Volume 40, Issue Historica-vol-27-1-2

In Proto-Longgu-Makira-Malaitan (Southeast Solomonic, Oceanic, Austronesian) a regular sound change is often assumed, according to which Proto-Oceanic *s surfaced as *t before nonhigh vowels but remained *s before high vowels. This article presents an alternative account for the developments in Southeastern Solomonic, according to which the change described above is decomposed into two stages: (i) the unconditioned occlusivization of *s to *t and (ii) the assibilation of *t to *s before high vowels. Both processes in (i) and (ii) are common typologically and make sense from the point of view of phonetics and phonology.

The Eastern Neo-Aramaic language Turoyo has a complex relational verbal split of a type not found in other Neo-Aramaic languages. Besides the well-known split between present and preterite inflection frequently found across language families in the Middle East, the preterite has separate inflectional bases for transitive and intransitive verbs respectively. The morphosyntactic behaviour of the preterite has hitherto been described as an ergative inflection. This essay has two aims: to present, on the one hand, a detailed synchronic analysis of the coding of grammatical relations in the Turoyo verb, and to develop, on the other hand, a diachronic model which can explain these verb forms from their Middle Aramaic predecessors. It will be shown that the coding of grammatical relations in the Turoyo verb cannot be adequately described synchronically as an ergative inflection and that one cannot use the agreement suffixes alone as a sign of its relational type. Instead, it will become evident that the relational behaviour of Turoyo is rather complex, showing accusative behaviour in the present tense and a tripartite pattern with different coding for all three relational primitives (S, A, O) in the preterite tense. The latter is combined with split behaviour of the O primitive (i.e. differential objective marking, DOM). Furthermore, a closer examination of the distribution of the agreement suffixes, especially in regard to their (non-)obligatory nature, clearly demonstrates that the preterite inflection has many accusative traits which parallel the accusative behaviour of the present tense. From a diachronic point of view, this system can be derived from an earlier Aramaic participle-based inflection. However, it will be shown that the (non-)obligatory status of the participial (later verbal) suffixes has shifted closer to an accusative type in the development from the Aramaic template to the Turoyo verb. The history of the Turoyo verb system therefore shows a kind of morphosyntactic change that cannot be observed on the formal, but only on the distributional level.

Indo-European reduplication patterns have always been reconstructed by comparing reduplicated forms in attested languages. In this paper I will argue that what actually has to be compared are not individual forms but grammars. To demonstrate this approach I will develop reduplication grammars in an optimality theoretic framework for Gothic, Latin, Greek, and Old Indic. Based on these grammars a possible Indo-European reduplication grammar will be reconstructed. I will argue that the behaviour of consonants in reduplication is straightforward. The one exception are onset clusters with initial s , which are claimed to be monosegmental in the Germanic languages and in Latin, whereas s is treated as extrasyllabic in Greek, Old Indic and possibly Indo-European. Laryngeals pose no problem to reduplication grammar when they are taken to be fricatives. Only Attic reduplication remains as a crux. Of great interest from a theoretical point of view is the nucleus of the reduplicant, as I will show that in most of the cases discussed in this paper it is neither unmarked nor dependent on vocalic specifications of the base. This fact can only be accommodated by assuming a templatic reduplicative morpheme with a fully specified vowel. The Indo-European data are therefore a serious challenge to the often claimed universal validity of Base-Reduplicant Identity and The Emergence of The Unmarked in reduplication patterns. As a consequence the Indo-European evidence calls into question the concept of Correspondence in OT-phonology.

This paper deals with the problem of grammatical innovation in general, with special focus on the German language in particular. The main interest is concentrated on the grammaticalization phases of the syntactic variants of epistemic modality in German. The theoretical background is offered by Markedness Theory within the broader frame of Naturalness Theory (NT). The main postulates are derived from the proposition of NT (Mayerthaler, Dressler, Wurzel, Panagl, Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology, John Benjamins, 1987), which claims that grammatical/language variants that are more natural are less marked and consequently are developed later in the process of language evolution than less marked and consequently more natural grammatical/ structural variants. The latter become productive earlier within the innovation processes of languages. According to the Slovene Model of Natural Synta x , it is claimed that the Markedness Level of the Microgrammatical Context of the observed grammatical categories or structures shows systematic sensitivity in correlation with the functional complexity of the structure involved and/or the phase of grammaticalization: Higher functional complexity and/or earlier stage or phase of grammaticalization shows a positive correlation with higher markedness degrees of the microgrammatical context of constructions. As concrete examples of the above-mentioned theoretical postulate, we present the syntactic variants for epistemic modality in German (expressed by modal verbs, by würde -constructions, and by werden +infinitive constructions). Each of the observed syntactic variants forms a separate sample. All samples are compared on the basis of analyses of the Microgrammatical Context with which they collocate (person, number, tense, voice, transitivity etc.). Statistical analyses of the linguistic data confirm that there is a clearly marked interdependence between functional complexity, age of the constructions, and the markedness of their microgrammatical contexts. Interstructural relations and the direction of further innovative development in a certain categorical spectrum can be derived from the obtained data.

This article studies the different uses of the adverb right in the history of the English language. Using data from the Helsinki Corpus, it is shown that the different synchronic functions identified for Present-Day English right – namely adjunct, modifier and discourse marker – can be said to represent different degrees of grammaticalization. The function closer to the lexical pole, that of adjunct, is also the oldest one, while the more grammaticalized functions of modifier and discourse marker emerge later and are the prevalent uses of the form nowadays. In this connection, the article provides further evidence of the specialization of so-called zero adverbs in grammatical functions. It is argued here that the discourse marker right , although remarkably similar in behaviour to adverbs like certainly or well , is more likely to have developed from the corresponding adjective.

This article offers a critical analysis of the notions of causality and conditioning of linguistic change as these were developed in the French functionalist school, most notably by Martinet (Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap 18: 434–440, 1955), and some of his followers (Haudricourt, Juilland, Essai pour une histoire structurale du phonétisme français, Klincksieck, 1949, Hagège, Haudricourt, La phonologie panchronique, Presses Universitaires de France, 1978). In the first section, we analyse the types of causality discussed in functionalist diachronic studies. We then discuss the teleological aspect associated with functionalist causal explanations. Finally, we analyse the distinction between internal and external factors in linguistic change. These issues are inextricably intertwined in diachronic functionalism, but French functionalists adopt different stands with respect to the nature, role and function of internal and external factors, and with respect to the explanation of ‘actuated’ linguistic change. From our critical analysis it appears that the concept of causality has not been fully elaborated by the functionalists, and that the notions of causality and conditioning remain vague. We argue that this is due to a more basic problem at the level of the theoretical conception of language, viz. the fact that Martinet is caught between three perspectives on ‘language’: (1) the linguistic system as existing independently of speakers; (2) the individual speaker and the idiolect as a supposedly homogeneous object of study; (3) the socially stratified and heterogeneous speech community.