Diachronica - Volume 34, Issue 2, 2017

This paper looks at the cross-linguistically rare phenomenon of number suppletion in adjectives. I consider how such suppletion arises by looking at six known examples with a special focus on the Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), which are discussed as an extended case study. Three generalisations are suggested on the basis of the typological study. First, adjectives denoting size (“small” and “big”) are at the centre of this phenomenon. Second, where the etymology of the adjectives is known, the plural member of the suppletive pair for “small” develops from a lexeme denoting something having been divided into or consisting of small parts. These lexemes can also be used with some singular nouns and in such cases they denote the component structure of the referent. Finally, adjectives with number suppletion tend to mark plural number consistently in environments in which plural marking is otherwise optional or rare.

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the main sources of antipassive constructions based on a 120-language sample. The sample includes the 48 languages with an antipassive in the WALS ( Polinsky 2013 ) + 72 further languages in which an antipassive or a functionally equivalent construction is attested (e.g., deobjective constructions, unspecified object constructions, etc.). The diachronic sources of antipassives are identified drawing on two kinds of evidence: (i) etymological reconstructions based on the comparative method; (ii) synchronic resemblance between (some features of) the source construction and (some features of) the target construction. Four main diachronic sources are recurrent in the sample: (i) agent nominalizations; (ii) generic/indefinite items filling the object position (e.g., “person” for animate objects, “(some)thing” for inanimate objects); (iii) action nominalizations, sometimes accompanied by a light verb like “do”; and (iv) morphemes encoding reflexive/reciprocal actions. For each of these sources, a diachronic scenario is proposed through which the antipassive construction might have come into existence. The article also explores the hypothesis that at least some of the functional and structural differences among antipassive constructions across languages may be explained by taking into account the diachronic sources of these constructions.

Chocó Spanish is an Afro-Hispanic dialect spoken in the Pacific lowlands of Colombia. This variety is characterized by the presence of double-negative constructions (neg2) (i.e., yo no como no “I do not eat”), which have repeatedly been classified in the literature as the contemporary traces of a previous Afro-Portuguese creole stage for this vernacular. The present paper provides linguistic and sociohistorical evidence offering an alternative explanation. In particular, neg2 is analyzed as an archaic morphosyntactic trait which already existed in 15th–19th century Spanish and which has been preserved in Chocó Spanish and other conservative Afro-Hispanic vernaculars of Latin America.

Hittite conditionals exhibit some morphosyntactic peculiarities which are not yet fully understood, such as the conditional conjunction takku derived from a demonstrative plus “and”, some unexpected alternations from past to present and the irrealis particle (-)man used in hypothetical, potential and contrary-to-fact conditionals. Cross-linguistically these features are not frequent, and inheritance from Proto-Indo-European cannot be claimed. A close look into the syntax and semantics of (Peripheral) Akkadian and Sumerian reveals that they may be innovations due to language contact between Hittite and Semitic languages. This fact deserves appropriate consideration in the reconstruction of Proto-Anatolian and Proto-Indo-European.