Language Contact and the Lexicon of Romance Languages

Author(s):  
André Thibault ◽  
Nicholas LoVecchio

The Romance languages have been involved in many situations of language contact. While language contact is evident at all levels, the most visible effects on the system of the recipient language concern the lexicon. The relationship between language contact and the lexicon raises some theoretical issues that are not always adequately addressed, including in etymological lexicography. First is the very notion of what constitutes “language contact.” Contrary to a somewhat dated view, language contact does not necessarily imply physical presence, contemporaneity, and orality: as far as the lexicon is concerned, contact can happen over time and space, particularly through written media. Depending on the kind of extralinguistic circumstances at stake, language contact can be induced by diverse factors, leading to different forms of borrowing. The misleading terms borrowings or loans mask the reality that these are actually adapted imitations—whether formal, semantic, or both—of a foreign model. Likewise, the common Latin or Greek origins of a huge proportion of the Romance lexicon often obscure the real history of words. As these classical languages have contributed numerous technical and scientific terms, as well as a series of “roots,” words coined in one Romance language can easily be reproduced in any other. However, simply reducing a word’s etymology to the origin of its components (classic or otherwise), ignoring intermediate stages and possibly intermediating languages in the borrowing process, is a distortion of word history. To the extent that it is useful to refer to “internationalisms,” related words in different Romance languages merit careful, often arduous research in the process of identifying the actual origin of a given coining. From a methodological point of view, it is crucial to distinguish between the immediate lending language and the oldest stage that can be identified, with the former being more relevant in a rigorous approach to comparative historical lexicology. Concrete examples from Ibero-Romania, Gallo-Romania, Italo-Romania, and Balkan-Romania highlight the variety of different Romance loans and reflect the diverse historical factors particular to each linguistic community in which borrowing occurred.

Author(s):  
Ismail Ismail

There have been a lot of studies on the history and development of Islamic education in Indonesia conducted by various groups. At least, there are three important aspects that should be noted in this study. First, from the aspect of the region, the history of Islamic education in South Sumatera which has never been comprehensively studied since the colonial era. Second, related to theoretical assumption, the question of whether the development of the system and the modern Islamic institution in Palembang during colonial era tend to be dominated by Muslim reformers or Muslim traditionalists. Third, from the point of view of methodology which tends to be descriptive and chronological, though recently there arises an analytical approach in which the system and the institution are not seen as things that can stand on their own, but are attached to social, religious, cultural, and political aspects. It is this approach which will be used in this study. Therefore, this study will try to look into the relationship between various social changes in Palembang and the system and Islamic educational institutions in the colonial era.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tautvydas Vėželis

This article examines the problem of overcoming nihilism in Heidegger’s dialogue with Jünger. It is suggested that nihilism is manifested in various forms and is the deep logic of the whole history of European civilization. One of the main aims of this paper is to outline the relationship of nihilism and Nothing in Heidegger’s dispute with Jünger, viewing how Heidegger distinguishes his approach from Jünger’s point of view. Heidegger, on the one hand, treats nihilism as consummation of the Western metaphysical tradition, on the other hand, identifies Nothing itself as the shadow of Being, which cannot be overcome in the traditional dialectical thinking manner.


