- Home
- e-Journals
- Diachronica
- Previous Issues
- Volume 25, Issue, 2008
Diachronica - Volume 25, Issue 3, 2008
Volume 25, Issue 3, 2008
-
Bantu Spirantization: Morphologization, lexicalization and historical classification
Author(s): Koen Bostoenpp.: 299–356 (58)More LessThis paper examines the irregular application of the sound change commonly known as ‘Bantu Spirantization (BS)’ — a particular type of assibilation — in front of certain common Bantu morphemes. This irregularity can to a large extent be explained as the result of the progressive morphologization (through ‘dephonologization’) and lexicalization to which the sound shift was exposed across Bantu. The interaction with another common Bantu sound change, i.e. the 7-to-5-vowel merger, created the conditions necessary for the morphologization of BS, while analogy played an important role in its blocking and retraction from certain morphological domains. Differing morpho-prosodic constraints are at the origin of the varying heteromorphemic conditioning of BS. These uneven morphologization patterns, especially before the agentive suffix -i, were entrenched in the lexicon thanks to the lexicalization of agent nouns. The typology of Agent Noun Spirantization (ans) developed in this paper not only contributes to a better understanding of the historical processes underlying the varying patterns of BS morphologization and lexicalization, but also to internal Bantu classification. The different ANS types are geographically distributed in such a way that they allow to distinguish major Bantu subgroups. From a methodological point of view, this article thus shows how differential morphologization and lexicalization patterns can be used as tools for historical classification.
-
No limits to borrowing: The case of Bai and Chinese
Author(s): Lee Yeon-Ju and Laurent Sagartpp.: 357–385 (29)More LessBased on the large amount of Chinese-related basic vocabulary in Bai, scholars like Benedict, Starostin and Zhengzhang have claimed a special phylogenetic proximity between Bai and Chinese. In this paper we show that the Chinese vocabulary in Bai is stratified, forming successive layers of borrowings. We identify three such layers, describing the sound correspondences which characterize each of them: two Mandarin layers, one local, one regional for modern words; and an early Chinese layer, acquired during a long and complex period of intimate contact between Bai and Chinese, beginning in Han times and terminating in Late Tang, altogether a millennium or so. This last layer is subdivided into several sub-layers. The remaining part of the vocabulary forms the Bai indigenous layer, whose affiliation is clearly Sino-Tibetan, without having any particular proximity to Chinese. In particular, the numerals “1” and “2” have etymological connections among non-Chinese Sino-Tibetan languages such as Jingpo, Sulung and Tangut. The numerals above “2” are Chinese loanwords and even the numerals “1” and “2” have less colloquial variants of Chinese origin. Bai is of interest to comparative linguistics for the extraordinary amount of basic vocabulary it has borrowed from Chinese, all of it during the early period: 47% of the 100-word Swadesh list.
-
The phylogenesis of hypotaxis in Vedic
Author(s): Carlotta Vitipp.: 386–409 (24)More LessHypotaxis has been found since the earliest records of Vedic, especially for relative and adverbial functions. However, some adverbial relations more often resort to alternative structures such as clause juxtaposition, nominalization, or particles. The principles underlying the inconsistent representation of hypotaxis remain unclear. My analysis of clause linkage strategies in the Rig-Veda shows that non-hypotactic constructions are used preferentially for relations, such as purpose or concession, that are considered complex in studies of the ontogenesis of hypotaxis in first language acquisition. This suggests that the spread of hypotaxis follows a cognitive path of increasing complexity through the diachronic stages of Vedic. Moreover, the different entrenchment of some adverbial relations, particularly of conditionals, in Vedic with respect to ontogenetic studies allows us to refine the concept of cognitive complexity in the adverbial domain, and to consider it as a contrast to the speaker’s expectations rather than to the extra-linguistic world, as it is usually seen.
Volumes & issues
-
Volume 41 (2024)
-
Volume 40 (2023)
-
Volume 39 (2022)
-
Volume 38 (2021)
-
Volume 37 (2020)
-
Volume 36 (2019)
-
Volume 35 (2018)
-
Volume 34 (2017)
-
Volume 33 (2016)
-
Volume 32 (2015)
-
Volume 31 (2014)
-
Volume 30 (2013)
-
Volume 29 (2012)
-
Volume 28 (2011)
-
Volume 27 (2010)
-
Volume 26 (2009)
-
Volume 25 (2008)
-
Volume 24 (2007)
-
Volume 23 (2006)
-
Volume 22 (2005)
-
Volume 21 (2004)
-
Volume 20 (2003)
-
Volume 19 (2002)
-
Volume 18 (2001)
-
Volume 17 (2000)
-
Volume 16 (1999)
-
Volume 15 (1998)
-
Volume 14 (1997)
-
Volume 13 (1996)
-
Volume 12 (1995)
-
Volume 11 (1994)
-
Volume 10 (1993)
-
Volume 9 (1992)
-
Volume 8 (1991)
-
Volume 7 (1990)
-
Volume 6 (1989)
-
Volume 5 (1988)
-
Volume 4 (1987)
-
Volume 3 (1986)
-
Volume 2 (1985)
-
Volume 1 (1984)
Most Read This Month
Article
content/journals/15699714
Journal
10
5
false

-
-
What happened to English?
Author(s): John McWhorter
-
- More Less