[Lingtyp] Emergence of word-class systems

[Juergen Bohnemeyer]

Dear John – Great question! I’m hoping others are aware of further literature, but here are two recent papers that have looked at the N-V distinction in emerging sign languages and in miniature artificial sign languages:

Abner, N., M. Flaherty, K. Stangl, M. Coppola, D. Brentari, & S. Susan-Meadow. (2019). The noun-verb distinction in established and emerging sign systems. Language 95: 230-267.
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/03_95.2Abner.pdf

Motamedi, Y., K. Montemurro, N. Abner, M. Flaherty, S. Kirby, & S. Goldin-Meadow. (2022). The Seeds of the Noun–Verb Distinction in the Manual Modality: Improvisation and Interaction in the Emergence of Grammatical Categories. Languages 7: 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020095
https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/2/95/htm

Best -- Juergen

Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo

Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: (716) 645 0127
Fax: (716) 645 3825
Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu<mailto:jb77 at buffalo.edu>
Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/

Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh)

There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In
(Leonard Cohen)
--


From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of John Mansfield <jbmansfield at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 6:57 PM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: [Lingtyp] Emergence of word-class systems
Can anyone point me at literature speculating on how word-class systems may have emerged in human language? That is to say, if we assume that there are or were (proto-)languages without a clear word-class system, then how might one develop?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230402/ca337795/attachment.htm>