University City Polytechnic of Hong Kong A. Healey E.M. Uhlenbeck Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Leiden L.A. -
1. Introduction. 2. the Archaeological Record. 17
OLMEC PROTO-MIXE-ZOQUEAN: CAN YOU DIG IT?* Craig Hilts The Ohio State University 1. Introduction. The Mixe-Zoquean (MZ) family constitutes a group of Mesoamerican languages and dialects found in the isthmus of Mexico. Wichmann's (1995) reconstruction of Proto-Mixe-Zoquean (PMZ) uses data from 39 of these, from 18 sources. Campbell and Kaufman (1976) had hypothesized that the Olmecs of Southern Mexico were speakers of PMZ. They based their hypothesis in part on the number of apparent loan words from Mixe-Zoquean (MZ) among other language families in the area, in part on what they called "the rather sophisticated Mesoamerican culture" (p.81) represented by their reconstructed etyma for PMZ, and, I assume, in part on the geographical congruence of known Olmec sites and current MZ languages. Ultimately they proposed a glottochronological dating of 1500 BCE for PMZ, a result which may be somewhat controversial because of problems with the method itself. Jn this paper, I examine Wichmann's reconstruction of PMZ and offspring languages with several intentions. First, I use those etyma representing terms of material culture and compare them with available archaeological evidence and theory to examine on that basis the soundness of their inclusion in PMZ. I include some of the relevant etyma from reconstructed offspring languages in order to justify the apparent lack of terms which might be expected to appear in a cultural reconstruction. I then examine some glosses in comparison with the ethnohistory of the area and make a methodological point that reconstructing a language must include reconstructing the culture that is purported to have used it. -
Exploring Material Culture Distributions in the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea
Gender, mobility and population history: exploring material culture distributions in the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea by Andrew Fyfe, BA (Hons) Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Discipline of Geographical and Environmental Studies The University of Adelaide November 2008 …..These practices, then, and others which I will speak of later, were borrowed by the Greeks from Egypt. This is not the case, however, with the Greek custom of making images of Hermes with the phallus erect; it was the Athenians who took this from the Pelasgians, and from the Athenians the custom spread to the rest of Greece. For just at the time when the Athenians were assuming Hellenic nationality, the Pelasgians joined them, and thus first came to be regarded as Greeks. Anyone will know what I mean if he is familiar with the mysteries of the Cabiri-rites which the men of Samothrace learned from the Pelasgians, who lived in that island before they moved to Attica, and communicated the mysteries to the Athenians. This will show that the Athenians were the first Greeks to make statues of Hermes with the erect phallus, and that they learned the practice from the Pelasgians…… Herodotus c.430 BC ii Table of contents Acknowledgements vii List of figures viii List of tables xi List of Appendices xii Abstract xiv Declaration xvi Section One 1. Introduction 2 1.1 The Upper Sepik-Central New Guinea Project 2 1.2 Lapita and the exploration of relationships between language and culture in Melanesia 3 1.3 The quantification of relationships between material culture and language on New Guinea’s north coast 6 1.4 Thesis objectives 9 2. -
Early Texts and Other Sources
7 Early texts and other sources Introduction In order to demonstrate that native title has survived, the court will require that the laws and customs of the claimant society be shown not only to have survived substantially uninterrupted but also to have remained ‘traditional’1 in their content. What exactly is to be understood by the use of the term ‘traditional’ has been subject to extensive debate.2 Most, if not all, of the ethnography relevant to a native title inquiry will demonstrate the fact of some form of change. This is unsurprising since few anthropologists would argue for an unchanging society. It is the degree and measure of the change against customary systems that is subject to contestation. In short, 1 ‘A traditional law or custom is one which has been passed from generation to generation of a society, usually by word of mouth and common practice. But in the context of the Native Title Act, “traditional” carries with it two other elements in its meaning. First, it conveys an understanding of the age of the traditions: the origins of the content of the law or custom concerned are to be found in the normative rules of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies that existed before the assertion of sovereignty by the British Crown. It is only those normative rules that are “traditional” laws and customs. Second, and no less important, the reference to rights or interests in land or waters being possessed under traditional laws acknowledged and traditional customs observed by the peoples concerned, requires that the normative system under which the rights and interests are possessed (the traditional laws and customs) is a system that has had a continuous existence and vitality since sovereignty. -
The Proto-Sapiens Prohibitive/Negative Particle *Ma
THE PROTO-SAPIENS PROHIBITIVE/NEGATIVE PARTICLE *MA PIERRE J. BANCEL, ALAIN MATTHEY DE L’ETANG ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY (CAMBRIDGE, MA); ASSOCIATION D’ETUDES LINGUISTIQUES ET ANTHROPOLOGIQUES PREHISTORIQUES (PARIS, FRANCE); AND JOHN D. BENGTSON ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY (CAMBRIDGE, MA); EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LANGUAGE PROJECT (SANTA FE INSTITUTE, NM) We report here on a lexical root, very widespread in diverse languages worldwide, includ- ing more than 50 ancient languages, long-isolated languages, and proto-languages. Most of these rely on uncontroversial reconstructions, while others, from Proto-Nilo-Saharan to Proto-Trans-New Guinea through Proto-Austric and Proto-Amerind, go back to far more than 10,000 years ago and cover all continents. We argue that this lexical root may only have been part of the ancestral language common to all modern humans. 1. INTRODUCTION We will document here an ancestral word root, which is found in such a huge number of language families across all continents that it can only be a common inheritance from the original lexicon of our remote Sapiens ancestors. Following the common linguistic custom of naming the ancestral language of a family by the name of this family with the prefix Proto- (Proto-Germanic, Proto- Algonquian, Proto-Bantu, etc.), we call the ancestral language of our species Proto-Sapiens. Proto-Sapiens is not a newcomer in historical linguistics: building upon the pioneering work of Trombetti (1905), about three dozen Proto-Sapiens words have recently been identified (Bengtson & Ruhlen 1994), making use of the massive linguistic materials and comparative works that have accumulated during the 20th century. -
Specific Language Contact Phenomena in the Habsburg Empire and Their Possible Utilization for Teaching Czech As a Foreign Language in Austria1
Specific language contact phenomena in the Habsburg Empire and their possible utilization for teaching Czech as a foreign language in Austria1 Stefan Michael Newerkla ABSTRACT: Not only does pluricentric German display characteristic features of Standard Average European, but it also comprises several distinguishing features in various contact areas with Baltic, Finno-Ugrian and Slavic languages. Like isoglosses, which constitute certain dialect areas in dialectology, bundled language contact phenomena distinguish certain contact areas from others. A major language contact area in Central Europe — merely one out of several — is the contact zone which we can associate with the former centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with German, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak as its core languages as well as Polish, Slovene and others as its only partially involved peripheral languages. From this contact area, a micro-area emerged in Vienna and Eastern Austria that was particularly affected by the influence of Czech on German vice versa. This contribution illustrates how the latter language contact phenomena can fruitfully contribute to the process of teaching Czech as a foreign language in Austria. KEY WORDS: Austria, Czech language, German language, language contact, language teaching In present day Austria, there are seven officially recognized minority languages, i.e. the languages of the six autochthonous ethnic groups officially recognized by the Ethnic Groups Act (Volksgruppengesetz), actually a federal act on the legal status of ethnic groups in Austria dated 7th July 1976 (Bundesgesetz vom 7. 7. 1976 über die Rechtsstellung von Volksgruppen in Österreich), plus the Austrian Sign Language (Österreichische Gebärdensprache) with approximately 9,000 speakers. Several other languages of minorities living here also play an important role. -
MARIANNE MITHUN Curriculum Vitae
MARIANNE MITHUN Curriculum vitae Department of Linguistics University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 E-mail: mithun at linguistics dot ucsb dot edu Website: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/mithun/ Education 1974 Ph.D., Yale University, Linguistics Dissertation: A Grammar of Tuscarora Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury 1972 M.Phil, Yale University, Linguistics 1972 M.A., Yale University, Linguistics 1970: Linguistic Institute, Ohio State University 1969 B.A., Pomona College, Phi Beta Kappa, French 1967 spring: Swarthmore College exchange 1968 summer: U.S.S.R. summer term 1968 fall: University of Vienna Grants and Awards 2014-2015 President, Societas Linguistica Europaea (European Linguistic Society) 2012 Outstanding Faculty Award, Residence Halls Association and Office of Residential Life 2009 NSF award: Athabaskan Spoken Language Corpora 2008 Fellow, Linguistic Society of America 2007 University Distinguished Teaching Award 2005 Médaille du Collège de France, Paris. 2003 Doctor Honoris Causa. La Trobe University, Melbourne. 2002 Bloomfield Book Award for The Languages of Native North America (award given every two years by the Linguistics Society of America for the book judged the best in the field of linguistics). Mithun 2000 Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa. University of Oslo, Norway. 1998 Elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. 1997 Academic Senate grant, University of California, for research for a Mohawk Reference Grammar. 1996 Academic Senate grant, University of California, for the investigation of grammatical categories in Central Alaskan Yup’ik. 1995 Academic Senate grant, University of California, for translation and analysis of Central Alaskan Yup’ik Oral Traditions. 1994 Academic Senate grant, University of California, for documentation of Central Alaskan Yup’ik oral traditions.