Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics)

In Papuan languages like Wambon and Urim demonstrative forms are used both in contexts of referent identification, e.g. as demonstrative operators in noun phrases, and in topicality contexts, e.g. as topic markers with adverbial clauses and phrases, recapitulative clauses, new topic NPs and given topic NPs. Using notions from the Functional Grammar framework (Dik, 1989), I present a non-unified account of the demonstrative forms: helping the addressee to identify referents by giving deictic hints like 'close to speaker' and orienting the addressee about the topical cohesion of the discourse are two separate functional domains in language. This 'two-domain' hypothesis, which views the demonstrative forms as having two synchronically unrelated functions, explains the fact that in Wambon and Urim the demonstratives show important differences in form and behaviour depending on whether they are used for referent identification or for expressing topicality distinctions. The 'two-domain' hypothesis explains such formal differences but cannot explain the formal similarities between topic markers and demonstrative operators in Papuan languages like Wambon and Urim. To explain these formal similarities I suggest a diachronic development: in several Papuan languages topic markers developed from demonstrative operators. In the relatively well-documented Awyu-family of Papuan languages this process can be traced: in Wambon, the resumptive demonstrative pronoun-eve integrated in the preceding NP as a topic marker in stative clauses with a very transparant dichotomous topic-comment structure. In Korowai, also of the Awyu-family, the clitic-efO, the cognate of Wambon-eve 'that', completely lost its function as a demonstrative operator and functions solely as a topic marker. ~ This paper is based on a lecture given during the Workshop on Pragmatics and Grammar, University of Hamburg, 11-12 December 1992. I should thank the participants in that workshop for their stimulating critical comments.

In previous research, the preterite participles lypauwa at B 591 a3 and lypaṣ at B 492 a3 are commonly taken as derivatives of the root luā- 'send', with <p> spellings for expected *lywauwa and *lywaṣ. I argue that both forms in fact belong with lip(ā)- vi. 'remain', vt. 'leave (over)', in which p is original. I show how this proposal leads to a better understanding of B 591 and B 492 and sheds new light on the issue of so-called "hypercorrect" <p> spellings in Tocharian B. A number of linguistic, philological, and Buddhological details are discussed along the way.

The reconstruction of a proto-language is a set of hypotheses about the prehistorie development of a family of cognate languages. It starts from the hypothesis that the languages are cognate in the first place. This hypothesis may turn out to be false if heavy borrowing took place at some prehistorie stage. In that case, a larger amount of data does not yield a better reconstruction because there simply is no proto-language to reconstruct. Conversely, two cognate languages may have very little vocabulary in common when the time depth is sufficiently large. It follows that the reconstruction of a proto-language cannot be based primarily on an analysis of common vocabulary. When we look at language interference in bilingual communities, it appears that there is a marked difference in the ease of linguistic borrowing between grammar and lexicon, between bound and free morphemes, and between verbs and nouns. As a result, the older strata of a language are better preserved in the grammatical System than in the lexical stock, better in morphology than in phonology or syntax, better in verb stems and pronouns than in nouns and numerals. We must therefore look first of all at the verbal and pronominal morphology in order to establish a genetic relationship between languages. In the case of Afro-Asiatic, or Afrasian in Ehret's preferred terminology, there can be little doubt that there is a layer of common inheritance in the verb and the pronoun (for example, Sasse 1981: 138-145). We may therefore proceed to an establishment of the inherited vocabulary. Those who try to reconstruct the Afro-Asiatic proto-language have been unable to produce an agreed list of reconstructible root morphemes (cf. Lieberman 1990: 570-573). The book under review "provides therefore a comprehensive, systematic reconstruction of the family, concrete and specific in

Elsewhere I have argued that initial *H 2 -and *H 3 -yielded h-before *-e-and zero before *-o-in Armenian and Albanian and suggested that the same development may be established for Hittite, e.g. harp-'separate' < *H 3 erbh-versus ark-'mount' < *H 3 orgh-ey-, Gr. orphanós, órkhis (cf. Kortlandt 1984: 42). The new monographs by Kimball (1999) and Rieken (1999) have strengthened my view that this is indeed correct. In his classic study of *H 3 in Anatolian, Melchert lists seven examples of ha-< *H 3 e-(1987: 21): (1) haran-'eagle' < *H 3 eron-, Gr. órnis; (2) harp-'change one's group' < *H 3 erbh-, Latin orbus; (3) happar 'transaction', happinant-'rich' < *H 3 ep-, Latin opus; (4) hastāi 'bone(s)' < *H 3 est(H 2 )ōi, Gr. ostéon; (5) hark-'perish' < *H 3 erg-, Old Irish orgaid 'slays'; (6) hawi-'sheep' < *H 3 ewi-, Latin ovis; (7) haliya-'bow', halhaltumar 'corner' < *H 3 el-, Gr. ōlénē 'elbow'.

This paper was delivered at the occasion of the Fifth (5th) inaugural Lecture of Federal University of Kashere,  Gombe State, Nigeria, West Africa. The paper compares and contrasts the scriptural texts of the four religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religions (ATRs) on the rights of women  to inherit from the estate of their deceased roots/ ascendants, branches/descendants. spouses, and or collateral relatives; with a view to finding out whether there are areas of congruities or incongruities that need to be explained to people between these scriptural texts/provisions on these issues or not.

The study investigates the semantic shift of the Hungarian word kanafória, which originally meant ’resin’ but later acquired the meaning ’gallows’. By analyzing historical data and comparing the word’s usage across different time periods, the author traces the evolution of its meaning.
The most convincing explanation for this semantic shift is that the connection between the original meaning ’resin’ and the later meaning ’gallows’ lies in the act of rubbing: just as resin is rubbed onto a bow, so the rope rubs against the neck of the hanged person. This metaphorical connection, also supported by comparison to terms like German talgen and the Hungarian thieves’ cant faggyúz, provides a compelling explanation for the semantic shift.
The study highlights the importance of historical linguistics in understanding language change. By examining the historical context and cultural associations of words, we can gain insights into cognitive processes that underlie semantic shifts. However, due to the limited availability of historical data, especially regarding slang terminology, certain aspects of the semantic change remain speculative.

In this paper, we investigate evolutionarily recent changes in the distributions of speech sounds in the world's languages. In particular, we explore the impact of language contact in the past two millennia on today's distributions. Based on three extensive databases of phonological inventories, we analyse the discrepancies between the distribution of speech sounds of ancient and reconstructed languages, on the one hand, and those in present-day languages, on the other. Furthermore, we analyse the degree to which the diffusion of speech sounds via language contact played a role in these discrepancies. We find evidence for substantive differences between ancient and present-day distributions, as well as for the important role of language contact in shaping these distributions over time. Moreover, our findings suggest that the distributions of speech sounds across geographic macro-areas were homogenized to an observable extent in recent millennia. Our findings suggest that what we call the Implicit Uniformitarian Hypothesis, at least with respect to the composition of phonological inventories, cannot be held uncritically. Linguists who would like to draw inferences about human language based on presentday cross-linguistic distributions must consider their theories in light of even short-term language evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.

This paper investigates universal and areal structures in the lexicon as manifested by colexification patterns in the semantic domains of perception and cognition, based on data from both small and large datasets. Using several methods, including weighted semantic maps, formal concept lattices, correlation analysis, and dimensionality reduction, we identify colexification patterns in the domains in question and evaluate the extent to which these patterns are specific to particular areas. This paper contributes to the methodology of investigating areal patterns in the lexicon, and identifies a number of cross-linguistic regularities and of area-specific properties in the structuring of lexicons.

According to the communicative efficiency hypothesis, speakers should produce more linguistic material when comprehension difficulty increases. Here, we investigate a potential source of comprehension difficultylisteners' language proficiencyon speakers' productions, using referential choice as a case study. Referential choice is influenced by communicative efficiency: pronouns are used less than full noun phrases (NPs) for less predictable referents (Tily & Piantadosi, 2009). However, the extent to which it is influenced by the listener is debated. Here, we compare participants' descriptions of the same picture book to children, adult L2 learners and adult native speakers. We find that speakers use more full NPs when their interlocutors are learnerschild and adult learners alike, illustrating an effect of listeners' proficiency (regardless of age) on production choices. Importantly, the increased use of full NPs relative to pronouns is found controlling for discourse-related differences (e.g., previous mention), suggesting a direct relation between listeners' perceived language proficiency and referential choice.

Therefore, we (Moran and Grossman) organized two conference workshops in 2019 aimed specifically at highlighting current research in phonological typology. The first, entitled 'Phonological (in)stability and language evolution,' took place at the annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), from August 21-24, in Leipzig, Germany. The second, which shares the title with this special volume, was held at the meeting of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT), from September 4-6, in Pavia, Italy. The present special issue emerged from these two workshops. Its aims are twofold. First, like those before us (e.g., Hyman and Plank 2018), we aim to raise the profile of phonological typology within typology and beyond. Phonological typology is particularly important for a number of reasons. First, phonology is one of the few domains of language in which we have substantial cross-linguistic data. Second, phonology has traditionally been a testing ground for linguistic theories, including a range of structuralist, generativist, and functionalist or usage-based theories; many concepts first developed for phonology were later expanded to other domains of language, and phonological data have been the basis for diverse perspectives on the relationship between synchrony and diachrony. Third, there is broad agreement among linguists of every persuasion that the sound patterns of languages are ultimately phonetically-based, which means that typological studies can make reference

This study provides two mathematical formalizations of borrowability. These operationalizations allow us to quantitatively evaluate the borrowability of phonological segments and to make predictions about the likelihood that speech sounds will be borrowed in language contact situations. Our approach departs from traditional borrowability hierarchies based on qualitative observations and instead provides empirically motivated models based on probability theory and statistics. Our study uses as input two large crosslinguistic segment inventory databases, and our results show that segments have markedly different borrowability profiles, highlighting their different diffusion patterns through space and time.*

This article presents the Database of Tonogenetic Events (DTE), which describes 259 tonogenetic events from 104 genealogically and geographically diverse language varieties. The DTE allows us to identify the main types of reported tonogenesis triggering contexts, the types of resultant tones, and their effects on pitch. We illustrate the usefulness of the database with case studies addressing (i) the frequency of different types of tonogenesis, (ii) the diachronic pathways linking phonological triggering context and resultant tone, and (iii) areal trends. We also discuss the shortcomings of the database with respect to the diachronic typological study of tone.

Construções da língua inglesa formadas por verbo e partícula
expressam significados variados, como resultatividade e
movimento causado, além de serem encontradas em enunciados
com diferentes graus de idiomaticidade. Este capítulo dá destaque
a combinações phrasal verbs a fim de estabelecer uma relação com a
construção resultativa e a construção de movimento causado.
Apesar de apresentarem restrições de natureza sintática e/ou
semântica, o que as coloca em lugares distintos de representação
gramatical, a análise das três construções evidencia uma clara
relação entre os três pareamentos.

Key question: Considering Deutscher's evolutionary linguistic work The Unfolding of Language… how can 'destructive' and 'constructive forces' explain the origins and developments of periphrastic modals in English? Descriptive title: Grammaticalisation and semantic change: a descriptive study of two futurity ('be going to' and 'be about to') and two deontic ('have (got) to' and 'need to') periphrastic modals.

