From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:52:33 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:52:33 EST Subject: New book : Indo-European Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- INTRODUZIONE ALLA LINGUISTICA LATINA Moreno Morani, Universit` degli Studi di Genova Il volume Introduzione alla linguistica latina si propone di collocare la lingua latina nel panorama delle lingue indeuropee e di seguirne lo sviluppo storico, dall'indeuropeo ricostruito fino al passaggio dal latino alle lingue romanze. La trattazione discute i principali problemi che lo studio della lingua latina in prospettiva diacronica presenta: per ogni problema trattato viene esposta la storia dela discussione, trattati criticamente i principali tentativi di soluzione proposti, con ampio riferimento alle fonti bibliografiche. Il volume pur essere utilizzato anche come manuale per lo studio universitario, grazie a note, osservazioni e tabelle che forniscono un quadro sistematico della materia trattata. Il volume tiene conto sia dei risultati raggiunti dalle trattazioni "classiche" della linguistica indeuropea sia delle riflessione e delle proposte delle moderne scuole di linguistica. Indice : INTRODUZIONE. Il latino tra le lingue indeuropee I. Lingue indeuropee e ricostruzione linguistica. 1. Le lingue indeuropee. 2. Metodo, obiettivi e limiti della ricostruzione. II. Il latino fra le lingue indeuropee. 1. La marginalit` del latino. 2. L'ipotesi italo-celtica. 3. Latino e venetico. 4. La "questione italica". 5. Elementi non indeuropei nel latino. 6. Conclusioni III. Un latino e tanti latini. 1. Variet` latine. 2. Variet` diacroniche. (a. Latino preletterario. b. Latino arcaico. c. Latino classico. d. Latino tardo. e. Latino medievale). 3. Variet` diatopiche. (a. Variet` antiche. b. Variet` dell'et` arcaica e classica. c. Variet` dell'et` imperiale). 4. Variet` diastratiche (a. La lingua dell'uso. b. Il latino volgare. c. Le lingue speciali. d. Il latino dei cristiani). IV. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Unit` latina e variet` romanza. 2. Classificazione delle lingue romanze. PROBLEMI DI FONOLOGIA E MORFOLOGIA LATINA Parte prima: Fonetica e fonologia A. Origini indeuropee del sistema fonologico latino I. Il sistema fonologico dell'indeuropeo. II. Dall'indeuropeo al latino. 1. Esito latino dei fonemi indeuropei. 2. Ulteriori sviluppi. B. Fonetica e fonologia del latino. I. Vocalismo. 1. Vocali lunghe e brevi. 2. Sono esistite vocali nasali in latino? 3. Il cosiddetto "suono intermedio" tra l e y. II. Consonantismo 1. Le occlusive. 2. Le semivocali /j/ e /w/. 3. Le nasali. 4. Le liquide. 5. Le fricative. III. Fonemi di origine greca 1. y. 2. z. 3. Le occlusive aspirate. IV. L'accento. V. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Il vocalismo. 2. Il consonantismo. Parte seconda: Problemi di morfologia latina A. Il nome I. Flessione nominale dell'indeuropeo. II. La flessione nominale del latino. 1. L'organizzazione generale. (a. Resti di apofonia. b. Riduzione delle classi flessionali. c. Quante sono le declinazioni latine? d. Il suppletivismo). 2. Il numero. 3. I casi. 4. Le desinenze. III. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. La flessione nominale in latino volgare. (a. Declino e scomparsa del neutro. b. Riduzione delle classi tematiche. c. Le desinenze). 2. Il crollo della flessione nelle lingue romanze. (a. Ragioni semantiche. b. Ragioni strutturali). IV. L'articolo. V. I pronomi B. Il verbo I. Il verbo indeuropeo. II. Dall'indeuropeo al latino. 1. Le quattro coniugazioni. 2. Perfectum e infectum. L'aspetto nel verbo latino. 3. I modi e i tempi. (a. Resti di ottativo. b. La formazione dei congiuntivi in latino. c. I preteriti. d. Il futuro). 4. La diatesi. 5. Le desinenze. 6. Le forme nominali del verbo. III. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Il verbo nel latino volgare. 2. Il verbo romanzo. Parte terza: Il lessico latino I. Il fondo indeuropeo. 1. Il lessico comune. 2. Il lessico nordoccidentale. 3. Ulteriori vicende del lessico indeuropeo in latino. 4. Il latino lingua di contadini. II. Nuove acquisizioni. 1. Elementi di sostrato. 2. Elementi etruschi. 3. L'influsso greco. 4. Elementi di altra provenienza. III. Il lessico del latino volgare 1. Tendenze generali. 2. Dal latino volgare alle lingue romanze. ISBN 3 89586 948 1. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 08. Ca. 330 pp. EUR 61.36 / DM 120 / USD 65 / # 40. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404 or +4989 3148909; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:53:02 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:53:02 EST Subject: New book: Slavic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- REGISTER VARIATION AND LANGUAGE STANDARDS IN CZECH NEIL BERMEL, Sheffield University This 35-45,000-word monograph, accessible to both Slavists and general linguists, addresses "larger questions" raised by Czech register/code variation in a cross-linguistic perspective. Czech can be described as a quasi-diglossic language situation, with a standard language that has no native speakers, and an interdialect that has no currency as a communicative standard. The author reviews research surrounding the "standard Czech - common Czech" divide, as well as current work on language varieties, and concludes that both schools promote descriptions favoring separate codes that interact in defined manners. The study makes use of an original 30,000-word coded corpus to examine a problematic area along the varietal faultline -- dialogue in belletristic texts -- and suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, the strict lines drawn between Czech's "standard" and "common" varieties are no longer as relevant as they were. Data from contemporary Czech testifies instead to the gradual crumbling of diglossia and the development of these two varieties into a single code with graduated features showing formality and informality and having some discourse functions. The received view of Czech -- and of language varieties overall -- is shown in this instance to hinder our understanding, rather than facilitating it. This research supports other recent reevaluations of the received view in language contact and bilingualism studies, and shows how they can be applied to quasi-diglossic situations like the Czech one. ISBN 3 89586 612 1. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 13. Ca. 200pp. EUR 55.22 / USD 68 / DM 108 / #40. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:53:26 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:53:26 EST Subject: New book: Indo-Aryan linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dhivehi (Maldivian) BRUCE D. CAIN & JAMES W. GAIR, Cornell University Dhivehi (Maldivian) is the national language of the Republic of Maldives, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean south of India and to the west of Sri Lanka. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Sinhala, and with it forms the southernmost branch. Dhivehi has more than 240,000 speakers in the Maldives, and an additional 5,000 in Minicoy of India where the language is known as Mahal. As the national language of the Maldives, Dhivehi is fully developed and thriving. It has a literary history that spans at least nine centuries, and employs its own unique right-to-left script called Thaana. Dhivehi printed materials are abundant, and it is the language of radio and television. Dhivehi is the medium of education, and literacy in the Maldives exceeds 95%. While enjoying a privileged status within the Maldives, very little is known about Dhivehi in the outside world. The inventory of published works on Dhivehi is sparse. In more recent years, the Maldives has become more accessible to researchers, and interest in Dhivehi has grown. This sketch describes standard Dhivehi, the dialect spoken in the capital Male' and surrounding atolls, and is based on a corpus of published materials and elicited information gathered on site. Some of the more notable phonological features of Dhivehi include development of prenasalized stops, compensatory lengthening of consonants from vowel loss, and alternations of several consonants with the glottal stop. Morphologically, Dhivehi has a system of volitivity marking for verbal forms. Dhivehi syntax features a cleft-like construction in which the focused item is generally post-verbal, and a predicate nominal construction with an equative marker on the subject. ISBN 3 929075 16 4. Languages of the World/Materials 63. Ca. 70pp. Ca. EUR 25.46 / USD 32.50 / DM 53.00 / # 19.90. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:51:17 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:51:17 EST Subject: Nau book Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hittite SILVIA LURAGHI, Terza Universit` di Roma Hittite belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, which has become extinct in the first half of the first millenium b.C. Among the Anatolian languages Hittite is the best attested; for our knowledge of it we can relay on several thousands of clay tables, dating back to about 1750 b.C. - 1150 b.C. One of the biggest matters of interest concerning Hittite lies in its differences from the ancient Indo-European languages. The author does not aim at an evaluation of the relative antiquity of the Hittite features in comparison to those of the other Indo-European languages, rather, the author is going to highlight the pecularities which can be connected with major typological issues. Topics related in this sketch include: (1) the socio-linguistic situation of Anatolia in the second millenium b.C.; (2) phoneme inventory; graphic problems connected with the use of cuneiform and the evolution of scribal habits; (3) relative chronology of Hittite texts and periodization of the Hittite language; (4) morphology: word formation, parts of speech and their inflectional categories; gender system; (5) syntax: noun and verb phrase; types of adnominal modifiers; auxiliaries; use of cases; verbal voice; TAM system; (6) word order within the simple sentence; sentence initial and sentence final position; clitics; position of the finite verb; (7) parataxis and hypotaxis; connectives and asyndesis; types of subordinate clauses; infinitives; (8) anaphoric relations within the text. The text for analysis is from Old Hittite, particularly interesting for what concerns word order and the use of connectives. ISBN 3 89586 076 X. Languages of the World/Materials 114. 