Romani Studies as an academic discipline emerged in the 18th century with scholars such as Rüdiger (1782) and Grellmann (1783). At that time, two main hypotheses regarding the origin of the Roma formed that, in some variation, still have their adherents today. Rüdiger argued that the Roma’s ancestors left India because of invading armies, whereas Grellmann argued that they were social outcasts. This thesis argues in support of a military origin of the Roma and a koïné origin of the Romani language by bringing together linguistic, sociohistorical, and genetic evidence. / text

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Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Mathematics. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/08/07). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Tandy Warnow. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Despite more than a century of anthropological research, the origins of reindeer domestication remain elusive. A range of theories has been proposed as to the identity/identities of the first people(s) to tame reindeer for human use, and of the conceptual origins of reindeer husbandry (e.g. as an alternative to cattle, horses, dogs, etc.). While only a few of these theories still have adherents, none can be said to be demonstrated. This thesis seeks to contribute to the solving of this question by examining the origins of reindeer terminology--those words in the the many circumpolar languages for 'tame reindeer' and 'wild reindeer'. Examining data in nearly three hundred (mostly-northern) languages and dialects, the author hopes to determine which vocabulary is native to the peoples who use it and which terms are borrowed from other sources; these borrowings may mirror the transmission routes of reindeer husbandry as a form of economy. When plotted on maps, the linguistic data give credence to the most popular anthropological theory of the origins of reindeer domestication.

This work presents the first in-depth analysis of Miluk Coos, a language previously spoken on the southern Oregon Coast. Miluk is normally classified as a member of the Oregon Coast Penutian group, a sub-branch of the Penutian phylum. However, Miluk demonstrates a number of affinities with the Salish language family. These similarities can be seen in a variety of domains. There are morphosyntactic features in Miluk which appear to resemble phenomena seen in Salishan languages. Additionally, some apparent cognates with Proto-Salish are discussed, including some which seem to exhibit regular correspondences. / 10000-01-01

This thesis is primarily concerned with the developments that have taken place in infinitival constructions in the late Old English, Middle English, and Modern English periods. It is an investigation into the status of Old English to-infinitive, the origin, nature, and distribution offor in Middle English (for)to-infinitival constructions, and the origin and reanalysis offor as a complementiser in the Modern English [for DP to VP] construction. In chapter one, we introduce some of the basic notions of the Minimalist Program outlined in Chornsky (1993,1995)). The airn of chapter two is to account for the structural status of to in the Old English toinfmitive. It is argued in this chapter that firstly (functional) C, Agr, and T are not eligible positions for to, and secondly that to occupies the lexical category P(reposition). The prepositional status of the Old English to-infinitive is supported by the fact that it occurs in coordination with ordinary PPs. Chapter three argues that the Old English to-infinitive should be treated as a single (morphological and) syntactic unit which cannot be broken up by intervening elements. We propose that to is generated with a D-feature and that the infinitival verb is a combination of two features: an Inf-feature and a D-feature. We argue that as long as V+W-to-D movement is attested, the syntactic unity cannot be broken up by elements like objects, adverbs, etc. Once the Old English case system disintegrated, the internal structure of the to-infinitive underwent a radical change such that the demise of -ne (which resulted from the weakening of to as a dative case-assigneri resulted in the demise of D, and this led to the disintegration of the syntactic unity of the to-infinitive, and the consequent appearance of for before to. In other words, when to ceased to be a preposition, for moved in and 'took over' (and perhaps became an infinitival marker as well, givingforto). In chapter four, we proceed to account for the structural status offor in Middle English to-infinitive. Three analyses that attempt to account for the status of for are examined and rebutted in favour of our analysis of for as part of the infinitival morphology. Chapter five provides morphological and syntactic evidence in favour of analysingfor and to as a compound infinitival marker. It is argued that the position of the compound infinitival marker (for)to is T(ense). This analysis correctly predicts (for)to to be present in raising and control infinitives. A number of factors which show that (for)to occupies T will be noted and discussed. The purpose of chapter six is to provide evidence for the correlation between verb movement and object shift in Middle English (for)to-infinitives. It will be argued that the infinitival verb moves overtly from VP to Inf, the functional head which hosts the infinitival feature. Some empirical evidence relating to conjoined structures and VPadverbs is discussed. The attestation of V-to-Inf movement in Middle English (for)toinfinitives is strongly supported by the presence of object shift. Our conclusion is that the non-attestation of object shift in Modern English to-infinitives can be attributed to the absence of overt V-to-Inf movement. Having established the morphological and syntactic status of the infinitival marker (forfto (chapter five) and the infinitival verb (chapter six), we proceed to investigate the origin offor in the Modem English [for DP to VPJ construction. On the basis of morphological and structural evidence, we propose that the [for DP to VP] construction is the outcome of two diachronic reanalyses (DRs), which took place at two different stages in the history of English. The first DR, which took place in the 12th century, was triggered by the loss of dative case which paved the way for the introduction of prepositions like for to realise the benefactive function. In Old English the benefactive function was typically associated with morphological dative case. Once dative case had been lost, the beriefactive. function had to be realised by prepositions likefor. Throughout the Middle English periodfor was a case-realiser and not a lexical preposition. Its main function was to realise an inherent case feature which belonged to the matrix lexical head. The second DR, which occurred in the 16th century, was triggered by the fact that the string [for DP to VP] had become structurally ambiguous for acquirers, allowing an interpretation where [for DPI is part of the matrix predicate, or alternatively an interpretation where [for DPI is the subject of the infinitival clause. In the latter interpretation for's function is to realise a Case which does not belong to any lexical head. It realises the Case property of the C-position. It will be argued that the prepositionfor was reanalysed as a complementiser as a result of the loss of infinitival clauses as complements of prepositions, and the consequent development of the C-position as a potential accusative Case licenser. The change can be regarded as a change in the status offor from a lexical case-realiser to a functional Case-realiser.

