scholarly journals Introduction: Shades of partitivity: Formal and areal properties

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-619
Author(s):  
Tabea Ihsane ◽  
Elisabeth Stark
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Formal Description ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Case Markers

AbstractAt the heart of this special issue are partitive elements (i. e., partitive articles, partitive pronouns, and partitive case markers) which can express different “shades” of partitivity, namely true partitivity, pseudopartitivity, or indefiniteness, that is, the absence of a part-whole relation in the meaning, in contrast to (pseudo)partitivity. Since these partitive elements express (at least) two such notions, as they can be truly partitive but often are not, the questions around partitivity are complex, interrelated and challenging. This special issue, with a strong and wide crosslinguistic (typological) coverage, deals with two overarching topics: first, the geographical distribution of partitive elements and the identification of potential instances of language contact, and, second, sometimes in combination with the first topic, the formal description and explanation of different partitive constructions.

Hypersubjectivity

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira Hall
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Linguistic Capital ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Practice ◽  
Contact Zones ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

This commentary responds to papers in a special issue on “Anxiety, Insecurity, and Border Crossing: Language Contact in a Globalizing World.” The discussion considers how anxiety emerges as transnational subjects seek semiotic stability in the global economy’s shifting terrain of indexical relations. Although contact zones informed by neoliberalism valorize linguistic flexibility, they also hierarchize certain kinds of communicative competence as more flexible than others. When linguistic practice is divorced from its temporal and spatial roots, it is readily essentialized as indexical of particular kinds of personhood, only some of which are viewed as appropriately global. The ambiguity of what counts as linguistic capital in the global economy leads speakers to defend their behaviors through appeals to authenticity, often confirming the very ideology that positions them as linguistically inflexible.

scholarly journals Usage-Based Contact Linguistics: Effects of Frequency and Similarity in Language Contact

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Nikolay Hakimov ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

Abstract The influence of usage frequency, and particularly of linguistic similarity on human linguistic behavior and linguistic change in situations of language contact are well documented in contact linguistics literature. However, a theoretical framework capable of unifying the various explanations, which are usually couched in either structuralist, sociolinguistic, or psycholinguistic parlance, is still lacking. In this introductory article we argue that a usage-based approach to language organization and linguistic behavior suits this purpose well and that the study of language contact phenomena will benefit from the adoption of this theoretical perspective. The article sketches an outline of usage-based linguistics, proposes ways to analyze language contact phenomena in this framework, and summarizes the major findings of the individual contributions to the special issue, which not only demonstrate that contact phenomena are usefully studied from the usage-based perspective, but document that taking a usage-based approach reveals new aspects of old phenomena.

Grammaticalization of Ergative Case Marking

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Case Markers

This chapter overviews some of the patterns of emergence and development of ergative case markers in the world’s languages. What shines through most clearly is diversity: the range of possible source morphemes, constructions, and developmental pathways is much broader than might be expected. Rarely, it is possible to identify lexical sources for ergative case markers. More common sources are other case markers (notably instrumental, genitive, oblique, and ablative), and indexical items (such as demonstratives and pronominals); other possible sources include directional elements and focus markers. Ergative case markers can also be the sources of further grammatical developments, and can develop into markers of other grammatical categories, including other cases and verbal categories such as tense and aspect. Some observations are also included on the emergence and development of ergative case marking in language contact situations.

Central Cushitic

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Zelealem Leyew
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
Separate Branch ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Central Highlands

This chapter describes the Central Cushitic (hereafter CC) language family, one of four branches of Cushitic. CC, traditionally known as Agäw, contains four languages: Awŋi, Bilin, Kemantney, and Xamt’aŋa. Apart from Bilin, which is spoken in Eritrea, the CC languages are spoken in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The name CC was evidently given to Agäw on account of the geographical distribution of the North, South, East and the then West Cushitic (later Omotic) subgroups. The morphology, especially the verb morphology, identifies the CC languages as Cushitic, but they are classified as a separate branch of Cushitic on the basis of salient features exhibited in them. CC languages exhibit striking similarities in the lexicon, and due to longstanding language contact there exists much inter-influence with the Ethio-Semitic languages. These and other linguistic properties of CC are discussed in this chapter.

Introduction: Convergence as an emergent property in bilingual speech

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARBARA E. BULLOCK ◽  
ALMEIDA JACQUELINE TORIBIO
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Definition Of

In introducing this special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, we feel it is critical to clarify what we understand ‘linguistic convergence’ to mean in the context of bilingualism, since ‘convergence’ is a technical term more readily associated with the field of language contact than with the field of bilingualism (for recent discussions of the role of convergence in contact see Thomason and Kaufman, 1988; Thomason, 2001; Myers-Scotton, 2002; Clyne, 2003; Winford, 2003). Within the language contact literature, the term invites a variety of uses. Some researchers adopt a definition of convergence that requires that all languages in a contact situation change, sometimes to the extent that the source of a given linguistic feature cannot be determined (see April McMahon's commentary in this issue). For others, convergence may be more broadly defined to also apply to situations in which one language has undergone structural incursions of various sorts from contact with another.

scholarly journals Editorial for Special Issue “Newborn Screening for Sickle Cell Disease and other Haemoglobinopathies”

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Colombatti ◽  
Cela ◽  
Elion ◽  
Lobitz
Keyword(s):  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Newborn Screening ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
The World

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is among the most common genetic disorders in the world, affectingover 300,000 newborns annually, with estimates for further increases to over 400,000 annual birthswithin the next generation and with a wider geographical distribution of affected individuals due toglobal migration [1,2]. [...]

Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mie Hiramoto ◽  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Impact

The modern conception of the self is grounded in stability and identity. Under this perspective, anxiety and insecurity of the border are only characteristic of peripheral communities. However, anxiety and insecurity are much more fundamental to linguistic life; heterogeneity of linguistic practice and our constant movement across communities, positions, categories, and identities mean that uncertainty and indeterminacy are just as salient in the way we use language. This special issue builds upon this insight to explore the subjectivities of border crossing in contexts of language contact under globalization. By bringing together studies that explore cases of language and cultural contact across the Asia-Pacific region from the perspective of anxiety and insecurity, it aims to highlight the importance of considering subjectivity in our analysis of language in globalization, and considers the new insights we may gain through an emphasis on the subjective dimensions of contact situations. Together, the contributions to the special issue identify three key issues for further research on the sociolinguistics of globalization: (1) the role of language ideologies in mediating experiences of transnationalism, (2) consequences of globally circulated semiotic resources on local articulations of subjectivities, and (3) the impact of neoliberal projects of social transformation upon our sense of self.

Languages and Sociolinguistics of the Caucasus

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-66
Author(s):  
Nina Dobrushina ◽  
Michael Daniel ◽  
Yuri Koryakov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Lexical Borrowing ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Official Sources ◽  
Official Status

This chapter provides a sociolinguistic account of the languages of the Caucasus, including figures for speakers and their geographical distribution, language vitality, the official status of the languages, orthography, and writing practices. The chapter discusses language repertoires typical of different areas in the Caucasus, and their change over the 20th century. As a showcase, it provides an overview of traditional multilingualism in Daghestan, the most linguistically dense are in the Caucasus. It discusses various patterns of interethnic communication, including lingua franca and asymmetrical bilingualism. We show that bilingualism was gendered, and how Russian was spreading in the area as a new lingua franca. The chapter surveys the outcomes of language contact, covering both lexical borrowing (including main references to etymological research) and providing examples of structural convergence, with a special focus on the area of the highest language density in the Caucasus, Dagestan. Data in the chapter are based both on official sources (censuses), on information provided by experts and on the authors’ own work in the field.

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