64pp. EUR 25.46 / USD 32.50 / DM 49.80 / # 19.90. 2nd printing: 02/2000 Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:52:44 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:52:44 EST Subject: Book announcement : English Historical Syntax Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Historical English Syntax A statistical corpus-based study on the organisation of Early Modern English sentences Javier Pirez-Guerra, University of Vigo In this monograph the author explores the syntactic organisation of declarative clauses from late Middle English to present-day English and pays special attention to the consequences which the location of the subject has for the determination of the unmarked word order in Early Modern English. The data have been taken from two electronic corpora, namely, The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts and the Lancaster/Oslo-Bergen Corpus of British English. The author outlines his own concept of 'theme,' which will be useful for the (explanatory and descriptive) purposes of describing syntactic (un)markedness. Such a concept leads to the existence of, on the one hand, an unmarked SV organisation and, on the other, of several marked patterns, viz sentences introduced by existential there, instances of subject extraposition and insertion of it, clefts, topicalisations, left-dislocations and subject inversions. The subsystems just mentioned are located on a scale of markedness, according to two variables: first, frequency, which is investigated by way of the statistical analysis of the data, and, second, 'linguistic functionality.' This second variable has been examined in the light of variables such as gender, textual category, discourse taxonomy, orality and informative principles such as 'given before new' or end-weight. JAVIER PIREZ-GUERRA lectures on English linguistics and corpus linguistics at the Department of English, University of Vigo. His research is focused on syntactic change from Early Modern English onwards. ISBN 3 89586 651 2. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 11. Ca. 300pp. EUR 61.35 / USD 76 / DM 120 / # 45. 2nd printing: 03/2000 Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:52:58 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:52:58 EST Subject: New book : West Bahnaric Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- A Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary PASCALE JACQ & PAUL SIDWELL, University of Melbourne The dictionary consolidates wordlists collected by Jacq and Sidwell during fieldwork to the Lao PDR (1996 to 1998), plus some material from other sources. The languages treated are Oi, Cheng, Sapuon, Talieng, Kraseng, Nhaheun, Laveh, Loven and Alak. The listing is according to semantic fields and includes both native vocabulary and borrowings, with some etymological commentary. The introduction includes a discussion of the current linguistic situation in the south of the Lao PDR, with maps and a listing of languages and villages where they are spoken. The recording and transcription of data is discussed, and some brief remarks are made on the phonology and grammar of the languages. A preliminary genetic classification based upon the lexical data is also presented. A bibliography of West Bahnaric studies completes the introduction. ISBN 3 89586 558 3. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 21. Ca. 260 pages. USD 70 / DM 107 / # 37. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:22 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:22 EST Subject: New book: Comparative Morphology Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages M. LIONEL BENDER University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale Omotic is the least-known family in the Afrasian (=Afroasiatic or "Hamito-Semitic") phylum. No book-length synthesis of the family has appeared previously and it is not generally known that Omotic is a highly agglutinative family with many obvious Afrasian characteristics. Omotic is located entirely within southwest and west Ethiopia, on both sides of the Omo River, from which it takes its name. Some still consder Omotic not to be an independent family, but rather West Cushitic. In this monograph, the author covers all nine Omotic families in descriptive chapters as follows: 1. Northwest Ometo, 2. Southeast Ometo and C'ara, 4. Gimira-Yem (Janjero)-Kefoid, 6. Dizoid, 7. Aroid, 8. Mao. Chs. 3 and 5 are analytic chapters covering preceding chapters and Ch. 9 is an overall analysis, summary, and conclusions. All varieties having sufficient documentation (about 30 in number) are covered, along with notes on others. Sources are all available published sources which contain significant linguistic material, many of them obscure and difficult to obtain, plus extensive unpublished fieldnotes of the author and others. All are fully referenced. Each descriptive chapter has an introduction featuring nomenclature, locations, demographic estimates, and a listing of main sources. There follows a brief phonological sketch divided into consonants, vowels, and suprasegmentals and phonotactics. Morphological categories are then taken up in the order: pronouns, including independents, possessives, verbal affixes, gender, number, and case; demonstratives; interrogatives; nouns, including species and the categories applying to pronouns; verbal TMA (tense-mode-aspect) system; copulas and connecters; nominal and verbal derivations. In the comparative analysis, the author surveys grammatical formatives by family and indicates potential proto-forms where possible. Conclusions include remarks on the sub-classification of Omotic and the position of Omotic in the Afrasian phylum. The book contains about 250 pages including Notes, References, Map. It is to be followed by a second volume on Omotic phonology and lexicon. ISBN 3895862517 LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 19. Ca. 260 pp. EUR 70.56 / USD 94 / DM 138 /# 56. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > I just read your announcement of the Nau book on Latvian which you > posted to the LINGUIST list. I am the > moderator of HISTLING, a discussion list devoted to historical linguistics. > This would be a book that some of our subscribers would be interested > in knowing about. Would you mind sending me a copy to post on HISTLING? > Also, if you have other books on historical topics in the future, please > keep HISTLING in mind; I would be happy to post announcements for you. > > Sincerely, > > Dorothy Disterheft > Moderator, HISTLING From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:44 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:44 EST Subject: New book: Plautdietsch Grammar Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Plautdietsch Grammar ELDO NEUFELDT The stimulus for this project arises out of the realization that the Nether Saxon Low German dialect, Plautdietsch (a dialect, among others, of Niederdeutsch), is in dire danger of extinction. In the author's childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) the dialect was still widly spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today there is a great need for help for many people whose parents spoke the dialect but did not pass it down to the next generation. This brief grammar seeks to help fill that need. The work consists of 15 lessons, beginning with the smallest units of language, the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, moving from there to words, individual lessons on each of the parts of speech and their uses. Next come lessons on the combination of words in their proper relationships in the construction of sentences, and finally the combinations of sentences into texts as the largest unit of language. The final two lessons cover the areas of times and numbers. Each lesson consists of 1) grammatical material, 2) a vocabulary, 3) a brief narrative to be read, and 4) two sets of exercises, one in English and one in Plautdietsch. ISBN 3895866156. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 08. Ca. 60 pp. EUR 25.21 / USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 19.90. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:59 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:59 EST Subject: New book: Celtic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Negation, Referentiality and Boundedness in Gwenedeg Breton A Case Study in Markedness and Asymmetry NATHALIE SCHAPANSKY, Simon Fraser University Negative sentences are considered to be marked vis-a-vis their positive counterparts. However, the markedness of sentence negation cannot be solely defined in terms of the presence or absence of a polarity particle, as shown for Gwenedeg, a Breton dialect spoken in south central Brittany, in the area known as Morbihan. Gwenedeg Breton has been ignored in theoretical works because of its low prestige and its phonological differences, which are reflected in its own spelling system respected in this work. Breton, a verb-second language (V2), displays both negative and positive sentence particles. The markedness of sentence negation is realized rather by structural and semantic/pragmatic asymmetries. Structural asymmetries (chapter two) are associated with Breton V2. They relate to the notion of Predicate Domain, which must be bound. Whereas the negative particle binds the predicate domain, its positive counterparts do not. Hence preverbal noun phrases (NPs) serve to bind the predicate domain in affirmative but not in negative sentences. Two of the three preverbal positions available in affirmative sentences remain accessible in negative sentences. Semantic/pragmatic asymmetries (chapter three) pertaining to the V2 order relate to referentiality. In Breton, referential NPs can bind the predicate domain and appear preverbally while non-referential NPs marked by the preposition ag 'of' cannot. Potential binders for the predicate domain depend also on auxiliary selection. The auxiliary 'to be' associated with states shows, in the present tense, four forms demanding subject or non-subject binders. They are sensitive to the position and definiteness of their subjects and two of them do not occur in negative sentences. The auxiliary 'to have', associated with events, demands a referential subject and has no preferred binders. However, this auxiliaryis used with eventive readings of state predicates obtained obtained only with referential subject. In negative sentences (chapter four), semantic asymmetries relate to aspect--event predicates are interpreted as stative--, and to the irrealis modality,-- indefinite NPs are interpreted as non-referential under the scope of negation. In Breton, this rule applies to the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading and to the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, being replaced in negative sentences by negative polarity items. Non-referential NPs marked by ag, which represent undefined substes of entities, must occur in postverbal position. Pragmatic asymmetries relate to the distinction presupposition versus assertion, and to metalinguistic negation, a marked kind of negation, which does not affect the aspect of event predicates nor the referentiality of NPs under its scope. Hence the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading, the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, and the eventive reading of state predicates can occur under the scope of metalinguistic negation. This analysis is extended to other languages. ISBN 3 89586 918 X. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 05. Ca. 200 pp. EUR 48.06 / USD 52 / DM 94 / # 31. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:55:46 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:55:46 EST Subject: New book: Celtic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Negation, Referentiality and Boundedness in Gwenedeg Breton A Case Study in Markedness and Asymmetry NATHALIE SCHAPANSKY, Simon Fraser University Negative sentences are considered to be marked vis-a-vis their positive counterparts. However, the markedness of sentence negation cannot be solely defined in terms of the presence or absence of a polarity particle, as shown for Gwenedeg, a Breton dialect spoken in south central Brittany, in the area known as Morbihan. Gwenedeg Breton has been ignored in theoretical works because of its low prestige and its phonological differences, which are reflected in its own spelling system respected in this work. Breton, a verb-second language (V2), displays both negative and positive sentence particles. The markedness of sentence negation is realized rather by structural and semantic/pragmatic asymmetries. Structural asymmetries (chapter two) are associated with Breton V2. They relate to the notion of Predicate Domain, which must be bound. Whereas the negative particle binds the predicate domain, its positive counterparts do not. Hence preverbal noun phrases (NPs) serve to bind the predicate domain in affirmative but not in negative sentences. Two of the three preverbal positions available in affirmative sentences remain accessible in negative sentences. Semantic/pragmatic asymmetries (chapter three) pertaining to the V2 order relate to referentiality. In Breton, referential NPs can bind the predicate domain and appear preverbally while non-referential NPs marked by the preposition ag 'of' cannot. Potential binders for the predicate domain depend also on auxiliary selection. The auxiliary 'to be' associated with states shows, in the present tense, four forms demanding subject or non-subject binders. They are sensitive to the position and definiteness of their subjects and two of them do not occur in negative sentences. The auxiliary 'to have', associated with events, demands a referential subject and has no preferred binders. However, this auxiliaryis used with eventive readings of state predicates obtained obtained only with referential subject. In negative sentences (chapter four), semantic asymmetries relate to aspect--event predicates are interpreted as stative--, and to the irrealis modality,-- indefinite NPs are interpreted as non-referential under the scope of negation. In Breton, this rule applies to the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading and to the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, being replaced in negative sentences by negative polarity items. Non-referential NPs marked by ag, which represent undefined substes of entities, must occur in postverbal position. Pragmatic asymmetries relate to the distinction presupposition versus assertion, and to metalinguistic negation, a marked kind of negation, which does not affect the aspect of event predicates nor the referentiality of NPs under its scope. Hence the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading, the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, and the eventive reading of state predicates can occur under the scope of metalinguistic negation. This analysis is extended to other languages. ISBN 3 89586 918 X. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 05. Ca. 200 pp. EUR 48.06 / USD 52 / DM 94 / # 31. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl Sat Mar 4 16:16:23 2000 From: a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl (Ans van Kemenade) Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 11:16:23 EST Subject: Jobs: announcement Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- In the framework of a research programme grant for three researchers, titled 'the Diachrony of Complex Predicates in West-Germanic', two four-year paid positions are available for research leading to a doctoral thesis. The research programme is directed by professors Geert Booij (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Ans van Kemenade (University of Nijmegen), and funded to a large extent by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO. Beside the two positions for PhD students, it comprises a postdoctoral project with Dr. Bettelou Los as the researcher. The aim of the programme is to come to an extensive, indepth, theoretically inspired and corpus-based study of the historical development of separable complex verbs in the West-Germanic languages. The postdoctoral project focusses on Gothic and German. One PhD projects focusses on the history of Dutch, and will be conducted at the Vrije Universiteit under the direction of prof. Geert Booij; the other PhD project concentrates on (Middle) English, and will be conducted at the University of Nijmegen under the direction of prof. Ans van Kemenade. Requirements: candidates for both PhD projects should have affinity with a theoretical approach as well as with detailed data research in computerized corpora. The institutional embedding of the projects will ensure some further training in both of these aspects. For the project on Dutch we seek a candidate with undergraduate training in Dutch, with a specialism in language/(historical) linguistics, or in linguistics with Dutch as the main language. For further information, contact booij at let.vu.nl. For the project on English, we seek a candidate with undergraduate training in English, with a specialism in language/(historical) linguistics. For further information, contact a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl. A full description of the programme can also be found at: www.let.kun.nl/engdept/kemenade/projects > > > > > > > From kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu Sun Mar 5 02:55:33 2000 From: kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu (Keith Johnson) Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 21:55:33 EST Subject: Summer session: Spoken Language in Context Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Summer 2000 at Ohio State University Spoken Language in Context: Methods and Models During July of 2000, the Department of Linguistics at the Ohio State University will be offering a unique combination of short courses aimed at exploring spoken language, with a particular focus on the empirical study of naturally-occurring speech through various instrumental, quantitative, and analytic means. Scholars, researchers (industry or academic), and students are invited to join us for an intense and rewarding summer session. Course offerings: Laboratory Phonology - Mary Beckman Quantitative Methods - Michael Broe Field Phonetics - Keith Johnson Historical Phonology - Brian Joseph & Richard Janda Practicum in English Intonation - Julia McGory The Pragmatics of Focus - Craige Roberts For more information see the website: http://ling.ohio-state.edu/SU2000 From lsa at lsadc.org Mon Mar 6 18:31:46 2000 From: lsa at lsadc.org (LSA) Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 13:31:46 EST Subject: March LSA Bulletin Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The March 2000 LSA Bulletin is now available on the Linguistic Society website: http://www.lsadc.org From Leesona at oup.co.uk Tue Mar 7 11:36:41 2000 From: Leesona at oup.co.uk (LEESON, Abigail) Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 06:36:41 EST Subject: FAO Dorothy Disterheft - linguistics title from Oxford University Press Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Comparative Dravidian Linguistics: Selected Papers written by Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Honorary Professor of Linguistics, University of Hyderabad. Short Description This volume is a contribution both to comparative Dravidian studies and to the theory of language change and linguistic reconstruction. It makes available the author's most important published articles on Dravidian over the last forty years and includes a new and substantial introduction to the field. The book concludes with a survey of Dravidian language studies over the last thousand years and a critical account of work since 1950. Those articles reprinted in the work appear substantially unchanged, with individual addenda in which the author considers the impact of subsequent work by himself and others. Contents Chapter 1: Alternations in vowel-length in Telugu verbal bases: A comparative study Chapter 2: Alternations i/e and u/o in South Dravidian Chapter 3: Proto-Dravidian *z Chapter 4: Dravidian personal pronouns Chapter 5: Comparative Dravidian linguistics Chapter 6: Dravidian nasals in Brahui Chapter 7: Some observations on Tamil phonology of the 12th and 13th centuries Chapter 8: Gender and number in Proto-Dravidian Chapter 9: Sound change: Shared innovation vs. diffusion Chapter 10: Areal and lexical diffusion of sound change: Evidence from Dravidian Chapter 11: On diachronic and synchronic rules in phonology: The case of Parji Chapter 12: A vowel-lowering rule in Kui-Kuvi Chapter 13: Unchanged cognates as a criterion in linguistic subgrouping (with Lincoln Moses and Douglas Danforth) Chapter 14: An overview of comparative Dravidian studies since Current Trends (1969) Chapter 15: A problem of reconstruction in Gondi: Interaction between phonological and morphological processes (with G. U. Rao) Chapter 16: The emergence of the syllable types of stems (C)VCC(V) and (C)VC(V) in Indo-Aryan and Dravidian: A case of convergence Chapter 17: The origin and evolution of primary derivative suffixes in Dravidian Chapter 18: Patterns of sound change in Dravidian Chapter 19: Evidence for a laryngeal *H in Proto-Dravidian Chapter 20: Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion: A study of s>h>ø in Gondi dialects Chapter 21: Landmarks in comparative Dravidian studies during the 20th century 416 pp, line figures, 12 maps June 2000 0-19-824122-4 £70.00 Hardback Abbie Leeson Assistant Marketing Manager, Law & Linguistics Oxford University Press Great Clarendon Street Oxford OX2 6DP tel +44 1865 556767 ext. 4227 fax +44 1865 267741 email leesona at oup.co.uk From kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu Tue Mar 14 00:23:44 2000 From: kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu (Keith Johnson) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 19:23:44 EST Subject: Postdoc position announcement Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION IN SPOKEN LANGUAGE GENERATION AND UNDERSTANDING We invite applications for the position of Postdoctoral Researcher with a specialization in phonetics and phonology. The position is for one year with the possibility of one additional year, pending funding. The researcher will be expected to take a leadership role in the phonological and phonetic analysis of a corpus of conversational speech. Candidates should hold a PhD in linguistics. Essential knowledge and experience for the position are familiarity with Windows-based and Unix/Linux-based operating systems and some knowledge of computational speech analysis. The starting date can be as early as July 15 but no later than September 15, 2000. Starting salary for the twelve-month appointment is $28,000 plus benefits. Please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, representative samples of published or unpublished work, and three letters of recommendation to the address below. Review of applications will begin April 17, 2000. The Ohio State University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer. Women, minorities, Vietnam-era veterans, disabled veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. See http://vic.psy.ohio-state.edu for additional information about the position and the project. Professor Elizabeth Hume Spoken Language Generation and Understanding Department of Linguistics Ohio State University 222 Oxley Hall Columbus, Ohio 43210 Address queries to Elizabeth Hume (ehume at ling.ohio-state.edu) or Mark Pitt (pitt.2 at osu.edu). From erickson at hawaii.edu Tue Mar 14 13:18:12 2000 From: erickson at hawaii.edu (Blaine Erickson) Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 08:18:12 EST Subject: Question about European uvular r Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I know I've run across this someplace, but I just can't remember where. The uvular _r_s of French & German are the result of innovation, and the _r_ spread from one language to the other--but which way was it? Any references would be greatly appreciated. Please send e-mail to me, and I'll post the results. Best, Blaine Erickson erickson at hawaii.edu From amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk Fri Mar 24 00:54:44 2000 From: amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk (A. McMahon) Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 19:54:44 EST Subject: Jobs at Sheffield, UK Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Lectureship and Senior Lectureship in English Language and Linguistics Department of English Language and Linguistics University of Sheffield, UK The Department of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield is seeking to fill two new posts whch are available from 1 September 2000. These posts have been created following the appointment of Professor April McMahon to a Chair in English Language and Linguistics. Applications are particularly encouraged from those with a proven research record in one or more of the following fields: Applied Linguistics; Semantics and Pragmatics; the History of the English Language; Syntax. An interest in some aspect of literary linguistics may also be an advantage. Applicants should be committed to developing teaching in their specialist areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and to contributing to the research profile of the department. Salary will be in the range 17,238 - 30,065 GBP (Lecturers) or 31,563 - 35,670 GBP (Senior Lecturers). The closing date for applications is 11 April 2000. Anyone wishing to make informal enquiries about the posts is encouraged to contact either Professor April McMahon (Cambridge telephone + 44 (0)1223 335830, e-mail amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk, or in Sheffield +44 (0)114 222 0238, e-mail April.McMahon at shef.ac.uk), or Professor David Burnley (telephone +44 (0)114 222 0210, e-mail D.Burnley at shef.ac.uk). An information pack on the posts (reference number RW1946) is available from the Personnel Department, University of Sheffield, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN; or telephone +44 (0)114 222 1631; or e-mail jobs at sheffield.ac.uk. From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Fri Mar 24 13:02:52 2000 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 08:02:52 EST Subject: Q: Romance etymon? Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- This is an etymological query, directed mainly at Romanists. There is a Basque word of the form , with recorded variants , , and . The word is a collective noun, meaning 'tools', 'toolset', 'toolkit'. There is disagreement among textual sources as to whether that final /a/ is part of the stem or not. The word is recorded from 1627 -- rather early, by Basque standards -- and it is chiefly found in the French Basque Country, though it is also attested south of the Pyrenees. Its etymology is unknown. Most investigators have tried to see it as a derivative of the common Basque noun 'work', but this is phonologically and morphologically difficult, and anyway the supposed second element would be unidentifiable. The standard suggestion is Basque 'arm', but this phonologically very poor and semantically unpersuasive. In fact, the word just doesn't *look* like a native Basque word, and I suspect a borrowing from Romance -- quite possibly from Occitan, the most usual source of Romance loans into northern Basque. But I can't find a source. Does anybody know of a Romance item which might provide a source? It is possible that the Romance article has been incorporated into the Basque word, and so we might be looking at something along the lines of * or *, rather than *. (A Romance /v/ would be borrowed as Basque /b/.) Any suggestions gratefully received. Best I've been able to come up with so far is Castilian 'the knife', which is phonologically only fair and semantically rather disappointing. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:52:33 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:52:33 EST Subject: New book : Indo-European Linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- INTRODUZIONE ALLA LINGUISTICA LATINA Moreno Morani, Universit` degli Studi di Genova Il volume Introduzione alla linguistica latina si propone di collocare la lingua latina nel panorama delle lingue indeuropee e di seguirne lo sviluppo storico, dall'indeuropeo ricostruito fino al passaggio dal latino alle lingue romanze. La trattazione discute i principali problemi che lo studio della lingua latina in prospettiva diacronica presenta: per ogni problema trattato viene esposta la storia dela discussione, trattati criticamente i principali tentativi di soluzione proposti, con ampio riferimento alle fonti bibliografiche. Il volume pur essere utilizzato anche come manuale per lo studio universitario, grazie a note, osservazioni e tabelle che forniscono un quadro sistematico della materia trattata. Il volume tiene conto sia dei risultati raggiunti dalle trattazioni "classiche" della linguistica indeuropea sia delle riflessione e delle proposte delle moderne scuole di linguistica. Indice : INTRODUZIONE. Il latino tra le lingue indeuropee I. Lingue indeuropee e ricostruzione linguistica. 1. Le lingue indeuropee. 2. Metodo, obiettivi e limiti della ricostruzione. II. Il latino fra le lingue indeuropee. 1. La marginalit` del latino. 2. L'ipotesi italo-celtica. 3. Latino e venetico. 4. La "questione italica". 5. Elementi non indeuropei nel latino. 6. Conclusioni III. Un latino e tanti latini. 1. Variet` latine. 2. Variet` diacroniche. (a. Latino preletterario. b. Latino arcaico. c. Latino classico. d. Latino tardo. e. Latino medievale). 3. Variet` diatopiche. (a. Variet` antiche. b. Variet` dell'et` arcaica e classica. c. Variet` dell'et` imperiale). 4. Variet` diastratiche (a. La lingua dell'uso. b. Il latino volgare. c. Le lingue speciali. d. Il latino dei cristiani). IV. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Unit` latina e variet` romanza. 2. Classificazione delle lingue romanze. PROBLEMI DI FONOLOGIA E MORFOLOGIA LATINA Parte prima: Fonetica e fonologia A. Origini indeuropee del sistema fonologico latino I. Il sistema fonologico dell'indeuropeo. II. Dall'indeuropeo al latino. 1. Esito latino dei fonemi indeuropei. 2. Ulteriori sviluppi. B. Fonetica e fonologia del latino. I. Vocalismo. 1. Vocali lunghe e brevi. 2. Sono esistite vocali nasali in latino? 3. Il cosiddetto "suono intermedio" tra l e y. II. Consonantismo 1. Le occlusive. 2. Le semivocali /j/ e /w/. 3. Le nasali. 4. Le liquide. 5. Le fricative. III. Fonemi di origine greca 1. y. 2. z. 3. Le occlusive aspirate. IV. L'accento. V. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Il vocalismo. 2. Il consonantismo. Parte seconda: Problemi di morfologia latina A. Il nome I. Flessione nominale dell'indeuropeo. II. La flessione nominale del latino. 1. L'organizzazione generale. (a. Resti di apofonia. b. Riduzione delle classi flessionali. c. Quante sono le declinazioni latine? d. Il suppletivismo). 2. Il numero. 3. I casi. 4. Le desinenze. III. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. La flessione nominale in latino volgare. (a. Declino e scomparsa del neutro. b. Riduzione delle classi tematiche. c. Le desinenze). 2. Il crollo della flessione nelle lingue romanze. (a. Ragioni semantiche. b. Ragioni strutturali). IV. L'articolo. V. I pronomi B. Il verbo I. Il verbo indeuropeo. II. Dall'indeuropeo al latino. 1. Le quattro coniugazioni. 2. Perfectum e infectum. L'aspetto nel verbo latino. 3. I modi e i tempi. (a. Resti di ottativo. b. La formazione dei congiuntivi in latino. c. I preteriti. d. Il futuro). 4. La diatesi. 5. Le desinenze. 6. Le forme nominali del verbo. III. Dal latino alle lingue romanze. 1. Il verbo nel latino volgare. 2. Il verbo romanzo. Parte terza: Il lessico latino I. Il fondo indeuropeo. 1. Il lessico comune. 2. Il lessico nordoccidentale. 3. Ulteriori vicende del lessico indeuropeo in latino. 4. Il latino lingua di contadini. II. Nuove acquisizioni. 1. Elementi di sostrato. 2. Elementi etruschi. 3. L'influsso greco. 4. Elementi di altra provenienza. III. Il lessico del latino volgare 1. Tendenze generali. 2. Dal latino volgare alle lingue romanze. ISBN 3 89586 948 1. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 08. Ca. 330 pp. EUR 61.36 / DM 120 / USD 65 / # 40. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404 or +4989 3148909; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:53:02 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:53:02 EST Subject: New book: Slavic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- REGISTER VARIATION AND LANGUAGE STANDARDS IN CZECH NEIL BERMEL, Sheffield University This 35-45,000-word monograph, accessible to both Slavists and general linguists, addresses "larger questions" raised by Czech register/code variation in a cross-linguistic perspective. Czech can be described as a quasi-diglossic language situation, with a standard language that has no native speakers, and an interdialect that has no currency as a communicative standard. The author reviews research surrounding the "standard Czech - common Czech" divide, as well as current work on language varieties, and concludes that both schools promote descriptions favoring separate codes that interact in defined manners. The study makes use of an original 30,000-word coded corpus to examine a problematic area along the varietal faultline -- dialogue in belletristic texts -- and suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, the strict lines drawn between Czech's "standard" and "common" varieties are no longer as relevant as they were. Data from contemporary Czech testifies instead to the gradual crumbling of diglossia and the development of these two varieties into a single code with graduated features showing formality and informality and having some discourse functions. The received view of Czech -- and of language varieties overall -- is shown in this instance to hinder our understanding, rather than facilitating it. This research supports other recent reevaluations of the received view in language contact and bilingualism studies, and shows how they can be applied to quasi-diglossic situations like the Czech one. ISBN 3 89586 612 1. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 13. Ca. 200pp. EUR 55.22 / USD 68 / DM 108 / #40. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 00:53:26 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:53:26 EST Subject: New book: Indo-Aryan linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dhivehi (Maldivian) BRUCE D. CAIN & JAMES W. GAIR, Cornell University Dhivehi (Maldivian) is the national language of the Republic of Maldives, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean south of India and to the west of Sri Lanka. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Sinhala, and with it forms the southernmost branch. Dhivehi has more than 240,000 speakers in the Maldives, and an additional 5,000 in Minicoy of India where the language is known as Mahal. As the national language of the Maldives, Dhivehi is fully developed and thriving. It has a literary history that spans at least nine centuries, and employs its own unique right-to-left script called Thaana. Dhivehi printed materials are abundant, and it is the language of radio and television. Dhivehi is the medium of education, and literacy in the Maldives exceeds 95%. While enjoying a privileged status within the Maldives, very little is known about Dhivehi in the outside world. The inventory of published works on Dhivehi is sparse. In more recent years, the Maldives has become more accessible to researchers, and interest in Dhivehi has grown. This sketch describes standard Dhivehi, the dialect spoken in the capital Male' and surrounding atolls, and is based on a corpus of published materials and elicited information gathered on site. Some of the more notable phonological features of Dhivehi include development of prenasalized stops, compensatory lengthening of consonants from vowel loss, and alternations of several consonants with the glottal stop. Morphologically, Dhivehi has a system of volitivity marking for verbal forms. Dhivehi syntax features a cleft-like construction in which the focused item is generally post-verbal, and a predicate nominal construction with an equative marker on the subject. ISBN 3 929075 16 4. Languages of the World/Materials 63. Ca. 70pp. Ca. EUR 25.46 / USD 32.50 / DM 53.00 / # 19.90. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 62269404; http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > Dear Dr. Lueders, > HISTLING has about 520 subscribers. And please do send us annoucements > on any topic (conferences, workshops, jobs, etc.) as long as they have > some connection (even slight) to historical linguistics. > > Best, > > Dorothy From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:51:17 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:51:17 EST Subject: Nau book Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hittite SILVIA LURAGHI, Terza Universit` di Roma Hittite belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, which has become extinct in the first half of the first millenium b.C. Among the Anatolian languages Hittite is the best attested; for our knowledge of it we can relay on several thousands of clay tables, dating back to about 1750 b.C. - 1150 b.C. One of the biggest matters of interest concerning Hittite lies in its differences from the ancient Indo-European languages. The author does not aim at an evaluation of the relative antiquity of the Hittite features in comparison to those of the other Indo-European languages, rather, the author is going to highlight the pecularities which can be connected with major typological issues. Topics related in this sketch include: (1) the socio-linguistic situation of Anatolia in the second millenium b.C.; (2) phoneme inventory; graphic problems connected with the use of cuneiform and the evolution of scribal habits; (3) relative chronology of Hittite texts and periodization of the Hittite language; (4) morphology: word formation, parts of speech and their inflectional categories; gender system; (5) syntax: noun and verb phrase; types of adnominal modifiers; auxiliaries; use of cases; verbal voice; TAM system; (6) word order within the simple sentence; sentence initial and sentence final position; clitics; position of the finite verb; (7) parataxis and hypotaxis; connectives and asyndesis; types of subordinate clauses; infinitives; (8) anaphoric relations within the text. The text for analysis is from Old Hittite, particularly interesting for what concerns word order and the use of connectives. ISBN 3 89586 076 X. Languages of the World/Materials 114. 64pp. EUR 25.46 / USD 32.50 / DM 49.80 / # 19.90. 2nd printing: 02/2000 Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:52:44 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:52:44 EST Subject: Book announcement : English Historical Syntax Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Historical English Syntax A statistical corpus-based study on the organisation of Early Modern English sentences Javier Pirez-Guerra, University of Vigo In this monograph the author explores the syntactic organisation of declarative clauses from late Middle English to present-day English and pays special attention to the consequences which the location of the subject has for the determination of the unmarked word order in Early Modern English. The data have been taken from two electronic corpora, namely, The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts and the Lancaster/Oslo-Bergen Corpus of British English. The author outlines his own concept of 'theme,' which will be useful for the (explanatory and descriptive) purposes of describing syntactic (un)markedness. Such a concept leads to the existence of, on the one hand, an unmarked SV organisation and, on the other, of several marked patterns, viz sentences introduced by existential there, instances of subject extraposition and insertion of it, clefts, topicalisations, left-dislocations and subject inversions. The subsystems just mentioned are located on a scale of markedness, according to two variables: first, frequency, which is investigated by way of the statistical analysis of the data, and, second, 'linguistic functionality.' This second variable has been examined in the light of variables such as gender, textual category, discourse taxonomy, orality and informative principles such as 'given before new' or end-weight. JAVIER PIREZ-GUERRA lectures on English linguistics and corpus linguistics at the Department of English, University of Vigo. His research is focused on syntactic change from Early Modern English onwards. ISBN 3 89586 651 2. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 11. Ca. 300pp. EUR 61.35 / USD 76 / DM 120 / # 45. 2nd printing: 03/2000 Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:52:58 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:52:58 EST Subject: New book : West Bahnaric Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- A Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary PASCALE JACQ & PAUL SIDWELL, University of Melbourne The dictionary consolidates wordlists collected by Jacq and Sidwell during fieldwork to the Lao PDR (1996 to 1998), plus some material from other sources. The languages treated are Oi, Cheng, Sapuon, Talieng, Kraseng, Nhaheun, Laveh, Loven and Alak. The listing is according to semantic fields and includes both native vocabulary and borrowings, with some etymological commentary. The introduction includes a discussion of the current linguistic situation in the south of the Lao PDR, with maps and a listing of languages and villages where they are spoken. The recording and transcription of data is discussed, and some brief remarks are made on the phonology and grammar of the languages. A preliminary genetic classification based upon the lexical data is also presented. A bibliography of West Bahnaric studies completes the introduction. ISBN 3 89586 558 3. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 21. Ca. 260 pages. USD 70 / DM 107 / # 37. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:22 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:22 EST Subject: New book: Comparative Morphology Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages M. LIONEL BENDER University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale Omotic is the least-known family in the Afrasian (=Afroasiatic or "Hamito-Semitic") phylum. No book-length synthesis of the family has appeared previously and it is not generally known that Omotic is a highly agglutinative family with many obvious Afrasian characteristics. Omotic is located entirely within southwest and west Ethiopia, on both sides of the Omo River, from which it takes its name. Some still consder Omotic not to be an independent family, but rather West Cushitic. In this monograph, the author covers all nine Omotic families in descriptive chapters as follows: 1. Northwest Ometo, 2. Southeast Ometo and C'ara, 4. Gimira-Yem (Janjero)-Kefoid, 6. Dizoid, 7. Aroid, 8. Mao. Chs. 3 and 5 are analytic chapters covering preceding chapters and Ch. 9 is an overall analysis, summary, and conclusions. All varieties having sufficient documentation (about 30 in number) are covered, along with notes on others. Sources are all available published sources which contain significant linguistic material, many of them obscure and difficult to obtain, plus extensive unpublished fieldnotes of the author and others. All are fully referenced. Each descriptive chapter has an introduction featuring nomenclature, locations, demographic estimates, and a listing of main sources. There follows a brief phonological sketch divided into consonants, vowels, and suprasegmentals and phonotactics. Morphological categories are then taken up in the order: pronouns, including independents, possessives, verbal affixes, gender, number, and case; demonstratives; interrogatives; nouns, including species and the categories applying to pronouns; verbal TMA (tense-mode-aspect) system; copulas and connecters; nominal and verbal derivations. In the comparative analysis, the author surveys grammatical formatives by family and indicates potential proto-forms where possible. Conclusions include remarks on the sub-classification of Omotic and the position of Omotic in the Afrasian phylum. The book contains about 250 pages including Notes, References, Map. It is to be followed by a second volume on Omotic phonology and lexicon. ISBN 3895862517 LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 19. Ca. 260 pp. EUR 70.56 / USD 94 / DM 138 /# 56. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Dorothy Disterheft schrieb: > > I just read your announcement of the Nau book on Latvian which you > posted to the LINGUIST list. I am the > moderator of HISTLING, a discussion list devoted to historical linguistics. > This would be a book that some of our subscribers would be interested > in knowing about. Would you mind sending me a copy to post on HISTLING? > Also, if you have other books on historical topics in the future, please > keep HISTLING in mind; I would be happy to post announcements for you. > > Sincerely, > > Dorothy Disterheft > Moderator, HISTLING From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:44 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:44 EST Subject: New book: Plautdietsch Grammar Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Plautdietsch Grammar ELDO NEUFELDT The stimulus for this project arises out of the realization that the Nether Saxon Low German dialect, Plautdietsch (a dialect, among others, of Niederdeutsch), is in dire danger of extinction. In the author's childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) the dialect was still widly spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today there is a great need for help for many people whose parents spoke the dialect but did not pass it down to the next generation. This brief grammar seeks to help fill that need. The work consists of 15 lessons, beginning with the smallest units of language, the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, moving from there to words, individual lessons on each of the parts of speech and their uses. Next come lessons on the combination of words in their proper relationships in the construction of sentences, and finally the combinations of sentences into texts as the largest unit of language. The final two lessons cover the areas of times and numbers. Each lesson consists of 1) grammatical material, 2) a vocabulary, 3) a brief narrative to be read, and 4) two sets of exercises, one in English and one in Plautdietsch. ISBN 3895866156. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 08. Ca. 60 pp. EUR 25.21 / USD 31.50 / DM 49.30 / # 19.90. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:53:59 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:53:59 EST Subject: New book: Celtic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Negation, Referentiality and Boundedness in Gwenedeg Breton A Case Study in Markedness and Asymmetry NATHALIE SCHAPANSKY, Simon Fraser University Negative sentences are considered to be marked vis-a-vis their positive counterparts. However, the markedness of sentence negation cannot be solely defined in terms of the presence or absence of a polarity particle, as shown for Gwenedeg, a Breton dialect spoken in south central Brittany, in the area known as Morbihan. Gwenedeg Breton has been ignored in theoretical works because of its low prestige and its phonological differences, which are reflected in its own spelling system respected in this work. Breton, a verb-second language (V2), displays both negative and positive sentence particles. The markedness of sentence negation is realized rather by structural and semantic/pragmatic asymmetries. Structural asymmetries (chapter two) are associated with Breton V2. They relate to the notion of Predicate Domain, which must be bound. Whereas the negative particle binds the predicate domain, its positive counterparts do not. Hence preverbal noun phrases (NPs) serve to bind the predicate domain in affirmative but not in negative sentences. Two of the three preverbal positions available in affirmative sentences remain accessible in negative sentences. Semantic/pragmatic asymmetries (chapter three) pertaining to the V2 order relate to referentiality. In Breton, referential NPs can bind the predicate domain and appear preverbally while non-referential NPs marked by the preposition ag 'of' cannot. Potential binders for the predicate domain depend also on auxiliary selection. The auxiliary 'to be' associated with states shows, in the present tense, four forms demanding subject or non-subject binders. They are sensitive to the position and definiteness of their subjects and two of them do not occur in negative sentences. The auxiliary 'to have', associated with events, demands a referential subject and has no preferred binders. However, this auxiliaryis used with eventive readings of state predicates obtained obtained only with referential subject. In negative sentences (chapter four), semantic asymmetries relate to aspect--event predicates are interpreted as stative--, and to the irrealis modality,-- indefinite NPs are interpreted as non-referential under the scope of negation. In Breton, this rule applies to the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading and to the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, being replaced in negative sentences by negative polarity items. Non-referential NPs marked by ag, which represent undefined substes of entities, must occur in postverbal position. Pragmatic asymmetries relate to the distinction presupposition versus assertion, and to metalinguistic negation, a marked kind of negation, which does not affect the aspect of event predicates nor the referentiality of NPs under its scope. Hence the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading, the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, and the eventive reading of state predicates can occur under the scope of metalinguistic negation. This analysis is extended to other languages. ISBN 3 89586 918 X. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 05. Ca. 200 pp. EUR 48.06 / USD 52 / DM 94 / # 31. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de Fri Mar 3 12:55:46 2000 From: LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA) Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:55:46 EST Subject: New book: Celtic linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Negation, Referentiality and Boundedness in Gwenedeg Breton A Case Study in Markedness and Asymmetry NATHALIE SCHAPANSKY, Simon Fraser University Negative sentences are considered to be marked vis-a-vis their positive counterparts. However, the markedness of sentence negation cannot be solely defined in terms of the presence or absence of a polarity particle, as shown for Gwenedeg, a Breton dialect spoken in south central Brittany, in the area known as Morbihan. Gwenedeg Breton has been ignored in theoretical works because of its low prestige and its phonological differences, which are reflected in its own spelling system respected in this work. Breton, a verb-second language (V2), displays both negative and positive sentence particles. The markedness of sentence negation is realized rather by structural and semantic/pragmatic asymmetries. Structural asymmetries (chapter two) are associated with Breton V2. They relate to the notion of Predicate Domain, which must be bound. Whereas the negative particle binds the predicate domain, its positive counterparts do not. Hence preverbal noun phrases (NPs) serve to bind the predicate domain in affirmative but not in negative sentences. Two of the three preverbal positions available in affirmative sentences remain accessible in negative sentences. Semantic/pragmatic asymmetries (chapter three) pertaining to the V2 order relate to referentiality. In Breton, referential NPs can bind the predicate domain and appear preverbally while non-referential NPs marked by the preposition ag 'of' cannot. Potential binders for the predicate domain depend also on auxiliary selection. The auxiliary 'to be' associated with states shows, in the present tense, four forms demanding subject or non-subject binders. They are sensitive to the position and definiteness of their subjects and two of them do not occur in negative sentences. The auxiliary 'to have', associated with events, demands a referential subject and has no preferred binders. However, this auxiliaryis used with eventive readings of state predicates obtained obtained only with referential subject. In negative sentences (chapter four), semantic asymmetries relate to aspect--event predicates are interpreted as stative--, and to the irrealis modality,-- indefinite NPs are interpreted as non-referential under the scope of negation. In Breton, this rule applies to the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading and to the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, being replaced in negative sentences by negative polarity items. Non-referential NPs marked by ag, which represent undefined substes of entities, must occur in postverbal position. Pragmatic asymmetries relate to the distinction presupposition versus assertion, and to metalinguistic negation, a marked kind of negation, which does not affect the aspect of event predicates nor the referentiality of NPs under its scope. Hence the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading, the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, and the eventive reading of state predicates can occur under the scope of metalinguistic negation. This analysis is extended to other languages. ISBN 3 89586 918 X. LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 05. Ca. 200 pp. EUR 48.06 / USD 52 / DM 94 / # 31. Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers. Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de. LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3 D-81543 Muenchen Germany FAX +49 89 62269404 http://www.lincom-europa.com LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de From a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl Sat Mar 4 16:16:23 2000 From: a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl (Ans van Kemenade) Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 11:16:23 EST Subject: Jobs: announcement Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- In the framework of a research programme grant for three researchers, titled 'the Diachrony of Complex Predicates in West-Germanic', two four-year paid positions are available for research leading to a doctoral thesis. The research programme is directed by professors Geert Booij (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Ans van Kemenade (University of Nijmegen), and funded to a large extent by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO. Beside the two positions for PhD students, it comprises a postdoctoral project with Dr. Bettelou Los as the researcher. The aim of the programme is to come to an extensive, indepth, theoretically inspired and corpus-based study of the historical development of separable complex verbs in the West-Germanic languages. The postdoctoral project focusses on Gothic and German. One PhD projects focusses on the history of Dutch, and will be conducted at the Vrije Universiteit under the direction of prof. Geert Booij; the other PhD project concentrates on (Middle) English, and will be conducted at the University of Nijmegen under the direction of prof. Ans van Kemenade. Requirements: candidates for both PhD projects should have affinity with a theoretical approach as well as with detailed data research in computerized corpora. The institutional embedding of the projects will ensure some further training in both of these aspects. For the project on Dutch we seek a candidate with undergraduate training in Dutch, with a specialism in language/(historical) linguistics, or in linguistics with Dutch as the main language. For further information, contact booij at let.vu.nl. For the project on English, we seek a candidate with undergraduate training in English, with a specialism in language/(historical) linguistics. For further information, contact a.v.kemenade at let.kun.nl. A full description of the programme can also be found at: www.let.kun.nl/engdept/kemenade/projects > > > > > > > From kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu Sun Mar 5 02:55:33 2000 From: kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu (Keith Johnson) Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 21:55:33 EST Subject: Summer session: Spoken Language in Context Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Summer 2000 at Ohio State University Spoken Language in Context: Methods and Models During July of 2000, the Department of Linguistics at the Ohio State University will be offering a unique combination of short courses aimed at exploring spoken language, with a particular focus on the empirical study of naturally-occurring speech through various instrumental, quantitative, and analytic means. Scholars, researchers (industry or academic), and students are invited to join us for an intense and rewarding summer session. Course