Volume 56, Issue s43-s1 - Historica

Slavic and Baltic show a curious way of overt definiteness marking by means of a specific type of adjective inflection. It arose when the adjective merged with a definiteness marker of pronominal origin. This paper aims at a comprehensive explanation of the rise of the definite adjective morphology in the former branch. First of all, it is argued that contrary to what has been claimed, there is no need to posit loss of trapped morphology to plausibly account for the definite adjective inflection. It can be explained by a series of well-established processes, i.e., sound change, reanalysis, and analogy. An interplay of these processes led to an increase in the phonological fusion of the adjective and the definiteness marker and ultimately resulted in their merger. In discussing the involved changes and in identifying factors that may have motivated them, the paper contributes to the general study of how new inflectional morphology emerges from the coalescence of two formerly independent elements.

This paper offers a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the diverse forms in Old Latin (third–second century BCE) that can be connected to Proto-Indo-European (PIE) * s(w)e- : se, sibi, sum, sam, sos, sas, sis, ipse . We classify our sample according to different grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic values, such as the construction type, animacy, and topicality of their referents. Among the results, we show that se and sibi are not primarily used as reflexives and that they share remarkably similar grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic features with the rest of the studied forms. These findings lead us to support the hypothesis of a single etymological origin in the PIE * s-  + vowel (* sV ) root and to further claim that this root was not a reflexive or a simple anaphoric marker, but a demonstrative pronoun that ranked high in a referential hierarchy.

Though the emergence of modality from verbs of motion is a well-attested phenomenon, the assessment of cross-linguistically valid pathways still remains a desideratum. In this paper I offer an outline of the pathway followed by the understudied Italian modal verb occorrere ‘to happen; to be necessary/needed’ (from Latin occurrere , originally ‘to run towards, into something or someone’). Based on the analysis of two large corpora, this paper reconstructs the emergence of the impersonal constructions ‘ occorre  + INF’ and ‘ occorre che  + SBJV’ vis-à-vis the personal one (‘to be needed’). The data and their analysis confirm the complexity of the pathway: in fact, the emergence of modality is strongly interlaced with the co-presence of the ancient meaning ‘to happen’, but also with the emergence of a deontic construction in which occorrere assumes the function of the auxiliary essere (‘to be’) as well as with the later evolution of another construction with negative polarity and in which occorrere is a telic metaphoric verb of motion. Though the pathway followed by Italian occorrere could be idiosyncratic in a cross-linguistic perspective, its in-depth study sheds new light on the question of how modality emerges and in particular on its source domains and their relations.

This article follows the early grammaticalization path of a durative adverb to an aspect marker for a range of aspectual uses including durative, focalized, and habitual. In a usage-based approach, we investigate the behavior of hamē(w) in a Middle Persian database with respect to several grammatical variables, and we check its developmental path against the model proposed for the Romance languages by Bertinetto, Ebert and de Groot, aiming to uncover the amount of similarities/differences between those Romance languages and Persian. The results show that the lexical origin of the structure investigated locates Middle Persian in stage (iii) of the model, and the development documented deviates from the rest of the model in various respects. Furthermore, the usual priority of past tense in progressive developments is not observed: the adverb is originally present-oriented, but past tense usage increases as the grammaticalization proceeds.

This paper re-examines previous hypotheses claiming the primacy of a perfect(ive) value in certain qusheng ( *-s ) derivations (in particular nominalization) in Old Chinese. First, it revisits examples previously cited as having been derived from the perfect(ive) , and proposes to re-classify them as resulting from three different derivational processes, nominalization, verb argument demotion, and adverbialization. Second, it focuses on Sino-Tibetan comparative data, in particular from Situ Rgyalrong, a language with severe isomorphism across four -s suffixes. Then, on the basis of morphological (especially stem changes) and syntactic criteria, it sorts out the relationship between the different -s suffixes in Situ, while suggesting multiple sources to account for the diverse functions of qusheng ( *-s ) in Old Chinese.

Old High German (OHG) differs from many other languages in that [w] does not stand in complementary distribution with [u], but rather it exhibits alternations with [o]. For example, the [o] in adjectives like gël[o] ‘yellow .nom.sg ’ alternates with [w] in corresponding inflected forms (e.g. gël[w]es ‘yellow .gen.sg ’). Based on extant data, we make three claims about OHG [w]. First, we use several analytical lenses – from phonotactics and etymology to sound patterning and feature composition – to argue that /w/ was an underlying consonant. This is surprising from the point of view of phonology since glides like [w] are usually assumed to be allophones of vowels. Second, we propose that OHG /w/ had the same height features as mid vowels. This accounts for the fact that /w/ neutralizes to [o] (and not [u]) in word-final position and also derives independent support from other OHG processes (namely primary umlaut). Finally, we show how the OHG data intersect with literature on the typology of glides and fail to fit naturally within that typology. Our findings place OHG glides into a seemingly unique category, the analysis of which not only broadens our understanding of OHG phonology, but also typological possibilities involved with derived and underlying glides.

This paper proposes an internal reconstruction of the vowel system of Pre-Khroskyabs by analysing bound state apophony in modern Siyuewu Khroskyabs. While most modern Khroskyabs dialects do not exhibit sufficient variations of bound state apophony, Siyuewu Khroskyabs is conservative in this regard. The internal reconstruction deals with the different reflexes between final and non-final vowels in modern Khroskyabs dialects, and postulates a unified origin for them, by hypothesising two series of vowels, velarised and plain. Velarisation in Pre-Khroskyabs is then compared with uvularisation in Tangut, showing regular correspondences between the two. This work demonstrates that velarisation is an important feature that can be reconstructed back to Proto-Gyalrongic, and that it helps us in understanding Trans-Himalayan historical linguistics. Additionally, it can be seen through this paper that internal reconstruction is an indispensable procedure in reconstructing the history of a language, as a significant portion of vocalic contrasts cannot be reconstructed by cross-linguistic comparisons alone.

A so far overlooked sound change in the historical phonology of the Guaranian branch of the Tupi-Guarani language family is discussed in the present paper. The sound change in question, which accounts for certain synchronic morphological irregularities, consists of the insertion of the glottal fricative h in word-initial position any time the next (right-adjacent) syllable has a glottal stop ʔ as its onset consonant. Allomorphy resulting from this change is shown to affect verbal, nominal, and postpositional prefixes, as well as monomorphemic lexemes, thus unifying the treatment of synchronic patterns which are often addressed as an exclusive trait of certain verb forms. The paper ends by discussing the issue of internal classification, pointing a few limitations in past attempts to ground the subgrouping of Tupi-Guarani languages on phonological grounds, and highlighting the status of glottal prothesis as the first known phonological isogloss exclusively shared by the Guaranian varieties.

Based on a corpus of private correspondence written by 16 authors from the Golden Age period, this study analyses the idiolectal distributions of three distinctive variants of early classical Spanish. After comparing these distributions at different times in the lives of these individuals against those found in the same period in previous variationist studies, the existence of three idiolectal profiles is detected: refractory, in-between and followers. The first two profiles are in the majority, although some examples of the third are also found. In any event, these profiles are not monolithic. On the contrary, with a few exceptions, speakers do not follow the same patterns in the three cases of variation studied. Moreover, a longitudinal analysis of the letters at different life stages shows that the stability of the distributions is the norm. Nevertheless, there are also some exceptions, i.e. authors who evolve significantly in the distribution of the variants, although almost always in the same direction: the progressive replacement of vernacular forms by others, following the prevailing trends of change. The main theoretical implications of these results are connected to previous findings in the literature on earlier stages of other European languages dealing with the role of idiolectal variation in shaping linguistic variation and change.