"Upper limit" of PIE

[Larry Trask]

Jens Elmegaard writes:

> On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Stanley Friesen wrote:

>> [...] [W]e can
>> place a fairly secure *upper* *limit* on how old the divergence of PIE is.
>> That upper limit is about 4500 BC.
>> [...]

> Help me, I'm dumb and ignorant, what is up and down in archaeological
> dating? Does the quoted statement mean that PIE split up "no later than"
> 4500 BC, or does it mean "no earlier than" 4500 BC? Is the present moment
> the low or the high end of the scale? This is quite honestly meant as no
> criticism, but perhaps there are other language-oriented IE-ists who have
> difficulties following an argument that points up and down when it means
> before and after (in this order or the reverse). Will anyone stoop to
> informing me (us) on this important point?

It means 'no earlier than'.

When we say that 4500 BC is an upper limit for an event, we mean that the event
cannot have happened any *earlier* than 4500 BC, though it may have occurred
later.

The archaeologists' calendar runs backward in time from the bottom of the page
to the top.  So, a "high" date is earlier than a "low" date, and an "upper"
limit is a *terminus non ante quem*, while a "lower" limit is a *terminus non
post quem".

Don't blame us linguists for this. ;-)

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk