An Areal Typology of Agreement Systems
An Areal Typology of Agreement Systems

Author: Ranko Matasović

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-05-24

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 110836909X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Surveying over 300 languages, this typological study presents new theoretical insights into the nature of agreement, as well as empirical findings about the distribution of agreement patterns in the world's languages. Focussing primarily on agreement in gender, number and person, but with reference to agreement in other smaller categories, Ranko Matasović aims to discover which patterns of agreement are widespread and common in languages, and which are rather limited in their distribution. He sheds new light on a range of important theoretical questions such as what agreement actually is, what areal, typological and genetic patterns exist across agreement systems, and what problems in the analysis of agreement remain unresolved.

Sub-Indo-European Europe
Sub-Indo-European Europe

Author: Guus Kroonen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-10-21

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 3111337928

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The dispersal of the Indo-European language family from the third millennium BCE is thought to have dramatically altered Europe's linguistic landscape. Many of the preexisting languages are assumed to have been lost, as Indo-European languages, including Greek, Latin, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic and Armenian, dominate in much of Western Eurasia from historical times. To elucidate the linguistic encounters resulting from the Indo-Europeanization process, this volume evaluates the lexical evidence for prehistoric language contact in multiple Indo-European subgroups, at the same time taking a critical stance to approaches that have been applied to this problem in the past.

The Lingua Franca
The Lingua Franca

Author: Natalie Operstein

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-11-17

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 1009003305

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whose name is hidden behind the anonymity of the key publication on Mediterranean Lingua Franca? What linguistic reality does the label 'Lingua Franca' conceal? These and related questions are explored in this new book on an enduringly important topic. The book presents a typologically informed analysis of Mediterranean Lingua Franca, as documented in the Dictionnaire de la langue franque ou petit mauresque, which provides an important historical snapshot of contact-induced language change. Based on a close study of the Dictionnaire in its historical and linguistic context, the book proposes hypotheses concerning its models, authorship and publication history, and examines the place of the Dictionnaire's Lingua Franca in the structural typological space between Romance languages, on the one hand, and pidgins, on the other. It refines our understanding of the typology of contact outcomes while at the same time opening unexpected new avenues for both linguistic and historical research.

Introduction to Typology
Introduction to Typology

Author: Lindsay J. Whaley

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780803959637

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ideal in introductory courses dealing with grammatical structure and linguistic analysis, Introduction to Typology overviews the major grammatical categories and constructions in the world's languages. Framed in a typological perspective, the constant concern of this primary text is to underscore the similarities and differences which underlie the vast array of human languages.

Dialectology meets Typology
Dialectology meets Typology

Author: Bernd Kortmann

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-22

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 3110197324

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In what ways can dialectologists and language typologists profit from each others' work when looking across the fence? This is the guiding question of this volume, which involves follow-up questions such as: How can dialectologists profit from adopting the large body of insights in and hypotheses on language variation and language universals familiar from work in language typology, notably functional typology? Vice versa, what can typologists learn from the study of non-standard varieties? What are possible contributions of dialectology to areal typologies and the study of grammaticalization? What are important theoretical and methodological implications of this new type of collaboration in the study of language variation? The 18 contributors, among them many distinguished dialectologists, sociolinguists and typologists, address these and other novel questions on the basis of analyses of the morphology and syntax of a broad range of dialects (Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Aryan).

Studies in African Linguistic Typology
Studies in African Linguistic Typology

Author: F. K. Erhard Voeltz

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-03-22

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9027293570

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The twenty-one papers that make up this volume reflect the broad perspective of African linguistic typology studies today. Where previous volumes would present language material from a very restricted area and perspective, the present contributions reflect the global interest and orientation of current African linguistic studies. The studies are nearly all implicational in nature. Based upon a detailed survey of a particular linguistic phenomenon in a given language or language area conclusions are drawn about the general nature about this phenomenon in the languages of Africa and beyond. They represent as such a first step that may ultimately lead to a more thorough understanding of African linguistic structures. This approach is well justified. Taking the other road, attempting to pick out linguistic details from often fairly superficially documented languages runs the risk that the data and its implications for the structure investigated might be misunderstood. Consequentially only very few studies of this nature giving the very broad perspective, the overview of a particular structure type covering the whole African continent are represented here.

Explaining Language Structure through Systems Interaction
Explaining Language Structure through Systems Interaction

Author: Zygmunt Frajzyngier

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-11-27

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 9027295565

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book proposes a framework for describing languages through the description of relationships among lexicon, morphology, syntax, and phonology. The framework is based on the notion of formal coding means; the principle of functional transparency; the notion of functional domains; and the notion of systems interaction in the coding of functional domains. The study is based on original analyses of cross-linguistic data.The fundamental finding of the study is that different languages may code different functional domains, which must be discovered by analyzing the formal means available in each language. The first part of the book proposes a methodology for discovering functional domains and the second part describes the properties of various functional domains. The book presents new cross-linguistic analyses of theoretical issues including agreement; phenomena attributed to government; nominal classification; prerequisites for and implications of linear order coding; and defining characteristics of lexical categories. The study also contributes new analyses of specific problems in individual languages.

The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics
The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics

Author: Anousha Sedighi

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-08-03

Total Pages: 694

ISBN-13: 0191056421

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the field of Persian linguistics, discusses its development, and captures critical accounts of cutting edge research within its major subfields, as well as outlining current debates and suggesting productive lines of future research. Leading scholars in the major subfields of Persian linguistics examine a range of topics split into six thematic parts. Following a detailed introduction from the editors, the volume begins by placing Persian in its historical and typological context in Part I. Chapters in Part II examine topics relating to phonetics and phonology, while Part III looks at approaches to and features of Persian syntax. The fourth part of the volume explores morphology and lexicography, as well as the work of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. Part V, language and people, covers topics such as language contact and teaching Persian as a foreign language, while the final part examines psycho- neuro-, and computational linguistics. The volume will be an essential resource for all scholars with an interest in Persian language and linguistics.

Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance
Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance

Author: Aleksandra I︠U︡rʹevna Aĭkhenvalʹd

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 9780199283088

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble each other. Its distinguished authors investigate the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and reveal the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another. The chapters cover Ancient Anatolia, Modern Anatolia, Australia, Amazonia, Oceania, Southeast and East Asia, and Sub-Saharan. Africa. - ;Two languages can resemble each other in the categories, constructions, and types of meaning they use; and in the fo.

Advances in Iranian Linguistics
Advances in Iranian Linguistics

Author: Richard K. Larson

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2020-07-15

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 9027260931

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together selected papers from the first North American Conference in Iranian Linguistics, which was organized by the linguistics department at Stony Brook University. Papers were selected to illustrate the range of frameworks, diverse areas of research and how the boundaries of linguistic analysis of Iranian languages have expanded over the years. The contributions collected in this volume address advancing research and complex methodological explorations in a broad range of topics in Persian syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, typology and classification, as well as historical linguistics. Some of the papers also investigate less-studied and endangered Iranian languages such as Tat, Gilaki and Mazandarani, Sorani and Kurmanji Kurdish, and Zazaki. The volume will be of value to scholars in theoretical frameworks as well as those with typological and diachronic perspectives, and in particular to those working in Iranian linguistics.