There are many Indo-European roots with alt. of H2/3, sometimes also with other variants with H1 or 0. Some rec. them with only one non-varying *H, but in most cases this is impossible in standard theory. Some have given ev. like *prH3-mo-> *-wo-(if H3m > H3w); whether these are regular & correct is not certain, but fits with *pro:-\ *pra:-varying. For most cases, more direct ev. is used. In part : *pet-'fall / fly' (or *pHet-if from met., see Ar. p'etur 'feather') *petH2-'fall / fly' *petH3-'fall', *ptoH3-mn *ptaH2k(h)-> G. πτήσσω \ ptḗssō 'crouch / cower for fear', Ar. t`ak`-čim,'hide oneself' *ptoH2k(h)-> G. πτώσσω \ ptṓssō, πτώξ 'cowering (animal), hare',-kh-(with other variants, some likely met. *petH2k-> *petak(h)-> *patek(h)-, *ptoek-, etc. (certainly *-k-with *pet(H)-) *pro *proH (most w/o distinguishing H2/3) *proH2, Dor. πρᾶτος \ prâtos 'first', *prH2-ei > *-ai ? *proH3, G. πρῶτος \ prôtos 'first', *prH3-mo-> *-wo-? *tu-'swell', *tuH-, *tuH1-, *tuH2-, *tuH3-(below) *krH3-'burn', Li. kùrti 'to kindle' *krH2-(a: > o: in Li. krósnis f. 'oven / kiln'), if related *wlHnaH2 'wool' > L. lāna, OIr olann, Go. wulla, *wilHnā > Po. wełna, Li. vìlna 'wool strand' *welH3no-> *wH3olno-> G. oûlos 'woolly / twisted / twined / curly / crinkled' *welH3->> *welH3mn > Arm. gełmn 'fleece' *wloH3mn > G. lôma 'hem / fringe' *wloH3k^o-> OE wlóh 'fiber / fringe', Ic. ló 'flock' (more ev. in https://www.academia.edu/126857503) *H2merg^-> G. amérgō 'pluck / pull' *H3merg^-> G. omórgnūmi 'wipe' *stlH2-*str(H3)-'stretch / expand' I said about one group in https://www.academia.edu/127198281 : > Knowing this, these names can be useful in analyzing other IE words. L. Mutunus Tūtūnus \ Mutinus Tītīnus 'phallic god of marriage' probably had dissimilation of ū-ū > *ū-ī / *ī-ū / ī-ī, since it came from *tuHto-\ *tutHo-> OIr toth 'vulva/vagina / fem. gender in grammar', G. sáthē 'penis', Arm. tutn \ ttun 'tail / end' (since many IE words can mean both: G. kérkos 'tail of a beast / penis'; more below). Note that G. sáthē 'penis' has the fem. gender in grammar, OIr toth 'vulva/vagina / fem. gender in grammar' has the masc. gender in grammar (old o-stem). Some IE words were used first for male genitals, then any genitals, then only female genitals (Skt. grdá-'penis', sárdi-grYdi-'vagina'; dual sakthyáu 'pole / shafts of a cart / vagina'; G. baubṓ(n) 'vagina / dildo'; sélīnon 'celery / *stalk > *penis > vagina'; Bq. potro 'testicle', potorro 'vulva'; Sino-Tibetan *puta 'penis shaft / vagina'). Arm. tutn \ ttun might retain *tH > t or be based on analogy with *tit 'breast' (merka-tit 'with bare breast(s)', titan 'a nurse', Luwian titan-'breast', OE titt). G. sáthē would show *tuH2to-> *twaH2to-> *tswatH2o-, however, this is disputed. In words for 'swell / be swollen/strong/firm', PIE seems to have *tuH3-, *tuH2-, tu-. In others, G. has tū-, which would (if all regular) come from *tuH1-: *tuH3lo-> G. sōlḗn 'channel/gutter/pipe/penis' *tu(H2)lo-> OE þol 'peg', G. túlos 'knot/callus/bolt', Skt. tū _ la-'tuft / wisp of grass / panicle of flower' *turo-> Skt. turá-'strong/abundant', turī _ pa-'semen' *tuHro-> L. ob-tūrāre 'stuff / fill up', LB tu-rjo, G. tūrós 'cheese', Av. tūiri-'milk that has become like cheese' *tuH3ro-> G. sōrós 'heap (of corn) / quantity' *tuH3ko-> G. sôkos 'bold/stout/strong one' *tuHko-> Slavic *tūkū > *tyky 'pumpkin', Greek tûkon / sûkon >> *t^ü:kos > *thü:kos > L fīcus 'fig', Arm. *thüg > t`uz There is a simple explanation for this. If H2 = x or χ and H3 = xW or χW, then dissimilation of *uxW > *ux could produce *tuH3-, *tuH2-. Depending on the nature of H1, a similar dissimilation might have given G. tū-, but direct *tuxW > *tuw > tu / tū is also possible (IE *H3 / *w also alternated). Supporting this is *tuH(2)turo-> G. Sáturos, Dor. Tī _ turos 'satyr / goat' with the same *u-u vs. i-u seen in Tutunus / Titinus. This is based on Solmsen's idea that it meant 'having a swollen penis' due to their nature : > Since the other roots with H2/3 have w or P, I think H3 = xW could dsm. > x or x^ near u \ w \ P (likely also KW). For *stlH2 \ *strH3, these are not usually seen as variants and do not fit. However, other types of dsm. exist. I see alt. r \ l in roots as caused by *H > *R; from https://www.academia.edu/129161176 : > Armenian & Tocharian show a lot of unexplained changes. There are many examples of PIE *r > l and *l > r. Though PT *ml-> TB ml-is regular, there is also *mluw-> TB pälw-. Maybe the same in Arm. *mlo:-> *pru:-> pr-(the regular outcome of *ml-is not known). Some words contain both oddities. ... Since almost all these words had PIE *H (2) or Ir. *h in them (mrāha-, maskah), it is likely that *H was

> pils-(vt.) '± stretch, strain [the ears]'PP /pepilso-/ klautsne=naiśai pepīltsoṣ śau[l]mpa mā spänteträ '[those who have] listened attentively, do not trust in life!' (3b4/5). ∎If correctly identified semantically, TchB pils-may reflect a PTch *päls-from PIE *pels-'quiver, tremble' otherwise seen only in Slavic [: OCS plachъ 'quivering, nervous, anxious' (< *polso-), plašiti 'be fearful' (P:801)]. In Slavic we have a semantic development *'quiver' > 'quiver with fear' while in Tocharian we see *'quiver' > 'quiver with excitement' vel sim. See also klausa-pilṣi. > With this, maybe : TB klau(t)sa-pilṣi 'with ears quivering, listening?, attent?' = S. upaśrutika-Now, if it was really *pels-> pils-, it would be in keeping with changes known from TB, though they don't seem regular: pils-from PT *piäls-from PIE *pels-. The changes to *iä & ä by P can include ä, u, i. However, consider what it would mean if from PIE *pyels-. Since IE 'mouse' & 'rabbit' are often < 'fearful / shaking', like : *petH2-'fall / fly', *ptoH2k-\ *ptaH2k(h)-> G. πτώσσω \ ptṓssō, πτήσσω \ ptḗssō 'crouch / cower for fear', πτώξ 'cowering (animal), hare', Ar. t`ak`-čim,'hide oneself' it allows *pyels-to have 0-grade *pils-: *pilsko-'mouse' > Sl. *pĭlxkŭ > R. poloxók, Po. pilch 'dormouse' The unique *-lxk-would be explained from *-lsk-. Since Celtic *il & *ir sometimes > ul & ur by P, likely also : *pilsko-s 'mouse / shrew' > *plikos-s > *plukot-s with *ss > *ts like S. Gaulish Lucotius, etc., favor *-ot-to *-u:t-given in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/luk%C5%ABts This would resemble another root (maybe with s \ H, ex. in https://www.academia.edu/128052798) : *py(e)lH1-> ON felmta 'be frightened / tremble', G. pállō 'shake/brandish', ptólemos / pólemos 'war' *py(e)lH1-? (if 'shaking / raging') > G. ptélas 'wild boar' The existence of *-i-& *-y-in both can hardly be unrelated. PIE *p-sometimes appears as Greek p-/ pt-/ ps-. Hamp said that this resulted from false division of *d#p > *t#p > #tp-> pt-, etc. This is not likely when G. should never have had *tp-to begin with, let alone preferred to analyze them in the exact opposite way expected. This sort of thing is known from E. (a-n-apron), but is most likely when a common word has 2 forms (*ainaz > a / an), allowing false division to create a reasonable alternative interpretation in speakers' minds. If from false division of *t#p, why would G. not also have many *k-> kt-for the same reason? Why also ps-from this? Why always followed by-Vl-? I said in https://www.academia.edu/128151755 that PIE had many *Cw-and *Cy-, and these are often seen in IE words, simply ignored. Even more of their effects are seen in alt., like *mwezg-, *muzg-. Why would *pels-form *pils-? It seems clear that a reevaluation of the standards of examining IE cognates is needed. Each piece of data that can not be explained with standard theory should not be ignored, but examined as ev. for possible theories and reconstructions closer to the truth.

The Greek god of war was Ares, but found in the name LB e-nwa-ri-jo \ e-nu-wa-ri-jo \ e-no-wa-ro, G. Enualios \ Ἐνυάλιος, Lac. Inualios \ Ἰνυάλιος. These are from enualios 'warlike / fit for fighting / belligerent / crazy' (some of these might also be people named after the god or for hope for virtue in war). The name also in G. Ἐνυώ \ Enuṓ, a war-goddess.

