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The analysis of language contact phenomena, as with many types of linguistic analysis, starts from the similarity and difference of linguistic systems. This dissertation will examine the consequences of linguistic similarity and the social construction of difference in the ‘Lowland Mayan linguistic area’, a region spanning parts of Guatemala, Southern Mexico, Belize and Honduras, in which related languages, all belonging to the Mayan language family, have been in intensive contact with each other over at least the past two millennia. The linguistic outcomes of this contact are described in detail in the dissertation. They include contact-induced changes in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the languages involved of a type and degree that seems to contravene otherwise robust cross-linguistic tendencies. I propose that these cross-linguistically unusual outcomes of language contact in the Maya Lowlands result, in part, from an awareness of the inherited similarities between these languages, and in part from the role that linguistic features, but not languages as whole systems, appear to have played in the formation of community or other identities. This dissertation investigates two complementary questions about language contact phenomena that can be ideally explored through the study of languages with a high level of inherited similarity in contact with one another. The first is how historically specific, dynamic strategies and processes of constructing and asserting group identity and difference, as well as the role that language plays in these, can condition the outcomes of language contact. The second is more language internal: what role does (formal, structural) inherited similarity play in conditioning the outcome of language contact between related languages? These two questions are connected in the following hypothesis: that inherited linguistic similarity can itself be an important resource in the construction of identity and difference in particular social settings, and that the awareness of similarity between languages (mediated, as it is, by these processes of identity construction) facilitates contact-induced changes that are unlikely, or even unavailable without that perception of sameness. This proposal carries with it a call for more research on contact between related languages as related languages, and not as utterly separate systems. / text

Dual number marked on personal pronouns and verbal agreement suffixes disappeared in the majority of Slavic languages except for three - Slovenian, Upper Sorbian, and Lower Sorbian. Previous studies do not provide a principled account why (i) the monomorphemic dual was reanalyzed as bimorphemic in Slovenian, Upper, and Lower Sorbian, and why (ii) it was replaced by the plural in the majority of Slavic languages including Russian and Kashubian. In this dissertation, I investigate diachronic changes in the morphosyntactic category of the Slavic dual which occurred in the 11th-15th centuries. In this dissertation, I present new diachronic data obtained through digital corpora of Old Slavic manuscripts. Within the framework of Distributed Morphology, I propose a new principle of Morphosyntactic Feature Economy which explains these two different patterns of diachronic change in the Slavic dual pronouns and verbal agreement. I argue that the principle of Morphosyntactic Feature Economy is one of the factors which drives diachronic change in the category of number in Slavic languages. Morphosyntactic Feature Economy is a principle of efficient computation. It plays an essential role in restructuring of the morphosyntactic category of the Slavic dual. Morphosyntactic restructuring of the Slavic dual, triggered by its morphosyntactic and semantic markedness, results in a morphosyntactically 'simpler' category of number. As a consequence of the application of the principle of Morphosyntactic Feature Economy, the language learner acquires a featurally restructuctured category of number, which is simpler and more computationally efficient.

This dissertation presents a reconstruction of the phoneme inventory of Proto-Hlai, based on data from twelve Hlai languages spoken on Hainan, China. A classification of the Hlai languages is given with the innovations upon which it based, followed by a discussion of contact relationships and a discussion of reconstruction methodology. The inventory of Proto-Hlai initials is reconstructed, and original sesquisyllabic forms are shown to be necessary to account for the reflexes between the daughter languages; the initial inventory is also marked by the presence of aspiration on most consonants in word-initial position. This is followed by the reconstruction of the rime inventory, an outstanding features of which is two laryngeal components which are argued to have been the precursors to two of the synchronic tone categories in the daughter languages, and which conditioned segmental variation in most of the daughter languages. A comparison is made between Proto-Hlai, Proto-Be, and Proto-Southwest Tai, and a preliminary reconstruction of Proto-Southern Kra-Dai (the immediate ancestor of Proto-Hlai) is performed. When this reconstruction is compared with that of Proto-Hlai, it is shown that several important sound changes occurred in Pre-Hlai, including intervocalic obstruent lenition, vocalic transfer, aspiration of word-initial consonants, and peripheral vowel raising. The language Jiamao is examined in detail, and it is argued that Jiamao is a non-Hlai language which has been in close contact with Hlai since the Pre-Hlai period. An examination of the correspondences between Jiamao and Hlai reveal at least two layers of Hlai loanwords in Jiamao, and evidence Jiamao was originally very different from Hlai structurally. Finally, the Proto-Hlai lexicon is compared with those of other Southeast Asian language phyla, and it is shown that Hlai retains evidence of shared lexicon (via either a genetic or contact relationship) with Sino-Tibetan, Mon-Khmer, Hmong-Mien, and Austronesian, the last of which is particularly striking. The dissertation concludes with a summary of findings, empirical and theoretical contributions, and suggestions for future research.

The present thesis discusses the history and meaning of the term and concept called grammaticalisation. Linguists usually ascribe the coinage of the term grammaticalisation to Antoine Meillet (1866-1936), who allegedly played a vital role in the history of grammaticalisation. It is also widely acknowledged that grammaticalisation was in some way 'revived' during the 1970s, and that Talmy Givón had an important role in this, as demonstrated by the popularity of the saying 'Today’s morphology is yesterday’s syntax' (taken from one of his articles). I show that Meillet wrote little about grammaticalisation and that he hardly ever used this word, and possibly did not mean for it to be viewed as a term / label. Moreover, the paper in question (Meillet, 1912) is basically a general introduction to a concept which he sees as a continuation of a notion with a long history. In addition, I prove that there are no clear links between Meillet and Givón’s work in the early 1970s. Despite the general acceptance that Meillet coined grammaticalisation, my thesis proves that it could have been coined more than once, and that it does not always mean the same thing to all users. I show that sometimes the term is accompanied by examples which others have used to illustrate lexicalisation, a term which some employ for a process that is seen as the opposite of grammaticalisation. I therefore advocate careful use of our definitions of terminology and concepts, and insist that we should define our notions, instead of letting examples do the work of illustration and definition. Finally, I question whether it is true that grammaticalisation is unidirectional. I research the history of the view that grammaticalisation is a unidirectional process. Grammatical relations can be expressed by different means – e.g. word order, content words becoming grammatical markers, or parts of words being given a function. I believe all these should be compared, in order to improve our knowledge of how languages change and why. I claim that they all represent sub-processes of a superordinate category which I have labelled supergrammaticalisation.

This thesis examines the variety of English spoken in East Dorm at Harvey Mudd College. It describes aspects of the syntax and phonology of Eastspeak, focusing in particular on how Eastspeak has been influenced by the language of the internet. This includes tendencies toward brevity and language play, as well as the use of specific constructions used on the internet, and playful pronunciations that are influenced by creative misspellings used online. Specific Eastspeak phenomena discussed include conversion, deletion, and unusual determiner and quantifier use.