Author(s):  
Айгүл Турсунова

Баарыбызга маалым болгондой аркылуу мамиле этишке мүнөздүү категория. Мамиле категорияларынын эӊ негизги өзгөчөлүгү - кыймыл-аракеттин субъектиси менен объектисинин ортосундагы мамиле, б.а. сүйлөмдө ээлик милдет аткарган сөздүн же кыймыл-аракеттин чыныгы аткаруучусунун субъект же объект экендигин аныктайт. Алардын ичинен аркылуу мамиле кыймыл-аракеттин башка бирөө тарабынан иштелгенин билдирет. Биз бул эмгегибизде кыргыз тилиндеги мамиле категорияларынан - аркылуу мамилени тарыхый жана маанилик жактан анализдемекчибиз. Маанилерди аныктоодо бул мамиленин байыркы Көктүркчөдөн азыркы убакка чейинки басып өткөн жолу талданып, кандай лигвистикалык методдор менен түзүлөрүнө да кеӊири токтолдук. Макалабызда кыргыз тили менен түрк тили негизге алынды. Категория залога - есть необходимая категория языковой мысли, присущая общению. Важнейшей особенностью категорий залога является отношение между субъектом и объектом действия. В предложении данная категория определяет, является ли реальный исполнитель слова или действия, выполняющий функцию, субъектом или объектом, и означает ли что действие было разработано кем-то другим. В этой статье мы проанализируем категорию залога с исторической и семантической точек зрения в кыргызском языке. Определяя значения, мы будем анализировать историю этих залогов от древнего Коктюрского времени до наших дней и подробно обсуждать лингвистические методы, с помощью которых они сформированы. Наша статья основана на материале кыргызского и турецкого языков. The collateral category is a necessary category of linguistic thought inherent in communication. The most important feature of the categories of collateral is the relationship between the subject and the object of the action. In a sentence, this category determines whether the real performer of a word or action performing a function is a subject or an object, and means that the action was designed by someone else. In this article, we will analyze the category of collateral from a historical and semantic point of view in the Kyrgyz language. By defining the meanings, we will analyze the history of these pledges from ancient Cocturian times to the present day and discuss in detail the linguistic methods by which they were formed. Our article is based on the material of the Kyrgyz and Turkish languages.


Author(s):  
Alexandru Nicolae

Chapter 6 highlights the novel theoretical and empirical facts brought about by the word order changes that occurring in the passage from old to modern Romanian, showing how the diachrony of Romanian may contribute to a better understanding of the history of the Romance languages and of the Balkan Sprachbund, as well as to syntactic theory and syntactic change in general. One important dimension of diachronic variation and change is the height of nouns and verbs along their extended projections (lower vs higher V- and N-movement). The two perspectives from which language contact proves relevant in the diachronic development of word order in Romanian, language contact by means of translation and areal language contact, are discussed. The chapter also addresses the issue of surface analogy vs deep structural properties; once again, Romanian emerges as a Romance language in a Balkan suit, as Romance deep structural properties are instantiated by means of Balkan word order patterns.


1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-513
Author(s):  
Paolo Ramat

Summary The paper essays to give a brief survey of the imposing and complex work of Giacomo Devoto (1897–1974), with particular emphasis on its principal traits seen both from the point of view of the history of linguistics and its scientific significance. Especial attention is drawn first of all to Devoto’s position vis-à-vis Benedetto Croce’s Idealism and the linguistic positivism of the first half of the 20th century. It seems possible to define Devoto’s position as a dialectic one between these two intellectual currents, which eventually led to an historicism, which actually was typical of the Italian linguistic tradition. From this viewpoint then Devoto’s understanding of language as an ‘institution’ is examined, including his intervention in the dispute between N. Ja. Marr and Stalin. After having dealt with his concept of a ‘stylistics of language’, which returns to regarding langue as an historicaland social institution, and its difference from a literary stylistics, Devoto’s Indo-European studies are examined. Here, the question of the relationship between linguistics and the other disciplines concerned with antiuqty is discussed, a relationship which Devotohad been obliged on several occasions to come back to. The ‘Devotian’ position is presented critically with the help of discussions which Devoto himself had entertained, with archaeologists and with linguists.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh

The history of Louisiana French (LF) is closely related to Louisiana’s particular societal and linguistic ecosystem, characterized by a mixed society where new forms of societal organization emerged and were reflected in new forms of linguistic patterns and linguistic behavior. From the beginning, language contact has been of crucial importance for the emergence, evolution and gradual decline of Louisiana French (“Cajun French”). In colonial times, contact between related French lects resulted in the formation of a new variety of regional French in North America with its own features and its own evolutionary dynamics. The continuing contact with English, however, which takes place in an entirely different ecological frame, results in the ongoing attrition of the minority language. The first part of the article deals with early stages of dialect contact in Louisiana; it will be shown that from a diachronic point of view Louisiana French has to be seen as a product of language mixing and dialect leveling. In the second part two specific aspects of current English-French language contact will be discussed. Both aspects serve to illustrate particularities of the linguistic situation in Louisiana now and then as well as the importance of certain universal mechanisms of contact-induced language change.


Sabornost ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Đakovac

Richard of St. Victor is an important figure in the history of scholasticism. In this paper, we will analyze his idea of the person, which he developed for the needs of Triadology. The peculiarity of Richard's point of view is reflected in the attempt to establish the relationship as a key ontological definition of the person. In his thinking, Richard relies on his predecessors, primarily Tertullian, Augustine and to some extent Anselm. Despite the limitations arising from such a background, Richard's insights were a novelty in the thought of the Western Christianity, and the consequences of his teachings have never been fully grasped.


Sæculum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-112
Author(s):  
Vlad Alui Gheorghe

AbstractIndividual identity crisis became an obsessive theme of the Central-European literature, lived intensively in this space. From this point of view, the generations and literary promotions of the 1960 and 1970’s Romania benefited from a specific openness due to a complex of social, political and historical factors. The 80s generation appeared in a full process of strengthening the ideological vigilance after the famous July Theses introduced by Nicolae Ceausescu following the North Korean model. Although there were the same rules and the same barriers for beginners of the era, the issue was treated and felt differently. While some suffer from the delay of the debut, others are patient because they trust their chance, others give up. Even if the overall context was an oppressive one and the institution of censorship was the one that controlled the literature during the communist period, authors managed to adapt and write no matter what, they found accepted ways that did not alter their message and they published under conditions that today we can hardly call without doubt honourable. The published authors had visibility and were united around some literary circles, forming what Allen Ginsberg called in The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats, «circles of liberation.»


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
Evgeniya A. Dolgova ◽  
◽  
Alexey V. Malinov ◽  

The purpose of the article is to introduce a fragment of an unpublished monograph by sociologist and historian Nikolay I.Kareev titled “General methodology of the humanities” (1922). The book was published only in fragments and needs further updating in terms of its significance for the history of Russian sociology. In the publication of archival documents and accompanying annotations, a fragment of the final seventh chapter “Normative and Applied Knowledge in the Humanities” is analyzed. In this text, the scholar turned to the complex theoretical issues of defining the role, function and correlation of fundamental and applied sciences. The text analyzes N.I.Kareev’s classification — the division of scientific knowledge into theoretical, normative and applied. By carefully examining applied knowledge, he revealed it in two aspects — vulgar and pragmatic utilitarianism. Regarding the first, he concluded that the absolutization of the utilitarian point of view is dangerous for science itself, since it makes the development of science dependent on particular goals, including party interests, and subordinates science to the changing circumstances of the moment. On the other hand, theoretical knowledge can also have value as the most reliable basis for any practical discipline. The importance of applied knowledge is due to the fact that true (factual) knowledge about society can only be obtained by inductive means, i. e., in order to cognize social reality, applied sciences must precede theoretical ones. The meaning of applied knowledge is that it, unlike theoretical knowledge, is aimed at transforming nature or society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Berge

Abstract The relationship between Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) and Eskimo was established in the early 19th century, and the 20th century especially saw a number of efforts on the reconstruction of Proto-Eskimo-Aleut (PEA). Reconstruction has supported assumptions of a largely genealogical relationship between the EA languages, assumptions which include a long history of independent development in isolation from other languages and language families. The reconstruction of PEA, however, is incomplete; many apparent cognates have irregular or imperfectly understood sound correspondences. Furthermore, advances in archaeology and genetics have called into question many assumptions about EA prehistory and about the isolation or lack thereof of Unangam Tunuu. In this study, I re-examine the proposed cognates and evaluate them based on the strength of their correspondences and their distribution within the lexicon, with reference to new findings regarding technological innovations and periods of cultural contact. Several patterns emerge, including a large group of proposed cognates with overly-specific semantic correlations relating to technologies or cultural practices post-dating the split of EA languages, a gender-based difference in the number of cognates relating to cultural activities, and a correlation between known borrowings and high levels of cognates in certain semantic domains. Results suggest extensive language contact, especially in the past millennium.


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