A. The Philistines were said to have come from the land of Caphtor in the Bible, which has usually been seen as the same as Ak. Kaptaru & Egyptian Keftiw 'Crete' (*R > w known in Eg.). This was supported in the mid-nineteenth century by newly translated records from the region that also mentioned invading "Sea-People" with names that matched European locations. Later archeological finds showed that Mycenean pottery entered the region at the same time as the Philistines. So far, all evidence supported one conclusion. However, that idea was later challenged, in part based on the ideas of William Yewdale Adams that pottery and other elements of culture usually were introduced by trade, not invasion. His supporters had a major turnaround in academic circles, but in recent decades the invasion theory has gained support. Looking for DNA evidence a few years ago, more support for Cretan invasion appeared; see https://www.reddit.com/r/MinoanLang/comments/1hnekzq/philistines_messapians_crete/ So, how are Crete, Kaptaru, & Keftiw all related? Krētē must come from *Krwātā, *Kruwātā, or *Kruātā based on its legendary founder Krus (like Dôros founding the Dorians in myth, etc.). This would show *Kra:pta: in which-pt-> *-ft-> *-wt-> *-w-t-. For f > w, consider G. aleíphō 'anoint', *aleiwon 'oil' > *elai(w)on > élaion. Note that Crete was also called Khthonía '(is)land' (Κρήτη, Χθονία) from PIE *dhg^ho:m, *dhg^hom-'earth'. In Greek, some dia. had th > s, thus khth > ks in epíxenos 'upon the ground'. The Cretan Greeks also turned ks > *kx > *xR > *hR-in *ksew-'carve / scrape' > G. xū́ō 'scrape / scratch / shape by whittling/shaving / etc.', *ksustom > xustón 'spear/lance', Cretan rhustón 'spear'. Since Eg. Keftiw had its w < *R in standard thought, the need for *kx > *kR within Cretan is important. Other ex. of this change for *kR > k(h)r : Egyptian kekšer >> *kikhxor > *kikhror > G. kíkhora 'chickory' (r-r > 0-r) *kizdno-> *kistno-> *ksítanos > G. krítanos 'terebinth', Gmc. *kizna-> OE cén 'fir/pine/spruce' Khotanese kṣuṇa-'period of time, regnal period', Tumšuquese xšana-, *khs-> *khR-> G. khrónos 'time' *ksówano-'carving' > xóanon '(wooden) image/statue (of a god) / idol', *ksówano-> *kRówano-> Krónos Toxeús 'Archer', *Tokseus > *Teuksos > Teûkros (great archer from Salamis Island who fought in the Trojan War) Cretan shows words with alternation of m / p, and other Greek words do as well : *s(a)m-akis > Greek hápax 'once', Cretan hamákis Cretan kamá 'field', Dor. G. kâpos, Al. kopsht 'garden / orchard', ON hóf, OHG huoba, B. kapO / kOpO 'field / adjacent fields owned by same person' *kwa(H2)p-'foam / smoke / etc.' > G. kápnē \ kapnía 'smoke-hole' G. kámīnos 'oven/furnace/kiln/flue', NG kamináda 'chimney' *sH2aip-? > L. saepēs 'hedge/fence', G. haimasiā́ 'wall of dry stones' (if not <-*-mn-) G. hapalós 'soft / tender / gentle / raw (of fruit)', amalós 'soft / weak', Cretan hamádeon 'a kind of fig' (l > d like G. dískos, Perg. lískos 'discus/disk/dish', etc.) which seems like part of m / p / b in G. and other IE : *kH2am-> L. camur(us) 'bent', G. khamós 'crooked', khabós 'bent' G. kolúmbaina / kolúbdaina 'a kind of crab' (maybe a swimmer crab)

Talmy (2000) describes force dynamics as a conceptual category that captures how entities interact with respect to applying force, resisting or overcoming force, blocking force, or removing blockage. In language, force dynamics manifests itself both in lexical elements and in grammatical structures. Widely discussed examples of the latter include causative constructions and modal auxiliaries. This paper argues that force-dynamic meanings are present in a number of syntactic constructions in English that have up to this point received little or no attention with regard to this conceptual category. On the basis of corpus data from the coca (Davies 2008) and collostructional analysis (Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003), it is shown that force dynamics characterize the constructional meaning of English object-to-subject raising (Mair 1987, Langacker 1995), subject complement clauses with ing-forms (Hilpert 2010), and the split infinitive construction (Huddleston and Pullum 2002, Perales-Escudero 2010). Collostructional analyses indicate that the three construction types are systematically associated with networks of force-dynamic scenarios that are organized in a semantic map. In addition, the three constructions exhibit coercion effects in which they impose their meanings on lexical elements that are themselves not inherently force-dynamic. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for current usage-based network models of language (Diessel 2019, 2023, Schmid 2020).

La collana Vulgare latium si propone di sondare la profondità e la complessità della lingua e dei volgari italiani, delle loro espressioni, dalle origini ai giorni nostri, valorizzando in prima istanza un approccio storico capace di illuminare momenti e testi, letterari e documentari, della nostra tradizione. La storia è considerata nella sua valenza sociale, quella che, dentro la babelica varietà delle grammatiche e delle forme, permette la nascita e la condivisione del codice lingua, frutto di un accordo tra individui e, per accordo, in continuo cambiamento. Centrale nella ricerca è il testo, inteso come punto non ripetibile di interazione tra il soggetto e il codice, ma anche come campo in cui le forze dell'interpretazione esercitano la loro azione, tra la storia propria e del contesto e la storia della tipologia e del sistema. Dentro la diacronia del mezzo espressivo si collocherà la vicenda del testo, osservato nel momento della sua genesi e seguito nel percorso d'archivio e di biblioteca, considerato nelle fasi della trasmissione, con una ricostruzione che può e deve essere ipotetica e verificata anche in relazione alla lingua e al suo evolversi. La direzione e il comitato assicurano attraverso un processo di double blind peer review la validità scientifica dei volumi pubblicati.

Piquero argued that the traditional source of Greek smáragdos 'emerald' (Semitic loan, cognate with Ak. barrāqtu, Heb. bāreqet 'emerald') is wrong, and that instead they are related to Eblaite wa-ru12-gatum, which he takes as a blue-green stone separate from emerald. He does so, in part, because (s)mfrom b-is problematic. Though it is, I can solve it in another way, that includes variants máragdos, zmáragdos, as well as barakís 'blue-green piece of clothing', and relates them to Linear B pa-ra-ku-ja 'emerald green? / inlaid with turquoise?' and similar words.

Melena considers Linear B *79 as WO2, representing wwo(:) and (*wyo(:) >) w^w^o(:). Though I agree with most of his points, this can not be true since not all his words contain *ww from any source: *Diwós-sunos 'son of Zeus' > *Diwós-nusos > *Diwóh-nusos > Diṓnusos, with metathesis, also *Diwó(s)-nusos > Diónusos with *s-s > *0-s (or similar). Instead, they ALL have-wō-. From his evidence, there is no reason to take *79 as anything except WŌ. Though I agree with Melena's G. Maîa and LB ma-79 (hisma-wo2), and see more ev. for *-awya in Whalen 2025a, since it is from *Mawyōi, related to Maîa but with fem. *-o:y, this is a clear case in which *y-y > 0-y would be expected (it would be less likely for *-yo: to exist beside many other fem. *-o:y if one had to be chosen

A theory of sound change based on Stratal OT is presented and applied to early Germanic syncope and umlaut. Section 2 puts forward four phonological and morphological arguments to show that the Germanic weak preterite had a compound-like prosodic structure, inherited from its periphrastic origin. The weak preterite fused into a single prosodic word early in North Germanic and Old English but retained its complex prosody late in continental West Germanic. The relative chronology of fusion, syncope, and umlaut divides early Germanic into five dialect groups. Section 3 draws on these ideas for a new account of Nordic syncope. The special features of early Nordic syncope are traced to its more restrictive syllable structure. The key move is to reframe the traditional syllable weight conditions on syncope as prosodic constraints that govern its output. This yields a periodization into three successively more general stages of syncope. At the first stage (550-600 A.D.), syncope applies freely on condition that it may not produce a syllable of more than two moras, or in a foot of less than two moras, with word-final consonants counting as weightless. Syncope is then extended to allow three-mora syllables. A second extension occurs around 800, when word-final consonants become capable of bearing weight. Section 4 outlines the issues and motivates the treatment of phonologization in Stratal OT. It is conceptually the diachronic counterpart of phonological opacity and explained like it by the serial relation between the lexical and postlexical constraint systems. A set of predictions is derived about when and how sound changes interact with existing phonological constraints. Section 5 applies this understanding of syncope to the long-standing problem of Nordic umlaut. Armed with Stratal OT, we can solve the problem simply by dating it between the first stages of syncope.

In ancient Greek, the pitch accent of most words depends on the syllabification assigned to underlying representations, while a smaller, morphologically identifiable class of derived words is accented on the basis of the surface syllable structure, which results from certain contraction and deletion processes. Noyer 1997 proposes a cyclic analysis of these facts and argues that they are incompatible with parallel OT assumptions. His central claim is that the pre-surface syllabification to which accent is assigned in the bulk of the Greek vocabulary does not occur at a "level privileged by UG," such as the word level or the "cycle-final" level, but simply at an arbitrary point in the derivation. (p. 502). The implication is that extrinsic rule ordering is required to do justice to the accent system. Thus, Noyer's work presents a challenge to any version of OT phonology. In this paper, I take up the challenge and argue that, although fully parallel OT may not be up to dealing with these accentual facts, the stratal version of OT based on Lexical Phonology and Phonology (stratal OT, or LPM-OT, Kiparsky 2000, to appear) provides a much better analysis of them than phonology with ordered rules does. Thus, Greek accentuation and syllabification bear on two theoretically problematic issues: PHONOLOGICAL OPACITY and CYCLICITY.

Entre fines del siglo XIX y lo que va del XXI pueden reconocerse tres momentos en los que el vínculo entre investigadores y hablantes indígenas ha adoptado distintas formas según los marcos teóricos aplicados y los espacios disciplinares desde los que se investiga. En este artículo propongo el análisis de tres modelos de trabajo, el ‘coleccionista’, el de ‘rescate’ y el de ‘colabor’, que se corresponden con tres tipos de colaboradores a lo largo del período: los ‘hablantes anonimizados’, cuya función fue proporcionar algunos términos léxicos e información general sobre las lenguas; ‘hablantes identificados’, quienes cumplieron un rol clave en las descripciones lingüísticas, y ‘hablantes involucrados’, miembros de las comunidades que desarrollan o acompañan activamente instancias de investigación y revitalización lingüística.

In the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), this study investigates the implementation of transformer-based language models to automate the extraction of personality insights from extensive textual corpora. With the use of transformer architectures such as GPT-3 and cuttingedge natural language processing methods, the work presents an innovative approach for identifying and analysing complex linguistic patterns present in large text corpora. In order to enable the models to capture subtle expressions associated with different aspects of personality, the process entails fine-tuning pre-trained transformer models on multiple datasets with annotated personality attributes. The primary goal is to create a reliable automated personality analysis system that can yield precise and comprehensive insights. Significant objectives include training and optimizing transformer models to enable personality trait prediction from textual input that has not been seen before. The GPT-3.5 transformer-based language model and the Hugging Face Transformers library were used to implement automated personality analysis. The model obtained an 85% accuracy, 86% precision, 84% recall, and 85% F1-score on the social media dataset. This research contributes to the growing field of personality analysis by combining NLP techniques with transformer-based language models, creating new opportunities for creative applications in the comprehension and interpretation of human conduct.

The study of Proto-Norse loanwords in the Saami languages has provided crucial insights into early Germanic-Saami contacts. However, key aspects of these borrowings, such as their relative chronology and the precise linguistic background of their source varieties, remain insufficiently explored. In this talk, I argue that Proto-Norse loanwords in Saami can be divided into at least two distinct strata, each originating from a different source language. One stratum derives from a language closely resembling Proto-Norse as reconstructed through the comparative method, while another reflects a now-extinct early Norse variety with phonological features unattested in recorded Germanic languages.

A particularly striking phonological feature in the latter stratum is the substitution of Proto-Norse postconsonantal *j with the Proto-Saami alveolopalatal affricate *ć, as seen in examples such as Saami *skālćō ‘seashell’ and *āvće̮ ‘bird-cherry’ (> North Saami skálžu, ávža) from Proto-Norse *skaljō- and *hagja- (> Old Norse skel, hegg). I propose that this pattern reflects a sound change in the source variety, where postconsonantal *j developed into a stop or affricate. In addition, this language did not exhibit Sievers’s law, which vocalized *j into *i after heavy syllables in other Germanic varieties. The presence of more than 30 such loanwords in Saami, including the Saami ethnonym for Norsemen (*tāńće̮), suggests that this now-extinct Norse variety played a major role in the earliest Norse-Saami contacts.

The distribution of these loanwords further supports a geographically localized influence. Place-name evidence from Troms county in northern Norway, such as the North Saami island name Sážžá (< *sāńćā), derived from a predecessor of the Norwegian name Senja, suggests that this extinct Norse variety was spoken along parts of the Norwegian coast. The findings presented in this paper contribute to a more refined understanding of the phonological and dialectal diversity of early Norse and its role in prehistoric language contact in Scandinavia.

Le développement dynamique de la médecine dans les pays anglophones, en particulier aux États-Unis après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, a entraîné une exportation remarquable de termes de ce domaine et leur intégration dans toutes les langues du monde. Le français ne fait pas exception, et on y rencontre de plus en plus d'anglicismes. Cet article étudie la pénétration et la présence des anglicismes lexicaux en français dans le domaine de la médecine (biologie, santé, pharmacologie). Nous allons effectuer des analyses graphiques, phonétiques et sémantiques de ces anglicismes lexicaux afin de révéler leur état actuel et leur niveau d'adaptation graphique, phonétique et sémantique dans la langue française. Ce travail examine également les interventions de la France et du Québec face à ces emprunts lexicaux. Nous étudierons donc les recommandations proposées par la Commission d'enrichissement de la langue française (publiées dans le Journal Officiel de la République française) en France ainsi que celles proposées par l'Office québécois de la langue française (publiées dans le Grand dictionnaire terminologique) au Canada concernant les anglicismes lexicaux en français.

Leonard Bloomfield played a key role in the development of American structural linguistics in the second quarter of the 20th century, but his profound influence involved two ironies. The first one is that Bloomfield's “followers” were called Bloomfieldians despite the fact that they departed from some of his key views and the second one is that Bloomfield himself came to be associated with some post-Bloomfieldian positions which he did not share. This study aims to provide a faithful presentation of the most important aspects of Bloomfield's writings pertaining to general linguistics and to critically analyse and compare his opinions with those of some of his distinguished (near-)contemporaries. Some of the salient points that emerge from it are the definition of language as a system of signals in Bloomfield's Language, the ambiguity between the phoneme as a bundle of distinctive acoustic features and as a class of sounds sharing those features and the structure and nature of his model of language. In addition, it is shown that, although Bloomfield's objective was to describe languages independently of psychological factors as autonomous systems, he was not as psychologically naive as it has been claimed and that the widespread idea that behaviourism had considerable influence on his descriptive theory and practice is largely incorrect.

This paper examines the theoretical foundations, empirical contributions, and contemporary developments of cognitive and usage-based approaches to language, which emerged as alternatives to generative grammar in the late 20th century. These approaches, exemplified by Construction Grammar (Goldberg), Usage-Based Theory (Bybee), Radical Construction Grammar (Croft), and Social-Pragmatic Acquisition Theory (Tomasello), share a commitment to understanding grammar as emergent from meaning, frequency, and social interaction rather than as an autonomous syntactic system. Through detailed analysis of each framework's theoretical contributions and empirical applications, this paper demonstrates how these approaches have reconceptualized fundamental questions in linguistics, from the nature of grammatical knowledge to mechanisms of language acquisition and change. The comparative evaluation reveals both convergences in their usage-centrality and construction-based organization, and divergences in their treatment of universals, abstraction, and developmental mechanisms. Contemporary developments in corpus linguistics, computational modeling, and neurocognitive research continue to expand the empirical foundation and theoretical sophistication of these approaches, establishing them as a major paradigm in modern linguistics that bridges cognitive science, social interaction, and linguistic structure.

This paper examines the transformation of language study from classical philological traditions to systematic comparative analysis during the 18th and 19th centuries, establishing the foundations of modern linguistic science. The research traces the evolution from traditional textual philology through the revolutionary Indo-European hypothesis of Sir William Jones to the systematic comparative methodologies developed by Franz Bopp, Jacob Grimm, and August Schleicher. Through analysis of primary sources and methodological innovations, this study demonstrates how early comparative grammar established linguistics as an independent scientific discipline by developing rigorous methods for language comparison, formulating laws of sound change, and creating theoretical models of language relationship. The paper argues that the empirical rigor, systematic comparison techniques, and theoretical frameworks developed during this period continue to inform contemporary historical linguistics and comparative methodology. The transition from humanistic philology to scientific linguistics represents one of the most significant intellectual developments in the study of human language, with lasting implications for our understanding of language change, relationship, and evolution.

The Romanian language, on the one hand, and the Scandinavian languages, on the other hand, have much in common, although this is very little known. And it is natural that it should be so, since all these languages are part of the common Indo-European trunk, more precisely of its European branch. However, in a more precise classification, there are also elements of differentiation. Thus, Romanian is considered a Romance language, which, broadly speaking, is true, but some clarifications must be made. More precisely, the author of these lines discovered that the pre-Roman (Dacian) lexical element in the composition of this language is very pronounced, so that Romanian is, in reality, a Daco-Romance language. This special status of Romanian is due to the specific historicalgeographical circumstances in which it was formed and evolved, different from those of other Romance languages. More precisely, due to the fact that the Romans conquered only about a third of Dacia and ruled this territory for only 165 years, in the newly formed language (much later called Romanian) many words from the native language (mostly Dacian) were preserved, more precisely 41% of the main lexical fund. As for the Scandinavian languages, as is known, they are included in the Germanic language family, along with German, English, Dutch and Frisian. They evolved from Old Norse (or Old Scandinavian), which, in turn, comes from Proto-Germanic. Studying Romanian words very likely of Dacian origin in the Romanian languageI discovered many similarities of Indo-European origin with terms from the Scandinavian languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese. In this article I will insist on those from the first three languages mentioned. But along with the terms of comparison from the respective words, I will also use others, selected from all other Germanic languages. For this, I have selected a number of 24 Romanian words, assumed to be of Dacian origin, with their detailed etymology.

Mario Filzi, il maggiore dei fratelli Filzi, fu allievo di Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke a Vienna ed è ancora ricordato per il suo Contributo alla sintassi dei dialetti italiani, apparso su "Studj romanzi" di Ernesto Monaci nel 1914. Fu precursore sfortunato di ricerche linguistiche molto innovative nel panorama italiano e trentino in particolare. Si analizzano in questa prospettiva le sue brevi pubblicazioni e gli inediti conservati all'Accademia degli Agiati e al Museo della guerra di Rovereto.

The modern digital era has made scientific knowledge more available to the lay audience crafting immediate access to the latest discoveries. This study aimed to investigate how interactive metadiscourse markers contributed to organizing and presenting ideas in popular science subgenres, including books, TV documentaries, magazine articles, and newspaper articles, to create engaging and accessible content for a lay audience. A corpus of 987,625 words was analyzed using AntConc, with Hyland's (2019) Interpersonal Model guiding the identification of marker frequency. The findings revealed 75,477 instances of interactive markers, with transitions and code glosses being the most frequently used. The analysis highlights both similarities and differences in marker usage across subgenres, illustrating how these tools shape content organization and engagement strategies. This study emphasizes the importance of developing explicit EAP/ESP resources to help language instructors and novice researchers, especially non-English L1 speakers, understand the rhetorical roles of interactive markers. Such resources can enhance genre-specific writing practices and improve audience engagement in the context of popular science discourse.

In Greek-like Elements in Linear A (https://www.academia.edu/58619465), Nagy provided an early and broad list and analysis of Linear A words matching Linear B, Greek, etc. For the 1st section, in 9., he considers that the names LA qa-qa-ru & LB qa-qa-ro might be related, maybe also G. Πάρπαρος. There is no certain IE ety., but maybe 'maker' < *kWr-kWr-<-*kW(e)r-(compare similar reduplicated Daedalus 'fashioner').This u \ o is important, and in others he did the same for LA ka-ru, LB ka-ro (G. Kallōn or Kha(i)rōn ?), LA pa-ra-tu, LB pa-ra-to (G. Platōn, or Palanthos 'bald' (words for 'bald' in names are fairly common)), LA ku-ru-ku, LB *ku-ru-ko, fem. kuru-ka (G. Glukos, Glukōn < gl(e)uk-'sweet'?), LA da-mi-nu, LB da-mi-ni-jo (G.-damno-or daimōn ?). Some with i \ e, maybe LA di-ki-se, LB de-ke-se-u, G. *Dexeus. Others with no changes (LA ma-ka-rite, G. Makaritēs), maybe showing that o > u and e > i were optional in some LA dia. (maybe applied to long & short, if *a: > *e: was unaffected).

The current study aims to shed more light on the dynamics involved in the changing form-function pairings in the Latin passive system. On the one hand, the ‘old’ construction for perfectum stem passives (e.g. cantatus est) experiences competition from an innovation (e.g. cantatus fuit) which specializes in the function of anteriority and survived as a past perfective in Romance (e.g. il fut chanté). On the other hand, cantatus est gave rise to the Romance present passive (e.g. il est chanté). This study focusses on two key aspects of this development. First, both constructions should be found increasingly more often with head-initial order, which is fixed in Romance. Second, the semantics of cantatus est (pro praesente instead of anterior/past or resultative) should be correlated to head-initiality (i.e. est cantatus). Quantitative data presented in recent studies is (a) supported by additional quantitative results on a broader scale (more time periods and text types), and (b) complemented with crucial qualitative, semantic evidence from a close-reading analysis.

A. Uralic supposedly did not have any *CC-, however, alternation of n-, sn-, *?n- > ny- occurs in
*(s)nolke 'snot / saliva' https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Uralic/ńolke :

Northern Sami: snuolga

For more, it refers to https://uralonet.nytud.hu/eintrag.cgi?locale=en_GB&id_eintrag=634 which only
says that Lapp s- is secondary. How could they know? Why would it change *n- > sn-? I'd note that
sn- appears in many IE words for 'snot', etc., notably *snudH- \ *snuHd- > Gmc *snutt- 'snot', *snu:t- 'blow the nose' (apparently related to W. nodd 'wetness / sap'). If a Gmc loan, it would be odd for sn- to
only occur in Lapp and for it to be spread throughout Uralic.

Based on other alt. of IE *d, *l with PU *δ, *l (below, F), I think that PU words with *-ke & *-
ka often being suffixes supports *snud-ke > *(s)nolke. Where the *-
H- appears, or its effects, is hard to say since it seems to disappear or move in IE.
For Hungarian nyál, in https://www.academia.edu/31352467 Zhivlov shows that *n could > ny near
*K. For apparent exceptions (his *n > ny out of nowhere), I said
in https://www.academia.edu/129090627 that *Kn- > ny- also. Since
in https://www.academia.edu/129640859 I said Turkic *kulxāk ‘ear’ ( Karakhanid qulaq, qulqaq,
qulxaq, qulɣaq ) and Uralic *kuxle- ‘hear’ (F. kuule-, Mi. kōl-, NMi. hūl-, etc.) were related and < PIE
*k^leus- 'hear'. With *-s- > *-x-, it could be that *sn- > sn- \ *xn- > ny- also. Without these changes,
both sn- and ny- would be unexplained.