From W.A.van.der.Wurff at LET.LEIDENUNIV.NL Tue Jan 7 19:18:47 2003 From: W.A.van.der.Wurff at LET.LEIDENUNIV.NL (Wurff, W.A. van der) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 14:18:47 EST Subject: possible PhD position at Leiden Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear HISTLING subscribers, For a PhD position that may be coming up in Leiden, commencing September 2003, I'm looking for a candidate willing and able to work towards a PhD in (English) historical syntax. Completion of some prior smaller-scale work after the MA will be an advantage in the application process. Please ask any suitable serious candidate that you may know to contact me at . Wim van der Wurff Dept. of English University of Leiden From ichl at hum.ku.dk Tue Jan 7 19:19:26 2003 From: ichl at hum.ku.dk (ICHL 2003) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 14:19:26 EST Subject: ICHL 2003 - First Circular Message-ID: Dear colleague We hereby send you the first circular from the XVIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Please open the attached html-file or follow the link below. http://www.hum.ku.dk/ichl2003/first-circular.html The Committee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From EvolPub at aol.com Tue Jan 7 19:21:08 2003 From: EvolPub at aol.com (EvolPub at aol.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 14:21:08 EST Subject: Book Announcement: Chew's Vocabulary of Tuscarora (1845) Message-ID: Evolution Publishing is pleased to announce publication of the following volume from the American Language Reprints (ALR) series: Volume 28: Chew's Vocabulary of Tuscarora William Chew and Gilbert Rockwood, 1845 This 350 word vocabulary was commissioned by Henry Schoolcraft and filled by William Chew and Gilbert Rockwood in 1845, at the Tuscarora Mission in New York State. This edition makes use of both published versions in Schoolcraft's Report to the Secretary of State (1846) and Notes on the Iroquois (1847). Also included is a 100 word vocabulary of Tuscarora prepared by Nicholas and James Cassick of the War Department, printed in Albert Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes (1836). November 2002 ~ 71 pp. ~ clothbound ~ ISBN 1-889758-26-4 ~ $30.00 Evolution Publishing is dedicated to preserving and consolidating early primary source records of Native American language with the goal of making them more accessible and readily available to the academic community and the public at large. For further information on this and other titles in the ALR series: http://www.evolpub.com/ALR/ALRhome.html Evolution Publishing evolpub at aol.com From L.Kulikov at LET.LEIDENUNIV.NL Wed Jan 15 21:10:34 2003 From: L.Kulikov at LET.LEIDENUNIV.NL (Kulikov, L.) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 16:10:34 EST Subject: PIONIER workshop on Case, Valency and Transitivity in Nijmegen, J une 2003 : call for papers Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > please put the below call for papers on the HISTLING list > > ========================================================================== > ================== > Case, Valency and Transitivity > First CALL FOR PAPERS > PIONIER-Workshop > > Dates: second half of June 2003 > Location: Nijmegen > Organizers: Leonid Kulikov, Andrej Malchukov, Peter de Swart > > Case, valency and transitivity belong to the most discussed topics of the > modern linguistics. Case is a grammatical category determined by the > syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun. Valency is a verbal > feature which characterizes the capacity of a verb to take a specific > number and type of arguments and thus, in the languages with case-marking, > crucially depends on the case-marking of the arguments. Transitivity is a > more abstract feature of both verbs and syntactic patterns, determined by > the ability of a given verb (verbal form) to take a (direct) object. > > Thus, the three concepts listed in the title of the workshop are > intimately related to each other and build up the foundations of the > syntactic skeleton of a clause. In fact, however, all the three concepts > reach far beyond the pure syntax. On the one hand, they are crucially > connected with such morphological aspects of the clause as case marking > and person agreement (which both can be understood as case in a broad > sense of the concept), valency marking on verbs (voice and diathesis) and > various morphological devices for marking transitivity. On the other hand, > they inevitably involve several semantic issues, such as meaning of case, > semantico-syntactic verbal classes, semantic correlates of transitivity > (in the vein of Hopper & Thompson's (1980) approach to transitivity as a > bunch of features) and some others. > > All these issues belong to the scope of the