Overview
Two languages can resemble each other in the categories, constructions, and types of meaning they use, and in the forms they employ to express these. Such resemblances may be the consequence of universal characteristics of language, of chance or coincidence, of the borrowing by one language of another's words, or of the diffusion of grammatical, phonetic, and phonological characteristics that takes place when languages come into contact. Languages sometimes show likeness because they have borrowed not from each other but from a third language. Languages that come from the same ancestor may have similar grammatical categories and meanings expressed by similar forms: such languages are said to be genetically affiliated.This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble one another. Its editors and authors aim (a) to explain and identify the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and (b) to discover the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another. The introduction outlines the issues that underlie these aims, introduces the chapters which follow, and comments on recurrent conclusions by the contributors. The problems are formidable and the pitfalls numerous: for example, several of the authors draw attention to the inadequacy of the family tree diagram as the main metaphor for language relationship. The authors range over Ancient Anatolia, Modern Anatolia, Australia, Amazonia, Oceania, Southeast and East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book includes an archaeologist's view on what material evidence offers to explain cultural and linguistic change, and a general discussion of which kinds of linguistic feature can and cannot be borrowed. The chapters are accessibly-written and illustrated by twenty maps. The book will interest all students of the causes and consequences of language change and evolution.
Full Product Details
Author: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (, The Cairns Institute, James Cook University) ,
R. M. W. Dixon (, The Cairns Institute, James Cook University) ,
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (Associate Director, Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Australia)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.30cm
, Height: 2.90cm
, Length: 24.30cm
Weight: 0.819kg
ISBN: 9780198299813
ISBN 10: 0198299818
Pages: 472
Publication Date: 22 November 2001
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
extremely rich, competent, and well-edited. Language, ... invaluable volume ... the uniformly high quality of the contributions demonstrates that all contributors know whereof they speak ... The geographical range of the contributions is impressive ... The quality of the production is high. The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute ... certainly a book worth acquiring and reading. Journal of Linguistics This book is a pleasure to sample, and will serve as a resource for years to come. The salutary lesson that emerges from every chapter is that diffusion studies are necessarily complementary to genetic studies, and that our methodology for studying various types of contact needs to be extended and refined. Diachronica This book is highly recommended for all those interested in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, language contact and language change ... this book represents a good opportunity to meditate, on the one side, on models of language evolution and, on the other side, on actual phenomena of language change. LINGUIST List
extremely rich, competent, and well-edited. Language, ... invaluable volume ... the uniformly high quality of the contributions demonstrates that all contributors know whereof they speak ... The geographical range of the contributions is impressive ... The quality of the production is high. The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute ... certainly a book worth acquiring and reading. Journal of Linguistics This book is a pleasure to sample, and will serve as a resource for years to come. The salutary lesson that emerges from every chapter is that diffusion studies are necessarily complementary to genetic studies, and that our methodology for studying various types of contact needs to be extended and refined. Diachronica This book is highly recommended for all those interested in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, language contact and language change ... this book represents a good opportunity to meditate, on the one side, on models of language evolution and, on the other side, on actual phenomena of language change. LINGUIST List
Author Information
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald is Associate Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University in Melbourne. She has published on the Berber languages of North Africa, the Manambu language of New Guinea, and the Arawak languages of South America (grammars of Bare and Warekena have appeared and a comprehensive study of Tariana is almost complete). She is author of A Grammar of Modern Hebrew (1990), and her Grammar of Biblical Hebrew is in press. Her theoretical publications include work on evidentiality and Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices (OUP 2000). She is currently working on language contact and universals of borrowings. R. M. W. Dixon, who is Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, has written grammars of five Australian languages -- most notably Dyirbal (1972) and Yidiny (1977) -- and of Boumaa Fijian (1988), in addition to A New Approach to English Grammar, on Semantic Principles (OUP 1991). His theoretical contributions have included work on noun classes, adjective classes, the volume Ergativity (1994), and his acclaimed essay 'The Rise and Fall of Languages' (1997). He is currently completing a full-scale comparative study of the Australian lingusitic area, and a comprehensive study of the Jarawara language (Arawá family, Brazil).
