[Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics

Mon Sep 22 19:16:10 UTC 2025

This one comes to mind for me:

Hopper, Paul J. & Thompson, Sandra A. 1984. The discourse basis for lexical
categories in Universal Grammar. *Language*. Linguistic Society of America
60(4). 703–752. (doi:10.2307/413797 <https://doi.org/10.2307/413797>)

On Mon, 22 Sept 2025 at 20:58, <lingtyp-request at listserv.linguistlist.org>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Question about functional linguistics (Eitan Grossman)
>    2. Workshop at the International Morphology Meeting 22: The
>       Evolution of Non-Concatenative Morphology (Matthew Baerman)
>    3. Re: Question about functional linguistics (Riccardo Giomi)
>    4. Re: Question about functional linguistics (Christian Lehmann)
>    5. Re: Question about functional linguistics (Artem Fedorinchyk)
>    6. Re: [EXTERN]  Question about functional linguistics (Uta Rein?hl)
>    7. Re: L > N (Matthew Dryer)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:21:58 +0300
> From: Eitan Grossman <eitan.grossman at mail.huji.ac.il>
> To: LINGTYP <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics
> Message-ID:
>         <CAA00bNm5dq3=asgiDcRVgi_Xi0q45ms0UKcPUuA79P6=
> aPVirQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi all,
>
> This is maybe a mail for a mailing list that no longer exists, the old
> FunkNet, but I thought I'd give it a try.
>
> I am putting together a syllabus for an advanced BA course on functional
> linguistics, and have been re-reading a lot of the articles that have been
> meaningful for me over the years, and it is difficult to make a choice.
>
> I wanted to ask for the wisdom of the crowd -- what articles (or books) in
> functional linguistics have been meaningful for you? What have you read
> with students? What works do you think every student should read?
>
> I should say that I have in mind what is usually called West Coast
> Functionalism and usage-based linguistics, but would be happy to hear your
> thoughts on other perspectives.
>
> Any replies would be much appreciated, and I would be happy to share the
> resulting reading list/syllabus.
>
> Eitan
>
>
> Eitan Grossman
> Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics
> Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> Tel: +972 2 588 3809
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:36:47 +0000
> From: Matthew Baerman <m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk>
> To: "LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG"
>         <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Workshop at the International Morphology Meeting
>         22: The Evolution of Non-Concatenative Morphology
> Message-ID:
>         <
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> >
>
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>
> Workshop at the International Morphology Meeting 22, Budapest
>
> The Evolution of Non-Concatenative Morphology
>
>
>
> Date: 28-31 May-2026
>
> Location: Budapest, Hungary
>
> Contact: Matthew Baerman
>
> Contact Email: m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk
>
> Meeting URL: https://nilomorph.eu/imm-workshop-2026/
>
>
>
> Submission Deadline: 09-Jan-2026
>
>
>
> Invited speaker: Pavel Iosad (University of Edinburgh)
>
>
>
> Morphological alternations can be realized through the concatenation of
> affixes, or through non-concatenative processes that do not involve the
> addition of segmental material, such as modifications of suprasegmental
> features (e.g. length or tone), or the featural constituents of segments
> (e.g. vowel height, consonantal manner of articulation). The two nouns
> below, from Nuer (a West Nilotic language of South Sudan and Ethiopia),
> illustrate the contrast: the plural of ?pelican? is formed by concatenation
> of a suffix, while the plural of ?snail? is formed by a suite of
> non-concatenative operations: lengthening, a change in tone, raising of the
> vowel, and lenition of the final consonant.
>
>
>
> b???? ?pelican? ~  b????-n?? ?pelicans?