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In this thesis, I use an experimental model to investigate the role of social pressures in stimulating language divergence. Research into the evolution of cooperation has emphasised the usefulness of ingroup markers for swiftly identifying outsiders, who pose a threat to cooperative networks. Mechanisms for avoiding cheats and freeriders, which tend to rely on reputation, or on (explicit and implicit) contracts between individuals, are considerably less effective against short-term visitors. Outsiders, moreover, may behave according to different social norms, which may adversely affect cooperative interactions with them. There are many sources of markers by which insiders and outsiders can be distinguished, but language is a particularly impressive one. If human beings exploit linguistic variation for this purpose, we might expect the exploitation to have an influence on the cultural evolution of language, and to be involved in language divergence, since it introduces a selective pressure, by which linguistic variants are selected on the basis of their social significance. However, there is also a neutral, mechanistic model of dialect formation that relies on unconscious accommodation between interlocutors, coupled with variation in the frequency of interaction, to account for divergence. In studies of real-world communities, these factors are difficult to tease apart. The model described in this thesis put real speakers in the artificial environment of a computer game. A game consisted of a series of rounds in which players were paired up with each other in a pseudo-random order. During a round, pairs of players exchanged typed messages in a highly restricted artificial "alien language". Each player began the game with a certain number of points, distributed between various resources, and the purpose of sending messages was to negotiate to exchange these resources. Any points given away were worth double to the receiver, so, by exchanging resources, players could accumulate points for their team. However, the pairings were anonymous: until the end of a round, players were not told who they had been paired with. This basic paradigm allowed the investigation of the major factors influencing language divergence, as well as the small-scale individual strategies that contribute to it. Two major factors were manipulated: frequency of interaction and competitiveness. In one condition, all players in a game were working together; in another condition, players were put into teams, such that giving away resources to teammates was advantageous, but giving them to opponents was not. This put a pressure on players to use variation in the alien language to mark identity. A combination of this pressure and a minimum level of interaction between teammates was found to be sufficient for the alien language to diverge into "dialects". Neither factor was sufficient on its own. The results of these experiments suggest that a pressure for the socially based selection of linguistic variants can lead to divergence in a very short time, given sufficient levels of interaction between members of a group.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar considerações e os resultados obtidos a partir da pesquisa de mestrado: A Trajetória editorial da obra de Gabriel Soares de Sousa. Pretende-se levantar aspectos filológicos cuja análise resultará nos fundamentos basilares para a confecção de uma edição crítica digital futura a ser elaborada após a obtenção do título de Mestrado, ou seja, essa edição se destina a ser desenvolvida posteriormente no Doutorado. Partindo da transcrição da primeira parte do manuscrito Roteiro Geral ... os aspectos observados na transcrição irão pautar toda a análise feita. A resultante direta desta etapa será a categorização dos aspectos linguísticos, e filológicos, e outros ainda necessários ao estruturamento da pesquisa; bem como uma classificação dos fenômenos encontrados no texto, cujo objetivo maior e mais amplo é delinear os problemas relativos à confecção da edição crítica digital futura. / The starting point for this study was the observation of a rare and unusual editorial path of the publishing history of Gabriel Soares de Sousas work, composed in the sixteenth century and printed only 250 years later. G. S. Sousa wrote two essays on the territory which he occupied as a settler in the Northeast region in Brazil: Roteiro Geral com Largas Informações de toda a Costa do Brasil and Memorial e Declaração das Grandezas da Bahia de Todos os Santos, de sua fertilidade, e das notáveis partes que tem. These manuscripts were presented in 1587 as a treatise entitled Notícia do Brasil. However, only in 1851 the text was printed in an edition commented and analyzed by F. A. Varnhagen, with the title Tratado Descriptivo do Brasil de 1587. This research analises some hypotheses in order to explore some differences found in the texts as well as to point out some passages which are worthy of further analysis.