[Lingtyp] Verbal person-number indexing reconstructed for a family/deeper subfamily?

Wed Jun 20 07:43:26 UTC 2018

 Dear Ilja,

In Northern America, person indexation is reconstructable for many language
families.

For Algonquian, Bloomfield, Goddard and a few other scholars have
establiushed a very rigorous system of reconstruction. A very useful and up
to date introduction is found in Will Oxford's dissertation:
https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~oxfordwr/papers/Oxford_
William_201406_PhD_thesis.pdf

If you are also interested in portmanteau morphemes indexing both subject
and object, this chapter could also be useful:

Jacques, Guillaume & Anton Antonov. 2018. The direction(s) of analogical
change in direct/inverse systems. In Fernando Zúñiga &
Sonia Cristofaro (eds.), Typological hierarchies in synchrony and
diachrony, 259–289. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
https://www.academia.edu/6776948/The_direction_s_of_
analogical_change_in_direct_inverse_systems

For Siouan, Bob Rankin and John Koontz in particular have made important
contributions to the reconstruction of person indexation markers, most of
it is however spread over various unpublished paper (see also the
Comparative Siouan Dictionary, http://csd.clld.org/). Among the most recent
contributions on the reconstruction of person indexation in Siouan, see (in
the same issue of IJAL as Jorge Labrada's article on Saliban mentioned
above):

Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. On the directionality of analogy in a Dhegiha
paradigm. International Journal of American Linguistics 8(2):239–248.
https://www.academia.edu/12796953/On_the_directionality_of_analogy_in_
a_Dhegiha_paradigm

Additionally, the following unpublished paper could also be useful at least
for its reference list (I can provide PDF of articles on demand):
https://www.academia.edu/3758247/Siouan_irregular_inflections

On the other side of the Pacific, in the Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan
family, there is, as mentioned by Randy above, a debate concerning the
antiquity of the indexation system. It is no secret that my views are
radically opposed to those of Randy, and expressed in particular in the
following articles:

Jacques, Guillaume. 2012. Agreement morphology: the case of Rgyalrongic and
Kiranti. Language and Linguistics 13(1). 83–116.
https://www.academia.edu/1526166/Agreement_morphology_
the_case_of_Rgyalrongic_and_Kiranti

Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. Le sino-tibétain: polysynthétique ou isolant?
Faits de langues 47(1). 61–74.
https://www.academia.edu/30377206/Le_sino-tib%C3%
A9tain_polysynth%C3%A9tique_ou_isolant

See also a series of recent articles by Scott DeLancey including:
DeLancey, Scott 2013. The history of postverbal agreement in Kuki-Chin.
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 6:1-17
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/9718/5/DeLancey_
HistoryPostverbal2013.pdf

DeLancey, Scott   2014 Second person verb forms in Tibeto-Burman.
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 37 (1), 3-33
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/9/82/files/2013/07/
DeLanceyfullpaper.pdf

DeLancey, Scott   2015 The historical dynamics of morphological complexity
in Trans-Himalayan. Linguistic Discovery13 (2): 37–56.
https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/
document/1016

More specifically on Tangut, Randy LaPolla, who relies on second- or
third-hand sources for his information, is not a reliable source. The
following articles, based on a first-hand knowledge of Tangut texts, could
have some usefulness:

Jacques, Guillaume. 2009. The Origin of Vowel Alternations in the Tangut
Verb. Language and Linguistics 10(1). 17–28.
http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/Files/LL/Docments/Journals/10.
1/j2009_1_02_2996.pdf

Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. Tangut, Gyalrongic, Kiranti and the nature of
person indexation in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan. Linguistics
Vanguard doi:10.1515/lingvan-2015-0033.
https://www.academia.edu/25078877/Tangut_Gyalrongic_
Kiranti_and_the_nature_of_person_indexation_in_Sino-Tibetan_Trans-Himalayan

Gong Xun, 2017. Verb stems in Tangut and their orthography, Scripta 9:29-48.
https://www.academia.edu/33277842/Verb_stems_in_Tangut_and_their_orthography

However, regardless of the actual antiquity of person indexation, there is
not yet a complete reconstruction system either for Gyalrongic or for
Kiranti, though we are working on it. Person indexation affixes (and stem
alternation that contributes to the indexation of person) have unique
correspondences, and we still have a long way before we can explain the
forms in a neogrammarian framework. To have an idea of how complex the
problem is just for a subgroup (Khaling-Dumi-Koyi) of Kiranti, see:

Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. Tonogenesis and tonal alternations in Khaling. In
Enrique L. Palancar & Jean Léo Léonard (eds.), Tone and Inflection, 41–66.
Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
https://www.academia.edu/10516416/Tonogenesis_and_
tonal_alternations_in_Khaling

Guillaume

2018-06-19 21:52 GMT+02:00 Ilja Seržant <ilja.serzants at uni-leipzig.de>:

> Dear all,
>
> I am looking for families (or subfamilies with a larger time depth) for
> which verbal person-number subject indexes / "agreement" affixes (featuring
> the intransitive subject for ergative lgs.) are reconstructed. (I already
> have data on Dravidian, Semitic, Indo-European, Maya, Finno-Ugric and
> Turkic but I need more for my study on the dynamics of these).
>
> I would be very grateful for any reference.
>
> Best,
>
> Ilja
>
>
> --
> Ilja A. Seržant, postdoc
> Project "Grammatical Universals"
> Universität Leipzig (IPF 141199)
> Nikolaistraße 6-10
> 04109 Leipzig
>
> URL: http://home.uni-leipzig.de/serzant/
>
> Tel.: + 49 341 97 37713
> Room 5.22
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>

-- 
Guillaume Jacques
CNRS (CRLAO) - INALCO
http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/

2018-06-19 21:52 GMT+02:00 Ilja Seržant <ilja.serzants at uni-leipzig.de>:

> Dear all,
>
> I am looking for families (or subfamilies with a larger time depth) for
> which verbal person-number subject indexes / "agreement" affixes (featuring
> the intransitive subject for ergative lgs.) are reconstructed. (I already
> have data on Dravidian, Semitic, Indo-European, Maya, Finno-Ugric and
> Turkic but I need more for my study on the dynamics of these).
>
> I would be very grateful for any reference.
>
> Best,
>
> Ilja
>
>
> --
> Ilja A. Seržant, postdoc
> Project "Grammatical Universals"
> Universität Leipzig (IPF 141199)
> Nikolaistraße 6-10
> 04109 Leipzig
>
> URL: http://home.uni-leipzig.de/serzant/
>
> Tel.: + 49 341 97 37713
> Room 5.22
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>

-- 
Guillaume Jacques
CNRS (CRLAO) - INALCO
http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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