>
> lw??k ?snail? ~ lw???? ?snails? (Bond et al. 2020)
>
>
>
> Accounts of morphological alternations generally regard the concatenation
> of affixes as the typical case. Linguistics textbooks and handbooks will
> typically introduce the concept of morphology through the use of suffixes,
> reserving examples of non-concatenative morphology, such as stem-vowel
> alternations, for later and more advanced stages of the discussion. Some
> theoretical approaches also reflect this asymmetry, taking concatenation as
> not just typical but as underlyingly primary, with non-concatenative
> process as a surface epiphenomenon (see various contributions to Trommer
> 2012). On the other hand, a growing body of work within a Word-and-Paradigm
> framework that focuses on the discriminative properties of morphological
> contrasts makes no principled synchronic distinction between concatenative
> and non-concatenative operations (Carroll & Beniamine 2025).
>
>
>
> But even if one rejects the idea that non-concatenative morphology is
> somehow subordinate and therefore atypical, a curious asymmetry still
> emerges. Nearly every type of non-concatenative morphological alternation
> has a demonstrated or at least plausible origin in segmental material which
> has undergone phonological erosion and transformation. Thus the
> alternations in (1) can be traced to the phonological influence of former
> suffixes (Andersen 1990, 1999), likewise other familiar examples such as
> Indo-European ablaut (Zhivlov 2019), Germanic umlaut, or the templatic
> morphology of Semitic (Wilson 2020). That means it may be possible to
> explain all non-concatenative morphology as diachronically secondary,
> whatever our take on synchrony. This workshop is dedicated to exploring
> this proposition, and is structured around two themes:
>
>
>
> 1. Pathways to non-concatenative morphology, where we ask what the
> typological tendencies are and what constraints there are, if any. Possible
> questions include: (a) Which kinds of units or domains tend to be lost or
> preserved? For example, it has been suggested that these typically align
> with prosodic categories like feet, syllables, or morae, rather than
> morphological or morphosyntactic categories. (b) What role does
> morphological redundancy play?  Non-concatenative processes often emerge in
> conjunction with segmental marking. Redundancy is then often resolved by
> losing the segment while the secondary phonological cue is retained and
> reinterpreted as morphological. Alternatively, prosodic material may be
> sacrificed instead, triggering processes like mora-sharing,metathesis,
> infixation, etc. (c) What role does metrical structure play? For example,
> languages with initial metrical prominence will be more prone to erosion of
> suffixal segmental material. (d) How does morphophonological
>  typology affect the diachronic trajectory? For example, it is likely that
> systems with inward-directed phonological processes (targeting the root)
> will be more prone to develop non-concatenative morphology than systems
> with outward-directed processes.
>
>
>
> 2. Synchronic typology, where we ask how much of the attested typological
> landscape of non-concatenative morphology can be attributed to the
> diachronic transformation of affixes. Questions include: (a) Are there
> non-concatenative processes that cannot be explained by diachrony, and must
> be recognized as fundamental primitives? If so, how would this affect
> models of synchronic morphology? And if not, would this confirm the view
> that all morphology is underlyingly concatenative? (b) Are there
> non-concatenative processes that the laws of sound change could plausibly
> produce but which are unattested?
>
>
>
> We invite papers (20 minutes, with 10 minutes for questions) addressing
> any of the above themes. Please send an abstract of no more than one page
> to mailto:evoconcaten8 at gmail.com by 05 January 2026. Abstracts should be
> anonymous and in pdf format, with identifying information in the body of
> the email.
>
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:40:41 +0000
> From: Riccardo Giomi <r.giomi at uva.nl>
> To: LINGTYP <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>, Eitan Grossman
>         <eitan.grossman at mail.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics
> Message-ID:
>         <
> DU0PR10MB53356E9F739C3FBB35C0BF9A8D12A at DU0PR10MB5335.EURPRD10.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Dear Eitan (and all),
>
> I can't tell if (parts of) this would be an appropriate reading for your
> course, and quite possibly you already know the book; but for sure, a very
> meaningful and theoretically solid overview of functional approaches is
>
> Christopher S. Butler & Francisco Gonz?lvez-Garc?a. 2014. Exploring
> Functional-Cognitive Space. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
>
> For me, this is a true reference book.
