Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 54 Issue s41-s1 - Historica

Issue of Folia Linguistica

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available December 7, 2020

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Open Access December 7, 2020

The position of the genitive in Old English prose: Intertextual differences and the role of Latin

Anna Cichosz, Maciej Grabski

Page range: 1-35

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Abstract

The present article is a systematic, large-scale corpus study of the varying position of the Old English adnominal genitive. Particular focus is put on intertextual variation and the potential influence of Latin, which is analysed alongside such intra-linguistic factors as syntactic weight and the animacy of the referent. The model of logistic regression adopted helps address a key issue in studies on genitive placement, namely, if and how multiple variables exert combined impact on the choice of the variant. The paper highlights the importance of a bottom-to-top approach in studies of older English syntax, as global tendencies turn out to be the corollary of significantly different contributions on the level of individual texts, whose translation status (original composition or translation) is also of importance to the variation studied.

December 7, 2020

Reduced forms in the nominal morphology of the Lindisfarne Gospel Gloss. A case of accusative/dative syncretism?

Julia Fernández-Cuesta, Nieves Rodríguez-Ledesma

Page range: 37-65

Abstract

One of the most characteristic features of the grammar of the Lindisfarne Gospel gloss is the absence of the etymological - e inflection in the dative singular in the paradigm of the strong masculine and neuter declension ( a -stems). Ross (1960: 38) already noted that endingless forms of the nominative/accusative cases were quite frequent in contexts where a dative singular in - e would be expected, to the extent that he labeled the forms in - e ‘rudimentary dative.’ The aim of this article is to assess to what extent the dative singular is still found as a separate case in the paradigms of the masculine and neuter a- stems and root nouns. To this end a quantitative/statistical analysis of nouns belonging to these classes has been carried out in contexts where the Latin lemma is either accusative or dative. We have tried to determine whether variables such as syntactic context, noun class, and frequency condition the presence or absence of the - e inflection, and whether the distribution of the inflected and uninflected forms is different in the various demarcations that have been identified in the gloss. The data have been retrieved using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus . All tokens have been checked against the facsimile edition and the digitised manuscript in order to detect possible errors.

December 7, 2020

The “phonetic prehistory” of Grassmann’s law in Greek

Alessandro De Angelis

Page range: 67-87

Abstract

Grassmann’s Law (=GL) is generally regarded as a quintessential example of regular sound change, though dissimilation processes are generally said to be quite rare and sporadic. In the present paper, evidence is presented aiming to show “the phonetic prehistory” of Grassmann’s Law in Greek, namely a diachronic stage during which GL acts in all but regular fashion. In particular, especially in some dialectal areas, some forms retain the original diaspirate stem up until Classical epoque (V–IV c. BC). Moreover, the presence of an opposite process, that is the assimilation (generally regressive) between aspirated segments, is also documented. Both of these aspects seem to show a lexically constrained spread of such a change. Its relatively late regularity can be explained as a process implemented by phonological constraints, which intervene at some point in the linguistic change.

December 7, 2020

Conservation or change? Exploring trends in Modern Hebrew in light of new spoken corpora of the first two generations of speakers

Einat Gonen

Page range: 89-115

Abstract

This paper presents a diachronic study of Modern Hebrew agreement between numerals and their quantified nouns. This research is possible thanks to the discovery of two rare collections of recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, which document four generations of speakers and have become important sources of spoken Early Modern Hebrew. On the basis of these two corpora, I compare numeral agreement in the first two generations of speakers with present-day usage and analyze trends of change and conversation in Modern Hebrew. The study shows that the first generation of speakers (“Gen1”) largely acquired the gender distinction of cardinals. However, in contrast to other agreement issues that educated Gen1 speakers realized fully, numeral use showed variation and absence of agreement in a small set of cases. Moreover, some linguistic features of Gen1 Hebrew found in this study no longer characterize Present-Day Hebrew; among these features is prosodic conditioning, which led to a Gen1 tendency to use the feminine form of the numeral ‘four’ with masculine nouns more frequently than was the case with other numerals.

December 7, 2020

Reciprocal constructions in Homeric Greek: A typological and corpus-based approach

Guglielmo Inglese, Chiara Zanchi

Page range: 117-170

Abstract

Ancient Greek features a wide array of means to encode reciprocity. Even though reference grammars do mention most of these strategies, they have not been brought together and compared in a systematic way so far. In this paper, we provide a thorough corpus-based description of the three most widespread reciprocal markers in Homeric Greek: the pronoun allḗlōn , the middle voice, and the use of preverbs. Our analysis is couched within current descriptive models of reciprocal constructions developed in linguistic typology. As we argue, Homeric Greek offers a remarkably complex picture, whereby these strategies synchronically cover different semantic and syntactic sub-domains of reciprocity, and thus partly stand in complementary distribution. Already in Homer, the pronoun allḗlōn is the most productive marker of reciprocal situations, with the middle voice and preverbs playing a more limited role. By adopting a diachronic perspective, we also show that this distribution can partly be explained as the result of the different historical sources of each construction. Moreover, once properly scrutinized, the facts of Homeric Greek provide interesting cues as to the developments of reciprocal constructions in later stages of Greek.

