Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-829981-3 (ISBN)
Two languages can resemble each other in the categories, constructions, and types of meaning they use, and in the forms they employ to express these. Such resemblances may be the consequence of universal characteristics of language, of chance or coincidence, of the borrowing by one language of another's words, or of the diffusion of grammatical, phonetic, and phonological characteristics that takes place when languages come into contact. Languages sometimes show likeness because they have borrowed not from each other but from a third language. Languages that come from the same ancestor may have similar grammatical categories and meanings expressed by similar forms: such languages are said to be genetically affiliated.
This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble one another. Its editors and authors aim (a) to explain and identify the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and (b) to discover the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another. The introduction outlines the issues that underlie these aims, introduces the chapters which follow, and comments on recurrent conclusions by the contributors. The problems are formidable and the pitfalls numerous: for example, several of the authors draw attention to the inadequacy of the family tree diagram as the main metaphor for language relationship.
The authors range over Ancient Anatolia, Modern Anatolia, Australia, Amazonia, Oceania, Southeast and East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book includes an archaeologist's view on what material evidence offers to explain cultural and linguistic change, and a general discussion of which kinds of linguistic feature can and cannot be borrowed. The chapters are accessibly-written and illustrated by twenty maps. The book will interest all students of the causes and consequences of language change and evolution.
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald is Associate Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University in Melbourne. She has published on the Berber languages of North Africa, the Manambu language of New Guinea, and the Arawak languages of South America (grammars of Bare and Warekena have appeared and a comprehensive study of Tariana is almost complete). She is author of A Grammar of Modern Hebrew (1990), and her Grammar of Biblical Hebrew is in press. Her theoretical publications include work on evidentiality and Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices (OUP 2000). She is currently working on language contact and universals of borrowings. R. M. W. Dixon, who is Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, has written grammars of five Australian languages -- most notably Dyirbal (1972) and Yidiny (1977) -- and of Boumaa Fijian (1988), in addition to A New Approach to English Grammar, on Semantic Principles (OUP 1991). His theoretical contributions have included work on noun classes, adjective classes, the volume Ergativity (1994), and his acclaimed essay 'The Rise and Fall of Languages' (1997). He is currently completing a full-scale comparative study of the Australian lingusitic area, and a comprehensive study of the Jarawara language (Arawá family, Brazil).
1. Introduction ; 2. Archaeology and the Historical Determinants of Punctuation in Language-Family Origins ; 3. An Indo-European Linguistic Area and its Characteristics: Ancient Anatolia. Areal Diffusion as a Challenge to the Comparative Method? ; 4. The Australian Linguistic Area ; 5. Descent and Diffusion: The Complexity of the Pilbara Situation ; 6. Contact-Induced Change in Oceanic Languages in North-West Melanesia ; 7. Areal Diffusion, Genetic Inheritance, and Problems of Subgrouping: A North Arawak Case Study ; 8. Linguistic Diffusion in Present-Day East Anatolia: From Top to Bottom ; 9. The Role of Migration and Language Contact in the Development of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family ; 10. On Genetic and Areal Linguistics in Mainland South-East Asia: Parallel Polyfunctionality of 'Acquire' ; 11. Genetic Versus Contact Relationship: Prosodic Diffusibility in South-East Asian Languages ; 12. Language Contact and Areal Diffusion in Sinitic Languages ; 13. Areal Diffusion Versus Genetic Inheritance: An African Perspective ; 14. Convergence and Divergence in the Development of African Lanaguages ; 15. What Language Features can be 'Borrowed'?
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 22.11.2001 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Explorations in Linguistic Typology |
| Zusatzinfo | numerous figures and maps |
| Verlagsort | Oxford |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 163 x 243 mm |
| Gewicht | 819 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-829981-8 / 0198299818 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-829981-3 / 9780198299813 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
aus dem Bereich
