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Failing One’s Obligations: Defectiveness in Rumantsch Reflexes* of DĒBĒRE

Stephen R. Anderson

in Defective Paradigms: Missing Forms and What They Tell Us

This chapter examines the Surmiran dialect which is a form of Swiss Rumantsch. Surmiran is a Romance language which is one of the spoken languages in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The ... More

This chapter examines the Surmiran dialect which is a form of Swiss Rumantsch. Surmiran is a Romance language which is one of the spoken languages in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The emphasis of this chapter is on a single verb which lacks many of the forms other verbs possess, hence forcing the speakers to use a distinct, but almost synonymous verb as an alternative. Treated within a broader context, the verb dueir in Sumiran which is a Latin reflex of the dēbēre, provides an opportunity to evaluate how gaps should be treated within the context of Optimal Theory. This defectiveness in the Surmiran dueir was a result of the morphologization of the vowel alternations of the Swiss Rumantsch.Less

On Morphomic Defectiveness: Evidence from the Romance Languages of the Iberian Peninsula1

Martin Maiden and Paul O’neill

in Defective Paradigms: Missing Forms and What They Tell Us

This chapter discusses the overall paradigmatic distribution of gaps in the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula. It revisits the Spanish data from a historical and comparative perspective, ... More

This chapter discusses the overall paradigmatic distribution of gaps in the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula. It revisits the Spanish data from a historical and comparative perspective, considering the closely related language, Portuguese. Ibero-Romance paradigm gaps are determined by the lexical rarity and the morphemic patterning. Paradigm gaps are also affected by ‘low speaker confidence’. This behaviour defines the avoidance of allomorphy even in the absence of reasonable grounds to expect the occurrence of allomorphy. Such behaviour is triggered by the speaker's sensitivity to a major distributional pattern of root allomorphy in Spanish and Portuguese such as that in non-first conjunction verbs, the first person singular present indicative together with all persons and numbers of the present subjunctive in shared root allomorph. In addition to determining the defectiveness in the Ibero-Romance languages, the chapter also provides a discussion on the general domains and determinants of defectiveness.Less

Modal and Temporal Aspects of Habituality *

Nora Boneh and Edit Doron

in Lexical Semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure

We argue that habituality is primarily a modal category, which can only indirectly be characterized in aspectual terms, depending on the particular aspectual operators at work in a given language. In ... More

We argue that habituality is primarily a modal category, which can only indirectly be characterized in aspectual terms, depending on the particular aspectual operators at work in a given language. In languages which do not overtly contrast perfective/imperfective aspect, we identify a habitual form, morphologically and aspectually complex, which characterizes an interval in retrospect by means of an actualized habit holding throughout the interval.Less

Roget in the Romance World: Théodore Robertson's Translation of Roget's Thesaurus (1852) into French as Le Dictionnaire Idéologique (1859)

Werner Hüllen

in Networks and Knowledge in Roget's Thesaurus

Théodore Robertson's version of Roget's Thesaurus is analysed as a faithful translation into French because it fitted perfectly into the pedagogic programme of the French grammarian. However, its ... More

Théodore Robertson's version of Roget's Thesaurus is analysed as a faithful translation into French because it fitted perfectly into the pedagogic programme of the French grammarian. However, its impact on French lexicography was very small. Julio Casares' so-called dictionnaire analogique is presented as the Romance version of a topical dictionary (dictionnaire idéologique) which unites the ideational and the alphabetical order. The so-called ‘thesaurus dictionary’ by March, which was published in the US at the beginning of the 20th century, and quite modern dictionaries of synonyms follow the same mixed technique of an integrated topical and alphabetical arrangement.Less

Middle Horizon Imperialism and the Prehistoric Dispersal of Andean Languages

WILLIAM H. ISBELL

in Archaeology and Language in the Andes

The dispersal of the Romance language family by the Roman Empire is an attractive model for examining the spread of Quechua. Wari and Tiwanaku are often considered the first Andean empires, during ... More

The dispersal of the Romance language family by the Roman Empire is an attractive model for examining the spread of Quechua. Wari and Tiwanaku are often considered the first Andean empires, during the Middle Horizon (cal. ad 650–1050). Despite being contemporaries sharing the same religious iconography, they were unlikely to have spoken and dispersed the same language. Tiwanaku material culture rather implies ethnic and linguistic diversity, not least in its best-documented colonization in Moquegua. Wari, meanwhile, appears culturally and administratively unified, colonizing and controlling a territory across southern Peru, from Cuzco to Nasca. If Wari was responsible for a language dispersal, then this should represent its core territory; and it is indeed the heart of Southern Quechua. In northern Peru, Wari presence seems less intense, its rule more complex and indirect. The Moche region remained essentially beyond Wari influence, while for the central coast and distant Aguada culture more research is needed.Less

Deconstructing the Nuclear Stress Algorithm: Evidence from second language speech *

Emily Nava and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta

in The Sound Patterns of Syntax

Based on the English speech of native Spanish speakers, evidence is provided, on the one hand, for an analysis that connects the typology of Nuclear Stress patterns to the (un)availability of ... More

Based on the English speech of native Spanish speakers, evidence is provided, on the one hand, for an analysis that connects the typology of Nuclear Stress patterns to the (un)availability of unstressed functional words (in particular unstressed auxiliaries), and on the other hand, for the modularity of Nuclear Stress. It is argued that we must distinguish the core Nuclear Stress patterns (generated by a grammatically‐encapsulated algorithm) and the discourse‐sensitive Nuclear Stress patterns (derived by Anaphoric‐Deaccenting followed by Nuclear‐Stress Shift), in the spirit of Reinhart 2006.Less

Late Medieval Greek (11th–15th c. AD): the dominance of a single AVC

Theodore Markopoulos

in The Future in Greek: From Ancient to Medieval

This bulky chapter is devoted to the examination of Late Medieval Greek (11th–15th c. AD), the first period after late antiquity which provides us with material in a “vernacular” variety of Greek. ... More

This bulky chapter is devoted to the examination of Late Medieval Greek (11th–15th c. AD), the first period after late antiquity which provides us with material in a “vernacular” variety of Greek. The investigation, based on both literary and non‐literary sources, gives new insights into a great variety of issues, such as the semantic development of the μέλλω AVC—illustrated here for the first time. The much discussed and debated “θέ νά” construction is investigated at length, and a new account of its development is proposed, partly based on language contact between Greek‐ and Romance‐speaking populations, a largely unexplored issue.Less

The Julian Romance

Philip Wood

in ‘We have no king but Christ’: Christian Political Thought in Greater Syria on the Eve of the Arab Conquest (c.400-585)

The final three chapters examine the disparate ways in which Edessene and Suryoyo identities evolved in the course of the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries. This chapter ... More

The final three chapters examine the disparate ways in which Edessene and Suryoyo identities evolved in the course of the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries. This chapter discusses the Edessene Julian Romance, a hagiographical history written in the sixth century about the fourth‐century reign of Julian the apostate. Unlike the Doctrina, this text presents Edessa as the donation of Constantine to Christ, and expresses Edessa's special position in much more Roman terms. In this text, the history ofJulian's reign is invoked to undermine Edessa's sixth‐ century opponents, Antioch and Constantinople and to assert the conditional nature of imperial authority. If Edessa belonged to Christ, then the emperor's right to the allegiance of the city depended on his orthodoxy, lest the city be rules by ‘a friend of the Jews’.Less

The Tobiad Romance

Lawrence M. Wills (ed.)

in Ancient Jewish Novels: An Anthology

An introduction and translation of The Tobiad Romance, which recounts the family drama of wealthy Jews called the Tobiads. It is known only through its use by Josephus in his history entitled ... More

An introduction and translation of The Tobiad Romance, which recounts the family drama of wealthy Jews called the Tobiads. It is known only through its use by Josephus in his history entitled Antiquities of the Jews. The economic conditions of wealthy entrepreneurial Jews, especially as regards taxation, are treated, but their success is also marked by miracles.Less

Lexis

Philip Burton

in The Old Latin Gospels: A Study of their Texts and Language

An analysis of the vocabulary of the Old Latin Gospels, and the extent to which we can detect evidence of lexical change characteristic of late and sub‐literary Latin, and of the Romance languages.

Morphology and Syntax

Philip Burton

in The Old Latin Gospels: A Study of their Texts and Language

An analysis of the morphology and syntax of the Old Latin Gospels, and the extent to which they represent patterns characteristic of later and sub‐literary Latinm, and of the Romance languages. ... More

An analysis of the morphology and syntax of the Old Latin Gospels, and the extent to which they represent patterns characteristic of later and sub‐literary Latinm, and of the Romance languages. Particular consideration is given to the reorganization of the classical case‐ and gender‐systems, to the phenomena of defective and suppletive forms, and to the replacement of synthetic by periphrastic forms.Less

Service Allegory: The Great Household in Genius's Confession

Elliot Kendall

in Lordship and Literature: John Gower and the Politics of the Great Household

The language of the great household operates in Gower's Confessio Amantis in manifold areas, including the metaphorical discourse of the confessional frame narrative. This chapter argues that the ... More

The language of the great household operates in Gower's Confessio Amantis in manifold areas, including the metaphorical discourse of the confessional frame narrative. This chapter argues that the allegory of the deadly sins and vices, and the courtly love allegory of Danger, that structure the frame narrative are deeply informed by the great household imaginary. The metaphorical retaining of vices such as Parsimony, and the contest between Amans and Danger extend the poem's political dialectic between ‘reciprocalism’ and ‘magnificence’, strengthening the former. The imagination of Danger as a household chamberlain is analysed with reference to his heritage in The Romance of the Rose and parliamentary attacks on historical royal chamberlains, including Sir Simon Burley.Less

Romance, the Aeolian Harp, and the Theft of History

Murray Pittock

in Scottish and Irish Romanticism

This chapter mainly deals with three topics: the attack by Scottish Enlightenment historiography on the earlier historiography of Scotland, and specifically the idea of a usable national past; the ... More

This chapter mainly deals with three topics: the attack by Scottish Enlightenment historiography on the earlier historiography of Scotland, and specifically the idea of a usable national past; the way in which some Enlightenment thought allowed this past to survive on condition that it became ‘romance’, a literature of sentiment; and how the images, ideas, and creative process of Scottish writers, such as Macpherson, attempted to struggle with the vision of the past as ‘romance’ while still defending its importance and value, derived in part from the world of Gaelic poetry. Using both postcolonial theory and close reading, the role played by Macpherson in the key debates of the era, and his development of the Aeolian harp metaphor subsequently to become so important to Romanticism, are alike explored in detail. The chapter also discusses the effect that pressures to standardize written, and to an extent, spoken English had on Scottish writers and the symbolic importance of the ‘bard’.Less

Scott and the European Nationalities Question

Murray Pittock

in Scottish and Irish Romanticism

This chapter examines Sir Walter Scott's emplacement of the structures of Enlightenment historiography in his fiction, and the tension between romance and history in his work. There is an examination ... More

This chapter examines Sir Walter Scott's emplacement of the structures of Enlightenment historiography in his fiction, and the tension between romance and history in his work. There is an examination of how his writing implements, problematizes, and transcends the models he inherits, and some consideration of how it was read and utilized differently in Continental Europe.Less

Miracle of the Rose

Frank Graziano

in Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion ... More

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion references Venus, the Virgin Mary as the “Rose without Thorns,” the Romance of the Rose, and Christ as the New Adam, among other topics.Less

Malcolm MacNaughtan Bowie 1943–2007

Marian Hobson

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 161, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, VIII

Malcolm MacNaughtan Bowie (1943–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was appointed from an assistant lectureship at the University of East Anglia to one in the University of Cambridge in 1969. At ... More

Malcolm MacNaughtan Bowie (1943–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was appointed from an assistant lectureship at the University of East Anglia to one in the University of Cambridge in 1969. At Cambridge, he worked as a specialist in difficult poets in French beginning with ‘M’, particularly Henri Michaux and Stephane Mallarmé. These are writers of involuted complexity, to read whom both a sensitivity to how word play plays and to how French prosody in poetry or prose works were essential. These studies by Bowie were followed by work on mind-altering psychoanalysis: on Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. He was the first director of the Romance Languages Institute, ran its vigorous seminar programme, and gave this a strong international profile by his invitations. At the University of Oxford, Bowie set up the European Humanities Research Centre, followed by an associated publishing venture, Legenda.Less

Grammaticalization 1

D. Gary Miller

in Language Change and Linguistic Theory, Volume II: Morphological, Syntactic, and Typological Change

The fundamental insight is grammation, a change from lexical to grammatical content via reanalysis of a lexical item to be merged in a functional projection. Feature change and preference principles ... More

The fundamental insight is grammation, a change from lexical to grammatical content via reanalysis of a lexical item to be merged in a functional projection. Feature change and preference principles provide the necessary motivation. Reduction processes are separate from grammation. In non‐mora‐timed languages they often accompany grammation because of the increased frequency of the construction which prompts acceleration and facilitates reduction processes. The alleged universal cline is irrelevant because many languages exhibit changes from free or clitic (adjoined to words or phrases rather than to roots or stems) to bound or from bound (affix) to clitic or free. Series of changes occur but are motivated by feature changes. Grammation changes discussed in formal terms in this chapter include English gonna, the Romance future, and English like.Less

The Mediopassive: Latin to Romance

D. Gary Miller

in Language Change and Linguistic Theory, Volume II: Morphological, Syntactic, and Typological Change

This chapter documents the changes from Latin to Romance in the coding of reflexive, anticausative, middle, and passive. The last three had the same morphological form in Early Latin, but until ... More

This chapter documents the changes from Latin to Romance in the coding of reflexive, anticausative, middle, and passive. The last three had the same morphological form in Early Latin, but until recently in Romance the first three have had the same syntactic expression. The Latin ‐r forms were triggered by altering the argument structure so that some argument could not be saturated in syntax. Reflexive sē forms replaced the ‐r forms in different structures at different times. The replacement began in the ergative verbs where ‘I sank myself’ had a bound anaphor in contrast to the lack of agentivity in the type ‘the ship sank itself’ , reanalyzed as an anticausative with reflexive merged in a projection for derived imperfectivity. Subsequently, the sē construction replaced the ‐r forms in certain other structures, and finally the middle and impersonal, but not the passive (within Latin, at least).Less

Conclusion: Retrospective and Prospective

Rodney Sampson

in Vowel Prosthesis in Romance: A Diachronic Study

Basic structural properties underlying the different categories of vowel prosthesis are enumerated and compared, revealing important characteristics shared by all categories. Of central importance is ... More

Basic structural properties underlying the different categories of vowel prosthesis are enumerated and compared, revealing important characteristics shared by all categories. Of central importance is syllabic structure, and areas of further research into the syllable and its evolving architecture are identified. Finally, the significance of sociolinguistic forces as well as structural factors in shaping developments is reiterated.Less