11 D=?iso-8859-1?Q?=E9c=3B=2CL.Hyman=2C_s=E9minaire_?=comparatisme INALCO

[pozdniakov.konstantin]

Linguistique comparative historique :

enjeux théoriques et méthodologiques

Séminaire doctoral et de recherche

responsable Konstantin Pozdniakov, INALCO, LLACAN,

chaire IUF de linguistique historique et comparée



au Pôle des Langues et Civilisations,

65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris 13°, salle 5.28

11 décembre 2012, mardi, 16h00-19h00



Larry Hyman



On some recent proposals that generalize areal features to

Proto-Bantu or Proto-Niger-Congo



Basing themselves largely on areal and typological arguments, both >
Güldemann (2010) and Blench (2011) make some rather
unsubstantiated > claims about what might have been in Proto-Bantu or
Proto-Niger-Congo. Blench tries to generalize some rather superficial
properties that are  recent innovations, e.g. [kp, gb], multiple tone
heights, among other  things. Güldemann claims that neither
Proto-Niger-Congo nor  Proto-Bantu had more than a "moderate"
system of derivational verb  suffixes ("extensions"), and that
both proto-languages lacked  inflectional verb prefixes. Although
drawing largely on the same  materials as Hyman (2004, 2007 a, b), he
arrives at the opposite  conclusion that Niger-Congo languages which
have such morphology, in  particular Bantu and Atlantic, would have had
to innovate multiple  suffixation and prefixation. However, such
hypotheses are weakened by  two serious problems: (i) These
proto-languages, which possibly reach  back as far as
10,000–12,000bp, have clearly had enough time for their 
morphosyntax to have cycled more than once. (ii) The areal properties 
of Güldemann's Macro-Sudan Belt most likely represent more
recent  innovations which have diffused after the Niger-Congo break-up.
In  this take, based largely on a recent paper in Language Dynamics and 
Change, I present further evidence that multiple suffixation and 
prefixation must have existed even in languages which have lost them. 
The general conclusion is that current areal distributions are largely
irrelevant for long-range linguistic reconstruction.



Si vous voulez intervenir aux séminaires pour partager vos idées
et résultats dans le domaine de la linguistique comparative, vous
êtes cordialement invités à vous adresser à Konstantin
Pozdniakov : pozdniakov at vjf.cnrs.fr <mailto:pozdniakov at vjf.cnrs.fr>

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