New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics

New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics PDF Author: Heriberto Avelino
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144382481X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics is a collection of papers synthesizing the research on Mayan languages at the beginning of the 21st century. One of the most prominent features of the articles included in this book is the balance between the use of the most recent linguistic theories and the empirical data from which analyses are drawn. A definitive characteristic of the book is that all of the papers provide rich and new descriptive material gathered in the field by their respective authors. The findings reported in this book have implications for a deeper understanding not only of particular aspects of the individual grammars of the Mayan family, but might have consequences for linguistic theory as well as for typological and universal generalizations. The volume brings together linguists of diverse areas of specialization phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, epigraphy, lexicography and anthropological linguistics to discuss recent analyses and data from a variety of Mayan languages. For its broad scope summarizing the recent methodologies, theoretical models and findings of research in Mayan languages, the volume is of particular interest to the academic community at large, including researchers, teachers and students alike.

New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics

New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics PDF Author: Heriberto Avelino
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144382481X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
New Perspectives in Mayan Linguistics is a collection of papers synthesizing the research on Mayan languages at the beginning of the 21st century. One of the most prominent features of the articles included in this book is the balance between the use of the most recent linguistic theories and the empirical data from which analyses are drawn. A definitive characteristic of the book is that all of the papers provide rich and new descriptive material gathered in the field by their respective authors. The findings reported in this book have implications for a deeper understanding not only of particular aspects of the individual grammars of the Mayan family, but might have consequences for linguistic theory as well as for typological and universal generalizations. The volume brings together linguists of diverse areas of specialization phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, epigraphy, lexicography and anthropological linguistics to discuss recent analyses and data from a variety of Mayan languages. For its broad scope summarizing the recent methodologies, theoretical models and findings of research in Mayan languages, the volume is of particular interest to the academic community at large, including researchers, teachers and students alike.

The Mayan Languages

The Mayan Languages PDF Author: Judith Aissen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351754793
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Book Description
The Mayan Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the language family associated with the Classic Mayan civilization (AD 200–900), a family whose individual languages are still spoken today by at least six million indigenous Maya in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. This unique resource is an ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Mayan languages and linguistics. Written by a team of experts in the field, The Mayan Languages presents in-depth accounts of the linguistic features that characterize the thirty-one languages of the family, their historical evolution, and the social context in which they are spoken. The Mayan Languages: provides detailed grammatical sketches of approximately a third of the Mayan languages, representing most of the branches of the family; includes a section on the historical development of the family, as well as an entirely new sketch of the grammar of "Classic Maya" as represented in the hieroglyphic script; provides detailed state-of-the-art discussions of the principal advances in grammatical analysis of Mayan languages; includes ample discussion of the use of the languages in social, conversational, and poetic contexts. Consisting of topical chapters on the history, sociolinguistics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse structure, and acquisition of the Mayan languages, this book will be a resource for researchers and other readers with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology, language acquisition, and linguistic typology.

Grammaticalization and Variation

Grammaticalization and Variation PDF Author: Nicole Hober
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110728680
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Grammaticalization research looks back on a rich history, but recent empirical findings, as well as new insights from cognitive science and psycholinguistics, entice researchers to reassess and review what we know about the process. This book presents a detailed study of the grammaticalization of motion verbs in the Mayan languages. The focus lies on variation in the parallel grammaticalization of motion verbs into auxiliaries and directionals. It is demonstrated that the genetically related and areally close languages do not always grammaticalize source items in the same way - both from a formal and meaning perspective. The empirical findings suggest that traditional theories on grammaticalization do not capture the complex nature of the phenomenon entirely. Therefore, a Network Approach to grammaticalization is introduced which emphasizes a 'meaning-first' account. The approach seeks to combine the conceptual with the discourse-pragmatic while being firmly grounded in cognitive and psychological facts. New insights into the grammaticalization behavior of the world's languages are offered, while well-established notions and assumptions within the grammaticalization research paradigm are reviewed and challenged.

Grammaticalization and Variation

Grammaticalization and Variation PDF Author: Nicole Hober
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110728613
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
'Studia typologica' ist der Titel der Beihefte zur Zeitschrift 'Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung/Language Typology and Universals (STUF)'. In den 'Studia typologica' werden Beiträge veröffentlicht, die vielversprechende neue Themen im Bereich der allgemein-vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft ansprechen. Insbesondere empirisch gut fundierte Beiträge mit crosslinguistischer Orientierung, die neue Problemstellungen auf innovative Art präsentieren, sind in den 'Studia typologica' willkommen. Die Beiheftereihe unterstützt nachdrücklich Studien zu weniger gut erforschten Sprachen und/oder Phänomenen. Von großem Interesse für die 'Studia typologica' sind auch areal-typologische Arbeiten sowie Beiträge, die sich dem Zusammenspiel von Sprachkontakt und Sprachtypologie widmen. Die 'Studia typologica' sind theorie- und modellübergreifend als Forum für typologisch ausgerichtete Forschungsarbeiten gedacht. Die Beihefte umfassen sowohl Monographien als auch thematisch homogene Sammelbände. Alle eingehenden Manuskripte werden begutachtet (double blind). Die Publikationssprache ist Englisch.

