<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p><font face="Calibri">Announcing a new publication:</font></p>
<p>
</p>
<font face="Calibri">David Gil and Antoinette Schapper </font><font
face="Calibri"><font face="Calibri">e</font>ds.,<font
face="Calibri"><i><br>
Austronesian Undressed: How and Why Languages Become Isolating</i>
</font></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2020.</font>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">Many Austronesian
languages exhibit
isolating word structure.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This
volume
offers a series of investigations into these languages, which
are found in an
"isolating crescent" extending from Mainland Southeast Asia
through
the Indonesian archipelago and into western New Guinea.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Some of the languages
examined in this volume
include Cham, Minangkabau, colloquial Malay/Indonesian and
Javanese, Lio,
Alorese, and Tetun Dili.</font></p>
<font face="Calibri">
</font><font face="Calibri">
</font>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">The main purpose of this
volume is to
address the general question of how and why languages become
isolating, by examination
of a number of competing hypotheses.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>While some view
morphological loss as a natural process, others argue that the
development of
isolating word structure is typically driven by language contact
through
various mechanisms such as creolization, metatypy, and <i>Sprachbund</i>
effects.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This volume
should be of
interest not only to Austronesianists and historians of Insular
Southeast Asia,
but also to grammarians, typologists, historical linguists,
creolists, and
specialists in language contact.</font></p>
<font face="Calibri">
</font>
<font face="Calibri">
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027260536#chapters">https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027260536#chapters</a></font></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-556825895
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091</pre>
</body>
</html>