A king was typically referred to as people's king in the early period of Old English, whereas today, king of a country is the most commonly used. This study attempts to trace the development of the place element modifying the title paired in apposition with a personal name in the tradition of vernacular English historiography as represented by the Peterborough Chronicle. There existed a strong tendency to specify a smaller land area (city, town, etc.) with the genitive form of the name of the place or with a prepositional phrase involving the place-name and a larger one (kingdom, shire, etc.) with the genitive form of the name of the people living there in Early Old English. In later periods, however, the prepositional phrase was left as the only place element available for either a smaller or larger land area. Various prepositions heading the prepositional phrase became limited during the Old English period to just one in Early Middle English. Thus, the shift from people's king to king of a country was almost complete in Early Middle English. These findings are related to more general patterns of syntactic change in the noun phrase in English to highlight their current relevance.
{"title":"From People's King to King of a Country: The Development of the Place Element Modifying the Title Paired in Apposition with a Personal Name Traced in the Peterborough Chronicle","authors":"Seiji Shinkawa","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12286","url":null,"abstract":"A king was typically referred to as <i>people's king</i> in the early period of Old English, whereas today, <i>king of a country</i> is the most commonly used. This study attempts to trace the development of the place element modifying the title paired in apposition with a personal name in the tradition of vernacular English historiography as represented by the <i>Peterborough Chronicle</i>. There existed a strong tendency to specify a smaller land area (city, town, etc.) with the genitive form of the name of the place or with a prepositional phrase involving the place-name and a larger one (kingdom, shire, etc.) with the genitive form of the name of the people living there in Early Old English. In later periods, however, the prepositional phrase was left as the only place element available for either a smaller or larger land area. Various prepositions heading the prepositional phrase became limited during the Old English period to just one in Early Middle English. Thus, the shift from <i>people's king</i> to <i>king of a country</i> was almost complete in Early Middle English. These findings are related to more general patterns of syntactic change in the noun phrase in English to highlight their current relevance.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138825423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article revisits the interaction between regular ‘Neogrammarian’ sound change (defined as a purely phonological process) and subsequent morphological change (especially changes subsumed under the term ‘analogy’) in the development of the outcomes of Brugmann's Law (BL) in Indo-Iranian. The traditional formulation of BL states that Proto-Indo-European *o became Indo-Iranian /ā/ in open syllables and /a/ elsewhere, positing a purely phonological context of application. Alternatively, Kiparsky (2010) has argued for a revised version of BL in which the accent and ablaut properties of the affected forms play a role, hence essentially for a synchronic morphophonological rule. I argue that this revised version fails both from the perspective of comparative reconstruction and as a synchronic rule based on a detailed study of the forms cited as evidence for the revised rule. Rather, in order to identify inherited *o in Indo-Iranian the effects of the ‘blind’ Neogrammarian rule must be separated from the synchronic morphological rules of the attested languages. This paper thus makes a methodological contribution in defence of the Neogrammarian approach to sound change, but also an empirical contribution by showing that this approach, in combination with a strictly lexical definition of analogy, can account for some conspicuous exceptions to traditional BL.
{"title":"Sound Change and Analogy, Again: Brugmann's Law and the Hunt For O-Grades in Indo-Iranian*","authors":"Laura Grestenberger","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12272","url":null,"abstract":"This article revisits the interaction between regular ‘Neogrammarian’ sound change (defined as a purely phonological process) and subsequent morphological change (especially changes subsumed under the term ‘analogy’) in the development of the outcomes of Brugmann's Law (BL) in Indo-Iranian. The traditional formulation of BL states that Proto-Indo-European *<i>o</i> became Indo-Iranian /ā/ in open syllables and /a/ elsewhere, positing a purely phonological context of application. Alternatively, Kiparsky (2010) has argued for a revised version of BL in which the accent and ablaut properties of the affected forms play a role, hence essentially for a synchronic morphophonological rule. I argue that this revised version fails both from the perspective of comparative reconstruction and as a synchronic rule based on a detailed study of the forms cited as evidence for the revised rule. Rather, in order to identify inherited *<i>o</i> in Indo-Iranian the effects of the ‘blind’ Neogrammarian rule must be separated from the synchronic morphological rules of the attested languages. This paper thus makes a methodological contribution in defence of the Neogrammarian approach to sound change, but also an empirical contribution by showing that this approach, in combination with a strictly lexical definition of analogy, can account for some conspicuous exceptions to traditional BL.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language contact is pervasive in the history of all Eskaleut languages of the Pacific Rim, and the languages show contact effect regardless of typological similarity or degree of relatedness. Moreover, the degree of contact has allowed for the borrowing of features that are generally thought of as relatively impervious to borrowing, including verb inflection. In particular, Sirenikski has been in close contact with the closely related language Central Siberian Yupik, and contact effects on the phonology, prosodic system and lexicon have been well described, however, the verbal inflectional morphology has largely been assumed to be cognate. In this article, I present evidence that some elements of the inflectional paradigm have been borrowed from Central Siberian Yupik.
{"title":"Central Siberian Yupik Influence on Sirenikski Verbal Inflection","authors":"Anna Berge","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12274","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12274","url":null,"abstract":"Language contact is pervasive in the history of all Eskaleut languages of the Pacific Rim, and the languages show contact effect regardless of typological similarity or degree of relatedness. Moreover, the degree of contact has allowed for the borrowing of features that are generally thought of as relatively impervious to borrowing, including verb inflection. In particular, Sirenikski has been in close contact with the closely related language Central Siberian Yupik, and contact effects on the phonology, prosodic system and lexicon have been well described, however, the verbal inflectional morphology has largely been assumed to be cognate. In this article, I present evidence that some elements of the inflectional paradigm have been borrowed from Central Siberian Yupik.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138543328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thanks to the discovery in Mount Sinai Monastery of the Albanian palimpsest, which contains fragments of the Bible in an ancient form of Udi, this language has become the earliest attested member of the East Caucasian family. However, due to its long evolution in contact with unrelated languages, both old and modern Udi show many characteristics unknown to their closest relatives, including Differential Object Marking. Combined with ergative case marking, this feature results in a rare ‘tripartite alignment’. After describing the case marking of arguments in Lezgian, modern dialects of Udi and the three non-East Caucasian languages of the area (Tat, Azeri and Armenian) showing Differential Object Marking, we examine the available Old Udi / Caucasian Albanian data, compare them with data from Old Armenian, Old Turkic and Middle Iranian, and try to assess the best candidate for the source of the Udi phenomenon in the light of what is known about its history in terms of contact and sociolinguistic dominance.
{"title":"The Origin of Differential Object Marking and Tripartite Alignment in Udi (East Caucasian)","authors":"Gilles Authier","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12276","url":null,"abstract":"Thanks to the discovery in Mount Sinai Monastery of the Albanian palimpsest, which contains fragments of the Bible in an ancient form of Udi, this language has become the earliest attested member of the East Caucasian family. However, due to its long evolution in contact with unrelated languages, both old and modern Udi show many characteristics unknown to their closest relatives, including Differential Object Marking. Combined with ergative case marking, this feature results in a rare ‘tripartite alignment’. After describing the case marking of arguments in Lezgian, modern dialects of Udi and the three non-East Caucasian languages of the area (Tat, Azeri and Armenian) showing Differential Object Marking, we examine the available Old Udi / Caucasian Albanian data, compare them with data from Old Armenian, Old Turkic and Middle Iranian, and try to assess the best candidate for the source of the Udi phenomenon in the light of what is known about its history in terms of contact and sociolinguistic dominance.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"80 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>The study of language contact and contact-induced change has seen a rise in scholarly attention since Weinreich's <i>Languages in Contact</i> (<span>1953</span>), and especially after Thomason & Kaufman's (<span>1988</span>) <i>Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics</i>. Since then, numerous textbooks and handbooks (Heine & Kuteva <span>2005</span>; Matras <span>2007</span>, <span>2020</span>; Hickey <span>2010</span>, <span>2017</span>), edited volumes (Aikhenvald & Dixon <span>2001</span>, <span>2007</span>; Braunmüller et al. <span>2014</span>; Bianconi et al. <span>2022</span>), monographs (Chamoreau & Léglise <span>2012</span>; Coghill <span>2016</span>; Fendel <span>2022</span>; Meyer <span>2023</span>; Bianconi <span>forthcoming</span>) and dissertations, both on modern (Bisiada <span>2014</span>) and on ancient (Capano <span>2020</span>) languages have appeared. These dealt with a wide variety of aspects of language contact from different vantage points, frameworks and approaches – for instance, Thomason's (<span>2001</span>) socio-structural approach vs. Myers-Scotton's (<span>2002</span>) purely structural, model-based one.</p> <p>Among the types of contact-induced change, those affecting the morphosyntax of one of the languages in contact represent a hitherto comparatively understudied field – especially from a typological perspective. But these phenomena are of particular interest because they illustrate that even typologically uncommon changes to very basic patterns of a language can result from contact (e.g. changes in morphosyntactic alignment, cf. Coghill <span>2016</span>; Meyer <span>2019</span>, <span>2023</span>). Also, they suggest that speakers of a contact language index constructions with individual languages less strictly than we may assume intuitively (cf. e.g. Höder <span>2014</span>).