December 7, 2020

Tangut as a West Gyalrongic language

Yunfan Lai, Xun Gong, Jesse P. Gates, Guillaume Jacques

Page range: 171-203

Abstract

This paper proposes that Tangut should be classified as a West Gyalrongic language in the Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan family. We examine lexical commonalities, case marking, partial reduplication, and verbal morphology in Tangut and in modern West Gyalrongic languages, and point out nontrivial shared innovations between Tangut and modern West Gyalrongic languages. The analysis suggests a closer genetic relationship between Tangut and Modern West Gyalrongic than between Tangut and Modern East Gyalrongic. This paper is the first study that tackles the exact linguistic affiliation of the Tangut language based on the comparative method.

December 7, 2020

Univerbation

Christian Lehmann

Page range: 205-252

Abstract

Univerbation is the syntagmatic condensation of a sequence of words recurrent in discourse into one word, as when the Spanish combination a tras (to back) becomes atrás ‘behind’. It affects both lexemes and grammatical formatives. Unlike processes of word formation, including conversion of a syntactic construction into a word, as in forget-me-not , and compounding, as in Spanish lavaplatos ‘dishwasher’, univerbation is a spontaneous process. There are two main types of univerbation: phrasal univerbation downgrades a phrase to a word, as when Latin terrae motus ‘earth’s movement’ becomes Spanish terremoto ‘earthquake’. Transgressive univerbation coalesces a string of words which do not form a syntagma into a word, as when French par ce que becomes parce que . A set of univerbations may share structural features and may therefore evolve into a pattern of compounding. Thus, blackbird originated by univerbation, but may now provide a pattern of compounding. As a consequence, univerbation and compounding are not always easily distinguishable. The discussion uses empirical evidence adduced in earlier work, mostly from Romance and Germanic languages. Its aim is not to present novel phenomena but to provide a theoretical background for the phenomenology and improve on available analyses.

December 7, 2020

Recontextualization and language change

Ferdinand von Mengden, Anneliese Kuhle

Page range: 253-281

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of ‘recontextualization’ and its benefit for the study of language change. ‘Recontextualization’ refers to the use of familiar material, such as tools or gestures, which extend the body in variable contexts of behaviour. The concept is related to notions already established in other fields, such as primatology and anthropology. We claim that these parallels are meaningful as they represent an overarching principle which underlies the emergence of linguistic structures but which also connects linguistic usage with other types of behaviour and interaction. We thereby argue against notions of context-independent form-meaning pairings in language, which require assumptions like innovation or reanalysis as mechanisms of usage and, ultimately, change. In this sense, we concur with usage-based approaches that define the linguistic expression as inherently vague, underspecified and variable. But we further argue that the emergence and, as a consequence, the empirically observable properties of any linguistic structure are to be accounted for by speakers using the same material in novel contexts or situations. Any such ‘recontextualization’ then creates, in turn, new options for the re-use of a linguistic construction. The underlying categorizations, which typically form part of the linguistic descriptions, pertain to the reality of the observer (the linguist) and not primarily to that of the speaker.

Book Review

December 7, 2020

The determinants of diachronic stability

Svetlana Petrova

Page range: 283-290

About this journal

Objective
Folia Linguistica and Folia Linguistica Historica are the peer-reviewed journals of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE). Each volume consists of two issues of Folia Linguistica, one issue of Folia Linguistica Historica, and one Special Issue. Folia Linguistica is devoted to empirically based linguistic topics and covers all non-historical areas in the traditional disciplines of general linguistics. The journal welcomes work from various theoretical perspectives, but contributions should be directed towards a general linguistic audience, in other words the argument should be understandable to linguists with other theoretical backgrounds. The domain of interest of Folia Linguistica includes sociological, discoursal, computational and psychological aspects of language and linguistic theory. Other areas of central concern are grammaticalization, language typology, and variation within and across languages. Folia Linguistica Historica is exclusively devoted to empirically based diachronic linguistics of all language families (including both historical and comparative linguistics).

Topics
Folia Linguistica

non-historical areas in general linguistics
grammaticalization
language typology
language variation
language varieties
sociological, discoursal, computational and psychological aspects of language and linguistic theory

Folia Linguistica Historica

diachronic linguistics (including both historical and comparative linguistics)
linguistic reconstruction (both internal and external) and language phylogeny
computational approaches to linguistic variation and change

Article formats
Research articles, Review articles, Book reviews, Miscellanea (reports and discussion notes)