offerings: Laboratory Phonology - Mary Beckman Quantitative Methods - Michael Broe Field Phonetics - Keith Johnson Historical Phonology - Brian Joseph & Richard Janda Practicum in English Intonation - Julia McGory The Pragmatics of Focus - Craige Roberts For more information see the website: http://ling.ohio-state.edu/SU2000 From lsa at lsadc.org Mon Mar 6 18:31:46 2000 From: lsa at lsadc.org (LSA) Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 13:31:46 EST Subject: March LSA Bulletin Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The March 2000 LSA Bulletin is now available on the Linguistic Society website: http://www.lsadc.org From Leesona at oup.co.uk Tue Mar 7 11:36:41 2000 From: Leesona at oup.co.uk (LEESON, Abigail) Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 06:36:41 EST Subject: FAO Dorothy Disterheft - linguistics title from Oxford University Press Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Comparative Dravidian Linguistics: Selected Papers written by Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Honorary Professor of Linguistics, University of Hyderabad. Short Description This volume is a contribution both to comparative Dravidian studies and to the theory of language change and linguistic reconstruction. It makes available the author's most important published articles on Dravidian over the last forty years and includes a new and substantial introduction to the field. The book concludes with a survey of Dravidian language studies over the last thousand years and a critical account of work since 1950. Those articles reprinted in the work appear substantially unchanged, with individual addenda in which the author considers the impact of subsequent work by himself and others. Contents Chapter 1: Alternations in vowel-length in Telugu verbal bases: A comparative study Chapter 2: Alternations i/e and u/o in South Dravidian Chapter 3: Proto-Dravidian *z Chapter 4: Dravidian personal pronouns Chapter 5: Comparative Dravidian linguistics Chapter 6: Dravidian nasals in Brahui Chapter 7: Some observations on Tamil phonology of the 12th and 13th centuries Chapter 8: Gender and number in Proto-Dravidian Chapter 9: Sound change: Shared innovation vs. diffusion Chapter 10: Areal and lexical diffusion of sound change: Evidence from Dravidian Chapter 11: On diachronic and synchronic rules in phonology: The case of Parji Chapter 12: A vowel-lowering rule in Kui-Kuvi Chapter 13: Unchanged cognates as a criterion in linguistic subgrouping (with Lincoln Moses and Douglas Danforth) Chapter 14: An overview of comparative Dravidian studies since Current Trends (1969) Chapter 15: A problem of reconstruction in Gondi: Interaction between phonological and morphological processes (with G. U. Rao) Chapter 16: The emergence of the syllable types of stems (C)VCC(V) and (C)VC(V) in Indo-Aryan and Dravidian: A case of convergence Chapter 17: The origin and evolution of primary derivative suffixes in Dravidian Chapter 18: Patterns of sound change in Dravidian Chapter 19: Evidence for a laryngeal *H in Proto-Dravidian Chapter 20: Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion: A study of s>h>? in Gondi dialects Chapter 21: Landmarks in comparative Dravidian studies during the 20th century 416 pp, line figures, 12 maps June 2000 0-19-824122-4 ?70.00 Hardback Abbie Leeson Assistant Marketing Manager, Law & Linguistics Oxford University Press Great Clarendon Street Oxford OX2 6DP tel +44 1865 556767 ext. 4227 fax +44 1865 267741 email leesona at oup.co.uk From kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu Tue Mar 14 00:23:44 2000 From: kjohnson at ling.ohio-state.edu (Keith Johnson) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 19:23:44 EST Subject: Postdoc position announcement Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION IN SPOKEN LANGUAGE GENERATION AND UNDERSTANDING We invite applications for the position of Postdoctoral Researcher with a specialization in phonetics and phonology. The position is for one year with the possibility of one additional year, pending funding. The researcher will be expected to take a leadership role in the phonological and phonetic analysis of a corpus of conversational speech. Candidates should hold a PhD in linguistics. Essential knowledge and experience for the position are familiarity with Windows-based and Unix/Linux-based operating systems and some knowledge of computational speech analysis. The starting date can be as early as July 15 but no later than September 15, 2000. Starting salary for the twelve-month appointment is $28,000 plus benefits. Please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, representative samples of published or unpublished work, and three letters of recommendation to the address below. Review of applications will begin April 17, 2000. The Ohio State University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer. Women, minorities, Vietnam-era veterans, disabled veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. See http://vic.psy.ohio-state.edu for additional information about the position and the project. Professor Elizabeth Hume Spoken Language Generation and Understanding Department of Linguistics Ohio State University 222 Oxley Hall Columbus, Ohio 43210 Address queries to Elizabeth Hume (ehume at ling.ohio-state.edu) or Mark Pitt (pitt.2 at osu.edu). From erickson at hawaii.edu Tue Mar 14 13:18:12 2000 From: erickson at hawaii.edu (Blaine Erickson) Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 08:18:12 EST Subject: Question about European uvular r Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I know I've run across this someplace, but I just can't remember where. The uvular _r_s of French & German are the result of innovation, and the _r_ spread from one language to the other--but which way was it? Any references would be greatly appreciated. Please send e-mail to me, and I'll post the results. Best, Blaine Erickson erickson at hawaii.edu From amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk Fri Mar 24 00:54:44 2000 From: amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk (A. McMahon) Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 19:54:44 EST Subject: Jobs at Sheffield, UK Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Lectureship and Senior Lectureship in English Language and Linguistics Department of English Language and Linguistics University of Sheffield, UK The Department of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield is seeking to fill two new posts whch are available from 1 September 2000. These posts have been created following the appointment of Professor April McMahon to a Chair in English Language and Linguistics. Applications are particularly encouraged from those with a proven research record in one or more of the following fields: Applied Linguistics; Semantics and Pragmatics; the History of the English Language; Syntax. An interest in some aspect of literary linguistics may also be an advantage. Applicants should be committed to developing teaching in their specialist areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and to contributing to the research profile of the department. Salary will be in the range 17,238 - 30,065 GBP (Lecturers) or 31,563 - 35,670 GBP (Senior Lecturers). The closing date for applications is 11 April 2000. Anyone wishing to make informal enquiries about the posts is encouraged to contact either Professor April McMahon (Cambridge telephone + 44 (0)1223 335830, e-mail amm11 at hermes.cam.ac.uk, or in Sheffield +44 (0)114 222 0238, e-mail April.McMahon at shef.ac.uk), or Professor David Burnley (telephone +44 (0)114 222 0210, e-mail D.Burnley at shef.ac.uk). An information pack on the posts (reference number RW1946) is available from the Personnel Department, University of Sheffield, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN; or telephone +44 (0)114 222 1631; or e-mail jobs at sheffield.ac.uk. From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Fri Mar 24 13:02:52 2000 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 08:02:52 EST Subject: Q: Romance etymon? Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- This is an etymological query, directed mainly at Romanists. There is a Basque word of the form , with recorded variants , , and . The word is a collective noun, meaning 'tools', 'toolset', 'toolkit'. There is disagreement among textual sources as to whether that final /a/ is part of the stem or not. The word is recorded from 1627 -- rather early, by Basque standards -- and it is chiefly found in the French Basque Country, though it is also attested south of the Pyrenees. Its etymology is unknown. Most investigators have tried to see it as a derivative of the common Basque noun 'work', but this is phonologically and morphologically difficult, and anyway the supposed second element would be unidentifiable. The standard suggestion is Basque 'arm', but this phonologically very poor and semantically unpersuasive. In fact, the word just doesn't *look* like a native Basque word, and I suspect a borrowing from Romance -- quite possibly from Occitan, the most usual source of Romance loans into northern Basque. But I can't find a source. Does anybody know of a Romance item which might provide a source? It is possible that the Romance article has been incorporated into the Basque word, and so we might be looking at something along the lines of * or *, rather than *. (A Romance /v/ would be borrowed as Basque /b/.) Any suggestions gratefully received. Best I've been able to come up with so far is Castilian 'the knife', which is phonologically only fair and semantically rather disappointing. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk