Comparative linguistics of mesoamerican languages today

This chapter examines the current state of comparative linguistics applied to the ten language families and isolates of Mesoamerica. The classification of the Mesoamerican languages is well established and the reconstruction of the proto-languages is advanced. Proposals of distant genetic relationship involving languages of Mesoamerica are evaluated. Remaining tasks and sorne issues are identified and discussed together with recommendations for future research.; Este artículo examina el estado actual de la Lingüística Comparada aplicada a las diez familias lingüísticas y lenguas aisladas de Mesoamérica. La clasificación de las lenguas mesoamericanas está bien establecida y también está avanzada la reconstrucción de las protolenguas. Se evalúan algunas propuestas de relación genética distante que implican a lenguas de Mesoamérica. Se establecen y discuten las tareas pendientes, junto con las recomendaciones para futuras investigaciones

Claims about Syntactic Change and Finnish Historical Syntax

This paper examines a number of important claims that have recently been made concerning syntactic change. These include the role of surface structure reanalysis and the thesis of the autonomy of syntax (e.g., Lightfoot 1979, Muysken 1977); the claims that syntactic change precedes morphological change (e.g., Givon 1971, Lightfoot 1979), and that syntactic change affects main clauses prior to subordinate clauses (e.g., Givon 1984); the role of grammaticalization of lexical elements in syntactic change (e.g., Givon 1984, Langacker 1977); and the principle of synonymy, or the extent to which synonymous lexical items are subject to the same rules of diachronic syntax (e.g., Ard 1975). These claims are tested by application to several well-known developments in Finnish historical syntax

How Many Language Families are there in the World?

The question of how many language families there are in the world is addressed here. The reasons for why it has been so difficult to answer this question are explored. The answer arrived at here is 406 independent language families (including language isolates); however, this number is relative, and factors that prevent us from arriving at a definitive number for the world’s language families are discussed. A full list of the generally accepted language families is presented, which eliminates from consideration unclassified (unclassifiable) languages, pidgin and creole languages, sign languages, languages of undeciphered writing systems, among other things. A number of theoretical and methodological issues fundamental to historical linguistics are discussed that have impacted interpretations both of how language families are established and of particular languages families, both of which have implications for the ultimate number of language families

The Traditional Sources of Four Burns Songs: ‘The Posie’, ‘Craigie-burn Wood’, ‘Ae Day a braw wooer’ and ‘A waukrife Minnie’

Robert Burns devoted much effort to the collection of tunes which he expected to be published in James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum and George Thomson’s Select Collection. The tunes were often accompanied by the words of songs and Burns related to these sources in different ways. This article studies in detail his relationship to four songs and demonstrates how the partial information that he gives explicitly can be developed to give an impression of these source songs as wholes, so increasing our knowledge of traditional Scottish song in the eighteenth century. The study also throws light on Burns’s method of composition when he was using a traditional base

Suomen e-vartalot: lisäys vai poisto?

Finnish e-stems: insertion or deletion? (englanti)Kielenaineksetahven (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 12)ahven (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 14-)hapan (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 19-)hapsi (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 14-)jättää (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 21)jäädä (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 21)kolmas (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 17)käsi (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 11-)lapsi (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 15-)lumi (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 15-)lämmin (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 14-)manner, mantere (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 24)nostaa (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 21)nousta (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 21)nuori (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 14-)nähdä (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 15-)ostaa (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 20)sappi (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 21-)sata (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 19-)sota (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 19-)tehdä (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 15-)tuli (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 10-)tulla (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 10-)valaa (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 20)ydin (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 15-

Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway?

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:How many language isolates are there in the world? (How many language families are there?) Most linguistics do not know, and opinions vary greatly. The answers to these questions are complicated because they depend on different views about fundamental issues in historical linguistics. The goal of this paper is to attempt to answer the questions: How many language isolates are there? How can we advance knowledge of the history of language isolates? What methodological lessons does the study of specific isolates offer to understand better the history of language isolates in general and that of other specific isolates? What are the prospects for finding relatives for some language isolates, that is, for showing that they belong to larger genetic groupings than those known at present

Indo-European Practice and Historical Methodology

Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Place of Morphology in a Grammar (1992), pp. 214-23