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- Volume 23, Issue, 2006
Diachronica - Volume 23, Issue 2, 2006
Volume 23, Issue 2, 2006
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Grammation, regrammation, and degrammation: Tense loss in Russian
Author(s): Henning Andersenpp.: 231–258 (28)More LessTaking Heine’s (2003) characterization of Grammaticalization as its point of departure, this paper proposes an elementary framework, and corresponding terminology, for the description of the most common types of historical change in grammar (changes in content, content syntax, expression, and morphosyntax) and the types of innovation that give rise to them (neologism, extension, adoption, reanalysis, monolingual and bilingual). These basic conceptual tools of the historical linguist are illustrated with an analytic account of the development of the Russian tense–aspect system, from prehistory through the attested period. The account includes a plausible explication of the remarkable historical reduction in tense–aspect paradigms, from eight in Old Russian through five in Middle Russian to three in the modern language.
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Growing a numeral system: The historical development of numerals in an Amazonian language family
Author(s): Patience Eppspp.: 259–288 (30)More LessNumerals in many languages around the world can be argued to reflect a progressive build-up of historical stages (cf. Hurford 1987), each of which may also represent the synchronic upper limit of a numeral system in another language. This paper presents an intriguing test case of this claim by exploring the historical development of numerals in the languages of the Nadahup (Makú) family of the northwest Amazonian Vaupés region, in which the numeral strategies that can be inferred diachronically for one language are also represented synchronically in its sisters. The paper also demonstrates that even the most basic of the Nadahup numerals have transparent etymologies (a cross-linguistically unusual feature suggestive of their relatively recent development), and that areal diffusion contributed to the expansion of the systems, supporting the characterization of the Vaupés as a linguistic area.
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From prefixes to suffixes: Typological change in Northern Australia
Author(s): Mark Harvey, Ian Green and Rachel Nordlingerpp.: 289–311 (23)More LessThis article provides a counterexample to the commonly held, if unexamined, proposition that morphemes reconstructed as affixes do not change their position with respect to the root. We do not expect to find that a proto-prefix has suffix reflexes, nor that a proto-suffix has prefix reflexes. In this paper we show, through detailed reconstruction, that paradigms of class/case suffixes in a number of Northern Australian languages derive historically from a paradigm of proto-prefixes, through the encliticization and reduction of prefixed demonstratives to nominals. This process has only left a few traces of the demonstrative stems in the synchronic forms.
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Morphological factors in the grammaticalization of the Catalan “go” past
Author(s): Matthew L. Jugepp.: 313–339 (27)More LessThe Catalan periphrastic perfective past is a so-called “go” past: Vaig cantar, lit. “I-go to-sing”, “I sang” vs. Vaig allà, lit. “I-go there”, “I go there”. Its semantic development has been much discussed, but it presents morphological issues as well. Previous analyses ignore key morphological factors, especially the shift from the early mix of preterit and present auxiliary forms to exclusive use of the present and the development of several variant auxiliary forms. The auxiliary-plus-infinitive construction shares some but not all forms with the lexical verb anar “to go”. Early examples use mostly preterit auxiliary forms but later the small number of present forms grows and the preterit forms disappear. I argue that the present-preterit syncretism in the first person plural of anar, anam, allowed for reinterpretation of the construction as one with a present tense auxiliary rather than a preterit auxiliary. This analysis runs counter to the typical ‘narrative present’ account. Subsequently, the unique third person singular va allowed for new auxiliary forms influenced by the synthetic preterit. This case shows the importance for typological study of detailed analysis of this type to counterbalance the risk of superficial analysis inherent in crosslinguistic studies.
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Layering, competition and a twist of fate: Deontic modality in dialects of English
Author(s): Sali A. Tagliamonte and Jennifer Smithpp.: 341–380 (40)More LessThis paper examines an area of ongoing change in English — deontic modality — and uses an archive of synchronic dialect data from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to discover new information about its development. History records a cline in this system from must to have to to have got to. By taking a cross-dialectal perspective and utilizing comparative sociolinguistic methods we present a possible reconstruction of the later steps in this process. The results reveal dialectal contrasts in the proportion of older and newer forms, but similar patterns of use. Must is obsolescent and there is an unanticipated resurgence of have to alongside pan-dialectal grammatical reorganization: (1) have to is being used in contexts traditionally encoded by must and (2) have got to is specializing for indefinite reference. Young women are the leading edge in these developments suggesting that systemic adjustments in grammar combine with sociolinguistic influences to advance linguistic change.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 41 (2024)
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Volume 40 (2023)
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Volume 39 (2022)
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Volume 38 (2021)
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Volume 37 (2020)
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Volume 36 (2019)
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Volume 35 (2018)
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Volume 34 (2017)
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Volume 33 (2016)
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Volume 32 (2015)
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Volume 31 (2014)
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Volume 30 (2013)
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Volume 29 (2012)
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Volume 28 (2011)
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Volume 27 (2010)
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Volume 26 (2009)
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Volume 25 (2008)
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Volume 24 (2007)
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Volume 23 (2006)
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Volume 22 (2005)
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Volume 21 (2004)
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Volume 20 (2003)
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Volume 19 (2002)
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Volume 18 (2001)
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Volume 17 (2000)
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Volume 16 (1999)
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Volume 15 (1998)
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Volume 14 (1997)
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Volume 13 (1996)
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Volume 12 (1995)
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Volume 11 (1994)
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Volume 10 (1993)
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Volume 9 (1992)
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Volume 8 (1991)
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Volume 7 (1990)
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Volume 6 (1989)
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Volume 5 (1988)
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Volume 4 (1987)
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Volume 3 (1986)
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Volume 2 (1985)
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Volume 1 (1984)
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What happened to English?
Author(s): John McWhorter
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