Oliver Bond, Greville G. Corbett, Marina Chumakina, and Dunstan Brown (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198747291
- eISBN:
- 9780191809705
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198747291.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s ...
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Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s infrastructure and examine how the concrete predictions of their theories differ about the same data. This book represents the result of attempting to achieve this for syntactic theory, using data from Archi (Nakh–Daghestanian, Lezgic), an endangered language with an extremely complex agreement system. We undertake a controlled evaluation of three widely practised syntactic theories, through detailed examination of the theoretical principles underlying the mechanisms that model agreement. Our objective is to assess the tractability and predictive power of these leading models of syntax—Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism—using a complete set of data on an agreement system from a language that has not hitherto been analysed in these frameworks.Less
Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s infrastructure and examine how the concrete predictions of their theories differ about the same data. This book represents the result of attempting to achieve this for syntactic theory, using data from Archi (Nakh–Daghestanian, Lezgic), an endangered language with an extremely complex agreement system. We undertake a controlled evaluation of three widely practised syntactic theories, through detailed examination of the theoretical principles underlying the mechanisms that model agreement. Our objective is to assess the tractability and predictive power of these leading models of syntax—Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism—using a complete set of data on an agreement system from a language that has not hitherto been analysed in these frameworks.
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199683215
- eISBN:
- 9780191764912
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199683215.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
Linguistics is the science of language, similar to how mathematics is the science of numbers. A reference grammar is a scientific enterprise. It brings together a coherent treatment of each language ...
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Linguistics is the science of language, similar to how mathematics is the science of numbers. A reference grammar is a scientific enterprise. It brings together a coherent treatment of each language as a system where everything fits together, within the cultural, and historical, context of the language. This book introduces the principles and practice of writing a comprehensive reference grammar. The aim of this book is to offer a guide for creating a reference grammar based on empirical facts and combining description, interpretation, and analysis, spanning phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and semantics. The book consists of fifteen chapters and is accompanied by a Glossary of terms.Less
Linguistics is the science of language, similar to how mathematics is the science of numbers. A reference grammar is a scientific enterprise. It brings together a coherent treatment of each language as a system where everything fits together, within the cultural, and historical, context of the language. This book introduces the principles and practice of writing a comprehensive reference grammar. The aim of this book is to offer a guide for creating a reference grammar based on empirical facts and combining description, interpretation, and analysis, spanning phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and semantics. The book consists of fifteen chapters and is accompanied by a Glossary of terms.
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198803225
- eISBN:
- 9780191841415
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198803225.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This book focuses on the form and the function of commands—directive speech acts such as pleas, entreaties, and orders—from a typological perspective. A team of internationally renowned experts in ...
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This book focuses on the form and the function of commands—directive speech acts such as pleas, entreaties, and orders—from a typological perspective. A team of internationally renowned experts in the field examine the interrelationship of these speech acts with cultural stereotypes and practices, as well as their origins and development, especially in the light of language contact. The volume begins with an introduction outlining the marking and the meaning of imperatives and other ways of expressing commands and directives. Each of the chapters that follow then offers an in-depth analysis of commands in a particular language. These analyses are cast in terms of ‘basic linguistic theory’—a cumulative typological functional framework—and the chapters are arranged and structured in a way that allows useful comparison between them. The languages investigated include Quechua, Japanese, Lao, Aguaruna and Ashaninka Satipo (both from Peru), Dyirbal (from Australia), Zenzontepec Chatino (from Mexico), Nungon, Tayatuk, and Karawari (from Papua New Guinea), Korowai (from West Papua), Wolaitta (from Ethiopia), and Northern Paiute (a native language of the United States).Less
This book focuses on the form and the function of commands—directive speech acts such as pleas, entreaties, and orders—from a typological perspective. A team of internationally renowned experts in the field examine the interrelationship of these speech acts with cultural stereotypes and practices, as well as their origins and development, especially in the light of language contact. The volume begins with an introduction outlining the marking and the meaning of imperatives and other ways of expressing commands and directives. Each of the chapters that follow then offers an in-depth analysis of commands in a particular language. These analyses are cast in terms of ‘basic linguistic theory’—a cumulative typological functional framework—and the chapters are arranged and structured in a way that allows useful comparison between them. The languages investigated include Quechua, Japanese, Lao, Aguaruna and Ashaninka Satipo (both from Peru), Dyirbal (from Australia), Zenzontepec Chatino (from Mexico), Nungon, Tayatuk, and Karawari (from Papua New Guinea), Korowai (from West Papua), Wolaitta (from Ethiopia), and Northern Paiute (a native language of the United States).
Hilary M. Chappell (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198723790
- eISBN:
- 9780191791130
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723790.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This book presents brand new research into the great structural diversity found in Sinitic languages. While many studies focus principally on Standard Mandarin, this work draws on extensive empirical ...
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This book presents brand new research into the great structural diversity found in Sinitic languages. While many studies focus principally on Standard Mandarin, this work draws on extensive empirical data from lesser-known languages, and seeks to dispel many recurrent linguistic myths about the Sinitic language family. Part I presents findings that show the important interplay of research into diachronic linguistics and typology in China, beginning with a discussion of how to tackle the issue of linguistic diversity in Sinitic languages. Chapters in Part II examine the Sinitic languages from a crosslinguistic perspective with pan-Sinitic explorations of demonstrative paradigms; bare classifier phrases in relation to the coding of definiteness; and of the diachronic development of two main structures for comparatives of inequality with respect to issues in language contact. Part III is devoted to individual studies of linguistic micro-areas in China: Pinghua and the Guangxi Autonomous Region in the far South of China; Shaowu Min in the northwestern corner of Fujian province; the Wu dialect of Fuyang; and the Hui’an Southern Min dialect in the South of Fujian province.Less
This book presents brand new research into the great structural diversity found in Sinitic languages. While many studies focus principally on Standard Mandarin, this work draws on extensive empirical data from lesser-known languages, and seeks to dispel many recurrent linguistic myths about the Sinitic language family. Part I presents findings that show the important interplay of research into diachronic linguistics and typology in China, beginning with a discussion of how to tackle the issue of linguistic diversity in Sinitic languages. Chapters in Part II examine the Sinitic languages from a crosslinguistic perspective with pan-Sinitic explorations of demonstrative paradigms; bare classifier phrases in relation to the coding of definiteness; and of the diachronic development of two main structures for comparatives of inequality with respect to issues in language contact. Part III is devoted to individual studies of linguistic micro-areas in China: Pinghua and the Guangxi Autonomous Region in the far South of China; Shaowu Min in the northwestern corner of Fujian province; the Wu dialect of Fuyang; and the Hui’an Southern Min dialect in the South of Fujian province.
Jan Rijkhoff and Eva van Lier (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199668441
- eISBN:
- 9780191748707
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199668441.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of ‘flexible words’, i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. This is ...
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This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of ‘flexible words’, i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. This is because flexible words can -without special morphosyntactic marking- serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, ‘specialised’ word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like ‘predicating’ (verbal function), ‘referring’ (nominal function) or ‘modifying’ (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though languages with flexible word classes have been known to exist for more than a century, the phenomenon of lexical flexibility has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to remedy this situation by offering ten detailed studies on lexical word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. Each contributor to this volume is an expert on lexical flexibility, either because the author has studied lexical flexibility in a particular language, or because (s)he has investigated flexible word classes across languages. Furthermore, this collection of articles provides a variety of theoretical perspectives on the phenomenon of lexical flexibility. The book shows that the recognition and study of flexible words adds significantly to our understanding of the nature of human language and its place in human cognition.Less
This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of ‘flexible words’, i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. This is because flexible words can -without special morphosyntactic marking- serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, ‘specialised’ word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like ‘predicating’ (verbal function), ‘referring’ (nominal function) or ‘modifying’ (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though languages with flexible word classes have been known to exist for more than a century, the phenomenon of lexical flexibility has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to remedy this situation by offering ten detailed studies on lexical word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. Each contributor to this volume is an expert on lexical flexibility, either because the author has studied lexical flexibility in a particular language, or because (s)he has investigated flexible word classes across languages. Furthermore, this collection of articles provides a variety of theoretical perspectives on the phenomenon of lexical flexibility. The book shows that the recognition and study of flexible words adds significantly to our understanding of the nature of human language and its place in human cognition.
Martin Haspelmath
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198235606
- eISBN:
- 9780191851971
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198235606.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
Most of the world's languages have indefinite pronouns, that is, expressions such as someone, anything, and nowhere. This book presents an encyclopaedic investigation of indefinite pronouns in the ...
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Most of the world's languages have indefinite pronouns, that is, expressions such as someone, anything, and nowhere. This book presents an encyclopaedic investigation of indefinite pronouns in the languages of the world, mapping out the range of variation in their functional and formative properties. It shows that cross-linguistic diversity is severely constrained by a set of implicational universals and by a number of unrestricted universals. Topics include formal and functional types of indefinite pronoun, theoretical approaches to the functions of indefinite pronouns, the grammaticalization of indefinite pronouns, and negative indefinite pronouns.Less
Most of the world's languages have indefinite pronouns, that is, expressions such as someone, anything, and nowhere. This book presents an encyclopaedic investigation of indefinite pronouns in the languages of the world, mapping out the range of variation in their functional and formative properties. It shows that cross-linguistic diversity is severely constrained by a set of implicational universals and by a number of unrestricted universals. Topics include formal and functional types of indefinite pronoun, theoretical approaches to the functions of indefinite pronouns, the grammaticalization of indefinite pronouns, and negative indefinite pronouns.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker ...
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Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker 1997; Thomason 2003), due to the inability to trace it back to a single language family, with the majority of verbal elements coming from Plains Cree (Algonquian) and the majority of nominal elements coming from French (Indo-European). This book investigates Bakker’s (1997) often cited claim that the morphology of each source language is not reduced, with the language combining full French noun phrase grammar and Plains Cree verbal grammar. The book focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French-source noun phrase. While Michif has features that are obviously due to heavy contact with French (two mass/count systems, two plural markers, two gender systems), the Michif noun phrase mainly behaves like an Algonquian noun phrase. Even some of the French morphosyntax that it borrowed is used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian borrowings: the French-derived articles are only required on non-Algonquian nouns, and are used to make non-Algonquian borrowings visible to the Algonquian syntax. Michif is thus shown to be best characterized as an Algonquian language, with heavy French borrowing. With such a quintessentially ‘mixed’ language shown to essentially not mix grammars, the usefulness of this category for analysing synchronic patterns is questioned, much in the same way that scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) question the usefulness of the creole language classification.Less
Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker 1997; Thomason 2003), due to the inability to trace it back to a single language family, with the majority of verbal elements coming from Plains Cree (Algonquian) and the majority of nominal elements coming from French (Indo-European). This book investigates Bakker’s (1997) often cited claim that the morphology of each source language is not reduced, with the language combining full French noun phrase grammar and Plains Cree verbal grammar. The book focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French-source noun phrase. While Michif has features that are obviously due to heavy contact with French (two mass/count systems, two plural markers, two gender systems), the Michif noun phrase mainly behaves like an Algonquian noun phrase. Even some of the French morphosyntax that it borrowed is used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian borrowings: the French-derived articles are only required on non-Algonquian nouns, and are used to make non-Algonquian borrowings visible to the Algonquian syntax. Michif is thus shown to be best characterized as an Algonquian language, with heavy French borrowing. With such a quintessentially ‘mixed’ language shown to essentially not mix grammars, the usefulness of this category for analysing synchronic patterns is questioned, much in the same way that scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) question the usefulness of the creole language classification.
Martin Maiden
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199660216
- eISBN:
- 9780191800375
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199660216.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
This book is the first ever comprehensive comparative–historical survey of patterns of alternation in the Romance verb that appear to be autonomously morphological in the sense that, although they ...
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This book is the first ever comprehensive comparative–historical survey of patterns of alternation in the Romance verb that appear to be autonomously morphological in the sense that, although they can be shown to be persistent through time, they have long ceased to be conditioned by any phonological or functional determinant. Some of these patterns are well known in Romance linguistics, while others have scarcely been noticed. The sheer range of phenomena that participate in them far surpasses what Romance linguists had previously realized. The patterns constitute a kind of abstract leitmotif, which runs through the history of the Romance languages and confers on them a distinctive morphological phsyiognomy. Although intended primarily as a novel contribution to comparative–historical Romance linguistics, the book considers in detail the status of patterns that appear to be, in the terminology of Mark Aronoff, ‘morphomic’: a matter of ‘morphology by itself’, unsupported by determining factors external to the morphological system. Particular attention is paid to the problem of their persistence, self-replication, and reinforcement over time. Why do abstract morphological patterns that quite literally do not make sense display such diachronic robustness? The evidence suggests that speakers, faced with different ways of expressing semantically identical material, seek out distributional templates into which those differences can be deployed. In Romance, the only available templates happen to be morphomic, morphologically accidental effects of old sound changes or defunct functional conditionings. Those patterns are accordingly exploited and reinforced by being made maximally predictable.Less
This book is the first ever comprehensive comparative–historical survey of patterns of alternation in the Romance verb that appear to be autonomously morphological in the sense that, although they can be shown to be persistent through time, they have long ceased to be conditioned by any phonological or functional determinant. Some of these patterns are well known in Romance linguistics, while others have scarcely been noticed. The sheer range of phenomena that participate in them far surpasses what Romance linguists had previously realized. The patterns constitute a kind of abstract leitmotif, which runs through the history of the Romance languages and confers on them a distinctive morphological phsyiognomy. Although intended primarily as a novel contribution to comparative–historical Romance linguistics, the book considers in detail the status of patterns that appear to be, in the terminology of Mark Aronoff, ‘morphomic’: a matter of ‘morphology by itself’, unsupported by determining factors external to the morphological system. Particular attention is paid to the problem of their persistence, self-replication, and reinforcement over time. Why do abstract morphological patterns that quite literally do not make sense display such diachronic robustness? The evidence suggests that speakers, faced with different ways of expressing semantically identical material, seek out distributional templates into which those differences can be deployed. In Romance, the only available templates happen to be morphomic, morphologically accidental effects of old sound changes or defunct functional conditionings. Those patterns are accordingly exploited and reinforced by being made maximally predictable.
