11.449, Books: Romance Ling, Indo-Aryan, African Ling

Fri Mar 3 21:59:18 UTC 2000

LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-449. Fri Mar 3 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.449, Books: Romance Ling, Indo-Aryan, African Ling

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1)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 01:39:00 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Romance Ling: La variation grammaticale en géolinguistique, D. Heap

2)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 01:43:13 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Indo-Aryan: Dhivehi, B. D. Cain & J. W. Gair

3)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 08:55:13 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: A Descriptive Grammar of Noon, M. Soukka

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 01:39:00 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Romance Ling: La variation grammaticale en géolinguistique, D. Heap

La variation grammaticale en géolinguistique:
les pronoms sujet en roman central

DAVID HEAP, University of Western Ontario

Cette thèse traite de la variation des sujets pronominaux dans le
continuum géolinguistique qui s'étend à travers l'Italie
septentrionale et une grande partie du Midi français. Le sujet d'un
verbe fini peut être identifié par un pronom (français je parle) ou
par une désinence verbale (italien parli). Depuis Perlmutter (1971) et
Chomsky (1981) on postule que cette distinction reflète les deux
réglages possible d'un paramètre inné: les grammaires humaines doivent
être soit [-sujet nul] comme le français, soit [+sujet nul] comme
l'italien. Les variétés non standard étudiées ici, cependant, incluent
des grammaires qui ne peuvent pas se ranger facilement dans ces deux
catégories, et représentent donc un nouveau défi à plus de vingt ans
de recherches en syntaxe générative.  Après des considérations
générales concernant l'importance de la variation dans la théorie
linguistique, nous développons une méthodologie pour utiliser des
données des atlas linguistiques traditionnels. Bien que ignorés
presque complètement par la linguistique 'théorique', l'Atlas
linguistique de la France (Gilliéron & Edmont 1902-11908) et le
Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz (Jaberg & Jud
1928-1940) fournissent des données précieuses pour les recherches sur
la variation morphosyntaxique.

Nous dépouillons des données d'un total de 438 points sur 101 cartes
de chacun des atlas. Ces données sont ensuite présentées de façon
synthétique sur 15 cartes thématiques, selon la personne grammaticale
et d'autres facteurs linguistiques. L'analyse quantitative de cette
base de données nous permet également de formuler certaines
généralisations à propos des systèmes des sujets pronominaux.

Premièrement, les données n'indiquent pas une transition abrupte,
comme prédirait l'hypothèse paramétrique, mais plutôt une zone de
transition graduelle. Deuxièmement, la typologie des systèmes de
sujets pronominaux n'est pas complètement sans contraintes, puisque
des tendances claires apparaissent parmi ces variétés
intermédiaires. Les sujets pronominaux sont plus rares à la première
personne du singulier ou du pluriel, et à la deuxième personne du
pluriel, alors qu'ils sont plus fréquents à la troisième personne du
singulier ou du pluriel, et surtout à la deuxième personne du
singulier. Il est difficile de représenter ce type d'asymétrie
morphologique en termes syntaxiques ou en traits, ou encore en théorie
paramétrique.

Plusieurs facteurs linguistiques, dont le type et le temps du verbe,
le type et la position de la proposition, et la présence d'autres
pronoms ou de la négation, contribuent au conditionnement de l'emploi
des sujets pronominaux. Ces faits suggèrent que les paradigmes des
pronoms sujet reflètent des phénomènes complexes qui auraient lieu aux
'interfaces' (Chomsky 1995) plutôt qu'un simple paramètre syntaxique.

ISBN 3 89586 939 2.
LINCOM Studies in Romance Lingustics 11.
Ca. 200pp. 24 x 18 cm. EUR 44.99 / USD 56 /  DM  88  / £ 30. 2000/I.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no.  / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
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LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89
62269404;
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 01:43:13 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Indo-Aryan: Dhivehi, B. D. Cain & J. W. Gair

Dhivehi (Maldivian)
BRUCE D. CAIN & JAMES W. GAIR, Cornell University

Dhivehi (Maldivian) is the national language of the Republic of
Maldives, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean south of India
and to the west of Sri Lanka. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language
closely related to Sinhala, and with it forms the southernmost branch.
Dhivehi has more than 240,000 speakers in the Maldives, and an
additional 5,000 in Minicoy of India where the language is known as
Mahal.  As the national language of the Maldives, Dhivehi is fully
developed and thriving.  It has a literary history that spans at least
nine centuries, and employs its own unique right-to-left script called
Thaana.  Dhivehi printed materials are abundant, and it is the
language of radio and television.  Dhivehi is the medium of education,
and literacy in the Maldives exceeds 95%.

While enjoying a privileged status within the Maldives, very little is
known about Dhivehi in the outside world.  The inventory of published
works on Dhivehi is sparse.  In more recent years, the Maldives has
become more accessible to researchers, and interest in Dhivehi has
grown.  This sketch describes standard Dhivehi, the dialect spoken in
the capital Male' and surrounding atolls, and is based on a corpus of
published materials and elicited information gathered on site.  Some
of the more notable phonological features of Dhivehi include
development of prenasalized stops, compensatory lengthening of
consonants from vowel loss, and alternations of several consonants
with the glottal stop.  Morphologically, Dhivehi has a system of
volitivity marking for verbal forms.  Dhivehi syntax features a
cleft-like construction in which the focused item is generally
post-verbal, and a predicate nominal construction with an equative
marker on the subject.

ISBN 3 929075 16 4.
Languages of the World/Materials 63.
Ca. 70pp. Ca. EUR 25.46 / USD 32.50 / DM 53.00 / £ 19.90.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no.  / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89
62269404;
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 08:55:13 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: A Descriptive Grammar of Noon, M. Soukka

A Descriptive Grammar of Noon
A Cangin Language of Senegal
MARIA SOUKKA

Noon is a West-Atlantic language of the Cangin subgroup, spoken by 25
000 people in central Senegal, in and around the town of Thiès. The aim
of this book is to provide a full grammatical description of Noon, from
phonology and morphology to syntax and discourse, since no such study
has previously been published on the language. This present work is
slightly adapted from a PhD thesis in 1999 at School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London.

The study is divided into 11 chapters, followed by a short
interlinearised text sample with a free translation. All analysis is
presented with language examples from data collected in the Thiès area
over the years 1994-1998. Some of the features treated in this book
include: a restricted regressive ATR harmony; a noun class system of 6
basic classes with extensive agreement of the determiners; a threefold
locative distinction present in determined nominals, this locative
distinction is further elaborated in the demonstratives; a verb system
based on derivational and conjugational affixation; serial and
reduplicative sentence types; a short presentation some of the major
dialect differences in Noon.

3 89586 628 8.
LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 40.
Ca. 300pp. Ca. EUR 52.15 / USD 60 / DM 102 / £ 40.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no.  / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

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