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Diachronica - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
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Continuity and change in the evolution of French yes-no questions
Author(s): Philip Comeau, Ruth King and Carmen L. LeBlancAvailable online: 13 June 2022More LessAbstractThis present study contributes to research on the structure of yes-no questions in French. Informed by previous historical linguistic research tracing developments from the Old French period onwards, we focus on qualitative analysis of grammatical commentary and variationist analysis of Acadian French spoken-language data. We compare the evolution of yes-no questions in Acadian, Metropolitan, and Quebec French, reconstructing the history of variants up to the present. While in most cases we encounter slow-moving change, we do find inter-varietal differences in degree of retention of individual variants, including outright loss; in development of stylistic differentiation; and in analogically based innovation. We also find inter-varietal differences in grammatical constraints governing usage and in the fine detail regarding sentential polarity, illuminated in terms of the semantico-pragmatic functions of negative yes-no questions. The overall results underline the importance of considering sociolinguistic histories, including histories of dialect contact, along with local linguistic markets.
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Correlated grammaticalization
Author(s): David GoldsteinAvailable online: 01 June 2022More LessAbstractGrammaticalization is characterized by robust directional asymmetries (e.g., Kuteva et al. 2019 ). For instance, body-part nominals develop into spatial adpositions, minimizers develop into negation markers and subject pronouns become agreement markers. Changes in the opposite direction are either rare or unattested ( Garrett 2012 : 52). Such robust cross-linguistic asymmetries have led some scholars to reify grammaticalization trajectories as universal mechanistic forces ( Heath 1998 : 729). One consequence of such a view is that the ambient morphosyntax of a language has little or even no relevance for grammaticalization. This paper uses Bayesian phylogenetic methods to demonstrate the critical role that pre-existing morphosyntax can play in grammaticalization. The empirical basis for this claim is the grammaticalization of definite and indefinite articles in the history of Indo-European: indefinite articles developed at a faster rate among languages in which a definite article had already emerged compared to those lacking a definite article. The two changes are thus correlated. The results of this case study suggest that there is much more to be learned about when and why grammaticalization occurs by investigating its relationship to the pre-existing linguistic system (cf. Reinöhl and Himmelmann 2017 : 381).
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Origins of Dogon NP tonosyntax
Author(s): Jeffrey HeathAvailable online: 01 June 2022More LessAbstractLike other complex morphosyntactic and morphophonological structures that are endemic to single language families, Dogon NP tonosyntax is the result of the fortuitous interlocking of diachronically unrelated processes and constructions. It arose due to the following combination: (a) right-headed prosodic pattern in noun-modifier sequences; (b) loss of numeral classifiers which had previously protected nouns from the right-headed prosodic pattern when followed by numerals; and (c) transfer of tones from possessors to following possessums. Although none of these phenomena were semantically driven, the resulting configuration could only be reinterpreted by native speakers in semantic terms, creating a completely new system unique to Dogon. In spite of having arisen accidentally, this tonosyntactic system is quite stable. One of its benefits is the unusual solution it provided (at no extra charge) to a perennial problem in the design of relative constructions.
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Is Malayo-Polynesian a primary branch of Austronesian?
Author(s): Victoria Chen, Jonathan Kuo, Maria Kristina S. Gallego and Isaac SteadAvailable online: 16 May 2022More LessAbstractAn understudied morphosyntactic innovation, reanalysis of the Proto-Austronesian (PAn) stative intransitive prefix *ma- as a transitive affix, offers new insights into Austronesian higher-order subgrouping. Malayo-Polynesian is currently considered a primary branch of Austronesian, with no identifiably closer relationship with any linguistic subgroup in the homeland ( Blust 1999 , 2009/2013 ; Ross 2005 ). However, the fact that it displays the same innovative use of ma- with Amis, Siraya, Kavalan and Basay-Trobiawan and shares the merger of PAn *C/t with this group suggests that Malayo-Polynesian and East Formosan may share a common origin – the subgroup that comprises the four languages noted above. This observation points to a revised subgrouping more consistent with a socio-historical picture where the out-of-Taiwan population descended from a seafaring community expanding to the Batanes and Luzon after having developed a seafaring tradition. It also aligns with recent findings in archaeology and genetics that (i) eastern Taiwan is the most likely starting point of Austronesian dispersal ( Hung 2005 , 2008 , 2019 ; Bellwood 2017 ; Bellwood & Dizon 2008 ; Carson & Hung 2018 ) and (ii) that the Amis bear a significantly closer relationship with Austronesian communities outside Taiwan ( Capelli et al. 2001 ; Trejaut et al. 2005 ; McColl et al. 2018 ; Pugach et al. 2021 ; Tätte et al. 2021 ). Future investigation of additional shared innovations between Malayo-Polynesian and East Formosan could shed further light on their interrelationships.
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Copying form without content
Author(s): Brigitte PakendorfAvailable online: 26 April 2022More LessAbstractTwo major types of change are generally distinguished in language contact studies: the transfer of linguistic form (frequently taken to include transfer of concomitant meaning or function) and the transfer of structural and semantic patterns by themselves, without attendant form. A type of change that is less frequently discussed is so-called relexification. This involves the transfer of form without model-language semantic or syntactic specifications that is grafted onto an equivalent recipient-language lemma. Relexification has been suggested to play a role in the development of mixed languages or creoles, but as is shown here, it can also be identified in several ordinary situations of language contact from around the world. This type of change represents a mirror image of the transfer of patterns without lexical material and supports recent models of language selection in bilinguals.
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Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread
Available online: 08 April 2022More LessAbstractThe widespread Uralic family offers several advantages for tracing prehistory: a firm absolute chronological anchor point in an ancient contact episode with well-dated Indo-Iranian; other points of intersection or diagnostic non-intersection with early Indo-European (the Late Proto-Indo-European-speaking Yamnaya culture of the western steppe, the Afanasievo culture of the upper Yenisei, and the Fatyanovo culture of the middle Volga); lexical and morphological reconstruction sufficient to establish critical absences of sharings and contacts. We add information on climate, linguistic geography, typology, and cognate frequency distributions to reconstruct the Uralic origin and spread. We argue that the Uralic homeland was east of the Urals and initially out of contact with Indo-European. The spread was rapid and without widespread shared substratal effects. We reconstruct its cause as the interconnected reactions of early Uralic and Indo-European populations to a catastrophic climate change episode and interregionalization opportunities which advantaged riverine hunter-fishers over herders.
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Preverbal a-marking in Palenquero Creole
Author(s): Hiram L. SmithAvailable online: 25 March 2022More LessAbstractFormally similar grammatical features in a creole and its genetic or areal relatives may indicate substrate transfer, lexifier influence, or grammaticalization. Against this backdrop, the present study investigates the origin(s) of the preverbal past marker a in Palenquero Creole (Colombia). Results from distributional analysis and tests for significance indicate that several diachronically-related meanings are a-marked at rates approaching obligatory, suggesting advanced grammaticalization. Comparative results for Peninsular haber + PP suggest that past marking has grammaticalized much further in half the time in Palenquero Creole than in its lexifier, Spanish. Why? I argue, against traditional accounts about the origins of a, that, given the contact history of Palenquero speakers, most likely a pre-existing Kikongo prefixal form merged with an already grammaticalizing haber, thus propelling grammaticalization in the creole. The synchronic patterning shows adherence to typological patterns observed for perfectives in line with well-known constraints on competition and selection in contact languages, such as their grammatical congruence or particular social ecologies.
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What happened to English?
Author(s): John McWhorter
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