Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In 1991, William Croft suggested that negative existentials (typically lexical expressions that mean 'not exist, not have') are one possible source for negation markers and gave his hypothesis the name Negative Existential Cycle (NEC). It is a variationist model based on cross-linguistic data. For a good twenty years following its formulation, it was cited at face-value without ever having been tested by (historical)-comparative data. Over the last decade, Ljuba Veselinova has worked on testing the model in a comparative perspective, and this edited volume further expands on her work. The collection presented here features detailed studies of several language families such as Bantu, Chadic and Indo-European. A number of articles focus on the micro-variation and attested historical developments within smaller groups and clusters such as Arabic, Mandarin and Cantonese, and Nanaic. Finally, variation and historical developments in specific languages are discussed for Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian, Moksha-Mordvin (Uralic), Bashkir (Turkic), Kalmyk (Mongolic), three Pama-Nyungan languages, O'dam (Southern Uto-Aztecan) and Tacana (Takanan, Amazonian Bolivia). The book is concluded by two chapters devoted to modeling cyclical processes in language change from different theoretical perspectives. Key notions discussed throughout the book include affirmative and negative existential constructions, the expansion of the latter into verbal negation, and subsequently from more specific to more general markers of negation. Nominalizations as well as the uses of negative existentials as standalone negative answers figure among the most frequent pathways whereby negative existentials evolve as general negation markers. The operation of the Negative Existential Cycle appears partly genealogically conditioned, as the cycle is found to iterate regularly within some families but never starts in others, as is the case in Bantu. In addition, other special negation markers such as nominal negators are found to undergo similar processes, i.e. they expand into the verbal domain and thereby develop into more general negation markers. The book provides rich information on a specific path of the evolution of negation, on cyclical processes in language change, and it show-cases the historical-comparative method in a modern setting.

Language and languages --- Variation

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The present volume is a multidisciplinary collection of research articles exploring language use, language contact and multilingualism in the history of Turku, the first town in Finland, founded around the turn of the fourteenth century. Consisting of an introduction by the editors and nine case studies in the fields of linguistics, history, archeology, and literary and cultural studies, the volume participates in a wider discussion on multilingual communities while offering a closer look into linguistic encounters in Turku and its immediate vicinity. The volume covers the period from the Middle Ages (c. 1100-1500) to the latter half of the twentieth century. The case studies illustrate the wide array of languages, linguistic varieties and registers that the inhabitants and travellers used in their daily lives, the specific contexts in which certain languages were used, and the effects of these linguistic encounters at personal, social or institutional levels. Kieliä ja kohtaamisia Turun historiassa johdattaa lukijan Suomen vanhimman kaupungin rikkaaseen kielelliseen historiaan keskiajalta 1900-luvulle asti. Turku on ollut koko historiansa ajan kansainvälinen, monikulttuurinen ja monikielinen kaupunki. Teos piirtää kuvaa Turun kielellisestä maisemasta eri aikakausina ja osoittaa, kuinka kieli- ja kulttuurirajojen ylittäminen on ollut kautta aikojen kiinteä osa kaupunkiyhteisössä toimimista. Teos lähestyy monikielisyyttä kielitieteen, historian, arkeologian, kirjallisuustieteen ja kulttuuriperinnön tutkimuksen näkökulmista. Erilaisin metodein ja erilaisten kirjallisten aineistojen, esineistön, arkeologisten löytöjen, murrenauhoitteiden ja muistitietoaineiston avulla se havainnollistaa, kuinka eri kielet usein kytkeytyvät tiettyihin tilanteisiin ja käyttötarkoituksiin.

Language and languages --- Usage.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In most languages, words contain vowels, elements of high intensity with rich harmonic structure, enabling the perceptual retrieval of pitch. By contrast, in Tashlhiyt, a Berber language, words can be composed entirely of voiceless segments. When an utterance consists of such words, the phonetic opportunity for the execution of intonational pitch movements is exceptionally limited. This book explores in a series of production and perception experiments how these typologically rare phonotactic patterns interact with intonational aspects of linguistic structure. It turns out that Tashlhiyt allows for a tremendously flexible placement of tonal events. Observed intonational structures can be conceived of as different solutions to a functional dilemma: The requirement to realise meaningful pitch movements in certain positions and the extent to which segments lend themselves to a clear manifestation of these pitch movements.

Language and languages

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The publication is reviewed post-conference proceedings from the international 9th Brno Conference on Linguistics Studies in English, held on 16-17 September 2021 and organised by the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno. The papers revolve around the themes of patterns and variation in specialised discourses (namely the media, academic, business, tourism, educational and learner discourses), effective interaction between the addressor and addressees and the current trends and development in specialised discourses. The principal methodological perspectives are the comparative approach involving discourses in English and another language, critical and corpus analysis, as well as identification of pragmatic strategies and appropriate rhetorical means. The authors of papers are researchers from the Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Serbia and Georgia.

Language and languages.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This book is the first comprehensive monograph dedicated to Chakali, a Southwestern Grusi language spoken by less than 3500 people in northwest Ghana. The dictionary offers a consistent description of word meaning and provides the basis for future research in the linguistic area. It is also designed to provide an inventory of correspondence with English usage in a reversal index. The concepts used in the dictionary are explained in a grammar outline, which is of interest to specialists in Gur and Grusi linguistics, as well as any language researchers working in this part of the world.

Language and languages.