research activity of the > PIONIER-Project "Case cross-linguistically", started at University of > Nijmegen in 2002 under the guidance of Dr. H. deHoop. > > Among the questions which we would like to see addressed are the > following: > > · Case systems across languages > · Case semantics > · Valency, transitivity and verbal classes > · Valency change and case-marking > · Core valency and oblique arguments > · Case-marking of subject and object: nominative, accusative, ergative, > absolutive > · Nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive patterns in synchronic and > diachronic perspective > · Evolution of case systems > · Person agreement as case-marking on verbs > · Passive, antipassive and other transitivity alternations > · Case-marking in causative constructions > · Marking of transitivity and labile verbs > · Transitivity and object marking > > The idea is to organize two- or three-day meeting on Case, Valency and > Transitivity in the second half of June 2003. > We hope also to be able to arrange partial reimbursement of travel and > accommodation costs for some participants if necessary. > > We invite those interested in these topics to a discussion, with reference > to specific case histories or more general issues in the study of Case, > Valency and Transitivity. > Each presentation will be allotted 30 minutes including time for > discussion. > > Abstracts should not exceed one page and can be sent electronically or in > paper format. Electronic submission should be pdf-files or Word documents. > > Please include your name, affiliation, and contact information in the > email message to which the abstract is attached. If sending as paper copy, > please include your name, affiliation, and contact information on a > separate sheet. Please specify in the subject line or on the envelope: > Abstract for "Case, Valency and Transitivity". > > Deadline for abstract submission: March 1st, 2003 > Notification of acceptance: March 31th, 2003 > > The organizers of the workshop will be the members of the PIONIER-Project > "Case cross-linguistically" Leonid Kulikov, Andrej Malchukov and Peter de > Swart. > > > Please send your submissions to: > > Peter de Swart > P.deSwart at let.kun.nl > University of Nijmegen > Faculty of Arts, Dept. of Linguistics > PO Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen > The Netherlands > Fax: 024-3611070 > > From hartmut at RUC.DK Tue Jan 28 16:06:41 2003 From: hartmut at RUC.DK (Hartmut Haberland) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 11:06:41 EST Subject: French vs. Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mikko.laitinen at helsinki.fi Tue Jan 28 16:06:21 2003 From: mikko.laitinen at helsinki.fi (Mikko Laitinen) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 11:06:21 EST Subject: Call for papers DIATYPE Symposium on diachrony, dialectology and typological linguistics Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- (Apologies for multiple postings.) Call for papers The Research Unit for Variation and Change in English at the Department of English, University of Helsinki, organizes DIATYPE Symposium on diachrony, dialectology and typological linguistics Helsinki, 16-18 October, 2003 Contributions are invited to a symposium on diachrony, dialectology and language typology to be held in Helsinki in mid-October 2003. The aim of the symposium is to explore connections between these three fields of research, looking for ways in which historical linguists and dialectologists could learn from insights to be gained from typological studies, and vice versa. The symposium is organised by the Research Unit for Variation and Change in English (VARIENG), a National Centre of Excellence funded by the Academy of Finland and the University of Helsinki. All contributions to the symposium need not necessarily focus on questions to do with the English language, although the organizers will naturally be most interested in topics connected with the evolution and regional variation of English. Invited speakers: • Dieter Kastovsky (University of Vienna) • Bernd Kortmann (University of Freiburg) • Anna Siewierska (Lancaster University) Abstracts: The deadline for submission of abstracts (in English; max 300 words) is May 30, 2003. Please submit your abstract by e-mail to diatype- organizers at helsinki.fi. The abstract should be included in the body of the message. E-mail submissions are recommended. If, however, you send your abstract by ordinary mail, please provide an e-mail address as a contact address. Participants will be notified of acceptance by June 16, 2003. The accepted abstracts will be published on the web pages of the symposium at: http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/varieng/main/news.htm Registration: The deadline for registration