Veröffentlicht von De Gruyter Mouton

Studies in Language Change [SLC]

Herausgegeben von: Cynthia Allen, Harold Koch, Malcolm Ross und Don Daniels

ISSN: 2163-0992

Übersicht
Bände

Studies in Language Change presents empirically based research that extends knowledge about changes in languages over time and historical relations among the world’s languages without restriction to any particular language family or region. While not devoted explicitly to theoretical explanations, the series hopes to contribute to the advancement in understandings of language change as well as adding to the store of well-analysed historical-comparative data on the world’s languages. The series also covers synchronic studies of earlier stages of languages which can serve as a basis for investigation of developments in later stages of those languages.

To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Meredith Keffer.

Information zu Autoren / Herausgebern

Cynthia Allen, Harold Koch, Malcolm Ross, Australian National University, Canberra; Don Daniels, University of Oregon, USA.

Fachgebiete

Buch Noch nicht erschienen 2024

Proto-Australian

Reconstruction of a Common Ancestor Language

Mark Harvey, Robert Mailhammer

Band 24 in dieser Reihe

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This book is the first full evaluation of the Proto-Australian hypothesis, which proposes that most Australian languages have a common ancestor: Proto-Australian [PA]. Using the standard methodologies of historical linguistics, the authors show that nearly all Australian languages descend from PA. Given that PA was a single language, it was spoken only in a small area of Australia. Its descendants have spread across the continent. Current theories of language spread do not offer clear motivations for large-scale spread in hunter-gatherer economies. This raises significant questions for analyses of Australian prehistory and archaeology specifically, and more widely for general theories of hunter-gatherer prehistory and language spread.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783111421889
ISBN:: 9783111421889
ISBN:: 9783111422206
ISBN:: 9783111421445
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Australische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Pama-Nyungan-Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Nicht-Pama-Nyungan-Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Australische Sprachen, andere
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2023

Oblique Subjects in Germanic

Their Status, History and Reconstruction

Jóhanna Barðdal

Band 21 in dieser Reihe

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Pulling together the threads of forty years of research on oblique subjects in the Germanic languages, this book introduces a novel approach to grammatical relations, based on a definition of subject as the first argument of the argument structure. New data are presented from Gothic, Old Saxon, Old Norse-Icelandic, Old Swedish and Old Danish, as well as from Icelandic, Faroese and German. This includes alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat predicates, where either argument, the dative or the nominative, takes on subject behavior. The subject concept is modeled with the formalism of Construction Grammar, both synchronically and for the purpose of reconstructing grammatical relations for Proto-Germanic.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111078014
ISBN:: 9783111078014
ISBN:: 9783111078076
ISBN:: 9783111077840
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Beschreibungsebenen
Fachgebiet:: Syntax
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Fachgebiet:: Konstruktionsgrammatik
Fachgebiet:: Germanische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Germanische Sprachen, allgemein
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch Noch nicht erschienen 2025

The Diachronic Development of Modal Expressions in Chinese

From Late Archaic to Middle Chinese

Barbara Meisterernst

Band 18 in dieser Reihe

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The present study is the first to apply a syntactic approach to the grammaticalization of Chinese modals, based on hypotheses on cross-linguistic diachronic developments of modals from lexical to functional categories as upward movement on a functional spine. The temporal framework of the study covers Late Archaic and Middle Chinese. Early Middle Chinese is a crucial turning point for the development of Chinese from a more synthetic to a more analytic language. This change is attributed e.g. to the loss of a former morphology, which also affects the modal system. Against this background, the negative cycle of Chinese, the relevance of polarity contexts, and the development of a new system of deontic, epistemic and future markers are analyzed.

In addition to a comprehensive analysis of the syntactic processes involved in the diachronic changes of the Chinese modal system, the study also provides a comparison with the syntax of grammaticalization of the thoroughly discussed Germanic modals. This constitutes a broad basis for further analyses of the changes in the Chinese language during its long written history, but also for cross-linguistic studies on the syntax of grammaticalization and on linguistic universals.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110733013
ISBN:: 9783110733013
ISBN:: 9783110733037
ISBN:: 9783110737783
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Asiatische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Sino-tibetische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Chinesisch
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Beschreibungsebenen
Fachgebiet:: Syntax
Fachgebiet:: Wichtige Linguisten
Fachgebiet:: Chomsky
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2020

Grammatical Reconstruction

The Sogeram Languages of New Guinea

Don Daniels

Band 16 in dieser Reihe

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There is still widespread disagreement among historical linguists about how, or whether, syntactic reconstruction can be done. This book presents a comprehensive methodology for syntactic reconstruction, grounded in a constructional understanding of language. The author then uses that methodology to reconstruct Proto-Sogeram, the ancestor to ten languages in Papua New Guinea. Chapters are devoted to phonology, lexicon, verbal morphosyntax, nominal morphosyntax, and syntactic constructions. The work culminates in a sketch of Proto-Sogeram grammar. Based largely on the author's original fieldwork, this is an innovative application of a novel methodology to new data, and the most complete reconstruction of a Papuan proto-language to date. It will be of interest to scholars of language change, language reconstruction, typology, and Papuan languages.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110616217
ISBN:: 9783110616217
ISBN:: 9783110777130
ISBN:: 9783110615142
ISBN:: 9783110616569
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Sprachen der Pazifikinseln
Fachgebiet:: Papua-Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Beschreibungsebenen
Fachgebiet:: Phonologie
Fachgebiet:: Syntax
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2017

Merchants of Innovation

The Languages of Traders

Esther-Miriam Wagner, Bettina Beinhoff, Ben Outhwaite

Band 15 in dieser Reihe

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Traders around the world use particular spoken argots, to guard commercial secrets or to cement their identity as members of a certain group. The written registers of traders, too, in correspondence and other commercial texts show significant differences from the language used in official, legal or private writing. This volume suggests a clear cross-linguistic tendency that mercantile writing displays a greater degree of language mixing, code-switching and linguistic innovations, and, by setting precedents, promote language change.

This interdisciplinary volume aims to place the traders' languages within a wider sociolinguistic context. Questions addressed include: What differences can be observed between mercantile registers and those of court or legal scribes? Do the traders' texts show the early emergence of features that take longer to permeate into the 'higher' varieties of the same language? Do they anticipate language change in the standard register or influence it by setting linguistic precedents? What sets traders' letters apart from private correspondence and other 'low' registers? The book will also examine bilingualism, semi-bilingualism, reasons for code-switching and the choice of particular languages over others in commercial correspondence.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501503542
ISBN:: 9781501503542
ISBN:: 9781501511608
ISBN:: 9781501503412
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2017

Spanish Clitics on the Move

Variation in Time and Space

Elisabeth Mayer

Band 14 in dieser Reihe

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This volume explores the complex relationship between primary agreement by means of object marking or differential object marking (DOM), and secondary agreement through clitics in non-standardized variation data from Limeño Spanish contact varieties (LSCV). As such it is concerned with diachronic as well as synchronic morphosyntactic variation of the third person object pronoun paradigm, so called clitics, as used in Standard Spanish and non-standardized Spanish contact dialects. The argumentation as well as the data presented cross diachronic and synchronic boundaries.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614514213
ISBN:: 9781614514213
ISBN:: 9781614515883
ISBN:: 9781501500886
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Fachgebiet:: Romanische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Spanisch
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2015

Iconicity and Analogy in Language Change

The Development of Double Object Clitic Clusters from Medieval Florentine to Modern Italian

Janice M. Aski, Cinzia Russi

Band 13 in dieser Reihe

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This book examines the alternation between accusative-dative and dative-accusative order in Old Florentine clitic clusters and its decline in favor of the latter. Based on an exhaustive analysis of data collected from medieval Florentine and Tuscan texts we offer a novel analysis of the rise of the variable order, the transition from one order to the other, and the demise of the alternation that relies primarily on iconicity and analogy. The book employs exophoric pragmatic iconicity, a language-external iconic relationship based on similarity between linguistic structure and the speaker/writer's conceptualization of reality, and endophoric iconicity, a language-internal iconic relationship where the iconic ground is construed between linguistic signs and structures. Analogy is viewed as a productive process that generalizes patterns or extends grammatical rules to formally similar structures, and obtains the form of the analogical relationship between the masculine singular definite article and the third person singular accusative clitic, which shared the same phonotactically constrained distribution patterns. The data indicate that exophoric pragamatic iconicity exploits and maintains the alternation, whereas endophoric iconicity and analogy conspire to end it.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516392
ISBN:: 9781614517528
ISBN:: 9781614516392
ISBN:: 9781501500985
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Fachgebiet:: Romanische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Italienisch
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2013

Prepositional Clauses in Spanish

A Diachronic and Comparative Syntactic Study

Manuel Delicado Cantero

Band 12 in dieser Reihe

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This book presents an analysis of Spanish prepositional clauses (< P + CP >) - complement and adverbial clauses. The goal is to examine the syntax and evolution of those clauses and their components in Spanish, contrasting them with other European languages.
Prepositional argument and adjunct clauses are grammatical in present-day Spanish. However, Medieval Spanish only attests the latter; the former were not frequent until the 16th/17th centuries. Both types are examined in their syntactic evolution and properties, including clausal nominality, argumenthood, nature of prepositions, and optionality.
Latin and Portuguese, French, and Italian - both in their present-day and past forms - are studied and compared to Spanish. Likewise, several Germanic languages are surveyed. These languages show variable grammatical degrees of < P + CP >. The comparison reveals aspects which challenge the commonly accepted conclusions about the clausal patterns of each language.
This study offers a novel approach to the analysis of Spanish prepositional clauses by looking at its properties and formation not only from within but also in contrast with other languages. It argues for cross-linguistically valid categories and explanations in order to comprehend the properties of human language.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510628
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-061-1
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-062-8
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Fachgebiet:: Romanische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Spanisch
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2013

Lexical and Structural Etymology

Beyond Word Histories

Robert Mailhammer

Band 11 in dieser Reihe

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Traditionally, etymology is concerned with the study of lexical items. However, in this book etymology is understood more generally as a research approach concerned with the question of how a particular word or structure came into existence. As a result, etymology can investigate the origin of words (lexical etymology) but also structural elements, such as morphemes and constructions (structural etymology). This pioneer volume assembles thirteen etymological studies over a broad range of languages, ranging from Europe to Australia and the Pacific, focusing in particular on Australian Indigenous languages. The phenomena investigated in the contributions comprise the origin of Australian Indigenous place names and kinship terms, constructions and word histories in Oceanic languages, typological investigations as well as papers on the methodology of etymological research. This volume is intended for a scholarly audience including intermediate and advanced university students with an interest in historical linguistic, especially in etymology, but also semantics, toponymy and language contact.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510581
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-059-8
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-058-1
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Generative Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2013

Scribes as Agents of Language Change

Esther-Miriam Wagner, Ben Outhwaite, Bettina Beinhoff

Band 10 in dieser Reihe

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The majority of our evidence for language change in pre-modern times comes from the written output of scribes. The present volume deals with a variety of aspects of language change and focuses on the role of scribes. The individual articles, which treat different theoretical and empirical issues, reflect a broad cross-linguistic and cross-cultural diversity. The languages that are represented cover a broad spectrum, and the empirical data come from a wide range of sources. This book provides a wealth of new data and new perspectives on old problems, and it raises new questions about the actual mechanisms of language change.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510543
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-050-5
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-054-3
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Historische Linguistik
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton