Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity, Volume 1
Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity, Volume 1

Author: Bernhard Wälchli

Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press

Published: 2020-10-09

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9781013294648

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world's languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. This volume is complemented by volume two, which consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity I
Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity I

Author: Francesca Di Garbo

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 3961101787

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world’s languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. In addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, volume one contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia. This volume is complemented by volume two, which consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity.

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity II
Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity II

Author: Francesca Di Garbo

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 3961101809

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world’s languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. Volume two consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity. This volume is preceded by volume one, which, in addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia.

A Grammar of Coastal Marind
A Grammar of Coastal Marind

Author: Bruno Olsson

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 698

ISBN-13: 311074712X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This grammar provides the first modern, comprehensive description of Coastal Marind. It is a Papuan language spoken by the coastal-dwelling Marind-Anim, formerly expansionistic head-hunters of the Southern New Guinea lowlands. Like the other languages of the poorly known Anim family, Coastal Marind features astonishingly complex verb morphology and a range of unusual phenomena, including indexing of up to four arguments on the verb, verbal marking of focus (the 'Orientation' system), engagement prefixes tracking the attention of the addressee, and a system of four genders realised by intricate agreement patterns. The structure of the language is examined in a detailed but accessible way, and its many complexities are brought to life by contextualised spontaneous data, drawn from a rich audio-visual corpus.

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL
Celebrating 50 years of ACAL

Author: Akinbiyi Akinlabi

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published:

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 3961103097

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs.

Cross-Categorial Classification
Cross-Categorial Classification

Author: Serge Sagna

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-03-07

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 3110636328

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Languages in which non-finite verbs (infinitives, gerunds etc.) are classified using the same linguistic means as nouns are rare. This typologically unusual phenomenon is found in some Atlantic (Niger-Congo) languages, including Jóola languages like Eegimaa, Fogny and Kwatay, where several different noun class/gender prefixes (NCPs) are used to classify both nouns and verbs. In this book, it is argued following Sagna (2008), that these parallel morphosyntactic classifications in the nominal domain and verbal domains also reflect parallel semantic categorisation of entities and events. The main topics investigated in this book are word class flexibility between nouns and verbs, non-finiteness, noun class/gender (where morphological classes are analysed separately from agreement classes) and the semantic principles underlying the categorisation of entities and events. One of the central findings proposed in this book is that instances of NCP alternations on non-finite verbs reflect strategies of event delimitation. This book will be of interest to scholars investigation parts-of-speech systems, finiteness, systems of nominal and verbal classification, and linguistic categorization.

The Tocharian Gender System
The Tocharian Gender System

Author: Alessandro Del Tomba

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 9004532897

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As one of the most debated categories of Tocharian nominal morphology, grammatical gender is in this book investigated from the point of view of Indo-European comparative reconstruction, by applying the methods of historical linguistics, Tocharian philology, and typological linguistics.

Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity II
Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity II

Author: Francesca Di Garbo

Publisher:

Published: 2019-10-04

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9783961101818

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world's languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. Volume two consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity. This volume is preceded by volume one, which, in addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia.

Nominal Classification in Asia and Oceania
Nominal Classification in Asia and Oceania

Author: Marc Allassonnière-Tang

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2023-12-01

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9027249245

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Linguists have long been interested in systems of nominal classification due to their diverse functions as well as cognitive and cultural correlates. Among others, ongoing research has focused on semantic, functional and morphosyntactic properties of complex systems such as co-occurring gender and numeral classifiers. Such approaches have typically focused on the languages of north-western South America and Papua New Guinea. This volume proposes to fill in a gap in existing research by focusing on Asia, based on case studies from languages belonging to a wide range of families, i.e., Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Hmong-Mien, Indo-European, Mongolic, Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai as well as the language isolate Nivkh. Gender and classifiers in these languages are approached within several different perspectives, i.e., functional, typological and diachronic, thus revealing complex patterns in their lexical and pragmatic functions as well as origin, development and loss. Describing and analysing such properties is a unique and innovative contribution of the volume.

The Adaptive Value of Languages: Non-linguistic Causes of Language Diversity, volume II
The Adaptive Value of Languages: Non-linguistic Causes of Language Diversity, volume II

Author: Antonio Benítez-Burraco

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2024-03-18

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 2832546463

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Research Topic is the second volume of "The Adaptive Value of Languages: Non-Linguistic Causes of Language Diversity". Please see the first volume here.The goal of this Research Topic is to shed light on the non-linguistic causes of language diversity and, specifically, to explore the possibility that some aspects of the structure of languages may result from an adaptation to the natural and/or human-made environment. Traditionally, language diversity has been claimed to result from random, internally-motivated changes in language structure. Ongoing research suggests instead that different factors that are external to language can promote language change and ultimately account for aspects of language diversity. Accordingly, linguistic complexity has been found to correlate with features of the social environment, such as the absence of cross-cultural exchanges or the number of native speakers. Likewise, language structure could be influenced by the physical environment, as the effect of dry climates on tone seemingly shows. Finally, core properties of human languages, like duality of patterning, have been argued to result from iterative learning and cultural evolution, as research in village sign languages illustrates. On the whole this means that some aspects of languages could be an adaptation to ecological, social, or even technological niches. Eventually, certain gene alleles, provided that they bias language acquisition or processing, may affect language change through iterated cultural transmission, and ultimately, to language structure.