for all participants is September 1, 2003. Register by e-mail to the address diatype-organizers at helsinki.fi. The registration fee is EUR 50. Accommodation: The City of Helsinki Tourist Office web pages provide several links to accommodation in Helsinki. The pages can be accessed from the symposium web pages or directly from http://www.hel.fi/tourism/html/english/artikkelit/index.html. The academic programme of the symposium will run from late Thursday afternoon till Saturday afternoon. The conference venue will be in the centre of Helsinki in the vicinity of the Senate Square. For further information, please contact diatype-organizers at helsinki.fi. The organizing committee: • Terttu Nevalainen, e-mail: terttu.nevalainen at helsinki.fi • Juhani Klemola, e-mail: juhani.klemola at uwasa.fi • Mikko Laitinen (secretary of the symposium), e-mail: mikko.laitinen at helsinki.fi Address: Department of English, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 24 (Unioninkatu 40B), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. From Roger.Wright at LIVERPOOL.AC.UK Tue Jan 28 16:11:42 2003 From: Roger.Wright at LIVERPOOL.AC.UK (roger wright) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 11:11:42 EST Subject: New Book Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- You may wish to tell your librarian about this: Just published: Roger Wright, "A Sociophilological Study of Late Latin" (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, no.10), Turnhout, Brepols, 2003. 389 pages. ISBN 2-503-51338-7. 65 Euros. To order: by e-mail to orders at brepols.net, by fax to (00)32-14-448919, or through the website, www.brepols.net. Payment is simplest via credit card. Sociophilology combines traditional detailed philological expertise with the broader insights of modern sociolinguistics. Late Latin is the native language, both spoken and written, of the area of much of the former Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages, sometimes also regarded as being "Early Romance". By the Thirteenth Century Late Latin had split conceptually, from being a single complex living language, into several different Romance languages, as well as the "dead" language we now call "Medieval Latin". This sociophilological study places many texts, authors, scribes and linguistic developments in a coherent historical, intellectual and educational context; the whole presents an important component of a thousand years of European cultural history, seen from unusually wide historical and linguistic perspectives. The book is presented in six sections, each containing four chapters: A. Late Latin, Medieval Latin and Romance B. Texts and Language in Late Antiquity C. The Ninth Century D. Italy and Spain in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries E. Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Spain F. Sociophilology and Historical Linguistics Plus a Conclusion, a lengthy bibliography, and an index. From jhewson at MORGAN.UCS.MUN.CA Thu Jan 30 00:13:15 2003 From: jhewson at MORGAN.UCS.MUN.CA (John Hewson) Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 19:13:15 EST Subject: French vs. In-Reply-To: <3E351883.9030509@ruc.dk> Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Hartmut Haberland wrote: (snippet) words that have the [wa] pronunciation today (roi, loi, moi, Francois, > Danois ) and those that don't (francais, monnaie, faible) - > but which all were spelled with _oi_ until 1835. There are no clear patterns of causation. In fact you have Latin _rigida_ "rigid" and _frigida_ "cold" (feminine forms for ease of example) which become French "raide" and "froide" respectively. And regionally in French you can hear [fret] and [dret] for froid and droit. I suspect the ultimate cause is the instability of postconsonantal /w/, which comes and goes in many languages. In the reconstruction of Proto-Algonkian, for example, there is a great regularity of sound change, but a good deal of coming and going with postconsonantal [w]. There are examples in English too: the [w] is pronounced in Greenwood, inward (but note popular "the innards"), outward, but not in Greenwich [grenic], Harwich, Woolwich, Norwich, and other place names in -wich (at least for the original place names in England: where these have been transferred to elsewhere in the world the [w] may have been reinstated, as a spelling pronunciation). It is heard also in swore, but not in sword [sord]. And there are others. In French [we] became [wa] after the Revolution. But the [e] that remained after the unstable [w] was lost remained [e] and was eventually mostly respelled -ai- with the spelling reform you mention. Eighteenth century "il avoit" [il ave] became "il avait", but the pronunciation did not change. In the fourteenth century, however, it would have been [il avwet]. Perhaps others have noticed the instability of post consonantal [w] in other languages. It would be good to get further confirming data. Best wishes, John ******************************************************************************* John Hewson, FRSC tel: (709)737-8131 Henrietta Harvey Professor Emeritus fax: (709)737-4000 Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's NF, CANADA A1B 3X9 ******************************************************************************* From colkitto at SPRINT.CA Thu Jan 30 15:57:29 2003 From: colkitto at SPRINT.CA (colkitto at SPRINT.CA) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:57:29 EST Subject: French vs. Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > > There are examples in English too: the [w] is pronounced in Greenwood, > inward (but note popular "the innards"), outward, but not in Greenwich > [grenic], Harwich, Woolwich, Norwich, and other place names in -wich (at > least for the original place names in England: where these have been > transferred to elsewhere in the world the [w] may have been reinstated, > as a spelling pronunciation). > > It is heard also in swore, but not in sword [sord]. And there are others. There's also Berwick [berrik] and Lerwick [lerwik], both of which are clearly from different dialects. Might the French forms not have a similar explanation? Robert Orr > In French [we] became [wa] after the Revolution. But the [e] that remained > after the unstable [w] was lost remained [e] and was eventually mostly > respelled -ai- with the spelling reform you mention. Eighteenth century > "il avoit" [il ave] became "il avait", but the pronunciation did not > change. In the fourteenth century, however, it would have been [il avwet]. > > Perhaps others have noticed the instability of post consonantal [w] in > other languages. It would be good to get further confirming data. > > Best wishes, > John > > **************************************************************************** *** > John Hewson, FRSC tel: (709)737-8131 > Henrietta Harvey Professor Emeritus fax: (709)737-4000 > Memorial University of Newfoundland > St. John's NF, CANADA A1B 3X9 > **************************************************************************** *** > From martha_ratliff at WAYNE.EDU Thu Jan 30 15:57:18 2003 From: martha_ratliff at WAYNE.EDU (Martha Ratliff) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:57:18 EST Subject: French vs. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John and all -- When dealing with unwritten languages we do not have the luxury of confirming textual evidence, but I have recently appealed to the French development of e > oi in my reconstruction and account of the development of certain vowels in the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) family of Southeast Asia. I find that for three correspondence sets there is no other way to link the vowels of one side of the family, Mienic, which is very conservative with respect to rimes but shows no evidence of rounding, with the rounded reflexes on the Hmongic side. So I reconstruct just such a "post consonantal [w]" which I figure must have disappeared in Mienic. If anyone wants details, I can supply them. Martha > >Perhaps others have noticed the instability of post consonantal [w] in >other languages. It would be good to get further confirming data. > >Best wishes, >John > -- Martha Ratliff Associate Professor Linguistics Program Wayne State University 51 W. Warren Ave. Detroit MI 48202 USA (313) 577-7646 (office) (313) 577-0404 (fax) martha_ratliff at wayne.edu From bjwald at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Jan 30 15:57:56 2003 From: bjwald at EARTHLINK.NET (Ben Wald) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:57:56 EST Subject: French vs. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hewson's account jibes with my recollection of the standard French variation between wa and wE (variation when viewed from historical perspective, currently distinct word classes). I remember hearing that the aftermath of the French revolution was a critical point in the metropolitan shift in pronunciation of many sets of (w)E words to wa. Apparently there had previously been class variation in Paris between the two pronunciations, stemming from different contributing dialect developments. wE reflects the historically more conservative stage in the lowering of the nucleus (and is typical of the "patois" varieties in France and in the Caribbean) -- long after historical reversal of the position of the nucleus, from before the glide (Oi > Oe, or something like that) to after the glide (wE). Evidently nasalisation took place before the lowering wE > wa, since "oin" words preserve the wE stage in the standard. Thus, "moins" rhymes in the standard with "main". In open syllables, where oiN denasalised (given the earlier reports of words like "grand-mère" and "grammaire" being homophones), the development wE > wa took place; thus, "soin" with wE~ but "soigneux" with wa. I'm speaking from memory, but I assume that Pope treats all this in her standard account of the evolution of French phonology from Late Latin. -- Benji === on 1/29/03 4:13 PM, John Hewson at jhewson at MORGAN.UCS.MUN.CA wrote: > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Hartmut Haberland wrote: > > (snippet) > words that have the [wa] pronunciation today (roi, loi, moi, Francois, >> Danois ) and those that don't (francais, monnaie, faible) - >> but which all were spelled with _oi_ until 1835. > > There are no clear patterns of causation. In fact you have Latin _rigida_ > "rigid" and _frigida_ "cold" (feminine forms for ease of example) which > become French "raide" and "froide" respectively. And regionally in French > you can hear [fret] and [dret] for froid and droit. > > I suspect the ultimate cause is the instability of postconsonantal /w/, > which comes and goes in many languages. In the reconstruction of > Proto-Algonkian, for example, there is a great regularity of sound change, > but a good deal of coming and going with postconsonantal [w]. > > There are examples in English too: the [w] is pronounced in Greenwood, > inward (but note popular "the innards"), outward, but not in Greenwich > [grenic], Harwich, Woolwich, Norwich, and other place names in -wich (at > least for the original place names in England: where these have been > transferred to elsewhere in the world the [w] may have been reinstated, > as a spelling pronunciation). > > It is heard also in swore, but not in sword [sord]. And there are others. > > In French [we] became [wa] after the Revolution. But the [e] that remained > after the unstable [w] was lost remained [e] and was eventually mostly > respelled -ai- with the spelling reform you mention. Eighteenth century > "il avoit" [il ave] became "il avait", but the pronunciation did not > change. In the fourteenth century, however, it would have been [il avwet]. > > Perhaps others have noticed the instability of post consonantal [w] in > other languages. It would be good to get further confirming data. > > Best wishes, > John > > **************************************************************************** **> * > John Hewson, FRSC tel: (709)737-8131 > Henrietta Harvey Professor Emeritus fax: (709)737-4000 > Memorial University of Newfoundland > St. John's NF, CANADA A1B 3X9 > **************************************************************************** **> * From bjwald at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Jan 30 15:58:10 2003 From: bjwald at EARTHLINK.NET (Ben Wald) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:58:10 EST Subject: French vs. pt.2 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I forgot to add to my previous message, concerning the ancient "oi" variant that English maintains it in "convoy", and reflects the (w)E development in "convey" (the stress difference between noun and verb is an English development). French has since added the third variant of wa in convoi and convoyer. No English response to this French development so far. From EvolPub at AOL.COM Thu Jan 30 15:58:26 2003 From: EvolPub at AOL.COM (EvolPub at AOL.COM) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:58:26 EST Subject: Book Announcement: Early Fragments of Minsi Delaware (1630-1798) Message-ID: ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Evolution Publishing is pleased to announce publication of the following volume from the American Language Reprints (ALR) series: Volume 29: Early Fragments of Minsi Delaware John Heckewelder, Thomas Jefferson, et al. 1630-1798 This volume collects the earliest written examples of the Minsi dialect of Delaware or Lenape. The volume consists of Rev. John Heckewelder's Minsi vocabulary, collected in the late 1700s and totaling 100 entries. A collection of 80 words of the language compiled by scholar/president Thomas Jefferson is also included. Several scattered linguistic fragments collected from Minsi tribes such as the Manhattans and Hackensacks by Benjamin Smith Barton, David de Vries, Jasper Danckaerts, Adrian van der Donck, and others round out the volume. December 2002 ~ 65 pp. ~ clothbound ~ ISBN 1-889758-31-0 ~ $28.00 Evolution Publishing is dedicated to preserving and consolidating early primary source records of Native and early colonial America with the goal of making them more accessible and readily available to the academic community and the public at large. For further information on this and other titles in the ALR series: http://www.evolpub.com/ALR/ALRhome.html Evolution Publishing evolpub at aol.com