DOCSLIB.ORG

Complete Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

University of Groningen Linguistic probes into human history Manni, Franz IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2017 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Manni, F. (2017). Linguistic probes into human history. University of Groningen. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 04-10-2021 LINGUISTIC PROBES INTO HUMAN HISTORY Franz Manni The work in this thesis has been carried out under the Graduate School for Humani‐ ties (GSH) from the University of Groningen and the Center of Language and Cogni‐ tion Groningen (CLCG). Groningen Dissertations in Linguistics n° 162 Franz Manni Linguistic Probes into Human History ISBN: 978‐90‐367‐9871‐6 (print version) ISBN: 978‐90‐367‐9872‐3 (electronic version) © 2017, F. Manni All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior permission of the author. Cover design: F. Manni © 2017 II Linguistic Probes into Human History PhD thesis to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen on the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken and in accordance with the decision by the College of Deans. This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 6 July 2017 at 16:15 hours by Franz Manni born on 5 March 1973 in Ferrara, Italy III Supervisors Prof. J. Nerbonne Prof. S. Bahuchet Assessment committee Prof. M. Cysouw Prof. M. Dunn Prof. F. Zwarts IV I’ ho tanti vocavoli nella mia lingua materna, ch’i’ m’ho piuttosto da doler del bene intendere le cose, che del mancamento delle parole, colle quali io possa bene espriemere il concetto della mente mia. LEONARDO DA VINCI IN STANDARD ENGLISH: I have so many words in my mother tongue that I worry more about not understanding well than about lacking the words to express my thoughts. [Translation by J. Nerbonne] V Other translations, IN STANDARD DUTCH [T. by W. Heeringa]: In mijn taal zijn er zoveel woorden dat ik me er maar beter zorgen over kan maken dat ik goed begrijp wat er wordt gezegd, dan bang te zijn dat ik de woorden niet kan vinden om mijn gedachten goed te verwoorden. IN STANDARD GERMAN [T. by H. Goebl]: In meiner Muttersprache habe ich dermaßen viele Wörter, so dass ich mir eher darüber den Kopf zerbrechen müsste, die Dinge an sich gut zu verstehen, als darüber, zu wenig Wörter zu haben, um das, was ich denke, gut ausdrücken zu können. IN THE DIALECT OF THE CITY OF GRONINGEN [T. by W. Heeringa]: Mien moekes toal het zoʹn bult woorden dat ik mie der moar beter drok over moaken kin dat ik goud begriep wat of ter zegd wordt as baang te wezen dat ik de woorden nait vienden kin om mien gedachten goud oet te drukken. IN STANDARD FRENCH [T. by P. Mennecier]: Jʹai tant de mots dans ma langue maternelle que je me soucie plutôt de bien entendre les choses que de chercher les mots par lesquels exprimer le plus profond de ma pensée. IN THE DIALECT OF THE CITY OF FERRARA [T. by M. Leziroli and E. Rinaldi]: A gh’è acsì tant vucabol in tla miè lingua materna che piutòst am preocup ad ben intèndar i quei, chʹàm manca il paròl chʹim sèrav par riusir a dìr bèn quel chʹam frùla par la ment. IN RURAL FRISIAN [T. by D. Drukker and H. Sijens]: Myn memmetaal hat saʹn soad wurden dat ik der mar better oer yn noed sitte kin dat ik goed begryp wat der sein wurdt, as dat ik bang wêze moat dat ik de wurden net fine kin om myn tinzen goed te ferwurdzjen. IN FANG‐NTUMU [T. by R.S. Ollomo Hella]: ŋ́kɔ́bə́ wɔ̂ m óbə̄ lə̄ àgbì bíyɛ̂ . mà yɛ̀nà dàŋ bɛ́ɛ́ édzām dá dzôbàn mà yə̀m ná bífyɛ̄ mə́ ná byɔ́ èbàn bí bóó bóó mā ŋ́lō étē. VI IN MEMORIAM LAURO MANNI (1939 – 2017) Acknowledgments My sincerest gratitude goes to the supervisors and to the members of the assessment committee for their support and guidance. I also would like to acknowledge the Graduate School for Humanities (GSH) from the University of Groningen and the Center of Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) for having allowed this dissertation. It is a pleasure to thank those that encouraged me, particularly Evelyne Heyer, Pierre Darlu, Hans Goebl, Marie‐Françoise Rombi and Philippe Mennecier. This dissertation is a collective enterprise: the names of many other scholars that provided help are listed at the beginning and at the end of each chapter. I thank them all. But John Nerbonne and Wilbert Heeringa deserve a special expression of gratitude for a collaboration that lasted fifteen years and that eventually turned into friendship. Let me say that I have been privileged to visit so often the Netherlands, and the city of Groningen in particular. My Dutch life has always been very enjoyable. Finally, I would like to name my family, my mother Marilena and my daughter Clelia. Actually, I had planned to show the finished dissertation to my father Lauro, because he truly loved the Letters, but I have been too late. Dank u wel en tot ziens! (The only Dutch words I can easily pronounce). VII VIII Contents 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 Why genetics and linguistics? 4 1.1.1 Some thoughts about the emergence of the language faculty “ 1.1.2 The emergence of the language faculty and the peopling 6 1.1.3 The interest of geneticists in the diversity of human languages 7 1.1.4 Towards a wider Anthropology 9 1.2 What family names tell about a population 10 1.2.1 1.2.1Surnames and dialects 12 1.2.2 How to compare dialects and surnames? 13 1.3 How to assess the reliability of linguistic classifications? 15 1.3.1 Efronʹs (1979) bootstrap “ 1.3.2 Felsensteinʹs (1985) bootstrap 16 1.3.3 Application of resampling techniques to dialectology 17 1.3.3.1 Bootstrap consensus trees “ 1.3.3.2 Adoption of a cut‐off value 18 1.4 The fuel: Lexical databases 19 1.4.1 The number of items “ 1.4.2 The choice of the words 20 1.4.3 Swadesh wordlists 1.5 Outline of the dissertation 22 1.5.1 CHAPTER 2: Sprachraum and genetics “ 1.5.2 CHAPTER 3: Projecting Dialect Distances to Geography 23 1.5.3 CHAPTER 4: To What Extent are Surnames Words? “ 1.5.4 CHAPTER 5: Surname and linguistic structure of Spain “ 1.5.5 CHAPTER 6: Linguistic probes into the Bantu history of Gabon 24 1.5.6 CHAPTER 7: A Central‐Asian linguistic survey 25 1.5.7 CHAPTER 8: General conclusions and new prospects 26 References 27 2. SPRACHRAUM AND GENETICS 35 2.1 Genetic mapping 36 2.2 Boundaries in the genetic landscape 43 2.3 How to identify populations in the landscape, the sampling 46 2.4 Regional studies 49 2.5 Concluding remarks 54 References 56 IX 3. PROJECTING DIALECT DISTANCES TO GEOGRAPHY: 63 BOOTSTRAP CLUSTERING VS. NOISY CLUSTERING 3.1 Introduction “ 3.2 Background and motivation “ 3.2.1 Data 66 3.3 Bootstrapping clustering “ 3.4 Clustering with noise 67 3.5 Projecting to geography 68 3.6 Results “ 3.7 Conclusions 69 References 70 4. TO WHAT EXTENT ARE SURNAMES WORDS? 75 COMPARING GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF SURNAME AND DIALECT VARIATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 4.1 Introduction 76 4.1.1 Surnames 79 4.1.2 Dialects 80 4.2 Methodology and data “ 4.2.1 Data “ 4.2.1.1 Surnames “ 4.2.1.2 Dialects 81 4.2.2 Visualization of diversity “ 4.2.2.1 Multidimensional space: Principal component analysis “ 4.2.2.2 Geographic analysis: The Monmonier algorithm 82 4.2.2.2.1 The triangulation “ 4.2.2.2.2 The algorithm 83 4.2.2.2.3 Robustness of barriers “ 4.3 Results 84 4.3.1 Surnames “ 4.3.2 Dialects 88 4.4 Discussion 93 References 100 5. FOOTPRINTS OF MIDDLE AGES KINGDOMS ARE STILL VISIBLE 107 IN THE CONTEMPORARY SURNAME STRUCTURE OF SPAIN 5.1 Introduction “ 5.2 Methods 111 5.2.1 The surname data “ 5.2.1.1 Surnames: From isonymy measures of inbreeding to distances 114 5.2.1.2 Test of robustness ‐ bootstrap 115 5.2.2 The Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula 117 5.2.2.1 Reanalysis of the dialectometric matrix of linguistic similarity 118 X 5.3 Results 120 5.3.1 Surname diversity in Spain ‐ General statistics “ 5.3.2 Isonymy levels 122 5.3.3 Surname diversity in Spain ‐ clustering 123 5.3.4 Linguistic diversity in Spain 124 5.3.5 Mantel correlations 126 5.4 Discussion 126 5.4.1 Variability of Spanish surnames: Patterns of diversity “ 5.4.2 Variability of Spanish surnames: Patterns of isonymy 128 5.4.3 Linguistic diversity 129 References 131 6.
Recommended publications
  • Africans: the HISTORY of a CONTINENT, Second Edition