</p> <p>In many such studies, the languages under examination are either well-attested historically, or there are still native speakers, with or without a contact background, who may be consulted. This availability of data allows for thorough diachronic studies (e.g. for English and Norman French) and for assessing the status of a potentially contact-induced change (e.g. grammaticalisation patterns in Spanish–American communities as reported by Fishman et al. <span>1971</span> respectively).</p> <p>Yet, the situation is considerably less clear in scenarios where contact took place prior to attestation (e.g. Parthian and Armenian) or where documentation has been minimal until relatively recent times (Amazonian languages and the languages of Papua New Guinea); where languages have no written tradition, but have influenced a written language (English and Romani; Lekoudesch and German); where languages are attested in different historical depth (Sanskrit and Dravidian); where contact-induced changes appear to be restricted in genre (Armenian and Greek; Egyptian and Greek); where dialects or varieties of the
{"title":"Contact-Induced Changes in Morphosyntax: An Introduction","authors":"Michele Bianconi, Robin Meyer","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12285","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The study of language contact and contact-induced change has seen a rise in scholarly attention since Weinreich's <i>Languages in Contact</i> (<span>1953</span>), and especially after Thomason & Kaufman's (<span>1988</span>) <i>Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics</i>. Since then, numerous textbooks and handbooks (Heine & Kuteva <span>2005</span>; Matras <span>2007</span>, <span>2020</span>; Hickey <span>2010</span>, <span>2017</span>), edited volumes (Aikhenvald & Dixon <span>2001</span>, <span>2007</span>; Braunmüller et al. <span>2014</span>; Bianconi et al. <span>2022</span>), monographs (Chamoreau & Léglise <span>2012</span>; Coghill <span>2016</span>; Fendel <span>2022</span>; Meyer <span>2023</span>; Bianconi <span>forthcoming</span>) and dissertations, both on modern (Bisiada <span>2014</span>) and on ancient (Capano <span>2020</span>) languages have appeared. These dealt with a wide variety of aspects of language contact from different vantage points, frameworks and approaches – for instance, Thomason's (<span>2001</span>) socio-structural approach vs. Myers-Scotton's (<span>2002</span>) purely structural, model-based one.</p>\u0000<p>Among the types of contact-induced change, those affecting the morphosyntax of one of the languages in contact represent a hitherto comparatively understudied field – especially from a typological perspective. But these phenomena are of particular interest because they illustrate that even typologically uncommon changes to very basic patterns of a language can result from contact (e.g. changes in morphosyntactic alignment, cf. Coghill <span>2016</span>; Meyer <span>2019</span>, <span>2023</span>). Also, they suggest that speakers of a contact language index constructions with individual languages less strictly than we may assume intuitively (cf. e.g. Höder <span>2014</span>).</p>\u0000<p>In many such studies, the languages under examination are either well-attested historically, or there are still native speakers, with or without a contact background, who may be consulted. This availability of data allows for thorough diachronic studies (e.g. for English and Norman French) and for assessing the status of a potentially contact-induced change (e.g. grammaticalisation patterns in Spanish–American communities as reported by Fishman et al. <span>1971</span> respectively).</p>\u0000<p>Yet, the situation is considerably less clear in scenarios where contact took place prior to attestation (e.g. Parthian and Armenian) or where documentation has been minimal until relatively recent times (Amazonian languages and the languages of Papua New Guinea); where languages have no written tradition, but have influenced a written language (English and Romani; Lekoudesch and German); where languages are attested in different historical depth (Sanskrit and Dravidian); where contact-induced changes appear to be restricted in genre (Armenian and Greek; Egyptian and Greek); where dialects or varieties of the ","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"183 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Ancient Greek datives in -essi have posed a longstanding challenge in Greek linguistics, with their traditional categorisation as ‘Aeolic’ but their widespread presence across Aeolic and non-Aeolic regions. This article investigates the origin and diffusion of this trait, examining both the early Greek evidence (in particular the Lesbian poets, Homer, and Mycenaean Greek) and that from specific areas, namely Sicily and Pamphylia, which are often overlooked despite their history of language contact. We argue that it is not necessary to have a single explanation for the origin and spread of -essi and that independent innovations in Greek dialects better account for the material. Despite the lack of a unitary account, we suggest that something comparable to the concept of “drift” could underlie such a development. By analysing the epigraphic evidence from Sicily and Pamphylia, we conclude that the presence of -essi cannot be solely attributed to contact in all the areas in which it is attested. This perspective challenges the notion of -essi as a strong dialectal isogloss useful for diachronic dialectal taxonomy. More generally, this case study confirms the importance of considering diachronic typology and language contact to gain a more comprehensive understanding of language change.
{"title":"The Ancient Greek Datives in -essi: Contact or Independent Innovations?1","authors":"Marta Capano, Michele Bianconi","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12282","url":null,"abstract":"The Ancient Greek datives in -<i>essi</i> have posed a longstanding challenge in Greek linguistics, with their traditional categorisation as ‘Aeolic’ but their widespread presence across Aeolic and non-Aeolic regions. This article investigates the origin and diffusion of this trait, examining both the early Greek evidence (in particular the Lesbian poets, Homer, and Mycenaean Greek) and that from specific areas, namely Sicily and Pamphylia, which are often overlooked despite their history of language contact. We argue that it is not necessary to have a single explanation for the origin and spread of -<i>essi</i> and that independent innovations in Greek dialects better account for the material. Despite the lack of a unitary account, we suggest that something comparable to the concept of “drift” could underlie such a development. By analysing the epigraphic evidence from Sicily and Pamphylia, we conclude that the presence of -<i>essi</i> cannot be solely attributed to contact in all the areas in which it is attested. This perspective challenges the notion of -<i>essi</i> as a strong dialectal isogloss useful for diachronic dialectal taxonomy. More generally, this case study confirms the importance of considering diachronic typology and language contact to gain a more comprehensive understanding of language change.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot, for example, to make a suggestion in I made the suggestion yesterday. The article examines direct-object structures with support-verb constructions in Greek documentary papyri from fourth- to mid-seventh-century Egypt. By the fourth century, Greek and Egyptian (at this stage called Coptic) had co-existed in Egypt for about a millennium and the latter was gaining ground. The article focusses on the support-verb-construction families surrounding ἐξουσίαν exousian ‘power’ and ἐγγύην egguēn ‘surety’ as well as on a selection of structures with ποιέομαι poieomai ‘to do’. The article finds that direct-object structures in the data sample have differing explanations. Direct-object patterns are a marginal pattern in classical Greek already, such that some patterns can be explained by inheritance or the extension of a pattern to new contexts. However, some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. The syntax of support-verb constructions in Greek does not run counter to the verbal syntax otherwise, which may aid the fact that they do not introduce systemic changes.
支持动词结构是动词和名词的组合，用于填补谓词槽，例如，在I made the suggestion yesterday中提出建议。本文考察了从4世纪到7世纪中期的埃及希腊文献纸莎草纸中的直接宾语结构和支持动词结构。到第四世纪，希腊语和埃及语(在这个阶段被称为科普特语)在埃及共存了大约一千年，后者正在取得进展。本文就着重那些坏家伙support-verb-construction家庭周围ἐξουσίανexousian“权力”和ἐγγύηνegguēn“保证人”以及结构的选择与ποιέομαιpoieomai‘做’。文章发现数据样本中的直接宾语结构有不同的解释。直接对象模式在古典希腊语中已经是一种边缘模式，因此有些模式可以通过继承或将模式扩展到新的上下文中来解释。然而，一些作家在个人或社会上更广泛地应用了基于科普特语平行的对象模式。在希腊语中，支持动词结构的句法并不与动词性句法相反，这可能有助于它们不会引起系统的变化。
{"title":"Support-Verb Constructions with Objects: Greek-Coptic Interference in the Documentary Papyri?1","authors":"Victoria Beatrix Fendel","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12279","url":null,"abstract":"Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot, for example, <i>to make a suggestion</i> in <i>I made the suggestion yesterday</i>. The article examines direct-object structures with support-verb constructions in Greek documentary papyri from fourth- to mid-seventh-century Egypt. By the fourth century, Greek and Egyptian (at this stage called Coptic) had co-existed in Egypt for about a millennium and the latter was gaining ground. The article focusses on the support-verb-construction families surrounding ἐξουσίαν <i>exousian</i> ‘power’ and ἐγγύην <i>egguēn</i> ‘surety’ as well as on a selection of structures with ποιέομαι <i>poieomai</i> ‘to do’. The article finds that direct-object structures in the data sample have differing explanations. Direct-object patterns are a marginal pattern in classical Greek already, such that some patterns can be explained by inheritance or the extension of a pattern to new contexts. However, some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. The syntax of support-verb constructions in Greek does not run counter to the verbal syntax otherwise, which may aid the fact that they do not introduce systemic changes.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The fields of linguistic typology, contact linguistics and historical linguistics frequently interact with one another and each draws on the insights gained in the others. To date, however, there is no effective and systematic cooperation between these subdisciplines, no database comparing the typological distribution of features with common outcomes or mechanisms of internal change and the results of contact-induced change. Seeking to lay the foundation for just such a cooperation, this paper outlines and critically discusses the necessity, advantages and inherent limitations of a typology of contact-induced change and how it may be used to better understand language change and language contact. It suggests that a database similar to WALS or Grambank, enriched with extra-linguistic information, would be a suitable starting point for such an endeavour. At the example of contact-induced morphosyntactic alignment change, some of the concrete issues of compiling a minimal dataset for one change are illustrated and the potential for typological insights highlighted.
{"title":"Towards a Typology of Contact-Induced Change Questions, Problems and the Path Ahead","authors":"Robin Meyer","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12283","url":null,"abstract":"The fields of linguistic typology, contact linguistics and historical linguistics frequently interact with one another and each draws on the insights gained in the others. To date, however, there is no effective and systematic cooperation between these subdisciplines, no database comparing the typological distribution of features with common outcomes or mechanisms of internal change and the results of contact-induced change. Seeking to lay the foundation for just such a cooperation, this paper outlines and critically discusses the necessity, advantages and inherent limitations of a typology of contact-induced change and how it may be used to better understand language change and language contact. It suggests that a database similar to WALS or Grambank, enriched with extra-linguistic information, would be a suitable starting point for such an endeavour. At the example of contact-induced morphosyntactic alignment change, some of the concrete issues of compiling a minimal dataset for one change are illustrated and the potential for typological insights highlighted.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The primary objective of this article is to expand the discussion on partitive-related phenomena diffusion in the prehistoric Circum-Baltic area by considering the role of early Germanic languages. The central message is that early Germanic languages have been historically overlooked in the study of partitive phenomena in the Circum-Baltic area, and this paper aims to address this oversight. After briefly discussing the main hypotheses related to the development and spread of partitive functions, the focus will shift to two understudied phenomena in early Germanic languages, namely the ‘genitive of quantification’ and the ‘genitive of negation’. It will be shown that these two phenomena were present in early Germanic languages, suggesting that they should be included in further studies concerned with contact in the prehistoric Circum-Baltic area.
{"title":"The Contribution of Germanic to the Expansion of Partitive-Related Phenomena in the Prehistoric Circum-Baltic Area1","authors":"Giacomo Bucci","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12281","url":null,"abstract":"The primary objective of this article is to expand the discussion on partitive-related phenomena diffusion in the prehistoric Circum-Baltic area by considering the role of early Germanic languages. The central message is that early Germanic languages have been historically overlooked in the study of partitive phenomena in the Circum-Baltic area, and this paper aims to address this oversight. After briefly discussing the main hypotheses related to the development and spread of partitive functions, the focus will shift to two understudied phenomena in early Germanic languages, namely the ‘genitive of quantification’ and the ‘genitive of negation’. It will be shown that these two phenomena were present in early Germanic languages, suggesting that they should be included in further studies concerned with contact in the prehistoric Circum-Baltic area.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Degrammaticalisation is an oft-dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo-Romance indefinite, covelle, a polarity-sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free-Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo-Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th-century Gallo-Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol cvël is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led cvël to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, co(n)sa, into a wh-word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item gnit. The development of covelle in Romagnol represents a well-documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.
{"title":"From Latin QUO(D) VELLES to Romagnol Cvël: A Case of Degrammaticalisation from a Free-choice Indefinite to the Noun ‘Thing’1","authors":"Nicola D’Antuono","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12277","url":null,"abstract":"Degrammaticalisation is an oft-dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo-Romance indefinite, <i>covelle</i>, a polarity-sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free-Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo-Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th-century Gallo-Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol <i>cvël</i> is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led <i>cvël</i> to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, <i>co</i>(<i>n</i>)<i>sa</i>, into a wh-word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item <i>gnit</i>. The development of <i>covelle</i> in Romagnol represents a well-documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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