Linguistics

This book presents findings from a long-term study of a range of complex predicate types subsumed under the heading, Auxiliary Verb Constructions (AVCs), drawing on a database of over 800 languages. Chapter 1 discusses how the terms auxiliary verb and auxiliary verb construction are understood, and then provides an overview of the kinds of functional categories that AVCs serve to encode. A cursory typology is offered of the patterns of encoding inflectional/morphosyntactic/ functional semantic categories in AVCs, and notions of functional and formal headedness within AVCs are introduced. Five macro-patterns of inflection emerge, each with several sub-patterns. Chapters 2 to 5 are dedicated to the presentation of the varied sub-types of inflectional patterns seen in AVCs. These are called the AUX-headed, LEX-headed, doubled, and the split and split/doubled patterns. Each of these is extensively exemplified. In the final two chapters, various aspects of the diachronic origins of AVCs are discussed. Chapter 6 discusses where AVCs go once they have been grammaticalized, offering a range of complex verb forms that have derived from each of the inflectional macro-patterns of AVCs. Chapter 7 discusses diachronic origins of AVCs. This includes a discussion of both typical lexical source semantics for the grammaticalization paths of individual functional subtypes of AVC as well as the syntactic source construction types for each of the five macro-patterns and some of their more common sub-patterns. These source constructions draw into the discussion of how auxiliary verb constructions fit within the broadest possible typology of complex predicate phenomena. It offers an analysis of not only AVCs, but also such related complex predicate phenomena as serial verb constructions, verb complement structures, coordinate and clause chaining constructions, ‘light’ verbs, etc.

This book examines the grammatical changes that took place in the transition from Latin to the Romance languages. The emerging language underwent changes in three fundamental areas involving the noun phrase, verb phrase, and the sentence. The impact of the changes can be seen in the reduction of the Latin case system; the appearance of auxiliary verb structures to mark such categories as tense, mood, and voice; and a shift towards greater rigidification of word order. The book considers how far these changes are interrelated and compares their various manifestations and pace of change across the different standard and non-standard varieties of Romance. It describes the historical background to the emergence of the Romance varieties and their Latin ancestry, considering in detail the richly documented diachronic variation exhibited by the Romance family. The book reviews the accounts and explanations that have been proposed within competing theoretical frameworks, and considers how far traditional ideas should be reinterpreted in light of recent theoretical developments. This account shows that the transition from Latin to Romance is not only of great intrinsic interest, but both provides a means of challenging linguistic orthodoxies and presents opportunities to shape new perspectives on language change, structure, and variation.

This history of the Spanish lexicon is written from the interacting perspectives of linguistic and cultural change and in the light of advances in the study of language contact and lexical change. The book describes the language inherited from spoken Latin in the Iberian Peninsula during six centuries of Roman occupation and examines the degree to which it imported words from the languages — of which only Basque survives — of pre-Roman Spain. It then shows how Germanic words were imported either indirectly through Latin or Old French or directly by contact with the Visigoths. The book describes the importation of Arabisms following the eighth-century Arab conquest of Spain, distinguishing those documented in medieval sources from those adopted for everyday use, many of which survive in modern Spanish. It considers the influence of Old French and Old Provençal and identifies late direct and indirect borrowings from Latin, including the Italian elements taken up during the Renaissance. After outlining minor influences from languages such as Flemish, Portuguese, and Catalan, the book examines the effects on the lexicon of contact between Spanish and the indigenous languages of South and Central America, and the impact of contact with English.

