36.396, Books: Post-predicate elements in the Western Asian Transition Zone: Haig, Rasekh-Mahand, Stilo, Schreiber and Schiborr (eds.) (2024)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-396. Thu Jan 30 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.396, Books: Post-predicate elements in the Western Asian Transition Zone: Haig, Rasekh-Mahand, Stilo, Schreiber and Schiborr (eds.) (2024)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Justin Fuller
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Steven Franks, Joel Jenkins, Daniel Swanson, Erin Steitz
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Joel Jenkins <joel at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 30-Jan-2025
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [sebastian.nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Post-predicate elements in the Western Asian Transition Zone: Haig, Rasekh-Mahand, Stilo, Schreiber and Schiborr (eds.) (2024)


Title: Post-predicate elements in the Western Asian Transition Zone
Subtitle: A corpus-based approach to areal typology
Series Title: Contact and Multilingualism
Publication Year: 2024

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/395

Editor(s): Geoffrey Haig, Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand, Donald Stilo,
Laurentia Schreiber, Nils Schiborr

eBook

Abstract:

This volume explores word-order phenomena across a phylogenetically
diverse sample of languages covering a region loosely referred to as
the Western Asian Transition Zone, approximately corresponding to
western Iran, northern Iraq, eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. The
sample includes representatives from four branches of Indo-European
(Iranian, Hellenic, Armenian, Indo-Aryan) as well as Turkic, Semitic,
Kartvelian, Northwest Caucasian and Northeast Caucasian.
Methodologically, we apply a corpus-based approach to word-order,
building on two purpose-built and fully accessible data-bases of
spoken language corpora, WOWA (Word Order in Western Asia), and HamBam
(Hamedan-Bamberg Corpus of Contemporary Spoken Persian). The majority
of the languages are historically OV, yet exhibit high rates of
post-verbal elements, and these constitute the primary focus of the
volume. One of the major findings is the importance of semantic role
in determining pre- versus post-verbal placement of clausal
constituents: We identify a consistent bias towards post-verbal
placement of spatial Goals, which is amplified by increasing areal
proximity to the VO languages of the southwestern periphery of the
region (Semitic). In the languages in and adjacent to the Caucasus, on
the other hand, we find stronger effects of information structure in
triggering post-verbal position. Along with contributions on
individual languages and varieties, the volume includes an overview
chapter outlining the theoretical background and the data sources,
summary chapters on sub-regions, as well as contributions from an
experimental and psycholinguistic perspective.

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax

Language Family(ies): Asian Unclassified

Written In: English (eng)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List to support the student editors:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Mouton https://cloud.newsletter.degruyter.com/mouton

Elsevier Ltd http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Wiley http://www.wiley.com


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-36-396
----------------------------------------------------------