From degraff at MIT.EDU Tue May 4 13:19:35 1999 From: degraff at MIT.EDU (Michel DeGraff) Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 09:19:35 EDT Subject: Bibliographical request re "Creoles as lesser languages" Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear all, I'd very much appreciate any help in locating _recent_ scholarly(-looking) quotations where creole languages are contrasted to "normal", "natural" and/or "regular" languages. In a similar vein, I am looking for _recent_ scholarly quotations where creoles are characterized as qualitatively lesser, deficient, overly limited and/or underdeveloped. To somewhat illustrate what I am looking for: the most famous (but not so recent) quotations of this sort may be the ones in Leonard Bloomfield's (1933) classic treatise where creoles are viewed as (originating from systems that count as) "aberrant ... sub-standard ... baby-talk ... simplified ... imperfect reproduction [of European language] ... incorrect ... inferior dialect ... subject to improvement in direction of [master's speech] ... [etc, etc.]" (pp 471-475) Similar quotations are critiqued in Chapter 1 of Holm's (1988) "historical overview" chapter of _Pidgins & Creoles_ (vol. 1)... Any pointer to recent references that (implicitly or explicitly) espouse the creole-as-qualitatively-lesser-language view would be most helpful. This is for a project where, among other things, I survey the evolution of meta-linguistic attitudes and of educational/research practices related to Haitian Creole. One goal is to try to better understand the links between the history of Haiti and (changes in) attitudes toward Haitian Creole both as medium and as object of instruction and description. Thank you very much, -michel. From paul at benjamins.com Thu May 6 18:45:06 1999 From: paul at benjamins.com (Paul Peranteau) Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 14:45:06 EDT Subject: New Publications in Historical Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John Benjamins announces the availability of these new works: Nostratic. Sifting the Evidence. Joseph C. SALMONS and Brian D. JOSEPH (eds.) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 142 US & Canada: 1 55619 597 4 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover) Rest of world: 90 272 3646 1 / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover) The "Nostratic" hypothesis - positing a common linguistic ancestor for a wide range of language families including Indo-European, Uralic, and Afro-Asiatic - has produced one of the most enduring and often intense controversies in linguistics. Overwhelmingly, though, both supporters of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with one another's arguments. This volume brings together selected representatives of both sides, as well as a number of agnostic historical linguists, with the aim of examining the evidence for this particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships generally. The volume contains discussion of variants of the Nostratic hypothesis (A. Bomhard; J. Greenberg; A. Manaster-Ramer, K. Baertsch, K. Adams, & P. Michalove), the mathematics of chance in determining the relationships posited for Nostratic (R. Oswalt; D. Ringe), and the evidence from particular branches posited in Nostratic (L. Campbell; C. Hodge; A. Vovin), with responses and additional discussion by E. Hamp, B. Vine, W. Baxter and B. Comrie. Variation, Change, and Phonological Theory. Frans HINSKENS, Roeland VAN HOUT and W. Leo WETZELS (eds) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 146 US & Canada: 1 55619 861 2 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover) Rest of World: 90 272 3650 X / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover) There is a growing awareness that a fruitful cooperation between the (diachronic and synchronic) study of language variation and change and work in phonological theory is both possible and desirable. The study of language variation and change would benefit from this kind of cooperation on the conceptual and theoretical levels. Phonological theory may well profit from a greater use of what is commonly called 'external evidence'. This volume contains contributions by outstanding representatives from the more data-oriented fields and phonological theory. They discuss possibilities and problems for a further integration of both areas, by considering questions such as where and to which extent the two may need each other, and whether there is a need for an interdisciplinary conceptual framework and methodology. Attention is also paid to questions regarding the cause and actuation, linguistic constraints and the internal spread of linguistic change, as well as to possible and impossible processes of language change. Contributions by: A. Anttila; P. Auer; T. Borowsky & B. Horvath; H. Cedergren; G. Docherty; P.Foulkes; J.Milroy; L. Milroy; G. Guy; P. Kiparsky; W. Labov; M.