Languages of the Amazon basin are among the most fascinating in the world. This is where one finds unusual sounds, unexpected ways of classifying nouns, elaborate positional verbs, to name just a few features. Most Amazonian languages have been in contact with each other for many generations. Many people are multilingual, and the unusual patterns of multilingualism have given rise to intriguing patterns of language contact, extensive linguistic areas, and numerous features shared due to contact between people There are over 300 languages grouped into over fifteen language families, plus a fair number of isolates. The six major linguistic families of the Amazon basin are Arawak, Tupí, Carib, Panoan, Tucanoan and Macro‐Jê; smaller families include Makú, Guahibo, Yanomami, Witotoan, Zaparoan, Tacana, Harakmbet, Arawá and Chapacuran. Discussion in the book also includes, albeit in more cursory fashion, language families spoken in the areas adjacent to Lowland Amazonia: Chibchan, Barbacoan, Choco, and Guaicuruan. The book starts with a potted history of Amazonian peoples and their languages, and the disastrous effects of the European invasion. After a brief discussion of cultural aspects and people's lifestyle, the profile of each major and minor family are outlined. There is then discussion of the unusual patterns of language contact and multilingual interaction. Further chapters discuss the sounds of Amazonian languages; the ways in which they express possession, gender, and time and tense. In many Amazonian languages one needs to always state how one knows things, known as the category of ‘evidentiality’. Amazonian languages are relatively poor in number words, but rich in elaborate speech styles and means of expression. The book offers extensive examples, many from author's own fieldwork in Amazonia.

The book presents a detailed comparative description of the phonological structure of Icelandic and Faroese and discusses problems in their analysis from a fairly broad theoretical perspective. The first part (Chapters 1–3) describes the historical relation between the languages and introduces some issues regarding their phonological analysis. Part II (Chapters 4–7) gives an overview of the segmental inventory of the two sound systems. Part III (Chapters 8–10) presents analyses of the syllable structure of the two languages and systemic relations between subsystems defined for different phonotactic positions. It also treats the rules for the distribution of long and short vowel nuclei. Part IV (Chapters 11–12) describes vocalic and consonantal morphophonemics, discussing the status, in inflectional paradigms and word formation, of umlaut and ablaut alternations and patterns such as those responsible for the distribution of preaspiration. Part V gives an overview of rhythmic relations in words and phrases in the two languages, ending with descriptions of intonational patterns in the two languages.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the phonology of Japanese, based on Japanese and Western materials and the author’s original research. It provides a rich source of materials and critical discussion of some current problems, reviewing previously published analyses and proposing solutions. Focussing on modern standard (Tôkyô) Japanese, with occasional excurses into major dialectical variations and historical backgrounds, the book offers both a critical synthesis of Japanese phonology and new analyses on some of its central features. Starting with the vowel inventory, the phonology of high vowel devoicing, insertion and elision, prosodic lengthening and shortening, and the status of diphthongs, it moves to the consonant system and the phonology of voicing, and to the so-called moraic segments. The chapter dedicated to the prosodic units provides a detailed and original analysis of the relation between the mora and syllable, one of the key issue of Japanese phonology, not to forget the foot and the prosodic word. It argues that the mora and the foot are sufficient for the comprehension and analysis of the phonology of Japanese. The final and longest chapter is devoted to accent, through descriptions and analyses of simplex and compound noun accentuation, default accentuation, the underlying accent of Sino-Japanese morphemes and that of numeral compounds to name just a few. It also addresses the question of the typological status of the Japanese accent in relation to tone.

This book takes on the question of language variety, addressing the question of why some language types are impossible and why some grammatical features are more common than others. The task of trying to explain typological variation among languages has been mainly undertaken by functionally-oriented linguists. Generative grammarians entering the field of typology in the 1980s put forward the idea that cross-linguistic differences could be explained by linguistic parameters within Universal Grammar, whose operation might vary from language to language. Unfortunately, this way of looking at variation turned out to be much less successful than was hoped for. The alternative to parameters is presented, which combines leading ideas from functionalist and formalist approaches that in the past have been considered incompatible. It throws fresh light on language typology and variation, and provides new insights into the principles of Universal Grammar.

This book describes the diversity of serial verb constructions within Oceanic languages and constitutes a full account of this unusual linguistic phenomenon. Serial verb constructions are sequences of verbs placed one after another to express meanings which in other languages are typically expressed by means of single verbs. It has long been established that languages in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea are serializing languages, but the construction has only comparatively recently been recognized in Oceanic languages, which belong to a very large subgroup of the Austronesian family. Based on research throughout the Pacific region, the book demonstrates that patterns of serial verbs can exhibit structural diversity even within a single language, and examines how serial verbs originate. It also investigates issues such as language contact and functional issues in language change. Serial verbs are often subject to reanalysis and this book investigates how they have developed new grammatical functions in different languages.