This thesis investigates native speaker attitudes towards English loanwords in Japanese and the ways in which these loanwords are used. The imperialism and hegemony of English can often cause anger or worry for the preservation of the cultural identity of the borrowing language. However, the results from a 9-page sociolinguistic questionnaire suggest that English loanwords are overwhelmingly seen as useful and necessary and are generally associated with positive attitudes. Additionally, many native Japanese speakers feel that loanwords provide more options for expression, both functionally and as a possible pragmatic tool for performing Japaneseness. On the other hand, overuse of loanwords—especially less common ones—can also exemplify the power imbalance between Japanese and the powerful and hegemonic English. The study also revealed how powerful the Japanese linguistic systems are at assimilating English into the Japanese language. With established and institutionally supported phonological and orthographic conventions in place, foreign-derived vocabulary can easily become nativized, assimilated, and considered to be Japanese in the minds of speakers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude du suffixe protoroman */-'ur-a/ et, par ce biais, à l’étude de la morphologie dérivationnelle du protoroman. D’une part, nous fournissons un examen approfondi et détaillé des unités lexicales protoromanes présentant le suffixe */-'ur-a/ et, d’autre part, nous offrons une analyse pointue des propriétés phonologiques, morphologiques et sémantiques du suffixe */-'ur-a/. La première partie de ce travail consiste en une brève introduction et en la présentation de la méthodologie dont nous nous sommes servie pour nos recherches : celle de la reconstruction comparée et celle de la reconstruction interne. Ensuite, nous jetons un coup de projecteur sur les deux domaines qui sont particulièrement intéressants dans le cadre de l’étude d’un suffixe protoroman : la reconstruction en domaine roman et la reconstruction morphologique. Cette première partie se conclut par l’explication de notre choix de nomenclature – avec une brève analyse des lexèmes rejetés –, par l’explicitation de nos processus de recherche et par la présentation de la microstructure utilisée pour les articles étymologiques. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse figurent les articles étymologiques des 45 étymons protoromans portant le suffixe */-'ur-a/ que nous avons pu reconstruire. Chaque article étymologique est accompagné d’une carte linguistique qui donne une vue globale sur la distribution aréologie de l’étymon en question.Enfin, la troisième partie de notre travail se veut une analyse approfondie et détaillée des propriétés phonologiques, morphologiques et sémantiques du suffixe */-'ur-a/ ainsi qu’une analyse de la variation diasystémique de la protolangue. / This thesis is dedicated to studying the Protoromance suffix */-'ur-a/ and, hence, to studying derivational morphology of Protoromance. On the one hand, we provide an extensive and detailed exam of Protoromance lexical units presenting the suffix */-'ur-a/ and, on the other hand, we produce a thorough analysis of the phonological, morphological and semantic properties of the suffix */-'ur-a/.The first part of this work consists of a short introduction and of the presentation of the methodology that we used in our research : the methodology of compared reconstruction and of internal reconstruction. Then, we focus on the two fields that are particularly interesting in the context of studying a Protoromance suffix : reconstruction in Romance studies and morphological reconstruction. This first part closes up with an explanation of our nomenclature – including a short analysis of the rejected words –, a specification of our research process and a presentation of the microstructure used for our etymological articles.In the second part of our thesis appear the etymological articles of all 45 Protoromance etymons with the suffix */-'ur-a/ that we were able to reconstruct. Each etymological article comes with a linguistic map that provides a global view of the geographical distribution of the concerned etymon.Finally, the third part of our work is a thorough and detailed analysis of the phonological, morphological and semantic properties of the Protoromance suffix */-'ur-a/ and of the diasystemic variation of the Protoromance language.

This thesis investigates the origins and behaviour of the non-canonical morphological phenomenon of heteroclisis in the verb paradigms of Latin and the Romance languages. Heteroclisis is the coexistence, within a single paradigm, of forms which pattern according to different inflectional classes existing otherwise in the language: a heteroclite lexeme can thus be seen as 'mixed' or 'undecided' as to its inflectional identity. I begin by examining the development of the theoretical concept of heteroclisis and approaches to the idea of inflectional class in general, before situating heteroclisis in typological space in comparison with better-known instances of non-canonical morphology such as deponency and suppletion; heteroclisis exists at a different level of generalization from these, because its identification presupposes the existence of inflectional classes, themselves generalizations over the behaviour of individual lexemes. I also consider two recent theoretical treatments of the phenomenon and survey recent linguistic studies making use of the notion. I then look at the synchronic and diachronic behaviour of heteroclisis in Latin and Romance verbs: the great time depth of our attestations of these languages gives us the chance to witness the development of successive examples of heteroclisis, and their subsequent treatment within the morphological system, in the history of a single family. Focusing chiefly on data from Latin, Romanian and Romansh, I find that the principal (though not the only) source for new instances of heteroclisis in Latin/Romance lies in regular sound change, and find that speakers can treat these synchronically anomalous patterns as robust models of inflectional behaviour to be extended over the lexicon or brought into line with pre-existing types of paradigm-internal alternation. These findings concur with previous demonstrations that speakers make use of non-canonical phenomena as markers of the internal structure of inflectional paradigms.