Variation and reconstruction / edited by Thomas D. Cravens.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cravens, Thomas D.

Series:

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Current issues in linguistic theory ; Series IV, v. 268.

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, 0304-0763 ; v. 268

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Variation.

Language and languages.

Reconstruction (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : Johns Benjamins Pub., c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The relation of language variation to reconstructed languages and to the methodology of reconstruction has long been neglected. The articles in the present volume consider this relationship from a number of different angles, with a number of different focuses. Several of the papers discuss evidence from Germanic, either Proto-Germanic (Joseph, Schwink), or daughter languages such as Dutch (Goss & Howell), Afrikaans (Roberge), Newcastle English (Milroy), and a Wisconsin German dialect (Geiger & Salmons). Other papers look at Italian (Cravens), Spanish (Harris-Northall), and the non-Indo-European languages or families Aramaic (Miller), and Proto-Hmong-Mien (Ratliff), and the Southeast Asian languages Phan Rang Cham and Tsat (Thurgood). In doing so they bring together a number of interconnected issues which are of current concern in comparative and historical linguistics.

Contents:

VARIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION

Editorial page

Title page

Copyright page

Table of contents

FOREWORD

VARIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

2. Overview

3. Naturalness

4. Granularity

5. Methodologies f or reconstructing variation

6. The role of the speaker

7. Conclusion

REFERENCES

MICROVARIABILITY IN TIME AND SPACE RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST FROM THE PRESENT

1. Background

1.1. Italian's Tuscan origins

1.2. The state of the question

2. /p t k/ in Tuscany today

2.1 The stereotypical norm

2.2 Variation in modern Tuscan - beyond spirantization

2.3 Variation in the valley of Buti

3. The hypothesis

4. Other evidence

4.1 Old Tuscan variants

4.2 Toponyms

5. Summary

6. Conclusion

Appendix. Tuscan toponyms with voicing

RECONSTRUCTING VARIATION AT SHALLOW TIME DEPTHS THE HISTORICAL PHONETICS OF 19TH CENTURY GERMAN DIALECTS IN THE U.S.

2. Real-time data and shallow time-depth reconstruction

3. VOT data from Standard German, American English and German dialects

4. Dane County Kölsch

5. VOT variation in Dane County Kölsch

6. A note on English VOTs of Kölsch speakers

7. Conclusion: What does this mean for the study of variation and reconstruction?

SOCIAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DUTCH URBAN DIALECTS IN THEEARLY MODERN PERIOD

2. Demographics of early modern European cities

3. Case study: The Hague in the 17th century

4. Conclusion

REDUCTION OF VARIATION AS A FEATURE OF THE STANDARDIZATION OF CASTILIAN SPANISH AROUND 1500

ON PROJECTING VARIATION BACK INTO A PROTO-LANGUAGE WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO GERMANIC EVIDENCE AND SOME THOUGHTS ON "DRIFT

1. Introduction.

2. Methodological preliminaries and some (relatively) easy case studies involving phonology

3. Similar cases involving morphology and the lexicon

4. Some problems and consequences for reconstruction

5. Towards solutions - Cases where proto-variation makes sense

6. Some concluding remarks

VARIATION OF DIRECT SPEECH COMPLEMENTIZERS IN ACHAEMENID ARAMAIC DOCUMENTS FROM FIFTH CENTURY B.C.E. EGYPT

2. Diachronic considerations

2.1. Etymological origins

2.2. Diachronic distribution

3. Syntactic features

3.1 Pmr as a complementizer

3.2 lm as a complementizer

3.3 Summary

4. Legal expressions using direct speech

4.1 The praescriptio

4.2 Waiver clauses

4.3 Complaint and penalty clauses

4.4 Divorce clause

4.5 Summary

5. Sociolinguistic factors

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Problematic sociolinguistic features

5.3 Principal

5.4 Individual scribal practice

6. Conclusions

LANGUAGE CHANGE AND THE SPEAKERON THE DISCOURSE OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

2. Speaker-based accounts in historical linguistics

3. Intentionality and change

4. On the discourse of historical linguistics

5. Ideological influences on descriptive language histories

6. Sociolinguistics and language change

7. The Final Release Rule in Newcastle

8. Concluding remarks

PREFIXVARIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION

2. Hmong-Mien nominal prefixes today: form, function, and distribution

2.1 Prefix form and function

2.2 Age of the prefix system and distribution of prefixes within the family

3. Cross-linguistic prefix variation

4. Prefix pre-emption

5. Nominal prefixes within the context of proto-Hmong-Mien disyllabism

5.1 The interpretation of consonant clusters

5.2 The disyllabic origins of tonal morphology.

5.3 Connections to external disyllabics

ON RECONSTRUCTING A LINGUISTIC CONTINUUM IN CAPE DUTCH (1710-1840)

1. Setting

2. Postulates regarding the instantiation of variation in Cape Dutch

3. A linguistic continuum at the Cape (1710-1840)

4. Further to the reconstruction of sociolinguistic space at the old Cape

5. Conclusion

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF VARIABILITY IN PROTO-GERMANIC GENDER

Formulaic Reconstruction

Approaching variation

Gender

Variable assignment of gender to specific nouns

Variation in gender resolution rules

Variation in gender marking strategies and the agreement hierarchy

Variationist Theory and the Evaluation of a Reconstruction

VARIATION AS A REFLECTION OF CONTACT NOTES FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA

2. The data

3. Systematic variation in proto: probably contact

4. Conclusions

INDEX OF CONCEPTS AND LANGUAGES

The series Current Issues in Linguistic Theory.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613092342

9789027285256

902728525X

9781283092340

1283092344

OCLC:

713025936