-R. Lloret; J. Myers; M. van Oostendorp; S. Rose; N. Smith. John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri May 7 12:46:02 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:46:02 EDT Subject: New book /2nd release / LATVIAN Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- LATVIAN Nicole Nau, Univ. Kiel Latvian is the official language of the Republic of Latvia, where about 1.4 million people speak it as a native language, and an increasing number of mainly Russian speaking persons use it as a second language. This sketch concentrates on morphology and syntax, with a short introduction to Latvian phonology. The sample text, as well as most of the examples that illustrate grammatical points, are taken from autobiographical narratives collected by the Latvian Archive for Oral History. Compared to Lithuanian, the only other living Baltic language, Latvian has further diverged from its Indo-European heritage in that it has abandoned certain inflectional forms and categories and developed new ones. The fact that, for centuries, speakers of Latvian have been in close contact with speakers of Baltofinnic, Germanic and Slavic languages has certainly been an important factor for innovations in all parts of the grammar. However, Latvian still resembles the well known old Indo-European languages in certain respects more closely than Standard Average European languages do. Latvian is a fusional language with some traits of agglutination. The morphology is strikingly regular, especially with nominals. Nominal inflectional categories are gender, number, case, and definiteness, which is marked on adjectives. The five morphological cases have clear syntactic and/or semantic functions. Particularly noteworthy in the verbal inflectional paradimg are evidentiality and the debitive mood, a Latvian innovation. Characteristic features of the syntax are non-verbal predicates and converb constructions. ISBN 3 89586 228 2. Languages of the World/Materials 217. Ca. 60pp. USD 32.50 / DM 49.30 / # 19.90. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 3148909; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Wed May 12 15:35:25 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:35:25 EDT Subject: New book: Slavic Features in the History of Rumanian Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- SLAVIC FEATURES IN THE HISTORY OF RUMANIAN Peter R. Petrucci, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah This dissertation examines the role of Slavic phonological and morphological features in the history of Rumanian. Data are limited to those phonological and morphological features purportedly attributable to early Slavic language contact and which are present in all or most of the Rumanian dialects--Rumanian, Arumanian, Megleno-Rumanian, and Istro-Rumanian. Two basic questions are asked: First, which structural features should or should not be attributed to Slavic language contact? This question is significant because Slavic language contact features in the history of Rumanian have been disputed among Romance and Slavic linguists for a long time. Some linguists have proposed a wide range of Slavic features in Rumanian whereas others have proposed a much more limited set of features. Second, of those features which are indeed Slavic in origin, what is the exact nature of the language contact process by which the features were incorporated into Rumanian? Regarding this issue, the Slavic contact features are analyzed by means of Thomason and Kaufman's (1988) theory of language contact, which identifies two distinct processes by which a foreign feature can spread to another language: borrowing, initiated by native speakers of the language incorporating the non-native feature; or language shift, introduced by native speakers of the language wherein the feature originated. The dissertation demonstrates that this model of language contact can efficiently account for the Slavic structural features that appear in Rumanian. Also, four general criteria are proposed which give an indication of which process(es) can account for how a given language contact feature was incorporated into a language. ISBN 3 89586 599 0. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 08. Ca. 200pp. USD 70 / DM 112 / # 42. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Wed May 12 15:34:51 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:34:51 EDT Subject: New book (2nd revised ed.): Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) grammar Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) Stefan Weninger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen Ge'ez, a South-Semitic language, is the classical tongue of Ethiopia. Extinct as a spoken language since the 10th century, it is still used by the Ethiopian church, and still influencing the modern languages of Ethiopia. In this regard it's comparable to the Classical tongues of Europe, Latin and Greek. After Egyptian and Meroitic it is one of the oldest attested languages of Africa. The present volumne contains: A short outline of the problems connected with Ge'ez pho-no-logy; the basic structures of the morphology, with special reference to the verb; the principles of Ge'ez syntax; a sample text, thoroughly analyzed in interlinear translations. Comparative charts of the nomenclature of the verbal stems, a chapter on reseach tools and literature and an ample bibliography should function as a helpful guide to Ge'ez -studies for the non-specialist and faciliate reference. The second revised and enlarged edition takes account of new findings, the bibliography is updated and more examples are given. Contents: Abbreviations and signs 0. Preliminaries 0.1. Aim and Scope 0.2. Naming and Affiliation 0.3. Location and History 0.4. Contact Situation and Transmission 1. Script and Phonology 1.1. The Alphabet 1.2. Phonology 1.3. An Example for the Script and the Traditional Pronunciation 2. Morphology 2.0. The Root 2.1. Nominal Morphology 2.2. Verbal Morphology 2.3. Prepositions 3. Syntax 3.1. Noun Phrase 3.2. Clause Structure 3.2.1. Nominal Clauses 3.2.2. Verbal Clauses 3.3. Word Order 4. Sample Text: From the Life of St. Jared, the Musician 5. Research Tools and Literature Comparative Chart of Verbal Stem Nomenclature Bibliography ISBN 3 89586 604 0 (2nd revised edition). Languages of the World/Materials 01. Ca. 60 pp. USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 18.30. Still available: 1st edition: ISBN 3 929075 04 0. Ca. 50pp. USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 18.30. 1993. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA From mburke at tavel.stanford.edu Fri May 21 19:57:42 1999 From: mburke at tavel.stanford.edu (Maureen Burke) Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 15:57:42 EDT Subject: Hombert & Hyman book In-Reply-To: <199905211602.JAA28086@Hypatia.Stanford.EDU> Message-ID: Hombert, Jean-Marie (Universite Lumiere Lyon2); Larry M. Hyman (University of California, Berkeley); BANTU HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVES; ISBN: 1-57586-204-2) (paper), 1-57586-203-4 (cloth); 598 pp. CSLI Publications 1999: http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ email: pubs at roslin.stanford.edu This collection brings together most of the world's leading Bantuists, as well as some of the most promising younger scholars interested in the history, comparison, and description of Bantu languages. The Bantu languages, numbering as many as 500, have been at the center of cutting-edge theoretical research in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Besides the issues of classification and internal sub-grouping, this volume treats historical and comparative aspects of many of the significant typological features for which this language group is known: vowel height harmony, noun classes, elaborate tense-aspect systems, etc. The result is a compilation that provides the most up-to-stand understanding of these and other issues that will be of interest not only to Bantuists and historical linguists, but also to those interested in the phonological, morphological and semantic issues arising within these highly agglutinative Bantu languages. ************************* CSLI Publications Ventura Hall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4115 Telephone (650) 723-1839 Fax (650) 725-2166 http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ From paul at benjamins.com Mon May 24 21:17:12 1999 From: paul at benjamins.com (Paul Peranteau) Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 17:17:12 EDT Subject: New Book in Historical Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John Benjamins announces the availability of this new work in Historical Linguistics: Historical Linguistics 1997. Selected papers from the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Dusseldorf, 10-17 August 1997. SCHMID, Monika S., Jennifer R. AUSTIN and Dieter STEIN (eds.) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 164 90 272 3669 0 / NLG 178.00 (Hardcover) 1 55619 880 9 / USD 89.00 (Hardcover) This volume presents a selection from the papers given at the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. It offers a window on the current state of the art in historical linguistics: the papers cover a wide range of different languages, different language families, and different approaches to the study of linguistic change, ranging from optimality theory, theories of grammaticalization and the invisible hand, treatments of language contact and creolization to the linguistic consequences of political correctness. Among the languages under discussion are Akkadian, Catalan, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, Sranan, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Yiddish, and a variety of Romance and Native American languages. Contributions by: Arleta Adamska-Salaciak; Barry J. Blake; Adrienne Bruyn; Vit Bubenik; Kate Burridge; Michela Cennamo; Wallace Chafe; Bridget Drinka; Elaine Gold; Haike Jacobs; Thera de Jong; Fusa Katada; Jurgen Klausenburger; Ane Kleine; Bernd Kortmann; Arjan van Leuvensteijn; Martin Maiden; Kenjirô Matsuda; Donka Minkova; Marianne Mithun; Salikoko S. Mufwene; Ellen F. Prince; Taru Salminen; Caroline Smits; Isabel Verdaguer & Anna Poch. Sorry, we had to remove the diacritics for internet purposes] John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Thu May 27 21:43:22 1999 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:43:22 EDT Subject: ISHL nominations Message-ID: Dear colleagues, The International Society for Historical Linguistics (ISHL) will hold the XIV. Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) next August. At the business meeting, ISHL members will elect members of the Nominating Committee and the Executive Committee, in addition to the 2003 ICHL venue. This is a call for nominations. The following four positions need to be filled: Member, Executive Committee (until 2005) Member, Nominating Committee (until 2007) Member, Nominating Committee (until 2003) Future Conference Director (to host the 2003 ICHL) You may nominate either yourself or someone else. However, anyone who is nominated must make a committment to attend the majority of the ICHLs during the term of office. The Nominating Committee will give highest priority to nominations which result in the gender and geographic balance of the committee in question. Please send your nominations to Marianne Mithun, chair, Nominating Committee: mithun at humanitas.ucsb.edu This message is being sent to the HISTLING list and to current ISHL members. My apologies for double postings. From