The Persistence of Language

The Persistence of Language PDF Author: Shannon T. Bischoff
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027272247
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
This edited collection presents two sets of interdisciplinary conversations connecting theoretical, methodological, and ideological issues in the study of language. In the first section, Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas, the authors connect historical, theoretical, and documentary linguistics to examine the crucial role of endangered language data for the development of biopsychological theory and to highlight how methodological decisions impact language revitalization efforts. Section two, Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies, connects anthropological and documentary linguistics to examine how discourses of language contact, endangerment, linguistic purism and racism shape scholarly practice and language policy and to underscore the need for linguists and laypersons alike to acquire the analytical tools to deconstruct discourses of inequality. Together, these chapters pay homage to the scholarship of Jane H. Hill, demonstrating how a critical, interdisciplinary linguistics narrows the gap between disparate fields of analysis to treat the ecology of language in its entirety.

Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond

Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond PDF Author: Karen Dakin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027265712
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
Language-contact phenomena in Mesoamerica and adjacent regions present an exciting field for research that has the potential to significantly contribute to our understanding of language contact and the role that it plays in language change. This volume presents and analyzes fresh empirical data from living and/or extinct Mesoamerican languages (from the Mayan, Uto-Aztecan, Totonac-Tepehuan and Otomanguean groups), neighboring non-Mesoamerican languages (Apachean, Arawakan, Andean languages), as well as Spanish. Language-contact effects in these diverse languages and language groups are typically analyzed by different subfields of linguistics that do not necessarily interact with one another. It is hoped that this volume, which contains works from different scholarly traditions that represent a variety of approaches to the study of language contact, will contribute to the lessening of this compartmentalization. The volume is relevant to researchers of language contact and contact-induced change and to anyone interested both in the historical development and present features of indigenous languages of the Americas and Latin American Spanish.

Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios

Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios PDF Author: Walter Bisang
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3946234992
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The volume contains a selection of papers originally presented at the symposium on “Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios” held on 12-14 March 2015 at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. The papers, written by leading scholars combining expertise in historical linguistics and grammaticalization research, study variation in grammaticalization scenarios in a variety of language families (Slavic, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Bantu, Mande, "Khoisan", Siouan, and Mayan). The volume stands out in the vast literature on grammaticalization by focusing on variation in grammaticalization scenarios and areal patterns in grammaticalization. Apart from documenting new grammaticalization paths, the volume makes a methodological contribution as it addresses an important question of how to reconcile universal outcomes of grammaticalization processes with the fact that the input to these processes is language-specific and construction-specific.

Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas

Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas PDF Author: Bernard Comrie
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902720683X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Patterns of relative clause formation tend to vary according to the typological properties of a language. Highly polysynthetic languages tend to have fully nominalized relative clauses and no relative pronouns, while other typologically diverse languages tend to have relative clauses which are similar to main or independent clauses. Languages of the Americas, with their rich genetic diversity, have all been under the influence of European languages, whether Spanish, English or Portuguese, a situation that may be expected to have influenced their grammatical patterns. The present volume focuses on two tasks: The first deals with the discussion of functional principles related to relative clause formation: diachrony and paths of grammaticalization, simplicity vs. complexity, and formalization of rules to capture semantic-syntactic correlations. The second provides a typological overview of relative clauses in nine different languages going from north to south in the Americas.

Explorations of the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Explorations of the Syntax-Semantics Interface PDF Author: Jens Fleischhauer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110720299
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The articles in this volume present original research on the encoding of meaning in a variety of constructions and languages. Many of the contributions take the framework of Role and Reference Grammar as a point of reference, either by applying it to the analysis of linguistic data or by discussing, extending, and challenging some of its assumptions. The topics of the articles range from general questions concerning the relation of meaning and its syntactic realization to the study of specific grammatical phenomena in a number of typologically diverse languages, including Yucatec Maya, Kabardian, Tagalog, Murik-Kopar, Avatime, Whitesands, Tundra Yukaghir, and various Indo-European languages. The articles will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

The Phonetics and Phonology of Laryngeal Features in Native American Languages

The Phonetics and Phonology of Laryngeal Features in Native American Languages PDF Author: Heriberto Avelino
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004303219
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
This book presents unique insights into laryngeal features, one of the most intriguing topics of contemporary phonetics and phonology. It investigates in detail properties such as tone, non-modal phonation, non-pulmonic production mechanisms (as in ejectives or implosives), stress, and prosody. What makes American indigenous languages special is that many of these properties co-exist in the phonologies of languages spoken on the continent. Taking diverse theoretical perspectives, the contributions span a range of American languages, illustrating how the phonetics and phonology of laryngeal features provides insight into how potential articulatory and aero-acoustic conflicts are resolved, which contrastive laryngeal features can co-occur in a given language, which features pattern together in phonological processes and how they evolve over time. This contribution provides the most recent research on laryngeal features with an array of studies to expand and enrich the fascinating field of phonetics and phonology of the languages of the Americas.