Volume 20, Issue 1 -

This article addresses the problem of crosslinguistic rarity by mapping the types of diachronic factors that contribute to the rarity of a particular feature. It is proposed that a number of different diachronic factors may play a role, such as the rarity of source constructions, the rarity of particular types of change, the number of stages necessary for a particular feature to develop, and the number of pathways that can lead to a particular feature. This article looks at a rarissimum of person marking, namely, a zero-marked feminine 2nd singular person index in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic (Afroasiatic; Egypt). It is argued that such markers are rare because they presuppose rare input structures, and most processes of change would lead away from – rather than to – zero-marked 2sg . Furthermore, this study identifies a diachronic process in which a part of a morpheme is reinterpreted as a segmentable morpheme (in this case, a person index), thereby leading to the loss of a zero person marker. This is the converse of the well-known “Watkins’ Law”, in which a segmentable person marker is reinterpreted as part of a base.

This article examines whether Australian languages generally lack clear noun phrase structures, as has sometimes been argued in the literature. We break up the notion of NP constituency into a set of concrete typological parameters, and analyse these across a sample of 100 languages, representing a significant portion of diversity on the Australian continent. We show that there is little evidence to support general ideas about the absence of NP structures, and we argue that it makes more sense to typologize languages on the basis of where and how they allow “classic” NP construal, and how this fits into the broader range of construals in the nominal domain.

This article investigates the recently recognized concept of associated motion in 66 South American languages located on the western fringes of the Amazonian basin. In that region, associated motion is a widespread and particularly complex phenomenon. It is instantiated by verbal affixes in 44 languages, of which 22 display complex systems of multiple affixes. Correlations are noticed between the degree of complexity of the systems and the semantic content of the markers. Two implicational scales are proposed: (i) motion of the subject > motion of the object and (ii) prior motion > concurrent motion > subsequent motion. Correlations are also observed between the types of systems and their geographical distribution. These are taken as evidence that diffusion must have played an important role in spreading associated motion in this region and shaping its particular semantic make-up in the different languages.