Stockwel at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU Fri May 28 17:49:32 1999 From: Stockwel at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU (Robert Stockwell) Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 13:49:32 EDT Subject: SHEL-1 Message-ID: Studies in the History of the English Language: SHEL-1 http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/SHEL/ Place: UCLA Date: May 26-28, 2000 First Session: Friday Evening Inauguration Lecture Second and Third Sessions: Saturday Morning and Afternoon Conference Banquet and Second Plenary: Saturday Evening Fourth Session: Sunday Morning Purpose and Objectives: In Europe the biennial conferences known as ICEHL (International Conference on English Historical Linguistics) have served the field of English Language Studies well, giving the field both focus and recognition that it almost certainly would not have achieved otherwise. These conferences have taken place at leading English Language research centers over the past twenty years, each conference organized and managed by the faculty of the conference site: Durham, Odense, Sheffield, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Helsinki, Valencia, Edinburgh, Poznan, Manchester. In North America, despite the presence of many major scholars in the field, Historical English Linguistics -- the History of the English Language told in the light of contemporary linguistic sophistication -- has not emerged with the same kind of recognizable personality. Many scholars who do this kind of work are to a significant extent servants also of other fields such as general linguistics, medieval studies, dialectology, applied linguistics, and teacher training. What we hope to do by organizing SHEL is begin to provide the same kind of focus for English Historical Linguistics in North America as the focus achieved in Europe by the ICEHL series, in North America for Germanic Linguistics by GLAC (Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference), for American Dialectology by the American Dialect Society, for Social Dialectology by NWAVE, and of course for General Linguistics by the LSA. We are not in competition with any of these series or organizations; we believe, however, that a weekend meeting dedicated entirely to linguistic issues in the History of English will be an energizing and useful academic experience. We begin modestly: a non-existent budget, no organization, just a conference. Anne Curzan is organizing a pedagogical worshop at SHEL-1, parallel with the research-oriented sessions, and will host SHEL-2 in Seattle. A SHEL-3 offer has already emerged; a brief organizational meeting may be necessary to plan future events. Featured Speakers: Richard Bailey (Michigan), Thomas Cable (Texas), Anthony Kroch (Penn), Elizabeth Traugott (Stanford) Featured Topic: The year 2000 is a good time to take stock: in additional to the general historical English language topics addressed at the meeting, we have asked our featured speakers, and we hereby ask all our participants, to focus on the accomplishments and failures in their areas in the past hundred years, and also to direct their attention toward problems the field has failed to solve and that therefore remain for the 21st century. In that sense, we are convening a "millennium" event in the hope that it will energize and possibly redirect the course of historical English language research in America. Abstract Deadline: December 15, 1999. Our preliminary plan is to allow all participants twenty minutes for presentation, with an additional ten minutes of discussion. Please send one page abstracts in three copies, single-spaced Times Roman, 6-inch lines, one-inch margins top and bottom (these will be included in the conference Handbook) to: Professor Donka Minkova Department of English, UCLA 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90095 Advisory Committee: Noriko Akatsuka, Henning Andersen, Anne Curzan, Ed Keenan, Henry Ansgar Kelly, Christopher Stevens Workshop: While we wish to keep the focus of the conference clearly on the research aspects of this field, we recognize that most of the likely participants are engaged professionally in the teaching of courses on the history of English. Anne Curzan is therefore organizing a workshop focused on an area of particular pedagogical concern to the participants. Prospective participants should contact: ACurzan at u.washington.edu. Social Events: On Friday Evening, May 26, the UCLA Linguistics Department will host a reception for all participants as a retirement occasion in honor of Robert Stockwell, whose lecture that evening will also inaugurate the Conference. A Saturday evening Banquet option will be included in the registration package. Reservations for the new J. Paul Getty Museum near UCLA for those interested will be made for Friday, May 26 at 11 a.m. Travel and Accommodation: All major airlines fly into Los Angeles. The area airport closest to UCLA is Los Angeles International (LAX). We are exploring accommodation options, but we don't expect to be able to offer single occupancy en-suite rooms at less than $80 per night. Further travel and hotel details will be provided in January 2000. We are looking forward to welcoming you at UCLA. Registration form available on http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/SHEL/ From degraff at MIT.EDU Tue May 4 13:19:35 1999 From: degraff at MIT.EDU (Michel DeGraff) Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 09:19:35 EDT Subject: Bibliographical request re "Creoles as lesser languages" Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear all, I'd very much appreciate any help in locating _recent_ scholarly(-looking) quotations where creole languages are contrasted to "normal", "natural" and/or "regular" languages. In a similar vein, I am looking for _recent_ scholarly quotations where creoles are characterized as qualitatively lesser, deficient, overly limited and/or underdeveloped. To somewhat illustrate what I am looking for: the most famous (but not so recent) quotations of this sort may be the ones in Leonard Bloomfield's (1933) classic treatise where creoles are viewed as (originating from systems that count as) "aberrant ... sub-standard ... baby-talk ... simplified ... imperfect reproduction [of European language] ... incorrect ... inferior dialect ... subject to improvement in direction of [master's speech] ... [etc, etc.]" (pp 471-475) Similar quotations are critiqued in Chapter 1 of Holm's (1988) "historical overview" chapter of _Pidgins & Creoles_ (vol. 1)... Any pointer to recent references that (implicitly or explicitly) espouse the creole-as-qualitatively-lesser-language view would be most helpful. This is for a project where, among other things, I survey the evolution of meta-linguistic attitudes and of educational/research practices related to Haitian Creole. One goal is to try to better understand the links between the history of Haiti and (changes in) attitudes toward Haitian Creole both as medium and as object of instruction and description. Thank you very much, -michel. From paul at benjamins.com Thu May 6 18:45:06 1999 From: paul at benjamins.com (Paul Peranteau) Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 14:45:06 EDT Subject: New Publications in Historical Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John Benjamins announces the availability of these new works: Nostratic. Sifting the Evidence. Joseph C. SALMONS and Brian D. JOSEPH (eds.) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 142 US & Canada: 1 55619 597 4 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover) Rest of world: 90 272 3646 1 / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover) The "Nostratic" hypothesis - positing a common linguistic ancestor for a wide range of language families including Indo-European, Uralic, and Afro-Asiatic - has produced one of the most enduring and often intense controversies in linguistics. Overwhelmingly, though, both supporters of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with one another's arguments. This volume brings together selected representatives of both sides, as well as a number of agnostic historical linguists, with the aim of examining the evidence for this particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships generally. The volume contains discussion of variants of the Nostratic hypothesis (A. Bomhard; J. Greenberg; A. Manaster-Ramer, K. Baertsch, K. Adams, & P. Michalove), the mathematics of chance in determining the relationships posited for Nostratic (R. Oswalt; D. Ringe), and the evidence from particular branches posited in Nostratic (L. Campbell; C. Hodge; A. Vovin), with responses and additional discussion by E. Hamp, B. Vine, W. Baxter and B. Comrie. Variation, Change, and Phonological Theory. Frans HINSKENS, Roeland VAN HOUT and W. Leo WETZELS (eds) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 146 US & Canada: 1 55619 861 2 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover) Rest of World: 90 272 3650 X / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover) There is a growing awareness that a fruitful cooperation between the (diachronic and synchronic) study of language variation and change and work in phonological theory is both possible and desirable. The study of language variation and change would benefit from this kind of cooperation on the conceptual and theoretical levels. Phonological theory may well profit from a greater use of what is commonly called 'external evidence'. This volume contains contributions by outstanding representatives from the more data-oriented fields and phonological theory. They discuss possibilities and problems for a further integration of both areas, by considering questions such as where and to which extent the two may need each other, and whether there is a need for an interdisciplinary conceptual framework and methodology. Attention is also paid to questions regarding the cause and actuation, linguistic constraints and the internal spread of linguistic change, as well as to possible and impossible processes of language change. Contributions by: A. Anttila; P. Auer; T. Borowsky & B. Horvath; H. Cedergren; G. Docherty; P.Foulkes; J.Milroy; L. Milroy; G. Guy; P. Kiparsky; W. Labov; M.-R. Lloret; J. Myers; M. van Oostendorp; S. Rose; N. Smith. John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri May 7 12:46:02 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:46:02 EDT Subject: New book /2nd release / LATVIAN Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- LATVIAN Nicole Nau, Univ. Kiel Latvian is the official language of the Republic of Latvia, where about 1.4 million people speak it as a native language, and an increasing number of mainly Russian speaking persons use it as a second language. This sketch concentrates on morphology and syntax, with a short introduction to Latvian phonology. The sample text, as well as most of the examples that illustrate grammatical points, are taken from autobiographical narratives collected by the Latvian Archive for Oral History. Compared to Lithuanian, the only other living Baltic language, Latvian has further diverged from its Indo-European heritage in that it has abandoned certain inflectional forms and categories and developed new ones. The fact that, for centuries, speakers of Latvian have been in close contact with speakers of Baltofinnic, Germanic and Slavic languages has certainly been an important factor for innovations in all parts of the grammar. However, Latvian still resembles the well known old Indo-European languages in certain respects more closely than Standard Average European languages do. Latvian is a fusional language with some traits of agglutination. The morphology is strikingly regular, especially with nominals. Nominal inflectional categories are gender, number, case, and definiteness, which is marked on adjectives. The five morphological cases have clear syntactic and/or semantic functions. Particularly noteworthy in the verbal inflectional paradimg are evidentiality and the debitive mood, a Latvian innovation. Characteristic features of the syntax are non-verbal predicates and converb constructions. ISBN 3 89586 228 2. Languages of the World/Materials 217. Ca. 60pp. USD 32.50 / DM 49.30 / # 19.90. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 3148909; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Wed May 12 15:35:25 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:35:25 EDT Subject: New book: Slavic Features in the History of Rumanian Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- SLAVIC FEATURES IN THE HISTORY OF RUMANIAN Peter R. Petrucci, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah This dissertation examines the role of Slavic phonological and morphological features in the history of Rumanian. Data are limited to those phonological and morphological features purportedly attributable to early Slavic language contact and which are present in all or most of the Rumanian dialects--Rumanian, Arumanian, Megleno-Rumanian, and Istro-Rumanian. Two basic questions are asked: First, which structural features should or should not be attributed to Slavic language contact? This question is significant because Slavic language contact features in the history of Rumanian have been disputed among Romance and Slavic linguists for a long time. Some linguists have proposed a wide range of Slavic features in Rumanian whereas others have proposed a much more limited set of features. Second, of those features which are indeed Slavic in origin, what is the exact nature of the language contact process by which the features were incorporated into Rumanian? Regarding this issue, the Slavic contact features are analyzed by means of Thomason and Kaufman's (1988) theory of language contact, which identifies two distinct processes by which a foreign feature can spread to another language: borrowing, initiated by native speakers of the language incorporating the non-native feature; or language shift, introduced by native speakers of the language wherein the feature originated. The dissertation demonstrates that this model of language contact can efficiently account for the Slavic structural features that appear in Rumanian. Also, four general criteria are proposed which give an indication of which process(es) can account for how a given language contact feature was incorporated into a language. ISBN 3 89586 599 0. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 08. Ca. 200pp. USD 70 / DM 112 / # 42. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Wed May 12 15:34:51 1999 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 11:34:51 EDT Subject: New book (2nd revised ed.): Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) grammar Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) Stefan Weninger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen Ge'ez, a South-Semitic language, is the classical tongue of Ethiopia. Extinct as a spoken language since the 10th century, it is still used by the Ethiopian church, and still influencing the modern languages of Ethiopia. In this regard it's comparable to the Classical tongues of Europe, Latin and Greek. After Egyptian and Meroitic it is one of the oldest attested languages of Africa. The present volumne contains: A short outline of the problems connected with Ge'ez pho-no-logy; the basic structures of the morphology, with special reference to the verb; the principles of Ge'ez syntax; a sample text, thoroughly analyzed in interlinear translations. Comparative charts of the nomenclature of the verbal stems, a chapter on reseach tools and literature and an ample bibliography should function as a helpful guide to Ge'ez -studies for the non-specialist and faciliate reference. The second revised and enlarged edition takes account of new findings, the bibliography is updated and more examples are given. Contents: Abbreviations and signs 0. Preliminaries 0.1. Aim and Scope 0.2. Naming and Affiliation 0.3. Location and History 0.4. Contact Situation and Transmission 1. Script and Phonology 1.1. The Alphabet 1.2. Phonology 1.3. An Example for the Script and the Traditional Pronunciation 2. Morphology 2.0. The Root 2.1. Nominal Morphology 2.2. Verbal Morphology 2.3. Prepositions 3. Syntax 3.1. Noun Phrase 3.2. Clause Structure 3.2.1. Nominal Clauses 3.2.2. Verbal Clauses 3.3. Word Order 4. Sample Text: From the Life of St. Jared, the Musician 5. Research Tools and Literature Comparative Chart of Verbal Stem Nomenclature Bibliography ISBN 3 89586 604 0 (2nd revised edition). Languages of the World/Materials 01. Ca. 60 pp. USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 18.30. Still available: 1st edition: ISBN 3 929075 04 0. Ca. 50pp. USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 18.30. 1993. Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA From mburke at tavel.stanford.edu Fri May 21 19:57:42 1999 From: mburke at tavel.stanford.edu (Maureen Burke) Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 15:57:42 EDT Subject: Hombert & Hyman book In-Reply-To: <199905211602.JAA28086@Hypatia.Stanford.EDU> Message-ID: Hombert, Jean-Marie (Universite Lumiere Lyon2); Larry M. Hyman (University of California, Berkeley); BANTU HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVES; ISBN: 1-57586-204-2) (paper), 1-57586-203-4 (cloth); 598 pp. CSLI Publications 1999: http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ email: pubs at roslin.stanford.edu This collection brings together most of the world's leading Bantuists, as well as some of the most promising younger scholars interested in the history, comparison, and description of Bantu languages. The Bantu languages, numbering as many as 500, have been at the center of cutting-edge theoretical research in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Besides the issues of classification and internal sub-grouping, this volume treats historical and comparative aspects of many of the significant typological features for which this language group is known: vowel height harmony, noun classes, elaborate tense-aspect systems, etc. The result is a compilation that provides the most up-to-stand understanding of these and other issues that will be of interest not only to Bantuists and historical linguists, but also to those interested in the phonological, morphological and semantic issues arising within these highly agglutinative Bantu languages. ************************* CSLI Publications Ventura Hall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4115 Telephone (650) 723-1839 Fax (650) 725-2166 http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ From paul at benjamins.com Mon May 24 21:17:12 1999 From: paul at benjamins.com (Paul Peranteau) Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 17:17:12 EDT Subject: New Book in Historical Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John Benjamins announces the availability of this new work in Historical Linguistics: Historical Linguistics 1997. Selected papers from the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Dusseldorf, 10-17 August 1997. SCHMID, Monika S., Jennifer R. AUSTIN and Dieter STEIN (eds.) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 164 90 272 3669 0 / NLG 178.00 (Hardcover) 1 55619 880 9 / USD 89.00 (Hardcover) This volume presents a selection from the papers given at the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. It offers a window on the current state of the art in historical linguistics: the papers cover a wide range of different languages, different language families, and different approaches to the study of linguistic change, ranging from optimality theory, theories of grammaticalization and the invisible hand, treatments of language contact and creolization to the linguistic consequences of political correctness. Among the languages under discussion are Akkadian, Catalan, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, Sranan, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Yiddish, and a variety of Romance and Native American languages. Contributions by: Arleta Adamska-Salaciak; Barry J. Blake; Adrienne Bruyn; Vit Bubenik; Kate Burridge; Michela Cennamo; Wallace Chafe; Bridget Drinka; Elaine Gold; Haike Jacobs; Thera de Jong; Fusa Katada; Jurgen Klausenburger; Ane Kleine; Bernd Kortmann; Arjan van Leuvensteijn; Martin Maiden; Kenjir? Matsuda; Donka Minkova; Marianne Mithun; Salikoko S. Mufwene; Ellen F. Prince; Taru Salminen; Caroline Smits; Isabel Verdaguer & Anna Poch. Sorry, we had to remove the diacritics for internet purposes] John Benjamins Publishing Co. Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam: Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl E-mail: service at benjamins.com customer.services at benjamins.nl Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325 Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773 From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Thu May 27 21:43:22 1999 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:43:22 EDT Subject: ISHL nominations Message-ID: Dear colleagues, The International Society for Historical Linguistics (ISHL) will hold the XIV. Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) next August. At the business meeting, ISHL members will elect members of the Nominating Committee and the Executive Committee, in addition to the 2003 ICHL venue. This is a call for nominations. The following four positions need to be filled: Member, Executive Committee (until 2005) Member, Nominating Committee (until 2007) Member, Nominating Committee (until 2003) Future Conference Director (to host the 2003 ICHL) You may nominate either yourself or someone else. However, anyone who is nominated must make a committment to attend the majority of the ICHLs during the term of office. The Nominating Committee will give highest priority to nominations which result in the gender and geographic balance of the committee in question. Please send your nominations to Marianne Mithun, chair, Nominating Committee: mithun at humanitas.ucsb.edu This message is being sent to the HISTLING list and to current ISHL members. My apologies for double postings. From Stockwel at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU Fri May 28 17:49:32 1999 From: Stockwel at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU (Robert Stockwell) Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 13:49:32 EDT Subject: SHEL-1 Message-ID: Studies in the History of the English Language: SHEL-1 http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/SHEL/ Place: UCLA Date: May 26-28, 2000 First Session: Friday Evening Inauguration Lecture Second and Third Sessions: Saturday Morning and Afternoon Conference Banquet and Second Plenary: Saturday Evening Fourth Session: Sunday Morning Purpose and Objectives: In Europe the biennial conferences known as ICEHL (International Conference on English Historical Linguistics) have served the field of English Language Studies well, giving the field both focus and recognition that it almost certainly would not have achieved otherwise. These conferences have taken place at leading English Language research centers over the past twenty years, each conference organized and managed by the faculty of the conference site: Durham, Odense, Sheffield, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Helsinki, Valencia, Edinburgh, Poznan, Manchester. In North America, despite the presence of many major scholars in the field, Historical English Linguistics -- the History of the English Language told in the light of contemporary linguistic sophistication -- has not emerged with the same kind of recognizable personality. Many scholars who do this kind of work are to a significant extent servants also of other fields such as general linguistics, medieval studies, dialectology, applied linguistics, and teacher training. What we hope to do by organizing SHEL is begin to provide the same kind of focus for English Historical Linguistics in North America as the focus achieved in Europe by the ICEHL series, in North America for Germanic Linguistics by GLAC (Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference), for American Dialectology by the American Dialect Society, for Social Dialectology by NWAVE, and of course for General Linguistics by the LSA. We are not in competition with any of these series or organizations; we believe, however, that a weekend meeting dedicated entirely to linguistic issues in the History of English will be an energizing and useful academic experience. We begin modestly: a non-existent budget, no organization, just a conference. Anne Curzan is organizing a pedagogical worshop at SHEL-1, parallel with the research-oriented sessions, and will host SHEL-2 in Seattle. A SHEL-3 offer has already emerged; a brief organizational meeting may be necessary to plan future events. Featured Speakers: Richard Bailey (Michigan), Thomas Cable (Texas), Anthony Kroch (Penn), Elizabeth Traugott (Stanford) Featured Topic: The year 2000 is a good time to take stock: in additional to the general historical English language topics addressed at the meeting, we have asked our featured speakers, and we hereby ask all our participants, to focus on the accomplishments and failures in their areas in the past hundred years, and also to direct their attention toward problems the field has failed to solve and that therefore remain for the 21st century. In that sense, we are convening a "millennium" event in the hope that it will energize and possibly redirect the course of historical English language research in America. Abstract Deadline: December 15, 1999. Our preliminary plan is to allow all participants twenty minutes for presentation, with an additional ten minutes of discussion. Please send one page abstracts in three copies, single-spaced Times Roman, 6-inch lines, one-inch margins top and bottom (these will be included in the conference Handbook) to: Professor Donka Minkova Department of English, UCLA 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90095 Advisory Committee: Noriko Akatsuka, Henning Andersen, Anne Curzan, Ed Keenan, Henry Ansgar Kelly, Christopher Stevens Workshop: While we wish to keep the focus of the conference clearly on the research aspects of this field, we recognize that most of the likely participants are engaged professionally in the teaching of courses on the history of English. Anne Curzan is therefore organizing a workshop focused on an area of particular pedagogical concern to the participants. Prospective participants should contact: ACurzan at u.washington.edu. Social Events: On Friday Evening, May 26, the UCLA Linguistics Department will host a reception for all participants as a retirement occasion in honor of Robert Stockwell, whose lecture that evening will also inaugurate the Conference. A Saturday evening Banquet option will be included in the registration package. Reservations for the new J. Paul Getty Museum near UCLA for those interested will be made for Friday, May 26 at 11 a.m. Travel and Accommodation: All major airlines fly into Los Angeles. The area airport closest to UCLA is Los Angeles International (LAX). We are exploring accommodation options, but we don't expect to be able to offer single occupancy en-suite rooms at less than $80 per night. Further travel and hotel details will be provided in January 2000. We are looking forward to welcoming you at UCLA. Registration form available on http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/SHEL/