Areal diffusion and genetic inheritance : problems in comparative linguistics
"This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble one another. Its editors and authors aim (a) to explain and identify the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and (b) to discover the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another. The introduction outlines the issues that underlie these aims, introduces the chapters which follow, and comments on recurrent conclusions by the contributors. The problems are formidable and the pitfalls numerous: for example, several of the authors draw attention to the inadequacy of the family tree diagram as the main metaphor for language relationship." "The authors range over Ancient Anatolia, Modern Anatolia, Australia, Amazonia, Oceania, Southeast and East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book includes an archaeologist's view on what material evidence offers to explain cultural and linguistic change, and a general discussion of which kinds of linguistic feature can and cannot be borrowed. The chapters are accessibly-written and illustrated by 20 maps. The book will interest all students of the causes and consequences of language change and evolution."--Jacket
xvi, 453 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780198299813, 9780199283088, 0198299818, 0199283087
46601107
1. Introduction / Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R.M.W. Dixon
2. Archaeology and the Historical Determinants of Punctuation in Language-Family Origins / Peter Bellwood
3. An Indo-European Linguistic Area and its Characteristics: Ancient Anatolia. Areal Diffusion as a Challenge to the Comparative Method? / Calvert Watkins
4. The Australian Linguistic Area / R.M.W. Dixon
5. Descent and Diffusion: The Complexity of the Pilbara Situation / Alan Dench
6. Contact-Induced Change in Oceanic Languages in North-West Melanesia / Malcolm Ross
7. Areal Diffusion, Genetic Inheritance, and Problems of Subgrouping: A North Arawak Case Study / Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
8. Linguistic Diffusion in Present-Day East Anatolia: From Top to Bottom / Geoffrey Haig
9. The Role of Migration and Language Contact in the Development of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family / Randy J. LaPolla
10. On Genetic and Areal Linguistics in Mainland South-East Asia: Parallel Polyfunctionality of 'acquire' / N.J. Enfield
11. Genetic versus Contact Relationship: Prosodic Diffusibility in South-East Asian Languages / James A. Matisoff
12. Language Contact and Areal Diffusion in Sinitic Languages / Hilary Chappell
13. Areal Diffusion versus Genetic Inheritance: An African Perspective / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
14. Convergence and Divergence in the Development of African Languages / Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
15. What Language Features Can Be 'Borrowed'? / Timothy Jowan Curnow