Historical Linguistics 2011: Selected papers from the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Osaka, 25-30 July 2011 (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

This volume of selected papers from the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Osaka, Japan, July 2011) presents a set of stimulating and ground-breaking studies on a wide range of languages and language families. As the scope of studies that can be characterized as 'Historical Linguistics' has expanded, ICHL conferences have likewise seen a broadening of topics presented, and this conference was no exception, reflected by the inclusion in this volume of a plenary presentation on the grammaticalization of expressions of negation and gendered kinship in American Sign Language. Three other papers propose new views of the role of grammaticalization in English, Chinese, and Niger-Congo languages. Four of the papers discuss specific problems that arise in the comparison and reconstruction of linguistic features in a range of languages from Asia, Europe and South America. The last six studies deal with innovative approaches to the historical development of suppletion in Romance languages, possessive classifiers in Austronesian, universal quantifiers in Germanic, adjectival sequences in English, exaptation in Celtic and Early English, and drift in Ancient Egyptian. Edited by Ritsuko Kikusawa, (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan/ The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Japan) and Lawrence A. Reid, (University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu). Publisher's note Editors’ introduction Part I: Grammaticalization Ted Supalla: The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change Roland Kießling: On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification Keisuke Sanada: A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals: From the main verb mo(o)t to the root modal must I-Hsuan Chen: Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min Part II: Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction Haibo Wang: Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu Willem F. H. Adelaar: Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America Antoine Guillaume: Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) Kazuhiko Yoshida: The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence: A case from Indo-European Part III: Historical development of morphosyntactic features Matthew L. Juge: Analogy as a source of suppletion Frantisek Lichtenberk: The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian Jack Hoeksema: Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions Noriko Matsumoto: The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English Bettelou Los: Recycling “junk”: A case for exaptation as a response to breakdown Chris H. Reintges: Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian Machine Generated Contents Note: Pt. I Grammaticalization -- The Role Of Historical Research In Building A Model Of Sign Language Typology, Variation, And Change / Ted Supalla -- On The Origin Of Niger-congo Nominal Classification / Roland Kießling -- A Closer Look At Subjectification In The Grammaticalization Of English Modals: From The Main Verb Mo(o)t To The Root Modal Must / Keisuke Sanada -- Subjectivity Encoding In Taiwanese Southern Min / I-hsuan Chen -- Pt. Ii Problems In Historical Comparison And Reconstruction -- Emergence Of The Tone System In The Sanjiazi Dialect Of Manchu / Haibo Wang -- Searching For Undetected Genetic Links Between The Languages Of South America / Willem F. H. Adelaar Edited By Ritsuko Kikusawa, National Museum Of Ethnology, Japan ; Lawrence A. Reid, University Of Hawai'i, Manoa. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Starting from Sapir's (1921) concept of linguistic "drift", this chapter explores long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian, with particular attention to the typological shift from agglutinative-synthetic to largely analytic morphological structure. The momentum for the continuing and pervasive analyticization process is to be sought in the profusion of a broad range of auxiliary verb constructions. The flipside of the drift towards analyticity is the decreasing morphological productivity of synthetic inflectional patterns. The structurally marked features of the Coptic particle sys A volume of selected papers from the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Osaka, Japan, July 2011) that presents a set of studies on a wide range of languages and language families.