    Africans: the HISTORY of a CONTINENT, Second Edition

    P1: RNK 0521864381pre CUNY780B-African 978 0 521 68297 8 May 15, 2007 19:34 This page intentionally left blank ii P1: RNK 0521864381pre CUNY780B-African 978 0 521 68297 8 May 15, 2007 19:34 africans, second edition Inavast and all-embracing study of Africa, from the origins of mankind to the AIDS epidemic, John Iliffe refocuses its history on the peopling of an environmentally hostilecontinent.Africanshavebeenpioneersstrugglingagainstdiseaseandnature, and their social, economic, and political institutions have been designed to ensure their survival. In the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations, however, the same institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. The history of the continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to their earliest human ancestors. John Iliffe was Professor of African History at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of St. John’s College. He is the author of several books on Africa, including Amodern history of Tanganyika and The African poor: A history,which was awarded the Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association of the United States. Both books were published by Cambridge University Press. i P1: RNK 0521864381pre CUNY780B-African 978 0 521 68297 8 May 15, 2007 19:34 ii P1: RNK 0521864381pre CUNY780B-African 978 0 521 68297 8 May 15, 2007 19:34 african studies The African Studies Series,founded in 1968 in collaboration with the African Studies Centre of the University of Cambridge, is a prestigious series of monographs and general studies on Africa covering history, anthropology, economics, sociology, and political science.
  • GRAMMAR of SOLRESOL Or the Universal Language of François SUDRE

    GRAMMAR of SOLRESOL Or the Universal Language of François SUDRE

    GRAMMAR OF SOLRESOL or the Universal Language of François SUDRE by BOLESLAS GAJEWSKI, Professor [M. Vincent GAJEWSKI, professor, d. Paris in 1881, is the father of the author of this Grammar. He was for thirty years the president of the Central committee for the study and advancement of Solresol, a committee founded in Paris in 1869 by Madame SUDRE, widow of the Inventor.] [This edition from taken from: Copyright © 1997, Stephen L. Rice, Last update: Nov. 19, 1997 URL: http://www2.polarnet.com/~srice/solresol/sorsoeng.htm Edits in [brackets], as well as chapter headings and formatting by Doug Bigham, 2005, for LIN 312.] I. Introduction II. General concepts of solresol III. Words of one [and two] syllable[s] IV. Suppression of synonyms V. Reversed meanings VI. Important note VII. Word groups VIII. Classification of ideas: 1º simple notes IX. Classification of ideas: 2º repeated notes X. Genders XI. Numbers XII. Parts of speech XIII. Number of words XIV. Separation of homonyms XV. Verbs XVI. Subjunctive XVII. Passive verbs XVIII. Reflexive verbs XIX. Impersonal verbs XX. Interrogation and negation XXI. Syntax XXII. Fasi, sifa XXIII. Partitive XXIV. Different kinds of writing XXV. Different ways of communicating XXVI. Brief extract from the dictionary I. Introduction In all the business of life, people must understand one another. But how is it possible to understand foreigners, when there are around three thousand different languages spoken on earth? For everyone's sake, to facilitate travel and international relations, and to promote the progress of beneficial science, a language is needed that is easy, shared by all peoples, and capable of serving as a means of interpretation in all countries.
  • RECORDS CODIFICATION MANUAL Prepared by the Office Of

    RECORDS CODIFICATION MANUAL Prepared by the Office Of

    RECORDS CODIFICATION MANUAL Prepared by The Office of Communications and Records Department of State (Adopted January 1, 1950—Revised January 1, 1955) I I CLASSES OF RECORDS Glass 0 Miscellaneous. I Class 1 Administration of the United States Government. Class 2 Protection of Interests (Persons and Property). I Class 3 International Conferences, Congresses, Meetings and Organizations. United Nations. Organization of American States. Multilateral Treaties. I Class 4 International Trade and Commerce. Trade Relations, Treaties, Agreements. Customs Administration. Class 5 International Informational and Educational Relations. Cultural I Affairs and Programs. Class 6 International Political Relations. Other International Relations. I Class 7 Internal Political and National Defense Affairs. Class 8 Internal Economic, Industrial and Social Affairs. 1 Class 9 Other Internal Affairs. Communications, Transportation, Science. - 0 - I Note: - Classes 0 thru 2 - Miscellaneous; Administrative. Classes 3 thru 6 - International relations; relations of one country with another, or of a group of countries with I other countries. Classes 7 thru 9 - Internal affairs; domestic problems, conditions, etc., and only rarely concerns more than one I country or area. ' \ \T^^E^ CLASS 0 MISCELLANEOUS 000 GENERAL. Unclassifiable correspondence. Crsnk letters. Begging letters. Popular comment. Public opinion polls. Matters not pertaining to business of the Department. Requests for interviews with officials of the Department. (Classify subjectively when possible). Requests for names and/or addresses of Foreign Service Officers and personnel. Requests for copies of treaties and other publications. (This number should never be used for communications from important persons, organizations, etc.). 006 Precedent Index. 010 Matters transmitted through facilities of the Department, .1 Telegrams, letters, documents.
  • Jeremy Mcmaster Rich

    Jeremy Mcmaster Rich

    Jeremy McMaster Rich Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences Marywood University 2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509 570-348-6211 extension 2617 [email protected] EDUCATION Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Ph.D., History, June 2002 Thesis: “Eating Disorders: A Social History of Food Supply and Consumption in Colonial Libreville, 1840-1960.” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Phyllis Martin Major Field: African history. Minor Fields: Modern West European history, African Studies Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. M.A., History, December 1994 University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. B.A. with Honors, History, June 1993 Dean’s List 1990-1991, 1992-1993 TEACHING Marywood University, Scranton, PA. Associate Professor, Dept. of Social Sciences, 2011- Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN. Associate Professor, Dept. of History, 2007-2011 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN. Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, 2006-2007 University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME. Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, 2005-2006 Cabrini College, Radnor, PA. Assistant Professor (term contract), Dept. of History, 2002-2004 Colby College, Waterville, ME. Visiting Instructor, Dept. of History, 2001-2002 CLASSES TAUGHT African History survey, African-American History survey (2 semesters), Atlantic Slave Trade, Christianity in Modern Africa (online and on-site), College Success, Contemporary Africa, France and the Middle East, Gender in Modern Africa, Global Environmental History in the Twentieth Century, Historical Methods (graduate course only), Historiography, Modern Middle East History, US History survey to 1877 and 1877-present (2 semesters), Women in Modern Africa (online and on-site courses), Twentieth Century Global History, World History survey to 1500 and 1500 to present (2 semesters, distance and on-site courses) BOOKS With Douglas Yates.
  • 08 French Energy Imperialism in Vietnam.Indd

    08 French Energy Imperialism in Vietnam.Indd

    Journal of Energy History Revue d’histoire de l’énergie AUTEUR French energy imperialism in Armel Campagne European University Vietnam and the conquest of Institute [email protected] Tonkin (1873-1885) DATE DE PUBLICATION Résumé Cet article montre que la conquête française du Vietnam a été entreprise 24/08/2020 notamment dans l'optique de l’appropriation de ses ressources en charbon, et NUMÉRO DE LA REVUE que l’impérialisme française était dans ce cas un « impérialisme énergétique ». JEHRHE #3 Il défend ainsi l’idée qu’on peut analyser la conquête française du Tonkin et SECTION de l’Annam (1873-1885) comme étant notamment le résultat d’une combinai- Dossier son des impérialismes énergétiques de la Marine, de l’administration coloniale THÈME DU DOSSIER cochinchinoise, des politiciens favorables à la colonisation et des hommes Impérialisme énergétique ? d’affaires. Au travers des archives militaires, diplomatiques et administratives et Ressources, pouvoir et d’une réinterprétation de l’historiographie existante, il explore la dynamique de environnement (19e-20e s.) l’impérialisme énergétique français au Vietnam durant la phase de conquête. MOTS-CLÉS Impérialisme, Charbon, Remerciements Géopolitique This article has benefited significantly from a workshop in November DOI 2018 of the Imperial History Working Group at the European University en cours Institute (EUI) and from the language correction of James Pavitt and Sophia Ayada of the European University Institute. POUR CITER CET ARTICLE “French colonial policy […] was inspired by […] the fact that a navy such Armel Campagne, « French as ours cannot do without safe harbors, defenses, supply centers on the energy imperialism in high seas […] The conditions of naval warfare have greatly changed […].
  • A Pipeline for Computational Historical Linguistics

    A Pipeline for Computational Historical Linguistics

    A Pipeline for Computational Historical Linguistics Lydia Steiner Peter F. Stadler Bioinformatics Group, Interdisciplinary Bioinformatics Group, University of Center for Bioinformatics, University of Leipzig, Interdisciplinary Center for Leipzig ∗ Bioinformatics, University of Leipzig∗; Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in the Science; Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology; Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen; Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna; Santa Fe Institute Michael Cysouw Research unit Quantitative Language Comparison, LMU München ∗∗ There are many parallels between historical linguistics and molecular phylogenetics. In this paper we describe an algorithmic pipeline that mimics, as closely as possible, the traditional workflow of language reconstruction known as the comparative method. The pipeline consists of suitably modified algorithms based on recent research in bioinformatics, that are adapted to the specifics of linguistic data. This approach can alleviate much of the laborious research needed to establish proof of historical relationships between languages. Equally important to our proposal is that each step in the workflow of the comparative method is implemented independently, so language specialists have the possibility to scrutinize intermediate results. We have used our pipeline to investigate two groups of languages, the Tsezic languages from the Caucasus and the Mataco-Guaicuruan languages from South America, based on the lexical data from the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS). The results of these tests show that the current approach is a viable and useful extension to historical linguistic research. 1. Introduction Molecular phylogenetics and historical linguistics are both concerned with the recon- struction of evolutionary histories, the former of biological organisms, the latter of human languages.
  • Swadesh Lists Are Not Long Enough: Drawing Phonological Generalizations from Limited Data

    Swadesh Lists Are Not Long Enough: Drawing Phonological Generalizations from Limited Data

    Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 16. Editor: Peter K. Austin Swadesh lists are not long enough: Drawing phonological generalizations from limited data RIKKER DOCKUM & CLAIRE BOWERN Cite this article: Rikker Dockum & Claire Bowern (2018). Swadesh lists are not long enough: Drawing phonological generalizations from limited data. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 35-54 Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/168 This electronic version first published: August 2019 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions Swadesh lists are not long enough: Drawing phonological generalizations from limited data Rikker Dockum and Claire Bowern Yale University Abstract This paper presents the results of experiments on the minimally sufficient wordlist size for drawing phonological generalizations about languages. Given a limited lexicon for an under-documented language, are conclusions that can be drawn from those data representative of the language as a whole? Linguistics necessarily involves generalizing from limited data, as documentation can never completely capture the full complexity of a linguistic system. We performed a series of sampling experiments on 36 Australian languages in the Chirila database (Bowern 2016) with lexicons ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 items.
  • Northwest Caucasian Languages and Hattic

    Northwest Caucasian Languages and Hattic

    Kafkasya Calışmaları - Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi / Journal of Caucasian Studies Kasım 2020 / November 2020, Yıl / Vol. 6, № 11 ISSN 2149–9527 E-ISSN 2149-9101 Northwest Caucasian Languages and Hattic Ayla Bozkurt Applebaum* Abstract The relationships among five Northwest Caucasian languages and Hattic were investigated. A list of 193 core vocabulary words was constructed and examined to find look-alike words. Data for Abhkaz, Abaza, Kabardian (East Circassian), Adyghe (West Circassian) and Ubykh drew on the work of Starostin, Chirikba and Kuipers. A sub-set list of 15 look-alike words for Hattic was constructed from Soysal (2003). These lists were formulated as character data for reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of the languages. The phylogenetic relationships of these languages were investigated by a well-known method, Neighbor Joining, as implemented in PAUP* 4.0. Supporting and dissenting evidence from human genetic population studies and archeological evidence were discussed. This project has produced a provisional set of character data for the Northwest Caucasian languages and, to a limited extent, Hattic. Phylogenetic trees have been generated and displayed to show their general character and the types of differences obtained by alternate methods. This research is a basis for further inquiries into the development of the Caucasian languages. Moreover, it presents an example of the method for contrast queries application in studying the evolution of language families. Keywords: Northwest Caucasian Languages, Hattic, Historical Linguistics, Circassian, Adyghe, Kabardian * Ayla Bozkurt Applebaum, ORCID 0000-0003-4866-4407, E-mail: [email protected] (Received/Gönderim: 15.10.2020; Accepted/Kabul: 28.11.2020) 63 Ayla Bozkurt Applebaum Kuzeybatı Kafkas Dilleri ve Hattice Özet Bu araştırma beş Kuzeybatı Kafkas Dilleri ve Hatik arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektedir.
  • The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu

    The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu

    The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu Derek Nurse Memorial University of Newfoundland “One can speculate that the perfective versus imperfective distinction was, historically, the fundamental distinction in the language, and that a complex tense system is in process of being superimposed on this basic aspectual distinction … there are many signs that the tense system is still evolving.” (Parker 1991: 185, talking of the Grassfields language Mundani). 1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose Examination of a set of non-Bantu Niger-Congo languages shows that most are aspect-prominent languages, that is, they either do not encode tense —the majority case— or, as the quotation indicates, there is reason to think that some have added tense to an original aspectual base. Comparative consideration of tense-aspect categories and morphology suggests that early and Proto-Niger-Congo were aspect-prominent. In contrast, all Bantu languages today encode both aspect and tense. The conclusion therefore is that, along with but independently of a few other Niger-Congo families, Bantu innovated tense at an early point in its development. While it has been known for some time that individual aspects turn into tenses, and not vice versa, it is being proposed here is that a whole aspect- based system added tense distinctions and become a tense-aspect system. 1.2. Definitions Readers will be familiar with the concept of tense. I follow Comrie’s (1985: 9) by now well known definition of tense: “Tense is grammaticalised expression of location in time”. That is, it is an inflectional category that locates a situation (action, state, event, process) relative to some other point in time, to a deictic centre.
  • Guidelines on Dealing with Collections from Colonial Contexts

    Guidelines on Dealing with Collections from Colonial Contexts

    Guidelines on Dealing with Collections from Colonial Contexts Guidelines on Dealing with Collections from Colonial Contexts Imprint Guidelines on Dealing with Collections from Colonial Contexts Publisher: German Museums Association Contributing editors and authors: Working Group on behalf of the Board of the German Museums Association: Wiebke Ahrndt (Chair), Hans-Jörg Czech, Jonathan Fine, Larissa Förster, Michael Geißdorf, Matthias Glaubrecht, Katarina Horst, Melanie Kölling, Silke Reuther, Anja Schaluschke, Carola Thielecke, Hilke Thode-Arora, Anne Wesche, Jürgen Zimmerer External authors: Veit Didczuneit, Christoph Grunenberg Cover page: Two ancestor figures, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea, about 1900, © Übersee-Museum Bremen, photo: Volker Beinhorn Editing (German Edition): Sabine Lang Editing (English Edition*): TechniText Translations Translation: Translation service of the German Federal Foreign Office Design: blum design und kommunikation GmbH, Hamburg Printing: primeline print berlin GmbH, Berlin Funded by * parts edited: Foreword, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Background Information 4.4, Recommendations 5.2. Category 1 Returning museum objects © German Museums Association, Berlin, July 2018 ISBN 978-3-9819866-0-0 Content 4 Foreword – A preliminary contribution to an essential discussion 6 1. Introduction – An interdisciplinary guide to active engagement with collections from colonial contexts 9 2. Addressees and terminology 9 2.1 For whom are these guidelines intended? 9 2.2 What are historically and culturally sensitive objects? 11 2.3 What is the temporal and geographic scope of these guidelines? 11 2.4 What is meant by “colonial contexts”? 16 3. Categories of colonial contexts 16 Category 1: Objects from formal colonial rule contexts 18 Category 2: Objects from colonial contexts outside formal colonial rule 21 Category 3: Objects that reflect colonialism 23 3.1 Conclusion 23 3.2 Prioritisation when examining collections 24 4.
  • Exploring the Corresponding Words Among the Subgroupings, Revising Swadesh List, Compared with Chinese

    Exploring the Corresponding Words Among the Subgroupings, Revising Swadesh List, Compared with Chinese

    International Journal of Language and Linguistics 2019; 7(3): 110-118 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijll doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190703.13 ISSN: 2330-0205 (Print); ISSN: 2330-0221 (Online) Exploring the Corresponding Words Among the Subgroupings, Revising Swadesh List, Compared with Chinese Ke Luo Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering, Beijing, China Email address: To cite this article: Ke Luo. Exploring the Corresponding Words Among the Subgroupings, Revising Swadesh List, Compared with Chinese. International Journal of Language and Linguistics . Vol. 7, No. 3, 2019, pp. 110-118. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190703.13 Received : March 2, 2019; Accepted : April 29, 2019; Published : May 31, 2019 Abstract: In 1647, the Dutch linguist Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn noted the similarity among certain Asian and European languages and first theorized that they were derived from a primitive common language which he called Scythian (proto-language). For hundreds of years, many scholars have been studying the cognate of the subgroupings of Indo-European languages. This paper with the Swadesh list compares several subgroupings of Indo-European languages and finds out that their cognate correspondence is closer. It is inferred that the Proto-Indo-European was a language with very rich vocabulary and should be contained independently in the subgroupings at the beginning of its dissemination. This paper proposes a revised Swadesh list which can be used to assess language homology degree in high or low, and compares English with Chinese. The result shows that Chinese and English have the same origin. Keywords: Indo-European Languages, Swadesh List, English, Chinese, Cognate conclusion.
  • Table 2. Geographic Areas, and Biography

    Table 2. Geographic Areas, and Biography

    Table 2. Geographic Areas, and Biography The following numbers are never used alone, but may be used as required (either directly when so noted or through the interposition of notation 09 from Table 1) with any number from the schedules, e.g., public libraries (027.4) in Japan (—52 in this table): 027.452; railroad transportation (385) in Brazil (—81 in this table): 385.0981. They may also be used when so noted with numbers from other tables, e.g., notation 025 from Table 1. When adding to a number from the schedules, always insert a decimal point between the third and fourth digits of the complete number SUMMARY —001–009 Standard subdivisions —1 Areas, regions, places in general; oceans and seas —2 Biography —3 Ancient world —4 Europe —5 Asia —6 Africa —7 North America —8 South America —9 Australasia, Pacific Ocean islands, Atlantic Ocean islands, Arctic islands, Antarctica, extraterrestrial worlds —001–008 Standard subdivisions —009 History If “history” or “historical” appears in the heading for the number to which notation 009 could be added, this notation is redundant and should not be used —[009 01–009 05] Historical periods Do not use; class in base number —[009 1–009 9] Geographic treatment and biography Do not use; class in —1–9 —1 Areas, regions, places in general; oceans and seas Not limited by continent, country, locality Class biography regardless of area, region, place in —2; class specific continents, countries, localities in —3–9 > —11–17 Zonal, physiographic, socioeconomic regions Unless other instructions are given, class