>
> Best wishes,
> Riccardo
>
> Riccardo Giomi
> Assistant Professor of Functional Linguistics
> University of Amsterdam
> Faculty of Humanities: Department of Linguistics
> Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
> ________________________________
> From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Eitan Grossman via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Sent: 22 September 2025 15:21
> To: LINGTYP <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics
>
> Hi all,
>
> This is maybe a mail for a mailing list that no longer exists, the old
> FunkNet, but I thought I'd give it a try.
>
> I am putting together a syllabus for an advanced BA course on functional
> linguistics, and have been re-reading a lot of the articles that have been
> meaningful for me over the years, and it is difficult to make a choice.
>
> I wanted to ask for the wisdom of the crowd -- what articles (or books) in
> functional linguistics have been meaningful for you? What have you read
> with students? What works do you think every student should read?
>
> I should say that I have in mind what is usually called West Coast
> Functionalism and usage-based linguistics, but would be happy to hear your
> thoughts on other perspectives.
>
> Any replies would be much appreciated, and I would be happy to share the
> resulting reading list/syllabus.
>
> Eitan
>
>
> Eitan Grossman
> Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics
> Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> Tel: +972 2 588 3809
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:12:59 +0200
> From: Christian Lehmann <christian.lehmann at uni-erfurt.de>
> To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics
> Message-ID: <a0bbc762-aa3a-42b5-8820-c7256518c541 at Uni-Erfurt.De>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> Giv?n, Talmy 1979, /On understanding grammar/. New York etc.: Academic
> Press (Perspectives in Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics).
> --
>
> Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
> Rudolfstr. 4
> 99092 Erfurt
> Deutschland
>
> Tel.:   +49/361/2113417
> E-Post:         christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
> Web:    https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:22:35 +0300
> From: Artem Fedorinchyk <artem.fedorinqyk at gmail.com>
> To: Christian Lehmann <christian.lehmann at uni-erfurt.de>
> Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Question about functional linguistics
> Message-ID:
>         <
> CA+Hukpy46Sy4wjgFAKN+Bb8f2fvSURDSrjOt8Oe0w3z-oY+W-w at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Oh maybe even:
> Giv?n T. On understanding grammar. Revised edition (2018)
>
> On Mon, 22 Sept 2025 at 19:16, Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:
>
> > Giv?n, Talmy 1979, *On understanding grammar*. New York etc.: Academic
> > Press (Perspectives in Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics).
> > --
> >
> > Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
> > Rudolfstr. 4
> > 99092 Erfurt
> > Deutschland
> > Tel.: +49/361/2113417
> > E-Post: christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
> > Web: https://www.christianlehmann.eu
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lingtyp mailing list
> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> > https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
> >
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:50:57 +0200
> From: Uta Rein?hl <uta.reinoehl at linguistik.uni-freiburg.de>
> To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] [EXTERN]  Question about functional linguistics
> Message-ID:
>         <f56bf75a-537b-4efc-8ca5-377e0c19b9ed at linguistik.uni-freiburg.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> Hi Eitan
>
> That's a lovely topic and I look forward to hearing what others
> recommend.?I have found these ones here particularly rewarding to read
> with students (and just by myself).
>
> Intro/overview papers:
>
> DeLancey, Scott. 2001. On Functionalism. Lecture at LSA Summer
> Institute, Santa Barbara, 2001. Online at
> https://pages.uoregon.edu/delancey/sb/LECT01.htm
>
> Mackenzie, J. Lachlan. 2016. Functional Linguistics. In: Keith Allan
> (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London/New York: Routledge, p.
> 470-484.
>
> And of course excerpts of
>
> Paul, Hermann. 1880/1995. Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte.
> Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Mouton.
>
> With comments (and translations of some parts in the same volume) here:
>
> Auer, Peter. 2015. Reflections on Hermann Paul As a Usage-Based
> Grammarian. In: Peter Auer, Gesa von Essen, Werner Frick (eds). Hermann
> Paul?s Principles of Language History Revisited. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter.
>
> In addition to Paul, I tend to also include in my courses some papers
> /chapters that are functionalist, while not themselves meta papers on
> functionalism. A very small selection of some personal favourites are:
>
> Haiman, John. 1994. Ritualization and the development of language. In:
> William Pagliuca (ed.), Perspectives on Grammaticalization.
> Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 3?28.
>
> Mithun, Marianne & Wallace Chafe. 1999. What are S, A, and O? Studies in
> Language 23(3), p. 569-596.
>
> Chafe, Wallace. 1994. Discourse, Consciousness and Time. Chicago/London:
> The University of Chicago Press.
>
> Uta
>
> Am 22.09.2025 um 15:21 schrieb Eitan Grossman via Lingtyp:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This is maybe a?mail for a mailing list that no longer exists, the old
> > FunkNet, but I thought I'd give it a try.
> >
> > I am putting together a syllabus for an advanced BA course on
> > functional linguistics, and have been re-reading a lot of the articles
> > that have been meaningful for me over the years, and it is difficult
> > to make a choice.
> >
> > I wanted to ask for the wisdom of the crowd -- what articles (or
> > books) in functional linguistics have been meaningful for you? What
> > have you read with students? What works do you think every student
> > should read?
> >
> > I should say that I have in mind what is usually called West Coast
> > Functionalism and usage-based linguistics, but would be happy to hear
> > your thoughts on other perspectives.
> >
> > Any replies would be much appreciated, and I would be happy to share
> > the resulting reading list/syllabus.
> >
> > Eitan
> >
> >
> > Eitan Grossman
> > Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
> > Department of Linguistics
> > Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> > Tel: +972 2 588 3809
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lingtyp mailing list
> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> > https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
> --
> Professorin f?r Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
> Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar
> Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg
> https://www.linguistik.uni-freiburg.de/
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:56:04 +0000
> From: Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu>
> To: Larry M Hyman <hyman at berkeley.edu>, Sergey Loesov
>         <sergeloesov at gmail.com>
> Cc: "LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG"
>         <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] L > N
> Message-ID:
>         <
> PH3PPFBDA0721D679F1BCEFBB36C0B3CDECAD12A at PH3PPFBDA0721D6.namprd15.prod.outlook.com
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> In the Wapei branch of the Torricelli family, a change from l to n
> occurred in the language Au.
>
> Matthew
>
> From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Larry M Hyman via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Date: Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 3:56?PM
> To: Sergey Loesov <sergeloesov at gmail.com>
> Cc: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] L > N
> Thanks for all of the examples showing l > n. Although the contexts vary,
> I assume this change is a case of "strengthening", which would naturally
> associate it with onset position (although also with stem- and word-initial
> positions). From my experience, prefixes are more likely to undergo l > n.
> In some Grassfields Bantu and Northwest Bantu languages the noun class 5
> prefix *li- is realized ni- (~ n?-), e.g. Yemba (Bamileke-Dschang) l?-,
> Mbui ni-. I suspect that the greater resistance of *l to [n] at the
> beginning of lexical morphemes (e.g. noun and verb roots) is because of the
> more significant contrastiveness of /l/ and /n/ vs. the small number of
> grammatical morphemes.
>
> There also is the reverse occurrence of n > l in a "weakening"
> environment. Thus, in Aghem (Grassfields Bantu), /n/ becomes [l]
> intervocalically within stems. This not only produces alternations like
> b??n 'dance' vs. b??l-a 'dance-progressive' (Proto-Bantu *b?n) but also
> relics of the Proto-Bantu suffix *an 'reciprocal' as -l?. The following is
> from pp.9-10 of Aghem Grammatical Structure (1979), which I see is
> available here:
> https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf
>
> Best,  Larry
>
> [cid:ii_mfu0smeb0]
>
> On Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 5:39?AM Sergey Loesov via Lingtyp <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
> wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>  Are you aware of a shift l- > n- affecting the onsets of grammatical
> morphemes, specifically in word-initial position?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> Sergey
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
>
> --
> Larry M. Hyman, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
> & Director, France-Berkeley Fund, University of California, Berkeley
> https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman
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